Escomb

[phill_itofish]

Had a try for a pike at Escomb this morning, we saw a few fish breaking the surface close in, but Carl managed the only fish.



Farmer came round and charged us £5 a head. Seemed like a canny guy and had no problem with us fishing even though has said he would rather people didn't fish it.

[Jimk2]

Nicely done

[Lynnzer]

Nice fish.
I always wondered about this lake being from just down the road but never tried it. I always suspected it held a good head of pike. In fact I made mention of it somewhere on the forum back end of last year.

I was in Dragoncarp in Peterlee last week and one of the sales lads says his father owns the ponds along the road at Witton le Wear (maybe Witton Park) Paradise lakes or something.

He says his father netted the lake at Escombe not long ago and took all the fish out. That's never going to happen though. You'll never get them all and your catch proves the point. However it does sort of dampen the spirit a bit to know that the farmer still pops up from the bushes to charge a fiver for trying to catch something he suspects isn't there anyway.


Despite the netting their will be fish roe in the weed beds ready to hatch and give life to another generation.

By the way, if you like pike why not pop over to the top of Sweden or around the Baltic. They have bloody monsters over there. Living in the sea.......

[Jimk2]

Where were the fish put after the nettin? Surely not in paradise lakes. I wonder if there was any big fish if it's true of course......

[Blankety Blank]

No wonder I blanked when I fished it for the first time a few weeks back although I did see 2 pike caught by other anglers so all is not lost

[Lynnzer]

Where were the fish put after the nettin? Surely not in paradise lakes. I wonder if there was any big fish if it's true of course......

Yeah they went into Paradise Lakes from what the owners son told me.
From the way he tells it they just went and netted it claiming the fish were theirs by rights.

What they won't like is their own fishery being right next to another with a good head of fish where you can turn up and pay the farmer if he appears.
It seems perverse if they did net the lake then didn't stock their own lakes with the pike. I mean what would be the point of netting them to release them in the Wear instead or to kill them.

When I was a kid, and that'a a hell of a long time ago, the lakes which are now Paradise Lakes were part of the old workings associated with the mines or whatever. The old railway line adjacent to it had a load of constantly burning slag, smouldering underneath the surface.

Anyway, the lake nearest to the river and on the bend always got linked with the Wear when it was in spate. It joined at the bottom end.
What happened was that the fish took shelter in the lake then when it dropped back they became landlocked and there were some decent fish left to go after in crystal clear water too.

Right where the river joined the lake was my first ever encounter with a salmon or bloody big sea trout. I was just at the upriver point of the connection throwing a Devon Minnow out. I saw this bloody HUGE fish follow it in. I came to the end of the retrieve and it was still there so I just waggled it up and down in front of it's nose under an overhanging branch.
It smashed into it and swiftly took off and broke my line after running about 50 yards.

I was shaking. I was only 8 or 9 years old at the time and I was trembling with delight, horror, exasperation and fear all at the same time.

The shallow ford under the bridge at this point on the Wear is the place I caught a sea trout for the first time.
I just flicked a worm onto the shelf of the concrete slipway and let it run down into the turbulence at the bottom. No weight. no float. Just a worm on a size 6 hook and 6lb breaking strain line.
It wasn't as big as the fish from my earlier encounter but it was really nice.
As much as I'm into sea fishing now due to my new location in Peterlee, I still love fishing the river for trout and associated species most of all. I have my rods all ready and will be venturing out to flick a fly or lure again once the sun decides to warm the waters up a bit.

[phill_itofish]

I suspect there's a few fish still in there, I saw 4 separate fish in the margins or breaking the surface further out, the one further out looked a good size but its hard to tell from a distance

[Jimk2]

Yeah they went into Paradise Lakes from what the owners son told me.
From the way he tells it they just went and netted it claiming the fish were theirs by rights.

What they won't like is their own fishery being right next to another with a good head of fish where you can turn up and pay the farmer if he appears.
It seems perverse if they did net the lake then didn't stock their own lakes with the pike. I mean what would be the point of netting them to release them in the Wear instead or to kill them.

When I was a kid, and that'a a hell of a long time ago, the lakes which are now Paradise Lakes were part of the old workings associated with the mines or whatever. The old railway line adjacent to it had a load of constantly burning slag, smouldering underneath the surface.

Anyway, the lake nearest to the river and on the bend always got linked with the Wear when it was in spate. It joined at the bottom end.
What happened was that the fish took shelter in the lake then when it dropped back they became landlocked and there were some decent fish left to go after in crystal clear water too.

Right where the river joined the lake was my first ever encounter with a salmon or bloody big sea trout. I was just at the upriver point of the connection throwing a Devon Minnow out. I saw this bloody HUGE fish follow it in. I came to the end of the retrieve and it was still there so I just waggled it up and down in front of it's nose under an overhanging branch.
It smashed into it and swiftly took off and broke my line after running about 50 yards.

I was shaking. I was only 8 or 9 years old at the time and I was trembling with delight, horror, exasperation and fear all at the same time.

The shallow ford under the bridge at this point on the Wear is the place I caught a sea trout for the first time.
I just flicked a worm onto the shelf of the concrete slipway and let it run down into the turbulence at the bottom. No weight. no float. Just a worm on a size 6 hook and 6lb breaking strain line.
It wasn't as big as the fish from my earlier encounter but it was really nice.
As much as I'm into sea fishing now due to my new location in Peterlee, I still love fishing the river for trout and associated species most of all. I have my rods all ready and will be venturing out to flick a fly or lure again once the sun decides to warm the waters up a bit.

It would seem mad that a commercial would put in a large head of pike in. 1 or 2 yes but a lot wouldn't make economic sense unless they wanted to create a pike water.

[Lynnzer]

It would seem mad that a commercial would put in a large head of pike in. 1 or 2 yes but a lot wouldn't make economic sense unless they wanted to create a pike water.

I'll ask the lad next time I'm in Dragoncarp.
I did get the impression that's exactly what they did though.