Wolsingham Angling Club
By Richard Dobson
I HAVE always had a deep connection with our local river Wear which passes through Wolsingham.
It started at an early age, going down to the river with my father to throw stones, have a paddle
and lift the stones up to reveal Bullheads, Cats Whiskers, small Trout and Salmon Parr, which would
quickly swim away. At some point – around 7 or 8 years old, I saw a man fishing the river and
immediately knew I wanted to give it a go. I joined our local fishing club, Wolsingham Angling Club as
a junior the following year purchasing the permit from Shuttleworth’s shop in Angate Street.
On a cold, late March day, accompanied by my dad we fished the Steelworks pool with worms as
bait. We didn’t catch a thing but I was quite literally hooked! My dad then asked local fisherman,
Michael Hesp, if he’d help teach me to fish and he agreed.
Eventually, I caught my first Brown trout around 1lb in weight and rushed home with it proud as
punch to show it to as many family members as I could find. As I grew older, my fishing progressed
to fly fishing which is very productive on our river but is hard to learn. I was also no longer fishing on
my own but with friends who had also joined the club. In the 80s and 90s, Wolsingham Angling Club
had a flourishing Junior section of around 20 and the river became a second home, especially during
the summer holidays.
If it was good weather, we were swimming in the river and if it wasn’t, we were fishing it. The
Wear is classed as a ‘Spate river’, basically it rises with rain and during the summer and Autumn
when it rises, it brings salmon and seatrout, some into double figures of 10lb plus. When this
happens, the river gets busy and we would rush down on the morning desperate to get a good spot
and finally bag one of these prized fish.
When you finally hooked one, your heart raced with adrenaline running through your body. I still
get the same feeling now some 40 years later!
Fast forward to 2020 and Wolsingham Angling Club was having a few issues. I was asked a few
times about joining the committee to help out but committees etc have never been my thing.
Wolsingham Angling Club, however, was so good to me and my friends when we were kids and I
agreed. At my first committee meeting, I asked the question of how many juniors were remaining
and one was the answer. My heart sank, I couldn’t believe it but that was the catalyst to do
something about it and using social media and such, we started 2021 season with six junior
members.
Our first trip out was to New bridge between Wolsingham and Frosterley and a junior caught a fish
but it came off before the net. The kids had rushed to see it and couldn’t take their eyes off it
darting up and down the river. I knew then that we had to get the juniors to a local reservoir where
it’s easier to catch fish as they are stocked with Rainbow trout.
A few calls to Simon Lee, a Weardale lad and a ranger at Grassholme and we were off. It was a
great success with most of the kids catching that day and all feeling that same adrenaline rush that
I’d first experienced all those years ago.
The junior section has now grown to fourteen in the 2024 season and as well as fishing our water
on the Wear we have around eight trips out to local reservoirs in Teesdale and as far away as
Kielder. Northumbrian Waterside Parks, which run these sites have been a massive support and help
us no end at our visits.
At the end of the season, we have a presentation evening where all the juniors are given a gift
and we have trophies for the best caught fish from the season. Wolsingham Angling Club was
established to provide affordable fishing for the people of Wolsingham and with the junior section is
now thriving again.
I hope this continues long into the future.
