Our first trip out in over 3 weeks. The forecast for Sunday hadn't look too bad on Saturday night, so we drove up to Amble, through the rain and mist and out into a lumpy sea, thinking that the forecasters had got it wrong again. But things gradually improved through the day, the seas flattened, and it turned into a lovely afternoon and evening.
We took the boat north, straight up to Craster, where the water was surprisingly clear inshore - 10-12 feet of visibility. They were big tides and these seemed to bring the fish onto the feed. I started off on bait, while Oli was trying out a new set of lures he had made in the garage at home. We were into fish from the very start. It was a fish a drop on the ebb tide. Things slowed over slackwater, but got going again on the flood, only to slow down again 3 hours later. I dug out a metal jig but without much success, so at that point, we dropped down to Boulmer and hit another purple patch, mostly with larger codling. I found jelly eels to be pretty effective at this point, whereas Oli was achieveing great things with his homemade lures.
I kept a record of my fish, and I ended up with over 40 codling, 3 pollock, half-a-dozen coleys, a similar number of mackerel, a pout and a wrasse. Oli probably didn't have the same quantity of codling, but his were all bigger fish. The largest codling we weighed at 5.5lb and his largest pollock was 4.5lb, and he had around 25 codling, all 2lb and upwards, as well as 7-8 pollock and a few mackerel. Everything went back, apart from the unfortunate pout that was gobbled up by a gull. There are still mackerel out there, but we were not specifically targeting them.
It was just a great day, and we were visited by dolphins twice, with one lot leaping clear of the water, just in front of Dunstaburgh castle. Oli did get some photos but they were just too far off for clear shots.
We took the boat north, straight up to Craster, where the water was surprisingly clear inshore - 10-12 feet of visibility. They were big tides and these seemed to bring the fish onto the feed. I started off on bait, while Oli was trying out a new set of lures he had made in the garage at home. We were into fish from the very start. It was a fish a drop on the ebb tide. Things slowed over slackwater, but got going again on the flood, only to slow down again 3 hours later. I dug out a metal jig but without much success, so at that point, we dropped down to Boulmer and hit another purple patch, mostly with larger codling. I found jelly eels to be pretty effective at this point, whereas Oli was achieveing great things with his homemade lures.
I kept a record of my fish, and I ended up with over 40 codling, 3 pollock, half-a-dozen coleys, a similar number of mackerel, a pout and a wrasse. Oli probably didn't have the same quantity of codling, but his were all bigger fish. The largest codling we weighed at 5.5lb and his largest pollock was 4.5lb, and he had around 25 codling, all 2lb and upwards, as well as 7-8 pollock and a few mackerel. Everything went back, apart from the unfortunate pout that was gobbled up by a gull. There are still mackerel out there, but we were not specifically targeting them.
It was just a great day, and we were visited by dolphins twice, with one lot leaping clear of the water, just in front of Dunstaburgh castle. Oli did get some photos but they were just too far off for clear shots.
