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Lovely calm start to the day. Oli, my son and I headed north to Seaton Point where there the tide runs fast and where there are usually fish. We stopped on the way up to photograph a pod of 3 dolphins which swam alongside us for a while.
The water clarity was not bad at around 9-10 feet, and the temperature was up and over 12 degrees. The drift was a perfect 0.7-0.8 knots and we were soon into small codling, typically 1-2 pounds each, with a few smaller and a couple bigger than that. Nice pan-sized fish. There were some coalies around too, and I picked up a couple of pout on bait.
A couple of hours later, with about 15 fish apiece, we thought about heading up to Craster 3 mile wrecks to see if there was much on them. Upholder, a chart boat out of Amble was fishing in the same area as us, and they too must have been having similar results as us as they also joined us on the wrecks (For LingKing's benefit, Libby II I think was out as she was alongside the quay when we came back in, but she wasn't fishing in our sector).
The wrecks were totally smothered in clouds of mackerel and coalies, all uptide of the wrecks, so going in with multiple hooks was out of the question. I did try single hooks baited with fresh mackerel in the hope of ling, but we didn't encounter any. In fact, there were few takes, even when fishing hard on the wrecks.
Water clarity out there was about 15-20 feet, but even though it was not a big tide the drift was a fast 1.5 knots so hard to get a good line on the wrecks.
After a while, we went back inshore and landed another 30 codling or so from Seaton Point. However, we had been instructed to bring mackerel back for a BBQ, and of course once you start targeting them they become very elusive. It was a trip back to Coquet Island and then out to the 105 foot contour when we finally found them.
That wasn't the only thing we found. In case anyone's been following Oli's "Creature Feature", in which he manages to land something bizarre each week on a lure, he managed it again this week. Not once but twice!
First item was a rather aggressive Scorpion Fish that had taken a liking to his lure. The second was a seal who took a liking to a fish he had just connected with in about 90 foot of water. Poor lad. He was so excited at first because he was convinced it was the daddy of all fish. Until it took off, stripping line as it went!
We've experienced seals close up before, 2 years back when we were fishing with On Yer Marks, when they would grab pollack from right alongside, but we were aware of them and knew to crank in fast. This was different as there had been none in sight previously. Fortunately, the seal hadn't taken the lure, just the fish but as it let go it leapt clean out of the water. We just fell about laughing. I can't wait to see what he drags up next time.
The water clarity was not bad at around 9-10 feet, and the temperature was up and over 12 degrees. The drift was a perfect 0.7-0.8 knots and we were soon into small codling, typically 1-2 pounds each, with a few smaller and a couple bigger than that. Nice pan-sized fish. There were some coalies around too, and I picked up a couple of pout on bait.
A couple of hours later, with about 15 fish apiece, we thought about heading up to Craster 3 mile wrecks to see if there was much on them. Upholder, a chart boat out of Amble was fishing in the same area as us, and they too must have been having similar results as us as they also joined us on the wrecks (For LingKing's benefit, Libby II I think was out as she was alongside the quay when we came back in, but she wasn't fishing in our sector).
The wrecks were totally smothered in clouds of mackerel and coalies, all uptide of the wrecks, so going in with multiple hooks was out of the question. I did try single hooks baited with fresh mackerel in the hope of ling, but we didn't encounter any. In fact, there were few takes, even when fishing hard on the wrecks.
Water clarity out there was about 15-20 feet, but even though it was not a big tide the drift was a fast 1.5 knots so hard to get a good line on the wrecks.
After a while, we went back inshore and landed another 30 codling or so from Seaton Point. However, we had been instructed to bring mackerel back for a BBQ, and of course once you start targeting them they become very elusive. It was a trip back to Coquet Island and then out to the 105 foot contour when we finally found them.
That wasn't the only thing we found. In case anyone's been following Oli's "Creature Feature", in which he manages to land something bizarre each week on a lure, he managed it again this week. Not once but twice!
First item was a rather aggressive Scorpion Fish that had taken a liking to his lure. The second was a seal who took a liking to a fish he had just connected with in about 90 foot of water. Poor lad. He was so excited at first because he was convinced it was the daddy of all fish. Until it took off, stripping line as it went!
We've experienced seals close up before, 2 years back when we were fishing with On Yer Marks, when they would grab pollack from right alongside, but we were aware of them and knew to crank in fast. This was different as there had been none in sight previously. Fortunately, the seal hadn't taken the lure, just the fish but as it let go it leapt clean out of the water. We just fell about laughing. I can't wait to see what he drags up next time.
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