It was a glorious morning, with completely flat seas as we left Amble harbour. The water was gin-clear and we could see the individual rocks and clumps of weed on the bottom in 15 feet of water past the piers. We knew it wasn't going to last however, with light easterly winds forecast.
We were in 2 minds what to do. Ideally, we wanted a crack at pollack, and we could either stay locally, and fish the headlands around Amble, or we could go north up to the kelp off Beadnall, but then we'd be pushing the tide both up and back down again. We chose to stay local, and found the good weather had brought out loads of boats with the same intention. However, we found the lack of current disturbing, but more importantly, there seemed to be no fish showing on the screens.
After scratching around for a while, we opted to go north while the tide was still quite weak. We stopped briefly at Craster, but found the same - no fish on the screen and no bites. So it was the long haul up to Beadnall, and by the time we arrived at the kelp beds, it was after 1pm. The kelp here has been very prolific for us in the past, but today, on this tide, the fish didn't want to play, whatever piece of metal, lure, jig or rubber we threw at them. We came to the conclusion that the fish must be in deeper water, so we headed out to the hard ground, in around 80-90 feet, and immediately I was into a decent codling. Oli dropped down too, and was rewarded with a pollack of 6lb, while I had found a shoal of beefy coalies, ranging in size from 2lb to 4lb. With double shots of the larger of these feisty fish, the bend in the rod was amazing. Cracking sport. And it carried on like this for the next couple of hours. It was peculiar really, as there were no features, no snags, no pinnacles that you would normally associate with pollack or coalies. Oli caught a cod that we weighed at 6lb, and it coughed up a soft-shelled crab, and several prawns. Another I caught coughed up a small sandeel, showing what they were feeding on. I also had a large launce that had somehow wrapped itself around my gummimacs.
It was slack tide between 4-5 pm, and thereafter, the fish just went off the feed. Realising they cannot have gone far, we headed back inshore to the kelp beds, and bang! The fishing was non-stop again. By 6pm, we had to leave as the sun was starting to dip, and we knew we would have to punch both the tide and the chop that the easterly winds had thrown up. The trip back was uneventful - no dolphins this time, but we both remarked on how many gannets there were, flying in squadron formation back up to Scotland. There must have been hundreds. In the end, we had had a grand session, but a bit of patience and alternative thinking had been needed. Everything went back too, apart from some mackerel that I'd kept to use as bait.
We were in 2 minds what to do. Ideally, we wanted a crack at pollack, and we could either stay locally, and fish the headlands around Amble, or we could go north up to the kelp off Beadnall, but then we'd be pushing the tide both up and back down again. We chose to stay local, and found the good weather had brought out loads of boats with the same intention. However, we found the lack of current disturbing, but more importantly, there seemed to be no fish showing on the screens.
After scratching around for a while, we opted to go north while the tide was still quite weak. We stopped briefly at Craster, but found the same - no fish on the screen and no bites. So it was the long haul up to Beadnall, and by the time we arrived at the kelp beds, it was after 1pm. The kelp here has been very prolific for us in the past, but today, on this tide, the fish didn't want to play, whatever piece of metal, lure, jig or rubber we threw at them. We came to the conclusion that the fish must be in deeper water, so we headed out to the hard ground, in around 80-90 feet, and immediately I was into a decent codling. Oli dropped down too, and was rewarded with a pollack of 6lb, while I had found a shoal of beefy coalies, ranging in size from 2lb to 4lb. With double shots of the larger of these feisty fish, the bend in the rod was amazing. Cracking sport. And it carried on like this for the next couple of hours. It was peculiar really, as there were no features, no snags, no pinnacles that you would normally associate with pollack or coalies. Oli caught a cod that we weighed at 6lb, and it coughed up a soft-shelled crab, and several prawns. Another I caught coughed up a small sandeel, showing what they were feeding on. I also had a large launce that had somehow wrapped itself around my gummimacs.
It was slack tide between 4-5 pm, and thereafter, the fish just went off the feed. Realising they cannot have gone far, we headed back inshore to the kelp beds, and bang! The fishing was non-stop again. By 6pm, we had to leave as the sun was starting to dip, and we knew we would have to punch both the tide and the chop that the easterly winds had thrown up. The trip back was uneventful - no dolphins this time, but we both remarked on how many gannets there were, flying in squadron formation back up to Scotland. There must have been hundreds. In the end, we had had a grand session, but a bit of patience and alternative thinking had been needed. Everything went back too, apart from some mackerel that I'd kept to use as bait.
