Back in the late 40s. and 50s. boats out of Eyemouth used to longline for common skate, these sadly were turned into fish meal. I can remember seeing the big metal gibbet that was used to haul these fish up the quayside. some of these beasts weighed 300 to 400lbs. and more, whose to say that they aren't still there. They haven't been fished for on rod and line,I said for many years that there were shark to be caught off our coast that's now been proved. What about the 56lbs. halibut taken out of Whitby a couple of weeks ago, that can't be the only one.
There are tope off the N.E. coast, conger in the wrecks, plenty of smooth hound are taken less than a hundred miles down the coast from the Tyne so why not, if someone specialised in targeting all these different species shouldn't we prove that there are more than just cod and ling to be taken.
There are probably a lot more species I haven't mentioned to be caught, but they won't be taken on the types of tackle i.e. jiggers, hoki's, daylights, shads etc. except by accident, that the majority of us use, you have to tackle up to suit the type of fish you are after.
I'm sure that if boats were to anchor onto wrecks off our coast we would see some big ling and conger being taken. In the mid sixties I organised a boat competition in aid of the Royal National Mission To Deep Sea Fisherman and because it was for "their" charity all the professional boats out of Eyemouth, Seahouses,Amble,Blyth, North Shields and Sunderland took part. Some of these boats were over 80ft. but we only allowed 12 anglers on each boat. On the Sunday morning I went aboard one of these boats at North Shields to have a word with the skipper about something and he said "we've already got the winning fish aboard" when I asked what he meant, he showed me a fifty gallon drum on deck that had a cover over it, when I took the cover off, in the drum was a conger which a number of us estimated at well over a 120lbs. to 140lbs.The fish had been taken the day before in the nets off Souter Point, I disqualified the fish from the comp, no, I didn't try to cut it's tail so that it couldn't be weighed in.
If you could get a boat willing to take you out, you would need the skipper and everyone else on board to agree to experiment and possibly waste a lot of time trying different methods of tackling up, unless it was your own boat and you wanted to try fishing for something other than cod or ling.
If you did want to try for other species and you weren't sure how to tackle up for them there are plenty of books available to see how it's done, or go onto one of the web sites such as this to find out. Different species require different methods of fishing for them.
Tight Lines.
and more lads might target different species instead of cod and ling.
