Stewart 1971
Well-known member
Last day of my summer leave today and with the sun making a reappearance I decided on a few hours on Shields. HT was 2:20pm and after swinging by Moonfleet on the way to pick up some worm I was on the pier just after half eleven. Made the trek along past the Salmon nets at the rail end (so much for that idea) to find half a dozen rods already on the 40s so got settled in at the near end on the 43 mark by the metal ladder.
Got a two hook clipdown rig baited up and soon had worm in the water which 20 minutes later came back almost exactly as it had been sent out. Not the most promising of starts but soon things improved and second cast in a nice rattle resulted in a 27cm Coalie on the pier to beat the blank:
With the fish starting to show I got the second rod set up, this one optimistically sent out with a 4/0 pennel loaded with runnydown tipped of with mussel. Another good rattle on this rod saw a greedy 30cm coalie taking the whole lot down its gob
Then it was the other rods turn to get back in the action, a series of delicate bites showed something was interested and on pulling in after the 20 minute soak I had a double shot of Dabs the best one going a tad over 30cm:
A couple more Dabs and another coalie and then as HT arrived everything went dead. Stuck it out until half three but no more bites came and as I was out of bait I made the trek back along the pier to the car. All in all a canny afternoon out; didn't see much else caught just a few Dabs to those lads capable of chucking a fair way and nothing for the lads dropping closer in. Baits used were rag, runnydown and mussel with all baits taking fish including a Dab on the straight mussel which was a bit of a surprise.
Got a two hook clipdown rig baited up and soon had worm in the water which 20 minutes later came back almost exactly as it had been sent out. Not the most promising of starts but soon things improved and second cast in a nice rattle resulted in a 27cm Coalie on the pier to beat the blank:
With the fish starting to show I got the second rod set up, this one optimistically sent out with a 4/0 pennel loaded with runnydown tipped of with mussel. Another good rattle on this rod saw a greedy 30cm coalie taking the whole lot down its gob
Then it was the other rods turn to get back in the action, a series of delicate bites showed something was interested and on pulling in after the 20 minute soak I had a double shot of Dabs the best one going a tad over 30cm:
A couple more Dabs and another coalie and then as HT arrived everything went dead. Stuck it out until half three but no more bites came and as I was out of bait I made the trek back along the pier to the car. All in all a canny afternoon out; didn't see much else caught just a few Dabs to those lads capable of chucking a fair way and nothing for the lads dropping closer in. Baits used were rag, runnydown and mussel with all baits taking fish including a Dab on the straight mussel which was a bit of a surprise.
