£430,000 earmarked for improvements to River Tees

SPRING brings the start of a new season of trout fishing on the Tees – not that all is dormant over the winter months.
Efforts to improve the Tees continue apace with the Tees Rivers Trust, the Angling Trust and the Environment Agency all playing their part.
At a meeting in March, with speakers from all three bodies, anglers were updated on a number of matters.
Ben Lamb, supremo of the Tees Rivers Trust, reported that £430,000 had been secured from Lottery funding to continue with work to rid the Tees of hogweed, an invasive plant.
While it occurs mainly in lower Teesdale and downstream, it’s a problem that could spread without the efforts of the trust. The plan is to get rid of 80 per cent of hogweed over the next five years, with the rest to be cleared by local action groups. If the tall, rapidly spreading plant, which can cause severe skin rash and blistering, could be eradicated from the Tees valley it would be a major success story.
Efforts to control Himalayan Balsam are also ongoing.
The trust is continuing to electro-fish tributaries of the Tees to check which fish species are present. Latest research has found (in addition to common species) lampreys, eels, and, in the River Greta, sea trout.
Cleaning up, including litter collection is continuing, while work continues to improve the habitat for all fish species.
It all sounds very smooth and promising, but that is not always the case. While habitat improvement work was being carried out on a tributary in the Darlington area, the water suddenly turned a strange colour.
A resident was found pouring paint down a drain which led straight into the stream. Stern words were issued, and anyone found doing such damage could face prosecution.
The trust has arranged a trip for Stockton schoolchildren to visit Barnard Castle to compare the river in Teesdale to the Tees in its lower reaches where they live.
Encouraging children to learn about the river will encourage future generations to care for it, and perhaps discover the joys of angling.
The Environment Agency is continuing to improve fish passage and habitat, and the agency’s Paul Frear told the meeting: “If fish can swim where they want, and water quality is good, nature will do the rest.”
However, there are funding problems to overcome. The Environment Agency would like to construct a fish pass at Broken Scar dam at Darlington to enable more salmon and sea trout to reach Teesdale.
The scheme is very costly, and at present funds will not be released by the government. A fish pass was built in the weir at Barnard Castle a couple of years ago, only because the whole structure needed repairing, and the pass was included in the work.
There may be no new pass at Broken Scar until the dam requires similar rebuilding.
Efforts are continuing to improve fish passage at the Tees Barrage, and last year three times as many salmon and sea trout were recorded successfully negotiating the controversial structure, compared to 2015.
While the Tees is an improving river for migratory fish, it still lags way behind the Tyne and Wear.
The Angling Trust is hoping to reduce commercial fishing for salmon in estuaries, to enable more fish to move up rivers. Each rod caught salmon is worth thousands of pounds to a local economy (and 80 per cent of fish are returned) whereas a netted fish is worth only its value as a slab of meat.
At present over eight times as many salmon are killed by commercial netting, as are kept by anglers.
All of the work being carried out benefits the river systems. Much of it is being done either by angling bodies, or from the money they pay for rod licences.
Landowners should bear this in mind when they set the price of rent for their waters, as many clubs are facing steep rises.
Many clubs are trying to recruit new members to boost the sport and enable them to pay to retain water they have leased for many years.
Subscriptions for members of clubs, including in Teesdale, have had to rise considerably to meet increasing costs, and that does nothing to encourage newcomers to the sport, even though most clubs try to keep the subs of junior members as low as possible.
Early season sport for brown trout has been good in Teesdale. My first session in early April yielded five trout to over half a pound – a better return than last year when the first outing brought just one.
It was interesting to read in the Mercury archives, early season reports of decades ago. More snow in the upper dale, including a couple of feet in March and sometimes April, made for very cold river water, and slow start to the season.
These days, while bitter winds can still sweep down the river in the early weeks, the weather is generally much milder and the fish are active from the opening days.