west coast flatty hunt

col

Well-known member
well,as the title says,me and b.p got the gear sorted for digging a bit worm and having a bash at the flatties over the west coast.
we set off at 5.30 and got to our chosen bait digging spot at 7.00pm,only to find there wasnt a worm/cast in sight:o
so after a fone call to j.v and a quick change of venue,we were soon onto a mark that has a few blow lug and yellows knocking about :cool:
the only problem was that they were deep and it was back breaking work digging them out,i think they were on there way to china :eek:
anyways with low water being about 9.20pm we werent short of time so we spent the next two hours getting as many as we could,altho i have to admit that we took bait over with us and didnt need too much lug at all,but we still dug in the region of seventy worm up,not a great deal for two hours but they were all of a good size :cool:
so back to the car for a can of redbull and a fag and we decided that the tide was still a bit far out for our first location,which was going to be "beckfoot"
we made the decision to drive down to whitehaven pier for the flood,and if it was slow then we would come back up to beckfoot an or so before high water :)
we got to whitehaven for around 11.00pm ish,by which time the tide was well into the flood.there wasnt another soul on the pier so we had the full place to our selves.
the tactics where to target the flatties as there wasnt a breath of wind and not so much as a ripple on the water,so not expecting out else we got two rods each set up at the veryend
baits we had were,runnydown,yellowtails,blow lug,rag worm,squid and some one had left a carrier bag half full of party squid which would of been rude not to give a go.:)
out went the rods and from the second the rigs hit the bottem it was bites on every rod : Very Happy
i was using a lightish rod and my appollo which gives good bite indication,but some of these knocks were like codling knocks,however it was clear when i pulled in a double shot of dabs on the first cast that was what was knocking about.
the ground in front of us must have been paved with them,cos every bait,cast at any range more or less in any direction was getting instant bites,apart from over to the left where paul was fishing :D
they were generally all on the small side wth the majority only barely making size,with the odd one going around 25 cms.there was also a sprinkling of rockling amongst them,5 bearded ones and fat little fellas at that :rolleyes:
but as we had planned to go flatty bashing we couldnt be dissapointed really.
there were boats coming in from ireland for the first hour or so unloading their catches of prawns in the harbour behind us,we got talking to a local fella who walked along to see us while he was waiting for a boat to come in and give him his free bin bag full of prawns and skate wings.he came back at about 3.30am with a cup of coffee for us Wink nice fella and good to have a bit crack on with.;)
anyways we packed up at around 5.00 am to head back home,we had around thirty fish between us with a lot of missed fish and a few dropped fish too,i managed a few more than b.p this time round,we were still getting bites more or less as soon as the bait hit the water,so quite a busy nite for a change,and beets sitting watching a still rod all neet.
:cool:
sory lads,but no pics this time cos not one of us remembered our camera :rolleyes:
also i filled a bag up with other peoples rubbish whilst we were fishing,and left the pier in a lot cleaner state than it was before we got there
 
Nice report...life isnt all about cod :)


we got talking to a local fella who walked along to see us while he was waiting for a boat to come in and give him his free bin bag full of prawns and skate wings.he came back at about 3.30am with a cup of coffee for us Wink nice fella and good to have a bit crack on with.;)

And it seems you actually got to meet the local fisheries inspector ;)

Cheers
Dave.
 
Shame about the killed skate mind :( one of many fish i could just never kill but it will be his living in the end.

Nice report anyway.
 
Aye col it was a canny day mate a longone and tiering all the digging and fishing and no sleep..........i could not belive the state of the pier looked like a rubbish tip when we were there but nice and tidy when we left how long for i dont no.
 
Bit better but still rays, tope spurs etc just could never kill one.

Hope to catch a nice Spur and Skate this year as never caught a skate and only caught 2 spur so far.
 
They were thornback wings......NOT common skate.

Paul,

Just to put my SOS head on for a minute.

Thornies have seen a major decline on the west coast and to be honest they taste YAK.( I am told as I have never killed one)

Even the landing figures are hard to make sense of as all skates and rays are bundled under one heading. That means there are no accurate figures regarding their stocks and more importantly how sustainably they are fished.

Northeast...I will sort your lack of a common skate before the summers out...thats a promise. Although the spurdog may be harder ...caught a dozen or so in 2006 but only 1 in 2007 despite the same number of days at sea.

The one to really go for is a blackmouth dogfish :D

Cheers
Dave
 
I was told the other day on roker pier,you can catch thornies and spurdog down bridlington hornsea area from the beaches.
Does any one know if this is true ,as i have never caught any of these and would love to catch and thornback ray.
Was thinking of going over west coast,in the spring/summer with friends just on some of the beaches to try our luck.
 
welldone lads great session and effort, let iz nah what pier next ya will be going on so i can leave some bin liners for yas ,preferably macky season on roker pier ,CHEERS
 
I was told the other day on roker pier,you can catch thornies and spurdog down bridlington hornsea area from the beaches.
Does any one know if this is true ,as i have never caught any of these and would love to catch and thornback ray.
Was thinking of going over west coast,in the spring/summer with friends just on some of the beaches to try our luck.

You get thornies but not spurdogs you used to many moons ago before they were wiped out by longliners............anyways give me a shout around summertime and if you will to do the miles i will take you or put you on some marks to give you a chance of getting them added to your species list.
 
Paul,

Just to put my SOS head on for a minute.

Thornies have seen a major decline on the west coast and to be honest they taste YAK.( I am told as I have never killed one)

Even the landing figures are hard to make sense of as all skates and rays are bundled under one heading. That means there are no accurate figures regarding their stocks and more importantly how sustainably they are fished.

Northeast...I will sort your lack of a common skate before the summers out...thats a promise. Although the spurdog may be harder ...caught a dozen or so in 2006 but only 1 in 2007 despite the same number of days at sea.

The one to really go for is a blackmouth dogfish :D

Cheers
Dave

i only mentioned the fact that this fella was at the pier waiting for a boat to come in and unload its catch of prawns and skate wings,i for one would never kill a skate of any species but this had nothing to do with us,merely mentioned it as he was quite a nice fella to crack on with and give us a lot of info on some surrounding marks:)
 
Its ok Col we never getting at you just pointing out it was a shame thats all.

I myself have caught dogfish from Shields and Hendon in the last 2 years and my mate had a Thorni ray in Dec from Seaham pier.
 
Back
Top