With the previous year being one of the worst on record, everyone was ready for a fresh start and a good season and with covid totally out of sight, well just about, there were no excuses for not being on the water to chase that ever illusive silver. I did’t start guiding until early May due to travelling abroad and a trip over the border with Robson Green to keep me busy, unfortunately the Scottish trip turned into a bit of a disaster with only one person out of the 25 managing to land a fish, and you guessed it, it was that man Robson with yours truly having the pleasure of netting the fish, a stunning sea liced springer around the 10lb mark. My Tyne guiding started at 100 MPH, in my first 3 days guests managed a fly caught spring salmon a day, each fish was as fresh as they come, absolute bars of silver and some incredible fights between them.
June and July were on the dry side again, although unlike the season before we did have some nice lifts of water along with kielder also releasing consistently which had the river full to the brim with sea trout, being honest, i’ve never seen as many of them in the river before, this gave us some great fishing throughout this period with sea trout up to 7lb and some good salmon mixed in with them. A mixture of Small fly’s, long leaders and concentrating on the highly oxygenated water was the key to getting results, including a few days hooking over 10 fish. We also had the bonus of low angling pressure due to the poorer conditions and people not venturing out onto the water, just remember this, you wont catch fish if you don’t have a fly in the water.
Guest and friend Dean with a huge river Tyne brown trout
My partner Gina with her first migratory fly caught fish
Returning guest Jason with a nice Tyne salmon
August is always a great all round month with the chance of good numbers of sea trout and more salmon although a higher chance of coloured fish, for me this only makes the fish more appealing as the male fish can be absolutely stunning, but as the fresh fish, everything is always handled with the upmost of care before release. August saw a change in conditions, slightly cooler and with more water was set to stir things up. When water temperatures are high salmon get very lethargic and will not move towards a conventual swung fly, this is where trying non textbook tactics will pick you up fish, sea trout are not effected as much but again the slightest change in conditions is always welcome. The sea trout fishing was great fun, and the numbers of caught salmon throughout the river also increased, I also finally managed to get a few days to fish myself in between guiding which resulted in a spectacular 4 and 3 fish day. Small fly’s and covering vast amounts of water produced the fish, we also tried a few outside the box tactics that got us fish on the really tough days, but we are going to keep them a secret, well for now.
September was going to be my last month guiding as after a busy season as i was finally off to Florida to live with my partner Gina and participate in some travelling to central America, the business however would be in great hands, as i enlisted the help from friends and very experienced guides Andrew and Robert who have since agreed to help in 2023 because of the growing popularity and demand for Tyne salmon fishing. The month started at 100 MPH with consistent action, water and conditions were better and the fish were well on the take which resulted in some spectacular catches included my largest guided fly caught ish to date which weighed in around the 22lb mark, a huge male fish with a colossal kype. Even with the conditions changing towards Autumn we still stuck with smaller dressed fly’s, the sparser the better, they just seem to work better and move more erratically in the flow.
Graeme with a huge Tyne salmon caught on a size 12 Red Stokoe shrimp
Farther and son Simon and Ollie with the perfect Tyne double, a big sea trout a nice hen salmon
Robert and Andrew did an incredible job while i was away, the guests absolutely loved their time on the water and managed some great fish, including another 20lb+ salmon which was Darren’s first ever salmon and a moment he will never forget. Another guest that had a day to remember was Ian Gatti who managed a spectacular hat-trick of migratory fish, this included his first ever salmon and sea trout. As a whole the season was a great success, a lot more fish hooked and landed than the previous year and each and every angler enjoyed their time on the water and are raring to go in 2023.
