Upper River Tees, Co Durham
Saturday 2nd September – Sunday 3rd September

Peter Scholes reports: This year’s Rivers National Final was held on the Raby Estate waters of the Upper Tees. With all the dry weather preceding the final, it meant the river was very low, and with a hot sunny weekend forecast the talk was of a tough weekend’s fishing.
All 30 anglers assembled at 8:00am on the Saturday morning for the competition briefing, and were handed their scorecards and rules, and set off for their beats.
As expected, Beat A produced the most fish, and Beats C and D proved tricky. It was clear after the first day’s fishing that most methods were working, and it was a matter of chopping and changing methods as conditions changed, and a catch rate of 6 fish per session would put you near the top of the table.
At the end of Day One there were still a lot of anglers in the mix, with mixed results from the sessions and sectors.
Day 2 was a tougher day, with stronger winds making the presentation of flies much tougher, but the fish were there to be caught, and at the end of the competition Northern angler Paul Fairhurst had taken top spot, and became National Champion with a very consistent 6 points, with last year’s champion Carl Nixon close behind with 9 points, and in third place Kevin Moran. With Brian Lillie and Tom Hunt taking the last two places, and Pete Buckey taking the reserve spot.
Tom Hunt also caught the biggest fish of the competition, a stunning 42cms grayling. Good luck to all six anglers on next year’s Rivers Home International, to be fished on the Tees.