It was time again for our trip to one of our best venues, Whitehaven. Today 6 of us, Gary, Mark, Graham, Davie, my dad and finally me where on the trip. We left Newcastle just before 6am. The journey took us 2 hours to bet there but when we got there it was worth it. We had set of in the hope of some dogfish and some nice flatfish.
When we first arrived at our venue, the tide was low and the winds where high. Once we had got to the end of the pier we where sad to see that the pier had been vandalised by a large fire, when we looked closer we had seen 3 dogfish which we suspected to have been burnt alive. Anyway we put the bad event away and started fishing for 8.
But not before a quick group photo.
Gary was the first to set up and cast out but before we knew it, he was into a fish and resulted in a small whiting. Next person to get into a fish was mark and also resulted in a small whiting. Everyone else had a small whiting including Graham and Davie within the next 20 minutes. But as the tide began to come in so did the wind. But we battled on because we knew there was dogfish around with the earlier incident. Our hopes had came true and once again Garry was into a nice fish and as it got closer it began to fight hard and to no surprise he had reeled in a nice large dogfish which was his first of the year.
No sooner than I said it I was also into a fish myself but it was not a dogfish nor was it a whiting it was a rare species, a gurnard.
The tide was half way up and so was the wind, we all decided it was time or a tea break and cracked open the flasks and grabbed a sandwich. The fishing went quiet, but only for 30 minutes and then the dogfish where on the hunt and the next person to reel one in was Davie.
Garry too had reeled in a dogfish which was the biggest of the day so far which had turned out to be a hard one to unhook as no matter what we did it would not stay still.
We had all began to reel in dogfish each person reeling in one after the other simultaneously so Garry took the chance to get some nice close up pictures of today’s catch.
Graham and Garry had both caught 3 dogfish each with Mark and my dad not having one all day. The tide was high and some sightings of mackerel began to show so me, Garry, Mark and Davie all grabbed our spinning rods. We where both spinning and bait fishing at the same time but after 1 hour we had not one mackerel between us except the one which Garry had caught while reeling in. We switched back to bait fishing as the wind grew stronger and tripods began to fall. As the tide fell the dogfish ha moved back out to open water and clarifies where on the catch list. But to our surprise only Davie and Mark had reeled in the two flatfish which where very clean and the plaice’s colours being very dominant.
We had one last tea break before the last few fish where reeled in. Graham reeled in a small gurnard which he nick named the pirate as for reasons which are very clear. This tool him to 8 fish and now it was between him and Garry.
On one of Garry’s last cast he managed to call a draw and reel in one last small whiting. Before we left me and Garry took the chance to take a last few photos before we left. At the end of the day we ended up catching 40 fish between us with Garry and Graham emerging victorious. Our best baits being squid, ragworm and bluey. With our less productive baits being crab and white bait. We had a great day and I would like to give special thanks to my dad, Garry, Mark, Graham and Davie for such great company and such a great day.
Well I didn’t get out fishing much in the last few weeks due to family holidays but one thing I was determined to do was to try my luck at the under 18’s angling competition. It took place on Sunday the 19th of August down on the river wear. It was all part of national fishing month and was all set up by some notorious people such as Andy Copeland and Ed Turnbull and many more. Fishing began at 2pm and was very slow only 2 eels where caught for to hours. As the tide began to come in some did the debri floating up the river making fishing harder than it already was. Now fish where beginning to get caught but still the majority being eels all caught on fish baits and Crab baits. So I switched my tactics and began to do what everyone else was. Towards the end of the competition everyone was beginning to catch apart from me and the race for the title was getting very close. The time the match had finished most of the people who fished racked up a nice final measurement apart from me and one other junior.
The three winners of the match proudly took home some nice vouchers and small prizes. Overal it Wet Afternoon acting as Steward for the Tyne and Wear C.A.A.G / Angling Trust Young Anglers match on the River Wear at South Hylton,pretty hard going for the kids but eels,flounders and small whiting had most competitors catching, persistant rain throughout tried its best to dampen spirits but overall a splendid effort by all under the watchful eyes of Chris Clarke the England Junior fishing team Manager who gave help to the youngsters and was impressed by standard of Angling on the day,many thanks to Chris,Alex at Sakuma and Paul Fenech of Sea Anglers for some quality prizes on the day … And a massive thanks to everyone involved.
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I have edited my marks section and added south shields pier to the marks section.
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We set of to one of our favourite marks in the northeast because when we do venture down all those stairs, it pays off. Once we had made the agonising journey down the stairs the tide was low and still on the retreat. We kept as close to the rock as possible because of a well known kelp bed not so far along.
We left no time spare and began to fish, no sooner than I had set up and cast out my dad began reeling in to a fish and resulted in a nice flatfish. But I had to show him how it was done and aimed for a very small kelp bed, which paid off with me catching a double up of flatfish one being a nice 38 1/2 cm flatfish, the biggest of the day!
The fishing grinded to a halt so I broke out my spinning rod in the hope of catching a nice bass or polock but neither of my rods were producing. So I was constantly juggling between the two until the tide turned. As the tide came in, so did the fish the fish count began to stack up until a couple of hours before high tide it had all died down again. So I walked along the rocks and began to spin but I had no luck once again.
Just before we left I began to notice small sand eels washed up on the beach so I used a couple and caught the last fish of the day.
PART 1
The first of the two weeks was off to one of our favourite marks on the Northumberland coast, Duridge Bay which normally produces some nice fish of both size and quantity. We arrived very early in the morning to be shocked in the change in scenery in the beach.
The pressure from the heavy rain had weaved pathways through the Sand of about 2ft deep.
Regardless, we continued fishing just the left of the pipe which is our favourite high tide mark. After a few casts we got off to a good start the weather was holding up but still no fish. A local dog walker had came along and we got talking to him for quite some time and he revealed that all the gulleys and features had been covered in by the heavy rain and wind we’d had about a few weeks back. So this put the dampners on our day, we had decided that it was our last cast when my dad had realised that the top eye on his favourite rod had snapped out of place but in the attempt in to brighten things up I caught the last fish and the only fish of the day.
PART 2
The journey to Whitehaven was quite pleasant and for the first time I didn’t fall asleep. We set off at 6am and the sun was just rising over the hills, time we where nearly there the sun was up and shining beautifully over the lake district.
Parking and access to the pier is very easy all you do is park at the foot of the pier outside the cadets club.
It’s only a short walk to the end but pays off in the long run. When traveling along the pier walk along the bottom of the pier as its the safest but watch when it’s wet as it may get slippery. We headed straight to the head of the pier knowing that their is a gulley which runs along the sea side of the pier which is just a short cast .
just a short cast from the pier
There are many gorgeous scenes which you can see in the distance in a clearly day. The two places include Scotland and the isle of man.
Once we had finished admiring the scenery we began to fish if that’s what you would call it because we caught absolutely nothing until the tide was at the top which had taken 5 hours. The first of the many different species we caught were very very small coaleys no bigger than a few inches. Later on with the curse of a local we began to catch something which we were hopping to avoid….. WEAVERS! We were catching them by the bucket full. But the shoals of mackerel began to swim past and it was rods at the ready casting out various feathers resulted in many mackerel being caught. I was the only one who kept on spinning right through ’till’ the drop in the tide. Which eventually paid off, and was catching double ups of mackerel from the bay and one resulted in the biggest mackerel of the day.
Later on before we began to leave one of the lads pulled in an impressive Codlin being the biggest fish and best of the day.
We continued fishing for another hour but resulted in nothing. We ventured out with the knowledge of the a tackle shops promising us that plenty of dogfish were being caught but sadly we where let down.
Part 1
As the title may suggest, we had been fishing Jarrow and it had been great. On the first occasion we arrived there just after 9 o’clock. Fishing got of to a slow start but what we thought was going to be a good day, soon turned grim. The rain began to pour down and with no form of protection apart from our flotation suits we got pretty wet.
But along with the rain came some outbursts of both fish and sunny weather, my two fishing buddies where catching well like usual but I was catching nothing. Short after this, we began to get a really bad rainshower which had put the dampeners on both fishing and our mood. When the rain came the fish had left along with my hope of catching a fish. But I spoke to soon and caught a beautiful codlin measuring in at 45 cm and weighing in approximately 2lb.
After catching such a beautiful fish my mood had lightened and the rain had stopped. In the background over the banks of the river was a promising sign of a strong glowing rainbow.
Not much fishing was done after this due to the lack of fish and amounts of things traveling down the river such as debris and various tug boats pulling a multiple of various things such as a platform shown below.
Part 2
The week after we returned because of such a promising sign in the previous week but we came back with high hopes of catching more fish and big fish. Once again we started early in the morning after 9 o’clock. With the rain showers over the past few days our hopes where low of catching some big fish. Not many fish where around but they where around but they where some quality fish in a nice weight. The fishing didn’t really begin until three hours into the rising tide. The first few fish of the day where colleys weighing in no more than a quarter of a pound. Not long afterwards I reeled in my first fish of the day which was a 39 cm flatfish which weighed 1lb 6oz
Not long after flatfish where the name of the game and we where pulling them in each cast until I pulled in another outstanding flatfish measuring in at 35cm
After this the fishing had died down as soon as the tide turned but I did make it 3 codlin in 3 weeks but it was about a 1lb but once the weather had died of the fishing was great.
We arrived at our secret mark at Jarrow early on like usual and the tide was halfway untill bottom. Everyone started catching imediatly appart from me. We were realing in quite a few coallies but where all very small. I was starting to get board and demotivated untill i got a nice knock and reeled in a supricing species, a codlin measuring in at 31cm.
As bottom water fell the fishing slowed down but flatfish where starting to be caught and they where of nice size. There have been lots of eels getting caught in the tyne latly and thats the exact species we didnt want to catch. But they had held of until the tide started rising again but they where not small eels, the wieghed in at almost 2lb and where very hard to unhook and disgorge but the rain held of and we had great day.