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It's been 6 weeks since I last managed to get out on the water, thanks to various family matters and a fortnight pottering along the French canals. Anyway, Oil I grabbed a brief weather-window to see what was around.
We left Amble marina and headed north. A quick drift at Seaton Point produced nothing except confirmation that the water was a dirty brown colour. Still it was over 14 degrees, so maybe we might be in luck if we could find some clearer water. We then headed up towards Craster, where we spent the next 4 hours. The drifts were fast, as it was a big tide, but 8 oz leads were adequate. The first drift produced a couple of small codling for Oli, but it was looking ominous. The second drift however was completely different, as though the light had been switched on. Admittedly, it was almost wall-to-wall coley, but they are impressive fish. I like pollock for the way they scrap, but coleys are even harder fighters.
I was using simple red and yellow imitation sand eels from Fladen, and they are devastating. I must have had 15-20 coleys on that drift alone. The bites were ferocious, nearly knocking the rod out of my hands, and when you had a bunch on them all hooked at once, it was thrilling. The larger fish we weighed, and they came in at around 2.5lb.
We did 5 long drifts like this. 90% of all fish were coleys, with a couple of pollock each to around 2-3lb. Codling however were thin on the ground, and we managed maybe 8-10 in total from this mark. There were a few mackerel around too. We were visited by a small pod of dolphins heading south, the first time we had seen dolphins for several months. There were very few birds around however, and it seems there have been hardly any sand eels which have driven the razorbills and guillemots to scavenge close inshore or up the rivers.
After a while, we wanted a change of scenery, so headed up to Newton. The codling remained elusive, but there were plenty of coleys to compensate. By mid afternoon, the wind had veered SE as forecast and kicked up a nasty chop. Time to plod back to Amble. Just north of Boulmer, we were visited by yet another pod of dolphins, this time right alongside. I was in the middle of changing a fuel filter, otherwise I might have had some good photos to share.
I gave up counting, but must easily have had 60 coleys, plus the codling, pollock and mackerel. It was just a great deal of fun.
We left Amble marina and headed north. A quick drift at Seaton Point produced nothing except confirmation that the water was a dirty brown colour. Still it was over 14 degrees, so maybe we might be in luck if we could find some clearer water. We then headed up towards Craster, where we spent the next 4 hours. The drifts were fast, as it was a big tide, but 8 oz leads were adequate. The first drift produced a couple of small codling for Oli, but it was looking ominous. The second drift however was completely different, as though the light had been switched on. Admittedly, it was almost wall-to-wall coley, but they are impressive fish. I like pollock for the way they scrap, but coleys are even harder fighters.
I was using simple red and yellow imitation sand eels from Fladen, and they are devastating. I must have had 15-20 coleys on that drift alone. The bites were ferocious, nearly knocking the rod out of my hands, and when you had a bunch on them all hooked at once, it was thrilling. The larger fish we weighed, and they came in at around 2.5lb.
We did 5 long drifts like this. 90% of all fish were coleys, with a couple of pollock each to around 2-3lb. Codling however were thin on the ground, and we managed maybe 8-10 in total from this mark. There were a few mackerel around too. We were visited by a small pod of dolphins heading south, the first time we had seen dolphins for several months. There were very few birds around however, and it seems there have been hardly any sand eels which have driven the razorbills and guillemots to scavenge close inshore or up the rivers.
After a while, we wanted a change of scenery, so headed up to Newton. The codling remained elusive, but there were plenty of coleys to compensate. By mid afternoon, the wind had veered SE as forecast and kicked up a nasty chop. Time to plod back to Amble. Just north of Boulmer, we were visited by yet another pod of dolphins, this time right alongside. I was in the middle of changing a fuel filter, otherwise I might have had some good photos to share.
I gave up counting, but must easily have had 60 coleys, plus the codling, pollock and mackerel. It was just a great deal of fun.
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