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Oli and I left Amble marina at 07.30 and headed north into the mist and rain. We stopped off at Craster, where Oli was straight away into a nice codling of around 4lb. I followed that with a smaller one of 3lb. But then I struggled to get through the mackerel, with every drop being snatched. Oli had better fortune using his home-made lures, and was taking some nice pollock up to 4lb. I wasn't getting any action however, and only managed half-a-dozen smaller fish until slack water.
At that point, we moved offshore and tried out 4 decent wrecks. They were mostly barren, apart from a few small codling, and one of those I foul-hooked. It was strange, as usually there would be clouds of coleys and mackerel shrouding the wreck, but today there was none. Conditions were great too. Water clarity was about 18-20 foot, the water temp was around 15 degrees, and there was a lot of bird activity. The drift was a nice 1 knot, and it was perfectly calm.
After that, we shifted up towards Newton and tried a mark we had not fished before. We were straight into the fish, with codling up to 4lb, and Oli had some nice wrasse, taken on his lures. Mind you, those lures took a hammering, with one bitten completely in half. However, the fishing was patchy. Some drifts over the same patch gave nothing. I had good results using fresh mackerel as bait, but nothing much if I switched to frozen prawns, even though some of the codling were coughing up squat lobsters. I did try a 40g metal lure in case that improved results, but it didn't.
Before leaving, I wanted to pick up some mackerel for friends and neighbours, but that was a harder job than expected. After my earlier catches, I had expected to easily find the fish, but even in the tidal rips it was a case of getting ones and twos over a 30 minute period before deciding we had enough and to call it a day. Mind you, they were all big beefy mackerel, and tasted so sweet . I ended the day with fewer than 15 codling all told, the best to 3.5lb, but Oli had nearly twice that, with his pollock and wrasse on top, showing that it had been a day for lures over bait.
At that point, we moved offshore and tried out 4 decent wrecks. They were mostly barren, apart from a few small codling, and one of those I foul-hooked. It was strange, as usually there would be clouds of coleys and mackerel shrouding the wreck, but today there was none. Conditions were great too. Water clarity was about 18-20 foot, the water temp was around 15 degrees, and there was a lot of bird activity. The drift was a nice 1 knot, and it was perfectly calm.
After that, we shifted up towards Newton and tried a mark we had not fished before. We were straight into the fish, with codling up to 4lb, and Oli had some nice wrasse, taken on his lures. Mind you, those lures took a hammering, with one bitten completely in half. However, the fishing was patchy. Some drifts over the same patch gave nothing. I had good results using fresh mackerel as bait, but nothing much if I switched to frozen prawns, even though some of the codling were coughing up squat lobsters. I did try a 40g metal lure in case that improved results, but it didn't.
Before leaving, I wanted to pick up some mackerel for friends and neighbours, but that was a harder job than expected. After my earlier catches, I had expected to easily find the fish, but even in the tidal rips it was a case of getting ones and twos over a 30 minute period before deciding we had enough and to call it a day. Mind you, they were all big beefy mackerel, and tasted so sweet . I ended the day with fewer than 15 codling all told, the best to 3.5lb, but Oli had nearly twice that, with his pollock and wrasse on top, showing that it had been a day for lures over bait.
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