andyco
Well-known member
With a forecast for fine weather and a flat sea on the Solway, me, Mark and Marc decided on a road trip to Balcary.
Low tide was around 11am, so we made an early start and left Jarrow at 7am to travel the 125miles to Scotland and be first on the mark......only to find that we'd already been beaten there by some Gateshead folk! Stan, James and (another) Mark were already fishing and had already had a couple of thornies and dogfish.
We got set up further along and were fishing by 10:30.
Me and Marc were into the Dogfish straight away, and carried on getting them steadily all morning. The dogfish were taking anything that we put in front of them - mackerel, sandeel, squid, crab.
Mark was still blanking and having a mare, so he set up a float rod and managed to start catching - loads of small pollock, and a small codling.
Into the afternoon and starting to near high tide, Marc was reeling in what was looking to be another dogfish, but it turned out to be a Tub Gurnard.
Eventually, Marks main rod went......and he pulled in a nice size Ray.
The ray changed his luck and he started getting the dogs aswell. By high tide at around half 4, I'd had 10 dogs, Mark had the Ray and a good handful of dogs, and Marc had the Gurnard and loads of of Dogs.
We were planning on leaving at high tide but decided to stay for one or two more casts - good job we did, as just after high tide, I pulled in a small ray.
Then just as we were thinking of reeling in to leave, Marc's rod pulled down, and it turned out to be a Ray for him. Cracking result, with one Ray each for us.
Me and Mark then reeled in another Dogfish each, and we called it a day....with just another hike over 'cardiac hill' in blazing sun to top it off.
Class day, great weather and loads of fish!
Low tide was around 11am, so we made an early start and left Jarrow at 7am to travel the 125miles to Scotland and be first on the mark......only to find that we'd already been beaten there by some Gateshead folk! Stan, James and (another) Mark were already fishing and had already had a couple of thornies and dogfish.
We got set up further along and were fishing by 10:30.
Me and Marc were into the Dogfish straight away, and carried on getting them steadily all morning. The dogfish were taking anything that we put in front of them - mackerel, sandeel, squid, crab.
Mark was still blanking and having a mare, so he set up a float rod and managed to start catching - loads of small pollock, and a small codling.
Into the afternoon and starting to near high tide, Marc was reeling in what was looking to be another dogfish, but it turned out to be a Tub Gurnard.
Eventually, Marks main rod went......and he pulled in a nice size Ray.
The ray changed his luck and he started getting the dogs aswell. By high tide at around half 4, I'd had 10 dogs, Mark had the Ray and a good handful of dogs, and Marc had the Gurnard and loads of of Dogs.
We were planning on leaving at high tide but decided to stay for one or two more casts - good job we did, as just after high tide, I pulled in a small ray.
Then just as we were thinking of reeling in to leave, Marc's rod pulled down, and it turned out to be a Ray for him. Cracking result, with one Ray each for us.
Me and Mark then reeled in another Dogfish each, and we called it a day....with just another hike over 'cardiac hill' in blazing sun to top it off.
Class day, great weather and loads of fish!
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but still happy to be catching all day and couldn't ask for nicer weather).
