Hi guys,
I believe that a few anglers who visit these forums fish the upper reaches of the River Wear ( Westgate and upstream to Cowshill) so, can anyone tell me how it fished this season, particularly during the last few weeks of the season?

Tony

I fish the Wear at Wolsingham which is about 8 miles further down from Westgate and we've had a rubbish year, not many fish caught at all, it's probably not helped us at all the the EA allowed a contractor to almost dam the river to do some renovation work to the railway bridge, I don't know about higher up but will endeavour to.

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If it wasn't for pickpockets I wouldn't have a sex life.

Thanks for replying. I read about the problem you were having with the contractors in your earlier posts...how has the migratory fish count been this year?

Tony

Terrible, I've heard reports from a lot of our club members and from other anglers higher up the Dale, that they've had a very bad year, normally there are stories galore of fish catches, but not this season.

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If it wasn't for pickpockets I wouldn't have a sex life.

Thanks KD.
I can remember October fishing the upper Wear around Stanhope about 40 years ago and the migratory runs were large back then - you could stand in the fast shallow stretches when there was a bit of fresh water and the fish would be bumping into your feet as they moved up.

However, it was also around the time when many fish suffered from the discease 'Columnaris' which was quite awful to see.

I'd like to join one of the clubs up there next season. I had a wander upstream from the bridge at Daddry Shield and then clockwise back down the road via the next bridge when the water was slightly up during August and it looked a nice little water to fish. I would doubt there would be few decent sized resident trout up there but for me, the size of the fish isn't too important.

Tony