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Yesterday was my last day at work so what better way to start the christmas holidays than to go out fishing. With the sea being flat I though my best chance of a decent coddy would be the river. A slim chance yes but a chance all the same so I headed down for a session at South Shields. The plan was to fish with two rods, one for cod and the other with a two hook flapper to try to get a dab and a whiting for this months WSF species hunt. Baits used were fresh blacks, blow lug, bluey and mackerel.
My main plan was to fish the Walkway on the flood but as low tide wasn't until 11pm I could have a couple of hours somewhere else first so I went to the Spirit. The wind was a bit mental but I managed to position myself so that it was on my back. First cast caught me the smallest tommy codling in south shields (that's not the PB lol) then about half an hour later a flounder 28cm. Not much else was happening and the wind was getting uncomfortable so at about an hour before LW I moved to the Walkway.
The wind was south westerly so the houses at the Walkway provided good shelter and the temperature was above zero so I hoped to be in for some pleasant fishing. I was. I started getting plenty of knocks on both rods and as low tide came and went I pulled in three tommies and three dabs. Hooray first one of my target species and a much needed species hunt point. All caught on lug.
It went quiet about midnight but I sat it out until 2am pulling in nothing but weed and one crab. Then my cod rod snagged up and I lost all my gear so I decided not to bother putting a new rig on and would pull in my other rod and call it a night. I brought the flapper rig in to find a 35cm whiting on the end hanging on to a chunk of mackerel. My second target species! Hooray. Ok then, I will stay out for a bit longer. I baited up again and cast out then set about tying a fresh rig onto my cod rod.
I decided to drop my hook size on the cod rig to a 2/0 and fitted a size 1 circle hook as a pennel. Baited with one fresh black and one lug I chucked it out into the river. It couldn't have been out there more than a minute when my rod tip rattled. Not a big rattle but definately a fish so I struck and reeled in. There was definately something on but I didn't feel much weight so thought maybe a bigger tommy or something. About half way back in wallop! The weight suddenly increased. Probably just picked up a big lump of weed I thought as I had been pulling the stuff in all night. Too heavy to reel in now I began to pump and wind, pump and wind bringing it closer and closer but it stayed below the surface. I could not feel a fish kicking just a big solid weight so it had to be weed didn't it? Wrong! About three yards out it finally surfaced and it wasn't weed at all but a geet big fish! OMG! The adrenaline kicked in (more with the panic of possibly losing it) and I heaved and reeled the beast up the ten feet or so towards the railings. As its head came into view I could see it was a good one and the sweat was on as I struggled to reel it up to a height where I could lift it over the railings with my rod. After a nail biting few seconds there was much a relief and a satisfying thud as it hit the concrete and I was the proud owner of a 4lb 9oz cod, a new shore PB for me. Get in!! OK so not as big as some of the ones you lads get but a cracker for me and I was well chuffed! Mission accomplished. And caught on a rod that only ten minutes ago was ready to be packed away. Ha! Not only that but the hook that had a good hold on it was my size 1 circle hook! The 2/0 aberdeen I had as my main hook was only slightly caught in it's lip and if I hadn't had that size 1 pennel on I would almost certainly have lost the fish on the lift. Amazing!
So I set about trying to take a photo of me holding the fish with my camera on time delay setting. That was a bit of a faff on and after many blurred images and photos of the ground etc I finally figured out how to do it. While I was arsing about doing this I heard some footsteps approaching. It was unusual to have someone walking about there at 2am on a Thursday and I must have looked a right nugget kneeling in front my camera that was balanced on a wall lol. I didn't care though I was buzzing. I looked around to see a rather well dressed gentleman walking past. "Aright mate" I said and he said "have you caught anything". I showed him the big fish and he just smiled enigmatically and continued past. I knelt down to try for another photo then thought "why don't I just ask that bloke to take one" so I turned around to ask him and he was completely gone! No sign of him anywhere and it was a good 200yards+ walk to the steps up into the houses. I couldn't understand how he could possibly have covered that distance in so short a space of time. Maybe I had just lost track of time in the excitement. Who knows, pretty weird though. Anway, I eventually got one in focus so here it is...
I fished on for another hour but with nothing else doing I called it a night and headed home for a well earned beer.
My main plan was to fish the Walkway on the flood but as low tide wasn't until 11pm I could have a couple of hours somewhere else first so I went to the Spirit. The wind was a bit mental but I managed to position myself so that it was on my back. First cast caught me the smallest tommy codling in south shields (that's not the PB lol) then about half an hour later a flounder 28cm. Not much else was happening and the wind was getting uncomfortable so at about an hour before LW I moved to the Walkway.
The wind was south westerly so the houses at the Walkway provided good shelter and the temperature was above zero so I hoped to be in for some pleasant fishing. I was. I started getting plenty of knocks on both rods and as low tide came and went I pulled in three tommies and three dabs. Hooray first one of my target species and a much needed species hunt point. All caught on lug.
It went quiet about midnight but I sat it out until 2am pulling in nothing but weed and one crab. Then my cod rod snagged up and I lost all my gear so I decided not to bother putting a new rig on and would pull in my other rod and call it a night. I brought the flapper rig in to find a 35cm whiting on the end hanging on to a chunk of mackerel. My second target species! Hooray. Ok then, I will stay out for a bit longer. I baited up again and cast out then set about tying a fresh rig onto my cod rod.
I decided to drop my hook size on the cod rig to a 2/0 and fitted a size 1 circle hook as a pennel. Baited with one fresh black and one lug I chucked it out into the river. It couldn't have been out there more than a minute when my rod tip rattled. Not a big rattle but definately a fish so I struck and reeled in. There was definately something on but I didn't feel much weight so thought maybe a bigger tommy or something. About half way back in wallop! The weight suddenly increased. Probably just picked up a big lump of weed I thought as I had been pulling the stuff in all night. Too heavy to reel in now I began to pump and wind, pump and wind bringing it closer and closer but it stayed below the surface. I could not feel a fish kicking just a big solid weight so it had to be weed didn't it? Wrong! About three yards out it finally surfaced and it wasn't weed at all but a geet big fish! OMG! The adrenaline kicked in (more with the panic of possibly losing it) and I heaved and reeled the beast up the ten feet or so towards the railings. As its head came into view I could see it was a good one and the sweat was on as I struggled to reel it up to a height where I could lift it over the railings with my rod. After a nail biting few seconds there was much a relief and a satisfying thud as it hit the concrete and I was the proud owner of a 4lb 9oz cod, a new shore PB for me. Get in!! OK so not as big as some of the ones you lads get but a cracker for me and I was well chuffed! Mission accomplished. And caught on a rod that only ten minutes ago was ready to be packed away. Ha! Not only that but the hook that had a good hold on it was my size 1 circle hook! The 2/0 aberdeen I had as my main hook was only slightly caught in it's lip and if I hadn't had that size 1 pennel on I would almost certainly have lost the fish on the lift. Amazing!
So I set about trying to take a photo of me holding the fish with my camera on time delay setting. That was a bit of a faff on and after many blurred images and photos of the ground etc I finally figured out how to do it. While I was arsing about doing this I heard some footsteps approaching. It was unusual to have someone walking about there at 2am on a Thursday and I must have looked a right nugget kneeling in front my camera that was balanced on a wall lol. I didn't care though I was buzzing. I looked around to see a rather well dressed gentleman walking past. "Aright mate" I said and he said "have you caught anything". I showed him the big fish and he just smiled enigmatically and continued past. I knelt down to try for another photo then thought "why don't I just ask that bloke to take one" so I turned around to ask him and he was completely gone! No sign of him anywhere and it was a good 200yards+ walk to the steps up into the houses. I couldn't understand how he could possibly have covered that distance in so short a space of time. Maybe I had just lost track of time in the excitement. Who knows, pretty weird though. Anway, I eventually got one in focus so here it is...
I fished on for another hour but with nothing else doing I called it a night and headed home for a well earned beer.
NESA Lure Fishing Challenge 2011 Winner 
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