Peter Anderson revisits a river that he last saw many years ago. He shares what he found some 40 years after last seeing the Tees
My memories of the Tees are of a big, sluggish, polluted river glimpsed from the coach taking my school rugby team to a game in Middlesboro. A couple of years ago I had the opportunity to fish the upper Tees and I have to say that my enthusiasm was dampened a wee bit by this 40 year old memory.
I do a lot of what might be described as wild fishing, small streams with unkempt banks often involving short rods and lots of crawling around. The Tees takes wild fishing to a whole new level! Some details of the beat first. I fished the Raby Estate water and day tickets are available from Raines Ironmongers in Middleton-in-Teesdale or from the shop at High Force further up the valley. It’s not expensive although I can’t remember the exact amount, less than a tenner I think. The ticket covers miles of water. I fished the upper bit starting at Widdybank Farm. To find this, continue north up the B6277 from Middleton-in-Teesdale then turn left just before the Langdon Beck Hotel (good sandwiches!) sign posted towards Cow Green Reservoir. Follow this lane until you reach a cattle grid with a gated track on the left. The gate should be open but get a key from the shop at High Force because it is closed in the evening and this is no place to be stranded overnight! Follow the track down to the farm buildings (a Natural England office) and park there.....if it sounds remote, it’s because it is!
There’s plenty of fishing to go at here and we fished upstream towards the waterfall at Cauldron Snout. There are a couple of things that make this different to my usual wild fishing. Firstly, the bleak remoteness of the location, the Pennine Way runs along here so walkers are occasionally seen but otherwise it is just you and the odd sheep. Secondly, the size of the river, this isn’t a small stream, it’s twenty yards wide, fast, rocky and, frankly, a bit nerve shredding! I wouldn’t dream of fishing here without a wading staff and I’m thankful that my fishing waistcoat incorporates a life jacket.
Is it worth the effort? You betcha! There are a lot of big boulders, each one creating pockets both in front and behind and each pocket holds fish and that adds up to a lot of fish. This is dry fly water and the fish are quick. Actually, I don’t fish the dry fly that often and as a result I tend to be a bit slow anyway but on this river the fish are genuinely quick. The favoured technique seems to be the duo but with a twist. Usually the duo is a method primarily of fishing a nymph, fish to the dry often are a bonus. On he Tees though, the method is primarily one of fishing the dry. The nymph is used to help “anchor” the fly on the water in the face of gusty winds but most fish will come to the dry. They are generally small, I caught fish of 6-8 inches but all beautifully marked as only wild fish can be.
Tackle and technique is fairly straightforward. There is no tree cover to cause problems and a long rod is a real advantage here. I used a 10 foot 3 weight. The water if fast with plenty of varying current speeds and the casts need to be fairly short and the fly line held off the water as far as possible to prevent drag. I haven’t tried it here but I imagine that a French leader set up will be ideal. You need to wade....carefully! You don’t want to be casting more than a couple of rod lengths otherwise drag will set in and ruin any chance of a take, as it is most drifts will only last for a few seconds. Fishing the duo, I tend not to bother with a tapered leader, 6 feet of 0.1mm Stroft (about 3lb breaking strain) to the dry and another 3 feet to the nymph worked fine. As for flies, this is not a river rich in fly life and with the fast flows the fish need to grab the insects quickly or they are gone. I should think that any smallish fly will work, certainly my size 16 Klinkhammer resulted in plenty of rises.
So for something a bit different, give this a go, but choose a nice day. This high in the Pennines is no place to be in wet or windy weather!
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