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Hottest day of the year, and the worst possible weather for my wife. She'd signed up for the 26 mile sponsored walk from Alnwick castle to Bamburgh castle in aid of Macmillan. She had to be at Alnwick for 09.30, so Oli and I had a delayed start to the day, plus we had to refuel.
We headed up firstly to Craster where we had a couple of drifts on which I got a couple of codling to 3.5lb. Water clarity was decent at 15 feet, but there was a greener tinge to it than the previous week. Water temp was 13.8-14.2 degrees, and the mackerel were much in evidence. Loads of them in fact, all day. And big ones too.
Anyway, our intention had been to float fish, which is not something we get to do often, but the forecast suggested good conditions for it, and so we bought some rag from Amble Sealife in the hope of picking up some wrasse or maybe pollock among the gulleys on this stretch of coast. No sooner than he had broken out the floats than the wind picked up. Warm wind, it's true but it was gusting hard and pushing us out too fast for the floats. We wound up and nosed into Newton harbour where it was a bit calmer. Oli get a 3lb pollock on float, while I was using some yellow and red jelly eels from Fladen which are irresistible to the resident coleys. No pollock for me but lots of coleys in the pound to 2 pound bracket which was fun if you got 3 or more hooked up at once.
We then moved up to Beadnall, and tried the gulleys up there with floats. Not really successful though. Just too much wind. So we ventured further up. There are some great kelpy marks up there that the guys in yaks are familiar with. We had great fun over the next hour or so. Oli's best fish was a pollock that we weighed at 7.5lb, and another of 4lb, all on his homemade lures. I was catching kelpies, small codling to 3lb and masses of coleys and inevitably mackerel. We had a few close shaves though. The area is littered with lobster pots and you need eyes in the back of your head to miss them. There was also one very inconsiderate potter who had used floating rope that very nearly caught us out. It's just so dangerous and foolhardy to use it. We were a long way off from the actual marker, but the line snaked just under the surface for nearly 100 metres.
Then it was back to Craster but it was quiet here on the flood tide. Around 18.00 we got a call from my wife who had completed 18 miles of the walk but had unfortunately been forced to retire because the heat had caused her feet to swell badly, turning her toenails black. So it was back to the marina, a quick clean up and then into the car to pick her up.
Maybe we might have done better if we'd not stuck to the floats, but we did want to give it a go. I had around a dozen codling all day, and Oli another 10, but the quality of the pollock certainly made up for it, and the coleys were uplifting and gave great sport. Everything went back to grow a little more.
We headed up firstly to Craster where we had a couple of drifts on which I got a couple of codling to 3.5lb. Water clarity was decent at 15 feet, but there was a greener tinge to it than the previous week. Water temp was 13.8-14.2 degrees, and the mackerel were much in evidence. Loads of them in fact, all day. And big ones too.
Anyway, our intention had been to float fish, which is not something we get to do often, but the forecast suggested good conditions for it, and so we bought some rag from Amble Sealife in the hope of picking up some wrasse or maybe pollock among the gulleys on this stretch of coast. No sooner than he had broken out the floats than the wind picked up. Warm wind, it's true but it was gusting hard and pushing us out too fast for the floats. We wound up and nosed into Newton harbour where it was a bit calmer. Oli get a 3lb pollock on float, while I was using some yellow and red jelly eels from Fladen which are irresistible to the resident coleys. No pollock for me but lots of coleys in the pound to 2 pound bracket which was fun if you got 3 or more hooked up at once.
We then moved up to Beadnall, and tried the gulleys up there with floats. Not really successful though. Just too much wind. So we ventured further up. There are some great kelpy marks up there that the guys in yaks are familiar with. We had great fun over the next hour or so. Oli's best fish was a pollock that we weighed at 7.5lb, and another of 4lb, all on his homemade lures. I was catching kelpies, small codling to 3lb and masses of coleys and inevitably mackerel. We had a few close shaves though. The area is littered with lobster pots and you need eyes in the back of your head to miss them. There was also one very inconsiderate potter who had used floating rope that very nearly caught us out. It's just so dangerous and foolhardy to use it. We were a long way off from the actual marker, but the line snaked just under the surface for nearly 100 metres.
Then it was back to Craster but it was quiet here on the flood tide. Around 18.00 we got a call from my wife who had completed 18 miles of the walk but had unfortunately been forced to retire because the heat had caused her feet to swell badly, turning her toenails black. So it was back to the marina, a quick clean up and then into the car to pick her up.
Maybe we might have done better if we'd not stuck to the floats, but we did want to give it a go. I had around a dozen codling all day, and Oli another 10, but the quality of the pollock certainly made up for it, and the coleys were uplifting and gave great sport. Everything went back to grow a little more.
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