LEFT – 1979 The 3rd International Shore Championship.
The scene on Hawthorne beach "eyeball to eyeball" as the caption said. The angler nearest us is a guy called Peter Collins
MIDDLE – This is what made all of the Durham Colliery beaches famous.
Coal waste tipped into the sea all along the coast "coloured" the water. These beaches, like the famous Blast at Seaham, built a well deserved reputation on their ability to produce fish during daylight. The photo shows the old "Flight" at Easington Colliery, later replaced by a high-tec conveyor which could unload the waste even more efficiently.
RIGHT – Remember these?
A bell fastened to the tip of your rod to indicate a bite. Fish bites -bell rings. Fastened either by a metal clip or clothes peg (the type with a spring in it). I wonder how many lie on the sea bed after flying off during a cast after the angler had forgotten to take it off

Blackhall Beach

Just a reminiscence of fishing Blackhall in the 40`s and early 50`s with a greenheart rod, a 6 inch Scarborough reel made by Darkie Britten of South Bank, cutty hunk line and 6oz sinkers made of iron on the blast furnaces at Cargo Fleet works where I worked at that time. Favourite time was late autumn, fishing the flood, fires burning on the sea coal (which was feet deep at that time), in fact some firm from Hartlepool used to reclaim it and sell it door to door. Dig your bait in the mouth of the Tees, lug and rag, all you needed then was a small bottle of paraffin and a few sticks to start your fire and you were to experience one of life’s pleasures which sadly has now gone. In the mackerel season I have seen colliers catch them/fillet them/and fry them on the beach, the smell alone was something to remember. Now, I am afraid, the collier has, like our fish, decreased in number and the world is the poorer for it. My best fish, as I remember, from almost fifty years ago was a smidgen under 18lbs. Great times and pleasant memories, they can never take them away.

Tight lines,
Regards
Ray Wilson (Geordie living in Wales)