Gray & Charleston
Peter Gray is the hatchery expert who played a major role in rescuing the salmon stock of the River Tyne from extinction. By the time he retired in 2005 the salmon rod catch had risen from nil to over 4,000 salmon annually and the river was once again the finest salmon river in England and Wales.
Born on the banks of the Tyne in 1941, Peter managed the famous Kielder Hatchery for twenty-seven years. In all, he worked in the hatcheries of England’s Environment Agency and its predecessors for forty-three years. Apart from supplying the Tyne’s recovery programme, he used the salmon he raised at Kielder to restore a lost salmon run to the Trent and Dove. He now acts as an international consultant on conservation stocking.
The grandson of a Tweed ghillie, he fished for brown trout as a boy but soon graduated to fishing the fly for salmon and sea trout. He is Vice President of Northumbria’s best-known fishing club, the West End Anglers.
Apart from time out for national service in the Royal Navy, Michael Charleston worked for fifty-two years as a reporter, feature writer and executive for local, regional and national newspapers and finally as an adviser to the Rural Development Commission.
Born in 1929, fishing has been his hobby from the age of six. After retiring from being paid to write in 1997 he became honorary secretary of the South West Rivers Association for eight years. During that time his campaigns for better national management of the river valley environments earned him the support of the river associations and fishing clubs of many of the game-fishing rivers of England and Wales.
In 2004 he was appointed OBE for his conservation work and in 2005 he won the Salmon and Trout Association’s Arthur Oglesby Trophy. Since 1998 Michael has been an adviser to Orri Vigfusson, the chairman of the North Atlantic Salmon Fund.
Born on the banks of the Tyne in 1941, Peter managed the famous Kielder Hatchery for twenty-seven years. In all, he worked in the hatcheries of England’s Environment Agency and its predecessors for forty-three years. Apart from supplying the Tyne’s recovery programme, he used the salmon he raised at Kielder to restore a lost salmon run to the Trent and Dove. He now acts as an international consultant on conservation stocking.
The grandson of a Tweed ghillie, he fished for brown trout as a boy but soon graduated to fishing the fly for salmon and sea trout. He is Vice President of Northumbria’s best-known fishing club, the West End Anglers.
Apart from time out for national service in the Royal Navy, Michael Charleston worked for fifty-two years as a reporter, feature writer and executive for local, regional and national newspapers and finally as an adviser to the Rural Development Commission.
Born in 1929, fishing has been his hobby from the age of six. After retiring from being paid to write in 1997 he became honorary secretary of the South West Rivers Association for eight years. During that time his campaigns for better national management of the river valley environments earned him the support of the river associations and fishing clubs of many of the game-fishing rivers of England and Wales.
In 2004 he was appointed OBE for his conservation work and in 2005 he won the Salmon and Trout Association’s Arthur Oglesby Trophy. Since 1998 Michael has been an adviser to Orri Vigfusson, the chairman of the North Atlantic Salmon Fund.
