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After refueling, Oli and I took Bellini north, towards Seaton Point. The sea was calm, with light westerlies, but it was still drizzling. There were already a couple of boats in the vicinity, but still plenty of room for us. The drifts were perfect, at around 1.1 knots, giving quite a bit of movement to the lures and the mackerel strip I was using. Water clarity was ok, at 8 feet, but a bit murky, as it always is around the Point. Water temp was 13.2 degrees, a bit lower than the 15 degrees we had during this week last year, but plenty of baitfish around, and lots of bird activity, including gannets. Baitfish would be herring most likely at this time of year, and indeed, Oli had seen big shoals of them in the previous week on a very early morning bass fishing trip (20 bass landed, best fish around 4lb, but all in the 2-4lb bracket). However, when checking the stomach contents of a mackerel I cut up for bait, I found plenty of micro sandeels of around 2-3cm in length. They ought to be larger at this time of year, and would usually have gone by now, further reinforcing the view that everything is around a month late this year.
I managed a couple of codling to 2.5lb, and although Oli was doing better, we decided to take the ebb and make our way up to Craster. By now, the sun was poking through and it was turning into a nice afternoon. Here, the water was clearer, and we did well, with Oli's best fish being estimated at 8lb, though it slipped out of his grasp when alongside. He had a number of nice pollock too, while I was collecting coleys, more codling to 4lb, some small pollock and a stray whiting. We don't catch many whiting, perhaps because we tend to fish the rougher ground, and this unfortunate fish was gobbled up by a gull as soon as I'd released it. Otherwise, apart from the mackerel, everything else we caught that day went back.
Next up was Newton-by-Sea. It was very calm by now, so I got out the floats, but the drift wasn't right and we kept heading inshore instead of along the coast, and this took us into the path of a shore angler, so we gave up on that idea and we went out to the Faggot. This turned out to be an interesting mark. Lots of kelpy ground with kelpies to 2lb, but also some larger codling and pollock around, as well as a dozen or so coleys, all around a pound each. There were more mackerel around too. Drifts varied so much, with the wind in the west one moment, then northerly, easterly and back to westerly, so it was hard to replicate the same drift over the same ground, so one moment you were in 20 feet of water over the kelp and the next drift would take you over 40 feet of hard ground. But there were fish around on all marks. What I like about it up here too is that you are usually the only boat for miles around, and you have the whole place to yourself.
Then it was back past Dunstanburgh and few more codling and coleys. I had the intention of picking up some mackerel before heading in, but try as I might it was impossible. I ended up using sabiki's, and even then I landed a nice pollock,
along with a coley at the same time, and these two fish gave me a bit of a run around on the light gear.
Excluding any mackerel, I ended the day with close to 60 fish, and Oli had nearly as many, but he had more in the 4-5lb bracket than me. I would liked to have had more photos, but it was a case of having no time as we were just too busy dealing with our own fish to bother taking any shots. Let's hope that the current run of northerlies ends soon and we can get out again at the weekend.
I managed a couple of codling to 2.5lb, and although Oli was doing better, we decided to take the ebb and make our way up to Craster. By now, the sun was poking through and it was turning into a nice afternoon. Here, the water was clearer, and we did well, with Oli's best fish being estimated at 8lb, though it slipped out of his grasp when alongside. He had a number of nice pollock too, while I was collecting coleys, more codling to 4lb, some small pollock and a stray whiting. We don't catch many whiting, perhaps because we tend to fish the rougher ground, and this unfortunate fish was gobbled up by a gull as soon as I'd released it. Otherwise, apart from the mackerel, everything else we caught that day went back.
Next up was Newton-by-Sea. It was very calm by now, so I got out the floats, but the drift wasn't right and we kept heading inshore instead of along the coast, and this took us into the path of a shore angler, so we gave up on that idea and we went out to the Faggot. This turned out to be an interesting mark. Lots of kelpy ground with kelpies to 2lb, but also some larger codling and pollock around, as well as a dozen or so coleys, all around a pound each. There were more mackerel around too. Drifts varied so much, with the wind in the west one moment, then northerly, easterly and back to westerly, so it was hard to replicate the same drift over the same ground, so one moment you were in 20 feet of water over the kelp and the next drift would take you over 40 feet of hard ground. But there were fish around on all marks. What I like about it up here too is that you are usually the only boat for miles around, and you have the whole place to yourself.
Then it was back past Dunstanburgh and few more codling and coleys. I had the intention of picking up some mackerel before heading in, but try as I might it was impossible. I ended up using sabiki's, and even then I landed a nice pollock,
along with a coley at the same time, and these two fish gave me a bit of a run around on the light gear.
Excluding any mackerel, I ended the day with close to 60 fish, and Oli had nearly as many, but he had more in the 4-5lb bracket than me. I would liked to have had more photos, but it was a case of having no time as we were just too busy dealing with our own fish to bother taking any shots. Let's hope that the current run of northerlies ends soon and we can get out again at the weekend.
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