Thunderpants
Well-known member
I headed out for my weekly session on the Tyne last night. I decided to try Middle Docks in Shields so headed over there. I could see the lasers from the Global Rainbow at Whitley Bay on the drive over - it looked like they were shining right down the coast. Very good. Anyway I arrived at Middle Docks but was put off by the five foot metal fence with lots of pointy bits on top and I didn't have any ladders in the car 
so I moved down river to Brighams.
I was into a small tommy on my second cast then another one right on high water followed by a teeny tiny whitey and another tommy a bit later on. Absoulutely loads of crabs too! They were nicking my baits at great speed and I landed loads of them sometimes two at a time. Baits used rag, squid, mackeral, prawn and razor. Fished from 7.30pm until 1.30am.
It was a still evening , the water was totally flat and the reflections from the north side meant I could see the water surface clearly (see pic). At around midnight something caught my eye. At first I thought I had picked up a big bunch of sea weed around my line where it entered the water then I realised it was nowhere near my line and it was slowly moving up river against the flow. It was difficult to make out any detail and was just a black silhoutte against the reflections. It had a roundish head on top and a length of back visible about 3 feet long. I adjusted my headlight to spot and tried to shine it towards it at which point it must have seen me and it disappeared below the surface with a splash. It did not look like a seal as they usually only show their heads not their backs and they drop down silently. I have only seen something like this once before and that was on the Isle of Mull and it was a sea otter. Do we have otters in the Tyne? I would be pretty amazed if we do but that is what it looked like.
So an interesting evening .. four undersize fish, a strange animal, laser lights and my bait suffered the death of a thousand crabs. And so ends this weeks instalment.
so I moved down river to Brighams.I was into a small tommy on my second cast then another one right on high water followed by a teeny tiny whitey and another tommy a bit later on. Absoulutely loads of crabs too! They were nicking my baits at great speed and I landed loads of them sometimes two at a time. Baits used rag, squid, mackeral, prawn and razor. Fished from 7.30pm until 1.30am.
It was a still evening , the water was totally flat and the reflections from the north side meant I could see the water surface clearly (see pic). At around midnight something caught my eye. At first I thought I had picked up a big bunch of sea weed around my line where it entered the water then I realised it was nowhere near my line and it was slowly moving up river against the flow. It was difficult to make out any detail and was just a black silhoutte against the reflections. It had a roundish head on top and a length of back visible about 3 feet long. I adjusted my headlight to spot and tried to shine it towards it at which point it must have seen me and it disappeared below the surface with a splash. It did not look like a seal as they usually only show their heads not their backs and they drop down silently. I have only seen something like this once before and that was on the Isle of Mull and it was a sea otter. Do we have otters in the Tyne? I would be pretty amazed if we do but that is what it looked like.
So an interesting evening .. four undersize fish, a strange animal, laser lights and my bait suffered the death of a thousand crabs. And so ends this weeks instalment.
