The First Gate - South Shields Pier 30/09/2008

Got a text from Phil the day before to see if I wanted to give the big beach a try, but the sea had died off completely as it got closer to the evening so we decided to head to the walkway.

When we got to the walkway we had a couple of chucks without bait as there was a big tide and we were dubious to whether or not we'd be able to hold the bottom.

We couldn't, so off to the first gate on the Pier we headed.

Best nights fishing I've had in a while!

Seconds after your bait was in the water and the bites were coming, other Anglers were walking back from the end of the pier after being there all day and not even getting a bite, Phil must have picked the right spot.

We had a total catch of 9

4 Whitings and a Coalie for Phil, 3 Whitings and a Flattie for me, so Phil won that one although I might have matched him towards the end after a big knock and a heavy fish ran into a snag on the way in ;)

Phils Coalie

Wind picked up a lot though so we called it a night about 9:45pm
Caught more fish in 3 hrs than I had in the past 4 sessions and I reckon I've finally managed to tune my Mag to my casting style perfectly, as apart from one crack-off, the rod and reel were casting like a dream. Great Session.

Seahouses Beach & Beadnell Bay - 27/09/09

Set off to fish Seahouses beach tonight with Scotty, Greg and Carver.

Nice wide beach with Skeers strutting out along the coast and covered in worm casts.

Not too much of a sea on and were managing to hold the bottom fine.

Scotty hooked into 2 of the smallest whitings I've ever seen (Hehe) and Carver had a Coalie.

Not very much action so we decided to move to a rock mark at Beadnell

Same story there unfortunately, no catches, so after a few hours we headed home.

Bait was lug and Mussell.

The Walkway - South Shields 25/09/08

Met up with Phil, Greg and Tony tonight to fish the Walkway in shields, was looking forward to it as this was one of the marks that I fished the very first time when I started back in Feb, except then it was blowing a gale and freezing cold.

Tonight it was mild, with a slight wind and a moderate tide.

This was the fourth time out with my new setup and I had previously blanked the other 3 so I was adamant I was going to catch this time round or my rod was surely 'cursed'.

Things were looking promising as when I arrived Phil had stated he'd had 3 casts and 3 fish and the others were getting knocks.

Well, I didnt get knocks, Phil caught a multitude of whiteys and a small codling, same for Tony with a few whiteys, Greg however got a slackline which produced a nice size cod.

I could only wish for a nice fish like that as my rod tip stayed still for almost 4 hours.

Phil left for about 9:30, Tony at about 10 and Greg at about 10:30, but I stayed a little longer.

About 10 minutes after Greg left I saw an unfamiliar sight, "knock, knock, knock"

As my shriveled little heart started to pump with blood once more I managed to land a nice little Dab

To me it was like landing a 10 pounder ;) I was just so happy that my recent run of blanks was over and that my gear actually "worked"

Soon after that I got another knock but wound in slowly as it felt strange, turned out to be an eel about a foot in lenght but it let go at the last minute as I was bringing it up.

One last knock after that produced a little Coalie, which added to the smile that was already on my face.

Had a really good nights fishing (even when i wasn't catching) and was over the moon to have broken my duck with the new kit. Bring on the Winter :)

Bait was lug and Rag, tide was Low 16:30.

"The Rat House" - Sunderland 07/08/08

Phil, Scotty and myself thought we'd give Brighams a bash tonight, Lug, Rag and Macky for Bait and about an hour before high tide.

Got setup at the statue and had a couple of chucks, but the wind was straight in our faces

so after a while we thought we'd move.

Headed down to "The Rat House", never fished there before and apparently it was going to be more sheltered...

...which it was, much better.

There were a few others out aswell, some on the point and some just up from where we were.

First couple of hours were dead, crabfest, but once it started to get dark the odd couple of bites

started appearing and a couple resulted in Whiting

One for Scott


Two for Phil

And **** all for me.

Last cast of the evening was a bit of a suprise for Phil.

As I was busy untangling a birds nest after Scotty suggested I "turn all the magnets off my mag"
Phil hooked into something a bit better than Whiting

Only had one claw, stunning colours on them..


We gestimated it to be just over 6" in tail


So fine dining for Phil tommorrow night then!

Frenchmans Bay - South Shields 26/07/08

Headed to Frenchies tonight with Scott and Keith, nice and warm but with thick mist over the coast.

Got to the mark for about 6:30 and got set up.

The sea wasn't bad and low tide on it's way in.

We cast off straight off the point just past the rocks and on the corner entering the bay.

First cast and Keith had a very decent knock which turned out to be a very nice Plaice just under 2lbs at a glance

followed by another...

Keith proceeded to take all of the action at the start of the night next he was into a small codling

Some bloke turned up with a spinning rod and 2 kids on bikes, told us that we were fishing the wrong place, waited, and when he realised we werent going to move hopped down onto the edge smack bang between 2 of our lines and started casting straight out in the same direction, lots of false bites from our lines getting hit until he moved off.

After that me and Scotty decided to cast off more to the right where Keith had been

Soon after that we were all getting bites which turned out to all be Whitings from then on

but it kept us with a bit sport for the rest of the night.

My first of 7 whiting

Scottys whiting

Was a top night alround, bites were pretty much spread out over the evening

and a nice Plaice for Keith
Excellent mark for a spot of chill-out fishing which from time to time turns up decent fish.

St. Abbs Head - Scotland 12/07/08

Set off to St. Abbs Head this morning at 3am to spin for for Pollack with my mates Paul and Keith.



Arrived at about 5am and it had just started to get light.





It's was my first trip to St Abbs so I didnt know what to expect, but as we popped over the first hill
I was greeted with a stunning sight..



The first mark we were going to fish was the point furthest in the photo and the second was the closest.

The first mark was a nightmare to get to, down a steep bank and scaling the cliffs until we got to the point.



Lots of space to fish and a nice veiw of the cove





The mark produced a ton of huge mackeral, and I got my first Pollack, nothing to write home about though.



After hours of spinning and getting nothing but mackerel, Paul decided to switch to a Jelly Lure which turned up this beauty...



A belter Pollack, at about 5 1/2 pounds, I switched straight to a Jelly after that but it just wasn't my turn. (Note the rock pool full of mackerel top left)

The tide started to come in so we switched to the second mark, not a sausage for about 2 hrs so we called it a day.
Cracking day out though with a good result for Paul, knackering but great fun.

Frenchmans Bay - South Shields 21/06/08

Well, headed down at 18:15 to fish the high tide going out.
The weather was terrible, howling wind, lashing with rain so after about 1 1/2hrs we decided to call it a day.
It was a shame as we managed to get some Peeler Crab which now needs to be frozen for next time.