Saturday was realistically my only chance of getting out this weekend. Forecast looked dodgy for Sunday and Monday, and I promised the missus that I would curtail it to just one day seeing that it is our 30th wedding anniversary this weekend.
Left Amble marine around 10.30 am, having stocked up with some lug and rag from Blyth tackle on the way up. A big swell was running but winds were light, but forecast to pick up, so I decided to give the wrecks a miss and went north instead. Having read Graham's report, just as well as I did.
It didn't get off to a cracking start. Drift was fast, 1.5-1.8 knots off Seaton, and in a NW direction so not great for fishing the drops. 2 other boats in the area, one of which came over and said he'd fished all along from Alnmouth and nowt around. He departed around 13.00.
By that time, I'd lost several rigs due to discarded ropes and caught only 2 small codling under 2lb. Moreover, the wind had veered SE and had freshened, plus it had started to rain. Uncomfortable, I thought about calling it a day, but with low tide at 2.30 and expecting a change in the drift I stuck it out.
I found a spot not far off Alnmouth golf course where the drift was just 0.7 knots, but better still, that pocket started producing fish. Drift too far off and there was nothing again. So back round every time. This 150 yard spot gave me over 50 codling over the next 3 hours until I ran out of worms. Nothing big mind you, biggest perhaps 3 and half pounds, but I didn't care. It was a fish every couple of minutes until I came out of the zone. They all went back to grow a little too.
A bonus too at that time was a pod of dolphins that passed, with the adults leaping clear of the water on numerous occasions. Few gannets though, none diving inshore anyway. Water temp was 10.9 degrees. Looking back to last year we were already getting mackerel from mid May, so we've still a way to go this year.
Back at the marina, some guys were saying there had been a small boat competition on Friday. He'd had 20 fish himself, all around same size as me, and that seemed to have been par for the competition too.
Left Amble marine around 10.30 am, having stocked up with some lug and rag from Blyth tackle on the way up. A big swell was running but winds were light, but forecast to pick up, so I decided to give the wrecks a miss and went north instead. Having read Graham's report, just as well as I did.
It didn't get off to a cracking start. Drift was fast, 1.5-1.8 knots off Seaton, and in a NW direction so not great for fishing the drops. 2 other boats in the area, one of which came over and said he'd fished all along from Alnmouth and nowt around. He departed around 13.00.
By that time, I'd lost several rigs due to discarded ropes and caught only 2 small codling under 2lb. Moreover, the wind had veered SE and had freshened, plus it had started to rain. Uncomfortable, I thought about calling it a day, but with low tide at 2.30 and expecting a change in the drift I stuck it out.
I found a spot not far off Alnmouth golf course where the drift was just 0.7 knots, but better still, that pocket started producing fish. Drift too far off and there was nothing again. So back round every time. This 150 yard spot gave me over 50 codling over the next 3 hours until I ran out of worms. Nothing big mind you, biggest perhaps 3 and half pounds, but I didn't care. It was a fish every couple of minutes until I came out of the zone. They all went back to grow a little too.
A bonus too at that time was a pod of dolphins that passed, with the adults leaping clear of the water on numerous occasions. Few gannets though, none diving inshore anyway. Water temp was 10.9 degrees. Looking back to last year we were already getting mackerel from mid May, so we've still a way to go this year.
Back at the marina, some guys were saying there had been a small boat competition on Friday. He'd had 20 fish himself, all around same size as me, and that seemed to have been par for the competition too.
