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A Cracking Afternoon on Shields Pier
Went down this morning, arriving about 11am.
Tootled off along the pier and soon enough could see that the end seemed pretty full
I was looking to do some spinning/lure work, ideally catching a few mackerel, as well as going on the float later on. I spotted a reasonable space midway between the top of the steps and the small wall and got set up.
I tried a fladen "pirk" of about 40g which went like a bullet but failed to connect at first so put on a set of home made "sabiki's" cut down from 5 to 3 hooks and straight away had a full string of mackerel
I was fishing 15lb braid so wasn't worried about snapping my line but I had to hand ball them up the wall, during which one fell off, which saved me the trouble of unhooking it
I chucked them back in then thought- "I should have kept one for bait!"
I modified the rig further by re-attaching the pirk and trimming the sabiki's to a single hook and cast out again, 10 seconds later and "bang", in again, this time a single fish and on the 10ft UglyStik spinning rod, Alivio 4000 and 15lb braid it really took off.
I took a few more, keeping most of them but chucking quite a few back too, then decided to try some of my home made lures.
I tried out some miniature "jigga's" made from 9mm o/d , 50-75mm long, lead filled chrome tube and found that they worked extremely well with a smaller one with a bend being the most productive.
I chopped and changed quite a bit over the afternoon and found that anything shiny would work, while the only soft lure that worked was a rhubarb n custard sidewinder.
Unfortunately, the fact that there were quite a few fish coming in on "our side" attracted half of the folk who'd been fishing up from the blocks, to try to get into the shoal on the harbour side, meaning they kept casting straight across our lines which in spite of being shot straight at the north pier, were quickly being taken up river by the still incoming tide. It wasn't a big deal and there were no big tangles or harsh words but it was a bit irritating.
Anyway after about 4 hours and about 35 good size mackerel, mostly on single lures ( fantastic fun) and with about 10 fish kept, I decided to swap to float fishing just off the wall and using ragworm and mackerel strip, I had a couple of nice little pollock and a load of coalies. Again, brilliant sport. It got to about 5.30 and I decided to wrap. I packed up and as I was heading back took a few photo's:
The "end" had started to fill up with school kids by this time;
Earlier, both the wall and the rail were pretty full with a body every 15ft or so but the rail was more or less empty by the time I left.
I watched "Mistress" on her way out, at first with some envy!
But then as they hit the chop outside the harbour,
I thought; "Mnah, mebbe not for me the day"
Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed my day as one of the early season "macky bashers", even with the non stop "Ibiza, trance, drum-n-bass, shixe" music blasting away all day ( with a short lull of about an hour when I actually thought I'd gone deaf!) It really wasn't too bad.
cheers
Steve
Tootled off along the pier and soon enough could see that the end seemed pretty full
I was looking to do some spinning/lure work, ideally catching a few mackerel, as well as going on the float later on. I spotted a reasonable space midway between the top of the steps and the small wall and got set up.
I tried a fladen "pirk" of about 40g which went like a bullet but failed to connect at first so put on a set of home made "sabiki's" cut down from 5 to 3 hooks and straight away had a full string of mackerel
I was fishing 15lb braid so wasn't worried about snapping my line but I had to hand ball them up the wall, during which one fell off, which saved me the trouble of unhooking it I chucked them back in then thought- "I should have kept one for bait!"I modified the rig further by re-attaching the pirk and trimming the sabiki's to a single hook and cast out again, 10 seconds later and "bang", in again, this time a single fish and on the 10ft UglyStik spinning rod, Alivio 4000 and 15lb braid it really took off.
I took a few more, keeping most of them but chucking quite a few back too, then decided to try some of my home made lures.
I tried out some miniature "jigga's" made from 9mm o/d , 50-75mm long, lead filled chrome tube and found that they worked extremely well with a smaller one with a bend being the most productive.
I chopped and changed quite a bit over the afternoon and found that anything shiny would work, while the only soft lure that worked was a rhubarb n custard sidewinder.
Unfortunately, the fact that there were quite a few fish coming in on "our side" attracted half of the folk who'd been fishing up from the blocks, to try to get into the shoal on the harbour side, meaning they kept casting straight across our lines which in spite of being shot straight at the north pier, were quickly being taken up river by the still incoming tide. It wasn't a big deal and there were no big tangles or harsh words but it was a bit irritating.
Anyway after about 4 hours and about 35 good size mackerel, mostly on single lures ( fantastic fun) and with about 10 fish kept, I decided to swap to float fishing just off the wall and using ragworm and mackerel strip, I had a couple of nice little pollock and a load of coalies. Again, brilliant sport. It got to about 5.30 and I decided to wrap. I packed up and as I was heading back took a few photo's:
The "end" had started to fill up with school kids by this time;
Earlier, both the wall and the rail were pretty full with a body every 15ft or so but the rail was more or less empty by the time I left.
I watched "Mistress" on her way out, at first with some envy!
But then as they hit the chop outside the harbour,
I thought; "Mnah, mebbe not for me the day"
Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed my day as one of the early season "macky bashers", even with the non stop "Ibiza, trance, drum-n-bass, shixe" music blasting away all day ( with a short lull of about an hour when I actually thought I'd gone deaf!) It really wasn't too bad.
cheers
Steve
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