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With a big tide and gusty winds forecast my lad Oli and me headed up to the boat from Shotley Bridge where we live with not many expectations.
It was a late start and we passed the piers at 11.30am.
The sea was actually pretty calm as the winds stayed light and westerly. The water colour though was a dirty brown. We headed up Boulmer way, and for a couple of hours were the only boat in sight.
I fished pink hokkais to start, with my faithful frozen prawns taking a fish every drop. Nothing big, all in the 1.5-2.5lb bracket. The lad was using a mixture of lures but they took only a few fish. In spite of the big tides, the drift was only 0.6-0.7 knots, thanks to wind over tide.
We moved a bit deeper and were joined by another couple of familiar boats from the marina. By 1.30 pm, I'd landed some 20 codling, but nothing larger than 3lb from the hard ground, so we figured that it could be a good time to go to the wrecks.
The nearest wrecks lie between 4 and 5 miles out, and the first 3 were disappointingly quiet. The last 2 however brought some slightly better codling out on fresh mackerel. I was now on black hokkais while the lad endeavoured with a small pirk.
With time getting on, we headed back to Boulmer for a last 30 minute shot before heading back in by 7 pm to pass over the sill at the marina.
The tally for me was close to 30 codling, a pout, a coalie and a few mackerel. Oli had fewer fish, but he landed the biggest codling of the day at around 5lb - on a string of unbaited red and yellow imitation sand-eels!
I took no photos this trip, but Oli is playing around with a go-pro type camera which he attached to a weighted float just above his string of sand-eels. He does have footage of him landing this fish, with a pout on the same string, and if he can figure out how to edit this bit from the rest of the boring footage I'll get him to post it.
It was a late start and we passed the piers at 11.30am.
The sea was actually pretty calm as the winds stayed light and westerly. The water colour though was a dirty brown. We headed up Boulmer way, and for a couple of hours were the only boat in sight.
I fished pink hokkais to start, with my faithful frozen prawns taking a fish every drop. Nothing big, all in the 1.5-2.5lb bracket. The lad was using a mixture of lures but they took only a few fish. In spite of the big tides, the drift was only 0.6-0.7 knots, thanks to wind over tide.
We moved a bit deeper and were joined by another couple of familiar boats from the marina. By 1.30 pm, I'd landed some 20 codling, but nothing larger than 3lb from the hard ground, so we figured that it could be a good time to go to the wrecks.
The nearest wrecks lie between 4 and 5 miles out, and the first 3 were disappointingly quiet. The last 2 however brought some slightly better codling out on fresh mackerel. I was now on black hokkais while the lad endeavoured with a small pirk.
With time getting on, we headed back to Boulmer for a last 30 minute shot before heading back in by 7 pm to pass over the sill at the marina.
The tally for me was close to 30 codling, a pout, a coalie and a few mackerel. Oli had fewer fish, but he landed the biggest codling of the day at around 5lb - on a string of unbaited red and yellow imitation sand-eels!
I took no photos this trip, but Oli is playing around with a go-pro type camera which he attached to a weighted float just above his string of sand-eels. He does have footage of him landing this fish, with a pout on the same string, and if he can figure out how to edit this bit from the rest of the boring footage I'll get him to post it.
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