Latest News
September 2026
The recent rain has resulted in the need for extra bank work in cutting down the grass and making access easier and Jeff and Roger and their hyelpers have both been busy as the pictures show.
At last we have had some rain and catches are beginning to show. We celebrated our Peter Gray day with a Pie and a Pint dinner in the Anchor Hotel in Haydon Bridge. When the President asked who had caught a fish, Roger was the only candidate with a 10lb Salmon which he returned.
August 2026
Not much progress as the rain still comes in bits and pieces although a few fish have been caught
July 2026
The Annual Club Barbeque was held on the 4th July and was a great success and well attended.
Our Membership Secretary has put in a lot of work assembling a sale of fishing tackle. There are some great bargains, contact him for a list.
April to June 2026
It looks as though climate change has really hit us with either no rain and low water or excessive rain in short 
bursts. Neverthe less some activity has taken place and salmon have been caught in both the North and South Tyne. Most recently - despite the heat wave, a 10lb sealiced fish in the North Tyne. Earlier on the South Tyne a member had a surprise when he netted a chub on a fly!
The hot weather is producing an abundance of weed in the lake and all members are asked to volunteer to join working parties to keep it under control. There are some big fish in the lake and Jimmy caught a 4lb brownie which he returned.
Members are encouraged to keep the health of fish in mind in the hot weather and not to fish if the fish are showing signs of distress. See the CAST notes in the Handbook.
March 2026
March has been a busy month mainly concerned with Bank work rather than fishing. On visiting the river, Jeff discovered a mature beech tree had succombed to the recent gales and fallen into the water. A call went out for volunteers and on Saturday 21st March a band of enthusiastic volunteers undertook to remove it. This was a major operation but eventually the tree was cut into movable sections and removed.
Also in March, thanks to much work by George, the day had arrived to remove the excess weed growth on our lake. The Contractors spent two days, the 24th and 25th March cutting the weed with a purpose built boat and piling the cutting onthe bank for disposal. At a rough estimate over ten tons of weed were removed and, again a band of volunteers was assembled to clear it from the banks.
For those wanting to see more of the action there are more photos here.
February 22nd
Our first outing of the year, sadly not to catch fish but to learn better ways of doing it. We celebrated our annual casting day on the Tyne under the expert eye of Jim Fearn, who gave an excellent demonstration which should improve all our techniques.
An added attreaction was the presence of Rod and Tackle from Cramlington, who brought along a selection of the latest gear at attractive prices.
The head count was well up on last year with over twenty present. No doubt encouraged by Jeff's excelent catering. Even the weather was kind to us, although the wind provided an excuse for some of our casting but at least the sun came out occasionally and the temperatue was unseasonally warm.
February
Well the season has opened but there are no fish in evidence yet and the rivers have been running very high with all the rain and snow. On the bright side several members attanded the AGM of Nurthumberland S&T where we learnt about the last year's catches and heard some news on the seal problem at Wylam. We also had our first club meeting of the year on the 4th of February where Roger brought us up tyo date with last years catches.
January 2026
A bright start to the New Year with our annual lunch on the 12th January. This was ably organised by Keith and we met around 12 noon for drinks at Bacchus in High Bridge, Newcastle'
Some 19 of us assembled there and at 1pm we crossed the road for our lunch in Pani's. Opened in 1995 as the first true Italian/Sardinian cafe, Pani's serve traditional Sardinian foods but extend this into making exciting Sardinian themed dishes. We occupied three tables in a semi exclusive area of the dining room and had an excellent meal from a choice of dishes on the menu accompanied by some excellent house wines. An excellent start to the New Year.
December
The end of the season ushered in a very rainy November providing plenty of water that would have been useful in the Summer. We rapidly moved into December with our Annual General Meeting taling place on December 3rd. A good attendance at the meeting listened to a revue of our year and the hopes of the year to come. The high lights of the evening being the Chistmas Raffle and the award of the various fishing trophies. The raffle raised a magnificent £1,700- thanks to Keith for the organisation. The two main trophies were for the largest salmon and for the largest seatrout and these were won by Ian L and Nathan L respectively. Our picture shows President Richard presenting Ian with the Salmon Trophy for his catch of a 27 lb fish.
The other trophy winners were;
Ivan A - The Chris Lucas Trophy for a 6lb seatrout.
Nathan L - The Max Hamps Trophy for a 14lb Coquet salmon
Tom H - The Eric Royle Trophy for a 1lb 8oz brown trout on club waters
Our Salmon and Seatrout fishing day resulted in
Tom H - The Peter Gray Trophy for a 9lb seatrout
Brian D - The Tommy Oliver Trophy for a 15lb salmon
The Still Water Competitions two prizes were won by Ian T for the heaviest fish, a 2lb rainbow and the largest bag of 10 fish.
October
A little more rain this month and the fish began to move resulting in increased catches over the whole area. However, the 31st October rushed up and ended the season but not before several fine fish were caught on the last day increasing some members catch rate by 100%. Thanks to President Richard, the end of the season was celebrated (commisserated) on the 31st October at the Tannery in Hexham. A dozen or so members attended, some with stories of late catches that afternoon.
Our next event is the club AGM on Wednesday the 3rd December; an important meeting do come along and make your voice heard.
September
We are into September already and the early days were much the same as August, low water and little fishing activity.
However things changed in time for our Peter Gray Day on Sunday 14th September. We at last had some rain and the rivers rose and the fish duly obliged by appearing in reasonable numbers, with some actually taking the fly.
The Peter Gray day is our annual competition for the best fish caught on the day. This fishing competition is held in a lighthearted manner. Any member can take part and fish any of our waters during the day. The day ends with a "Pie and Peas" supper at which members report their catch. The supper this year was held at the Anchor Hotel in Haydon Bridge, arranged by President Richard, and many members reported catches of both Salmon and Seatrout. Brian Donaldson won the salmon prize with a fish of 15lbs with Tom Holloway taking the seatrout prize with a fish of 9.5lbs.
June and July - A mixed bag
Hot weather, heat waves and some torrential rain brought little respite to our waters but despite this reports of big seatrout - one of 15lbs - are coming in from the SouthTyne with several good catches.
The weather has now turned a bit cooler and river levels are not as low as they have been. Various reports indicate that there are fish about and some are even catchable.
As usual, there will be a report on the rivers at our bimonthly meeting on the 6th August.
Rain at Last
After weeks of no rain, the 24/25th May saw a little over night but this had little effect on th Tyne and the nexr few days will hopefully have more rain and a rise in river levels. Our picture shows th South Tyne at Heydon Bridge at its low level before the rain. Meanwhile our newer members have been given bank tours to show them the best fishing lies.
Our Lake is Fishing Well
On the 8th April, I spent an enjoyable couple of hours and a picnic lunch at our lake. It had recently been stocked after our weed cutting session and it was a beautiful sunny day. Perhaps not the best day for fishing but I had seven rainbows of up to two pounds. All strong fighting fish that I returned. Although there were several rises all over the lake, the fish were lying quite deep. At one time I thought I had a monster but it turned out to be a drowned candle carrying balloon!!
The lake is in great condition with very clear water, The weather was fine and sunny but there was a very chilly Southeasterly wind which rippled the lake surface and made casting a bit tricky. It improved a little after lunch and the temperature rose a few degrees.
Northumbria Salmon & Trout Conservation
meeting Wednesday 26th March 2025
A number of West End Anglers are members of this organisation and attended an interesting talk by Dr. Colin Bull of Stirling University. The talk was titled "Why are there fewer salmon and what might we do about it" The talk aroused much interest and a large audience was in the Mart at Tyne Green, Hexham, to hear him speak.
it was a most interesting lecture and covered many aspects of the salmon's life, concentrating on smolt survival, catch and release and stocking policy. It revealed how little we know about the salmon despite the amount of research being carried out. Some conclusions where drawn on the size decline of returning salmon that might point to problems feeding at sea. A well spent evening.
Weed Cutting at the Lake
Saturday 22nd March
Towards the end of last season, the weed growth on the lake had proliferated and it was decided to make an effort to trim it back. SWaturday 22nd March was chosen as the day and 8 of us gathered at 10 am to see what we could do. For the full story CLICK HERE.
Casting Day - Sunday March 15th
Today we prepared for the coming year with a Casting Day. We were fortunate to have three instructors, Jim, Barry and Richard, who gave up their time to help us all improve our tecnique. There was a selection of rods available from 15 footers to much smaller switch rods so there was plenty to choose from. "Rod and Tackle" from Cramlington also provided examples of lines and excellent advice.
As always the day started with a BBQ proived by Jeff and his son who both worked hard to provide ht sausage and bacon rolls together with coffee or tea and a selection of cold drinks. There were also cake and biscuits available.
Bank Work
During the winter months, the wind and rain cause many problems on the rivers. This is when our members turn out to clear the rivers for the comong season.
February 5th
WEA's first meeting of the got off to a good start with some 30 members attending. The highlight of the evening, apart from the excellent refreshments provided by Jeff, was a review of the fishing last year by Roger.
January 30th
A number from WEA attended the Salmon and Trout Conservation Group Northumbria Branch meeting at Hexham Mart on January 30. A range of topics were discussed including the seals at Wylem, pollution, stocking and the collapse of the Tyne dace population in the lower river. The meeting was well-attended with about 45 people present. A most interesting presentation about the counts of salmon and seatrout in the Tyne was given and the results presented in the form of a dashboard. To see the Dashboard click here.
The next meeting is on Wednesday March 26th at 7pm when the guest speaker will be Dr Colin Bull. Colin is senior lecturer in aquaculture at Stirling University. He previously worked for a number of river and fishery trusts in Scotland and is lead investigator for Missing Salmon Alliance.
Our First Event in 2025
Our lunch on the 13th January was a great success withnineteen members attending. We met fro a drink in the Bacchus Bar in Newcastle before crossing the road for lunch at Panis for details and pictures click here