Middle Tees at Bowl Hole This 1 mile stretch of water is typical of the middle Tees with a mixture of gravel shallows, somewhat deeper glides and the 10ft depths of Bowl Hole itself. All styles of “running water” methods do well for chub, barbel, dace, roach, perch, grayling, trout and even the occasional bream.
Lower Tees around Yarm.
YAL controls the fishing around the town in a pegged-out almost continuous stretch, totalling approximately 200 pegs. This is where most of YAL matches are fished, from Harkers Farm down to Eaglescliffe Golf Course. See the MATCH CALENDAR for a full set of match dates and results. Bream usually dominate at the weigh-ins, although in the autumn and winter there are often good nets of dace and roach, with large perch nets frequently winning matches in the winter. Most bream are caught on the feeder, although when the river is low and the flow is slow good bags can be put together on the pole particularly from the deeper pegs.
Harkers Farm. – Pegs 1 to 18 The river here is slightly narrower than lower stretches and hence there is often a little more flow, which can be beneficial particularly in summer or when the river is low. Most of the top pegs can be good stick float pegs.
Scarford Hill Wood / Wards Lane. – Pegs 19 to 60 Upon reaching the river, there are 6 pegs upstream in the wood (19 to 24), all of which are quite deep. Downstream is pegged continuously from 25 to 60, but normally matches do not go below peg 43 because at this point there are two overlapping stretches and peg 66 on the other side is where pegging resumes. 1 to 60 are right bank, 66 downstream is left bank. All of the pegs from the bridge (peg 25) downstream are good for float fishing as they are some of the shallowest pegs on YAL’s water, although still 8 ft deep.
Strickies /Lambies /Nellies. – Pegs 66 to 104 Access from the downstream end only (peg 104) continuous stretch with deeper pegs from 66 to 75, followed by the shallower pegs (6 to 8ft) down to the 80’s, then deepening off down to the field below Nellies Beck. The shallower pegs are typically fished with top 4 sections of a pole or fixed float, whereas the deeper pegs are top 5 for the pole or long rod /slider floats.
The last peg above the town is 104 and there is a short break until our first peg below the Blue Bell pub, which is peg 111.(There used to be 108 pegs above the bridge before being re-pegged, and the first two pegs below the pub (109 and 110) belong to the pub).
Blue Bell / Fisheries Bend/ Leven Mouth / Golf course Pegs 111 to 193 This final stretch is again continuously pegged, with 193 being the downstream limit. There is access from the pub car park, parking near to pegs 124 and 161 and another access via the path adjacent to Eaglescliffe Golf Course. Below the pub and some of the pegs in the 130/140s are “shallow” but most of this stretch is top 5 depth and well populated with bream, particularly at the Golf Course end.
It is difficult to predict what species can be caught on any particular day and from where, but bream dominate for most of the year. There is a very large (and increasing) head of skimmers up to 1lb, with a good stock of more mature bream in the 1lb to 3lb category and these usually make up the top weights in most matches. The bream fishing is particularly good when there is a bit of colour and flow. The effectiveness of the barrage in running off excess water is such that the river very quickly clears after any flood water has passed through and the river then resumes it’s normal level, hence the window of opportunity for good bream conditions is sometimes limited. However, in the last couple of seasons the increasing numbers of skimmers has meant that these can be targeted even in clear, low water conditions. In one memorable match, with conditions right, 86lbs was recorded and several others over 40lb. There have been many 20lb to 30 lb bream catches.
Other species include chub (and chublets), some of which are resident all year round, but usually there is a migration of chub from upstream that arrive after Christmas. Dace also migrate downstream, arriving in numbers from the end of October and are the main target species well into the following year. Other species that are occasionally caught are eels, rudd, gudgeon (getting scarce) and there has recently been a stocking of barbell but we suspect that most of these have moved further upstream. Pike have increased rapidly over the last few years and can be expected from just about any area, although these do not count in matches.
Stillwaters
Halnaby Lake – A 5-acre mixed fishery with bream, carp to mid-double figure weights, roach, and perch being the main species. In late 2009 we protected the fishery with an otter-proof fence and restocked with carp, plus a few small barbel (which have now reached 3lbs+). Annual stockings have been underway since 2014, with small carp, small chub and tench, and bream between 12ozs and 5lbs, and these have continued to put on weight since then.
Turlwick Pond - Dug out and formed by the club in 1997. This water has been stocked with tench (now to 7lb), bream (now averaging 3lb), roach, perch and a few crucian. Small carp which were stocked in 2010 have now reached up to mid-double figure weigths, small F1 carp and ide were stocked in the spring of 2014, and bream were stocked in 2016.
Other waters available to members of Yarm Angling Limited
Members of Yarm Angling Limited must also be members of the Association of Teesside and District Angling Clubs (ATDAC), which has a further 8 miles of water available on the middle Tees with good stocks of barbel, chub, dace, roach, perch, grayling and trout. ATDAC also have 2 stillwaters available (Bishopton Mill and Westgate Pond), both of which fish well for tench and bream, with Bishopton Mill also having a very good stock of roach, rudd and some chub and barbel. In the early spring of 2015 both stillwaters received further fish, with 875 small chub going into Bishopton Mill and 700 F1 carp and 500 ide into Westgate Pond. Water quality problems have been experienced at Westgate Pond and remedial work is underway.
There is also another stretch of the Lower Tees available, jointly owned by the Lower Tees Angling Association, at Bowesfield. This stretch is mainly bream and roach, with dace and chub also showing in winter months. Pike show throughout the year.
Jointly owned with Thornaby Angling Association, a 2 mile stretch of the River Leven is also available but because of the overgrown nature of the banks and the relatively low stock density it does not get fished much. However, if you fancy a challenge on a small river it is well worth a try for trout, grayling, chub and dace.