Ken Robinson's 40lb 6oz cod

[canman]

The first pic is the 40lber, the next one is a 32lb & 25lb all caught at Balcary point in the 1980's.
I remember being woken up at 1-30am by telephone, ken in his exited state saying, Get your f...ing a*se down to the clubhouse, (Whitley bay) and verify this fish. Got there in minutes and couldn't believe my eyes, there was this great fat pig of a fish lying over the Avon scales dwarfing them. It weighed 40lb-6ozs. The fish was weighed 7 hrs after capture, so must have lost quite a bit in fluid.
The next pic is from another session at Balcary, 32lb and 25lb.
The 3rd pic is Ken looking a bit younger on the old ferry landing at North Shields in 1964 along with Alan Garbut in the duffel coat, and Alan Emerson in the donkey Jacket. Anyone recognise anyone else in the pic!

[northeast1]

Cracking fish, nothing like that in our waters now.

The last pic is like Shields pier in Summer time on a dull day :

[wr300]

cracking pics awsome fish mate he got he hands full with them beuites

[nick1]

they are some pretty amazing fish and he is one lucky man to have landed them just out of curiosity what is your biggest shore caught cod authur, i bet its not to shabby !

[northeast1]

Mine is 10lb 6oz from Sunderland and that 40lber could eat it alive...cracker

[Mark Thomas]

Whoppers

Amazing fish ,I bet someone has lost a similiar fish in the north east over the last 20 years without knowing it ,im sure the skill and luck recquired to land one would be enormous.Anyway the thought that someone has lost something similiar keeps the dream alive even if its entirely fictional.The black and white shot is great,I fished there in the 70s as a kid, poddlers galore!Thanks for posting them up

[eddie t]

Great fish and fishing them days wish it was just half as good now.

[canman]

they are some pretty amazing fish and he is one lucky man to have landed them just out of curiosity what is your biggest shore caught cod authur, i bet its not to shabby !

Mine tipped the scales at 30lb-11ozs again from Balcary. I caught a cod from castle rocks Tynemouth around 1980 it weighed 15lb 12.3/4ozs on a large green ragworm bait. At that time, there were about a dozen large fish caught in the same area, all into double figures

[sandworm]

I remember when Ken got that fish,at the time there were quite a few doubles coming from the flat rock and the point.
Heres a 19-1/2 from the point, taken in 1991 on a big baiting of stinking rag.



My mate Micky Kilty had one 10 minutes later weighing 28lb.

Not much chance of them now......

[canman]

Yeh, they were good times sandworm. There was some fantastic fishing around then, at lock long, the gare lock, and especially the Rhu narrows opposite Hellensburgh at Rossneath.Young anglers today just don't know what they missed. Thats a nice fish you have there as well.

[fozally]

Dont recognise any others in the picture but noticed hoodies were in even back then. Somethings never change.

[canman]

I remember Bob Gascoine arriving at Balcary, and opening up his bucket of lugworm only to find them well and truly knackered. They had turned blue, anyway, he had a great session, catching over 100lb of fish. When he got home he told his wife that he couldn't understand why all his lug had died, she said, thats easy, thats the same bucket i used with DOMESTOS in yesterday. Just goes to show, cod will eat owt

[boblydon]

I still remember the whitley bay juniors annuall pilgrimage to loch long every may bank holiday with very fond memories......can you still remember them days Arther, when John Nixon would lend us a transit van with bench seats for the weekend??

Since the rhu narrows have been mentioned, do you remember the big write up in the sea angler magazine by Bob Gledhill, am sure we were fishing some big scottish open up there at the time........never known a place like it for huge puddlers.

What about the ferry landing on a sunday morning??? ahh!! the good old days ( bloody hell i am getting old ).

bob

[batt22]

Great pics brings back some fond memories of that era

[sandworm]

Yeh, they were good times sandworm. There was some fantastic fishing around then, at lock long, the gare lock, and especially the Rhu narrows opposite Hellensburgh at Rossneath.Young anglers today just don't know what they missed. Thats a nice fish you have there as well.

I used to fish Loch long,the narrows and Cloch point in the Firth of Clyde in the 70,s,always in the summer.
Loads of Cod then on fresh crab.
Theres still a few codling in the Solway,had a few on big baitings of macky when targeting Conger.
Senwick in Kircudbright bay still throws up odd Codling in the winter as well.
Nothing like it used to be though.....