g-force
Well-known member
I think that after a day at sea the best description was, as Billy Connoly used to say, "windswept & interesting"
I'd definitely second the proposal for a "Classics" section.
The good old days...
- Thread starter Davyred
- Start date
I think that after a day at sea the best description was, as Billy Connoly used to say, "windswept & interesting"
I'd definitely second the proposal for a "Classics" section.
t0mb0la
Well-known member
thats more codling than ive had in the last year
thats more fish than i've had in me poxy 25 years! (of life, not fishing)
this includes eating and pets!!!!!
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willywetegg
Administrator
It would be very easy to make a new sub forum in the shore fishing section for threads like this if there is going to be enough interest. These threads only seem to come up now and again unfortunately but it would be canny to have them all in one place. If you think it will get used I can make a place for them, what are your views, would it be worth it?
Jim.
Jim.
Codcodcod!
Well-known member
Well its more of a challenge now isnt it?! Who would want catch fish that easy!
Codcodcod!
Well-known member
Just thought, this thread should have been called 'The Cod Old Days'!
Davyred
Well-known member
I've got a fair bit of stuff here Jim. If the lads are interested, I'll post it on here...
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Rod_bender
Well-known member
wow.... thats a lot of dead fish ....
no wonder there's non left for us to catch
no wonder there's non left for us to catch
The Great Wallsendo
Well-known member
I'd be interested to see more
thewestwind
Well-known member
That particular Winter season was a freak, I remember it well. Don't get the idea that it was like that all the time it wasn't, you could catch good bags of fish but not in those numbers.
I had 6 or more sessions that season where I had over 20 cod per session including my best ever of 47 from the Blast Beach, even then I practised conservation and only took 6 fish home from that remarkable night. Apart from that I couldn't have carried the buggers if I'd wanted to.
As I said earlier it was a freak Winter but the 70's were better still for pure consistency.
I had 6 or more sessions that season where I had over 20 cod per session including my best ever of 47 from the Blast Beach, even then I practised conservation and only took 6 fish home from that remarkable night. Apart from that I couldn't have carried the buggers if I'd wanted to.
As I said earlier it was a freak Winter but the 70's were better still for pure consistency.
Davyred
Well-known member
Maybe you're right, but that was at the time when Gill nets were rife up and down the coast. Like I said, the season before was terrible, really bad. I can remember fishing the SAMF masters over 2 days at Easington/Horden, involving the top anglers in the country, and not one codling was weighed in.
Stores
Well-known member
If I remember rightly Hartley and West Bay went through a similar spell of anglers catching 20 and 30 fish. Can't remember if it was the same year. Have seen the old man have bags of 20 fish from Tynemouth beach. Not resident fish, maybe, just passing through.
I can never remember catching fish, in any year, EVERY time I went out.
The Great Wallsendo
Well-known member
are you suggesting an element of rose tinted glasses perhaps?
Stores
Well-known member
Not at all. I'm sure the statistics will bear out the fact that more people fish now and there are fewer fish, in general, knocking about so the results from 20, 30, 40 years ago would have been better. I think both mine and Daveys examples are oddities - freaks from the norm and I think the reason is (I think I've said it before) that there is not enough feed on Blyth beach for hundreds of codling but that codling use the parallel gullies to get from place to place and if you're in the right place at the right time you can bag up.
Give you another example. We were fishing off in the boat off Cullercoats one day and there were very few fish around. One of us pulled in and caught a 6lber half way up. The other two did the same and for half an hour we caught fish after fish in midwater. I've never experienced that again and it could only be a shoal passing through. Just a fortunate result.
I think it's the same thing for any mega haul.
Davyred
Well-known member
This is a cutting from the same winter season....
I fished both matches and all the top weights came from the North end of Blyth Beach.
I fished Whitley bay beach during the same match, and as me and a mate were walking between marks, we tried this pool. My gear hadn't been in the water a minute when I got a 1.5lb codling out, but got nothing else. We waded through the pool to get to the next mark, and the water never got to my knees
I fished both matches and all the top weights came from the North end of Blyth Beach.
I fished Whitley bay beach during the same match, and as me and a mate were walking between marks, we tried this pool. My gear hadn't been in the water a minute when I got a 1.5lb codling out, but got nothing else. We waded through the pool to get to the next mark, and the water never got to my knees
that winter can only be classed as a one off, there where hundreds of fish caught, complete novices where catching ten fish a session, but if you look at the catches hardly any of the fish where over 3lb, most where 1-2lb. Most anglers I knew, if they weren't fishing a match started putting most of the fish back, many anglers for sport where fishing with light rods. To follow on from Davy, me and a good friend where fishing Blyth Beach, when we arrived we had to wade through a couple of feet of water about thirty yards wide to get to the sand bar, we started catching straight away. A light appeared behind us and started fishing into where we had waded through, the angler who we knew later joined us, he had a bag full from where we had waded through. One night I was on Whitley Beach at Little Bay, got into fish straight away, normally on a big tide you move as the tide recedes, but i kept getting fish, the water got that shallow as I struck into fish they broke the surface. To be honest it got a bit boring, thankfully the fish did not stay all through the winter, If I remember rightly about 6 weeks, when fishing got back to normal.
Davyred
Well-known member
Yeah, thats how I remember it Alan. I've just had a look through the catch log I kept, and out of the 84 codling I caught from Nov-Feb, only 5 were over 3lb.
) but I wonder whatever happened to the others? Meself is still at it, after a long break !
willywetegg
Administrator
I have created a new sub forum for threads like this one and will move this there now.
Jim.
Jim.
g-force
Well-known member
Cheers Jim, wondered where it had gone there for a moment!
As you can probably tell, I've nowt better to do today than have a bit of a rummage! Here's Whitley Bay's prizewinners from 1979 - left to right as best as I remember:
Arthur Smeaton, Tony Taylor, Alan Boomer, Brian Martin, Meself, Chris Stringer, Garry Daglish, John Nixon, Billy Gellender, Terry Patterson, Jackie Young and...?? - memory fails on the last face - anyone recognise him?
As you can probably tell, I've nowt better to do today than have a bit of a rummage!
Here's Whitley Bay's prizewinners from 1979 - left to right as best as I remember:Arthur Smeaton, Tony Taylor, Alan Boomer, Brian Martin, Meself, Chris Stringer, Garry Daglish, John Nixon, Billy Gellender, Terry Patterson, Jackie Young and...?? - memory fails on the last face - anyone recognise him?
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