Your first time shore fishing.

[willywetegg]

Happy memories. First place I ever fished was Cullercoats Harbour. Probably height of summer with 2 rag and 1 lug from Temples. I know I didn't catch owt but learned whenever taking someone for the first time, try to go where you know they'll catch something, no matter how small. Still hooked now though.

Cheers Peter, this got me thinking.

Where was your first experience of shore fishing.

Mine I think was either Blyth or Hendon, I visited both on the first week but can't remember which was first lol. I used a pier rod (lent to me by a mate) from both pier and beach, matched with an old fixed spool reel.

I do however remember that I blanked and continued to blank for the best part of a year until I caught a small flattie from King Edwards Bay and then a Codling of 2 1/2 lb from the river at Blyth on the day I first used my own brand new gear. I can still remember the excitement lol.

So where was your first session and what if anything did you catch.

Jim.

[insanojackson]

I went down the river wansbeck with some bloke my parents knew. caught a flatty and was hooked, I was about 11 at the time,


I got a rod baught by my parents and went again down the wansbeck, I lost 3 or 4 sinkers and remember crying cos i thought they were dead expensive!

[SIXFOOTSTEVE]

I fished the river with Mel ,my father in law and mentor ,when you could fish from the Royal Quays before the big fence was up ,caught a pin size whiting and was over the moon ,he took me all over and I blanked everywhere else and eventually got my first cod on Blyth beach ,god what a rush it gave me ...hooked ever since .

[gazzawill]

my first was with my brother paul took me on the white pole at seaham in between the piers .
i was about 6 or 7 i caugh a rockling and a eel i was chufed to bits took the fish home to show mum and dad shhhh bad boy lol

i remember as soon as high tide came we used to cast towards the dock gates as they opened , fish after fish always small but they were caught and released

loved the sport ever since be shore boat or fly
back then it was foxs angling supplies in seaham (or foxys) i remember if you went in for mussel he used to scoop it outa a big mesh bag got loads for about 20p lol good old days

[Hiram.A.Biff]

My first time was as a boy aged about ten, with my Dad, who knew very little about sea fishing himself.Id seen boys pulling flatties four at a time on handlines from Craster Harbour, when it was laden with them.(The boats used to dump the guts from their catch in the harbour). He bought me a little white solid glass rod about 5 ft long, and used to spend hours with me catching sprats off beadnell harbour wall.
I used to live for our annual two weeks camping at Beadnell, now walking alone along that beach hes by my side.
I still have that rod now. Ill post a pic if I can find it.

[scaley]

first memories of fishing

Some of my most vivid memories are when i was possibly eight or nine,we had moved from Sunderland to Powys in Wales which was quite far in land so freshwater fishing was the order of the day,my old man had bought me and my bro young angler fishing kits from wooly,s and we had hours of fun fishing the upper reaches of the severn for trout and Grayling.In the summer months we would go spinning for brown trout in the smaller tributaries of the severn always remember one particualar time we were almost caught by a landowner and we had to wade into the brook and wade down stream and hid under a bridge until he had gone,scary but fun.
As far as sea fishing goes ive been doing that since i learnt how to walk i think ,the old man used to take us all over the place,i remember fishing the rat house before it was modernised none of this comfy park bench business used to walk down the old steps on the corner and fish down below, my dad and bro fished with rods and i had a home made handline which i used to drop down the side and catch all sorts of critters.These days the old man is getting old but he still likes to take my eldest boy down to the Glass centre on the wear.

[tonyfromalnwick]

Handline down the side of Eyemouth harbour when I was about 7 or 8.

For bait we used to go to one of the fish yards on the dock and get lobster claws and scoop out the meat!!

Loads of small coalies, and one very excited little boy.

[The Great Wallsendo]

With my Dad when I was younger than 10 years - the Groyne underneath Hengistbury Head, Christchurch, Bournemouth...caught a Wrasse

[jamcod]

hello lads my first time was the day after boxing day got the bus the 444 from bedlington to cambios with my new 12ft rod and sea streak reel i was 11 at the time , went on to the wooden jetty in the river next to the seven stars jetty , fished a while with no luck then a small bite to start with then the rod went mad , struggled to reel the fish in as it got near the side this fella climbed down the ladder got my line and threw this monster cod onto the jetty about 10lb i never stopped grinning for about two weeks after that what a memory never to be forgotten never stopped fishing since . all the best for 2008 jamcod .

[mark]

Blackpool North pier!, right on the end of the old extension/walkway bit

was about 7 or 8 I guess. they used to hire rods from a tiny tackle shop on the end, big brutish thing with a scarborough reel!

bought a little bag of squid and caught millions of crabs and 3 mackeral

more importantly though, spotted the enormous amount of tackle wrapped around the legs of the pier, feathers, spinners, leads, booms all sorts of stuff

climbed the full length of the walkway underneath and filled a carrier bag with tackle!

got back up and me dad nearly then had a fight (on my behalf) with some Manc git, who reckoned that a lot of the tackle was his that he'd lost on previous days of his holiday and tried to take it all off me.

got home, decided to sell/swap me bit of coarse fishing gear I had for sea gear. including a boat road - the likes of which I've never seen before or since - it was made of steel! like a golf club shaft, stepped from one end to the other. anyone ever come across one? It never got used but I thought it looked great, god knows what I expected to catch with it, but did buy 12/0 hooks, wire traces the works - never managed to get a reel for it though!, and never even got on a boat to go fishing for another 10 years at least

did get an 8' 'pier rod' and a side cast reel (think it might of been an alvey), and that was the mainstay of my shore gear for years, fishing piers at places like whitby, scarborough and the like

[Charlie_Thompson]

Green Wall for me I think. First fish I can remember - mackerel from Mevagissey on a green milbro rod with one of those closed face abu fixed spool things.

[Phantom of Hook House]

First fish

My Grandad and uncle lived for fishing and got my dad into it then me. First fish I remember was a trout on worm on a handline down the side of the pumphouse at Barrasford on the North Tyne when I was about 7 (35 years ago now!) . 1st sea fish were coalies and flounders on a handline in Eyemouth harbour the same year during summer holiday in caravan there and my 1st cod was from blyth pier about a year later on a little solid glass pier rod and ragworm bought from the dispenser on the wall outside temples. My dad never used to order bait and I can remember the dispenser being empty loads of times when I was a kid and having to go home absolutely gutted because we had no bait . We used to go to Blyth pier every other Sunday and always had to be home for 2pm as Mam had the sunday dinner ready and I was always ****ed of as I wanted to stay fishing. Best kid memory was catching a smallish codling from the outside of the pier, just past the bend and it spat up 2 fresh sandeels. I used them for bait and caught 2 more codling when all the grown ups around me caught nothing! When Leazes Park opened and I got into course fishing big time and virtually lived there, marsden quarry and bigwaters. Happy days!

[KeithB]

A bloke my dad used to work with (Peter) took me fishing for the first time as a kid, I was probably about 10 years old.

He told my dad to take me digging for ragworm down the middens the day before, we struggled at first but once a bloke showed my dad where to dig we filled an ice cream tub in no time (wish it was still like that).

The next day Peter took me to the jetty that used to be where the lifeboat is now moored on the fish quay, then Lloyds jetty, it was virtually a fish every chuck (puddlers). A few years later, watching the puddlers eating the turds flowing out of the pipe at the end of Lloyds, I realised why Peter wouldn't let me keep any of the fish

[basswrasse2]

first time was at seaham peir with my mates i used to use foxys tackle shop when he was open and there used to be one at bottom of church st. I think it was fenicks or something like that i bought my very first rod and reel there and i caught a few coalies with my mates

[AndyJames83]

Used to go up to Blyth and Amble piers with me granda when i was about 9-10, never caught out but remember like they were yesterday. Used to stop for fish and chips at the end of the road in Amble near the pier.

He's not in too good health these days as he's in his late 70's but in the summer just gone we managed to get up to Fontburn on a rare sunny day. He can't walk very far so we fished the rocks in front of the cabin a stones throw from the car. I baited up his rod and he chucked it out only about 10 foot whilst i set mine up. We were laughing about his cast and sortin out the teas when his rod went daft and fell out of the rest. After struggling to get out his chair he got up and hooked into a canny 3lb+ rainbow. I've never seen him so happy! He fished for a couple more hours and then packed in as he was just chuffed he'd caught his first proper fish at 76. He couldn't wait to get back and tell the lads at Wessy Social. It made my day.