South Shields Pier 18/7 Gurnard

[magpies]

Fished on the 44 mark from high tide down for 2 hours. Me and a mate caught a dozen small fish with the biggest a flounder of around a pound. Interesting for me was that my mate was chucking short just past the snags and caught 5 gurnard up to around half a pound. I have never seen those fish before. Also caught small plaice and dabs ( I think). Can anone advise me on how to tell the three flatfish species apart ?
We fished 2 hook flapper rigs with size 2s and rag tipped with slivers of mackeral belly.
Got loads of bites but it was really hard to spot them in the gusting wind. Gate was shut in fact but we got round then the gatemen was kind enough to open the gate so we could get off before the rain.
There were a few mackeral getting caught feathering and I heard there were a few good coalfish caught off the end.
Thanks again for all the help on the original thread on the Shore Fishing page.

[Thunderpants]

Good session there mate, canny sport. You can easily tell a dab by running your finger along its skin it is smooth in one direction and rough in the other. Flounders sometimes can have orange spots like a plaice but you can tell them apart by the small hard nodules along the spine of the flounder which you can feel with your finger and also see(plaice are smooth along the spine). Hope this helps.

[magpies]

Thanks mate, I was really suprised to see Gurnard. Are they often caught from the pier? They were a reddy brown colour but not bright red like the Red Gurnard you see elsewhere sometimes.

[Juliogeordio]

Bought some Gurnard from Latimers Fishmongers the other week..... lovely! Hope they start growing a bit bigger into eating size! Dabs and Plaice are really easy to tell apart but Flounder sometimes can confuse people.... You will never get a Dab with bright orange spots! Flounders often do but as Thunderpants has metioned above, the skin is a giveaway. Well done to you both though