Sprat fishing Loyds Jetty

[Hadji Kareem]

My god, you've got me drifting back now. 70's down the deans in darlington with my aunty janet, a fishing net strung with wire on the end of a bamboo garden cane. I remember it well, coke cans, crisp packets, and to top it all a 1inch minno. It put up a fight and a half i can say.....

[cheapskate]

sorry i was one of them cruel little buggers i spent all of my pocket money on
worms from welches tackle shop ocean rd only for the crabs to eat them,can still hear the sound of the geet winch. HAPPY DAYS

i'm sure it was called the old mans jetty, it was next to the pilot jetty and it had some steps leading down to a platform underneath, the platform was about 8 foot by 8 foot square and you could fit about a dozen kids on it all catching little puddlers.

[Gerry]

Living near the Fish Quay I spent most of early teens fishing for sprats and playing around Fish Quay in 60s and 70s. Happy days. strange thing was I couldn't swim, imagine parents now letting their kids go play/fish on the quay, the papers would have a heyday.

[basscatcherbob]

loyds jetty

god youve brought back some memories of those days, rember going down there with me mates, old handlines, fishing off the fish quay steps catching hundreds of sprats and puddlers ha, i must have caught the bug cos ive never stopped fishing since, can anyone remember the boats unloading tons of sprats down by the ice house, used to get me bait for nowt in those days

[korky65]

hi guys, having enjoyed the fishing myself at lloyds for many years during my youth i must say it was great, never spent money on bait as you just raided the fish bins at the kipper house or dug a few worms next to the jetty, however it is my belief that once the sewer pipe stopped spewing its spoils into the river, along with the tyne brand factory, this is when the fishing slowed down i know this will have people thinking but i actually caught coalys over 2lb with bits of f---y pads coming out of there mouths, trevor ferry will vouch for this as he was also a regular down there.

[drof46]

hi guys, having enjoyed the fishing myself at lloyds for many years during my youth i must say it was great, never spent money on bait as you just raided the fish bins at the kipper house or dug a few worms next to the jetty, however it is my belief that once the sewer pipe stopped spewing its spoils into the river, along with the tyne brand factory, this is when the fishing slowed down i know this will have people thinking but i actually caught coalys over 2lb with bits of f---y pads coming out of there mouths, trevor ferry will vouch for this as he was also a regular down there.

There's nowt raang with human waste (from a fishes point of view), they thrive on it . It's the industrial sh..e that reduces the estuary population.

One of the biggest offenders in the 60's and 70's was 'Proctor and Gamble' the soap manufacturers. Apparently, their effluent used to de-oxygenate the water instantly.

Drof

[Norman]

brought back to the top cos its an excellent thread



norm

[snatcher]

Used to do it myself in the 60s. this is where I got the fishing bug. Can u remember the blokes when I was down there they used to catch something called puddlers 2-3 at a time

Yup recall that very well. Fishing the North Shields ferry landing in the summer it was virtually a puddler a chuck and they were decent fish as well. What was the name of that cafe there anyone recall?? It was dead handy for when you were fishing there.

John

[The Deeps]

Lloyds Jetty was a brilliant spot - fished it loads in the 70's and early 80's. I was on the end the day that a drifter steamed stright into it and took out the middle planks - fun getting off! They pulled the top off not long after - a sad loss. Took my best ever bag there - 7 fish to 3lb in just over an hour. It was always full of young'uns in the summer catching loads of sprats - funny how there is none there to catch nowadays, Overfishing by all the boats working there then maybe ???

I remember the jetty getting hit by a ship in the mid 70's!
I'd just got off to get some bait out of one of them 40 gallon drums and this big boat clonked the jetty.There was rods and bags and boxes falling in the watter and people fleeing away like scadded cats
If I mind reet, the boat was called the SS Seven Seas.

[snatcher]

Here you go,me fishing at the ferry landing jetty in the mid 60s. Note the Scarborough reel and casting style. It was VERY painful when you caught your thumb on the reel handle. Had some good cod there at HW casting into the corner of the footbridge.



John

[Mark Thomas]

Used to do it myself in the 60s. this is where I got the fishing bug. Can u remember the blokes when I was down there they used to catch something called puddlers 2-3 at a time

poddlers they were blyth ,amble, north shields fish dock for a young lad it was action all day and thats all we wanted!

[skiny]

Here you go,me fishing at the ferry landing jetty in the mid 60s. Note the Scarborough reel and casting style. It was VERY painful when you caught your thumb on the reel handle. Had some good cod there at HW casting into the corner of the footbridge.



John

lordy me some sor knuckles in them days ,me dad used to take iz there but if there wasnt anything catching it was round the other side between the buildings with enough room for 2 anglers and i was made to wait between the allyway sometimes for a good couple of hours if anyone else was on.some times getting sent to the fish key to get some sprats or anything that would catch fish,cant think of the name of the place that was next to the ferry landing.

[Oblickta]

Yup recall that very well. Fishing the North Shields ferry landing in the summer it was virtually a puddler a chuck and they were decent fish as well. What was the name of that cafe there anyone recall?? It was dead handy for when you were fishing there.

John

It was called The Sandpiper and further along towards Loydds you had Macdonalds cafe.

Happy days indeed. It wasn't easy being a kid in Newcastle and having to carry all your tackle to the central station then from NS station to the quay, with a clay spit and fork too. Then dig worm for a couple of hours and get a place on the pier for the incoming tide. We used to pack up about and hour before high tide and run along to the ferry landing to fish the last hour and grab a bag of chips from the sandpiper before humping all the gear back up the bank to the station

[boblydon]

Remember those days well, after school peddling down to lloyds jetty, not having any bait and having to look at finding some herring or mackerel from the numerous fish filleting places down there before fishing.........puddlers were a plenty in them days.

[JOHNPGILBERTSON@YAHOO.CO.]

Sprat Hunting at Shields

Rayo
Great memories as you say, I remember in the late sixties spending all the 6 weeks holiday down on the fish quay. I do remember more then anything the older blokes on the end of the quay, the part that now has the roof on , catching cracking codling with their big split cane rods and multipliers. They used to give us any scraps of bait they had left, we used to sit on the edge of the quay where the alcove was where the trawlers used to tie up catching sprats all day long. What about the little cafe behind the quay shed !!, in there for a bacon and egg sarnie before we started, try and bag a cod out of one of the boxes when no one was looking , and take it home telling me mother that I caught it. I got me first flatty off the Llyods jetting, thought I was the dogs b.......... Great times.