Gaverick
Well-known member
Well this weekend was a busy, and exciting one in terms of fishing for me and my mate Phil.
Friday 15/02
We started out on Friday evening, set off at 6pm heading towards Hendon promenade. When we arrived there was one car but nobody fishing so we had the pick of location. The tide was still far out so we drove up and down a few times before choosing to fish about half way along.
By the time we chose a spot and set all of the gear up the tide was far enough in to cast off the promenade, so we baited up with a mix of razor, runnydown, muscle and squid. After about 30 mins in the water my rod started twitching rather frantically so I struck and brought in a decent sized coalie, not a bad start for the night we thought.
However over the next few hours there were no bites, we decided to pack up and go to the local fish shop for some supper and returned to the same location half an hour later. Nothing had changed so at midnight we decided to pack up and leave, we reeled our line in and I found a rockling on the end of my hook. Through talking to other anglers on the promenade that night it seems nobody was catching much.
After packing up we got in the car to drive home, but joy of joys the battery had gone flat! We tried bump starting the car but couldn't get enough speed up on the slippery surface. After realising we were on a slight incline we managed to execute a three point turn through pushing the car along and got it bump started on the slight down hill section. Phew!
Saturday 16/02
The plan for Saturday was to fish Seaham Blast beach until nightfall and then move on to Steetly for the high tide. We set off at 1.30pm and headed to the tackle shop to pick up our bait. We collected two lug and a score of blacks after being persuaded that they are an excellent bait (Which they were! More on this later).
Arriving at the blast at 3pm we had a look around the area, Phil wanted to fish off the top of a cliff, which I reluctantly agreed to. First cast and Phil brought in the smallest codling we had ever seen, must only have been 5cm long. After reeling in the first cast we soon realised fishing off this cliff was not a good idea, just trying to get the hooks and weight up the cliff without snagging was impossible, never mind if we had a fish on!
After this we moved down on to the actual beach, about half way along. We fished for around 2 hours, but all that was caught were two rockling. We eventually retired due to the sheer number of snags, talking to another angler fishing off Hawthorn point he told us he couldn't stop catching whitey.
We packed up at 5.30pm and headed for Steetly. When we arrived there was a bunch of kids in the site with a large tyre fire going, further to this the entrance in to the magnesite works had been blocked by two large blocks and a beam of concrete. We tried moving it but quickly realised it was going nowhere fast! We then sat in the car waiting to see what the kids were going to do next, they walked in our direction and to our surprise started throwing rocks at the parked cars! We heard a loud noise so jumped out and chased them but they scampered in to the bushes. Worried that a car had been damaged we checked them over with the torch but it seems no rocks hit the cars. Needless to say we didn't feel safe leaving the car here so moved on to Middleton.
Arriving at the Middleton it was clear it was packed on there. There was about 10 people fishing the end, with small whitey and rockling being pulled in regularly. We set up and cast out but after a short period realised it was getting a bit crowded, we also didn't want to waste our costly blacks on just whitey. The police chopper was overhead scanning the beaches with it's search light, I felt like asking if he could find the fish for us with his search light
Two policemen came up the pier 5 minutes later asking us to keep an eye out for a woman wearing a white 3/4 jacket, most likely drunk and likes to be near the water 
There wasn't much happing at Middleton therefore we moved on to Seaton Carew opposite the Staincliffe hotel. The tide was a bit to far out to realistically fish the beach so after a short period of deliberation we decided on the Heugh.
We got to the Heugh at about 9pm. The were a lot of people on fishing in a competition. We caught another tiny codling and by 11pm the people in the competition had left so we moved into their spot at the end.
Various sizes of whitey were caught over the next few hours and also a dab. It was good entertainment while waiting for the elusive cod, and we didn't have to wait too long.
At around 1am Phils rod started nodding, it was a classic Whitey bite, we had caught a few so weren't to bothered about rushing to strike it and left it for a few seconds. Then all of a sudden the tip shot down, and stayed down. Phil struck into the fish and judging by the bend we knew it was a good one, we shouted to some guys if they had a drop net but with no luck. As the fish neared the surface I shone the torch on it, we had just bought a 3.5 million candle power torch so half the pier light up
It was now we saw this was no ordinary fish, it was a cod, and a cod which had a head the size of a CD at that! Estimates by the people now gathered round to take a look were 12 to 15 pound. People told us it was the biggest fish seen off the Heugh for a long time. With Phil struggling to reel the fish in I climbed down ready to handball it up, however at the last stages it fell off the hook! It was literally inches away and a few more seconds I could have grabbed it but we had no such luck. Obviously we were gutted, it took a good hours to realise what had actually happened, it was an absolute monster.
Although we were not happy at losing the fish we managed to put a positive spin on it, we had seen a big cod and know they exist in a place we can catch them, we've now got more experience to handle the situation next time and our blacks weren't a waste of money! Phil has now dedicated the next week of his life to building a drop net
We stayed until 5am with a few more whitey caught, but the beast did not return. All in all it was an eventful weekends fishing with some exciting moments, but in the back of our minds we know that could have been the fish of a lifetime.
Friday 15/02
We started out on Friday evening, set off at 6pm heading towards Hendon promenade. When we arrived there was one car but nobody fishing so we had the pick of location. The tide was still far out so we drove up and down a few times before choosing to fish about half way along.
By the time we chose a spot and set all of the gear up the tide was far enough in to cast off the promenade, so we baited up with a mix of razor, runnydown, muscle and squid. After about 30 mins in the water my rod started twitching rather frantically so I struck and brought in a decent sized coalie, not a bad start for the night we thought.
However over the next few hours there were no bites, we decided to pack up and go to the local fish shop for some supper and returned to the same location half an hour later. Nothing had changed so at midnight we decided to pack up and leave, we reeled our line in and I found a rockling on the end of my hook. Through talking to other anglers on the promenade that night it seems nobody was catching much.
After packing up we got in the car to drive home, but joy of joys the battery had gone flat! We tried bump starting the car but couldn't get enough speed up on the slippery surface. After realising we were on a slight incline we managed to execute a three point turn through pushing the car along and got it bump started on the slight down hill section. Phew!
Saturday 16/02
The plan for Saturday was to fish Seaham Blast beach until nightfall and then move on to Steetly for the high tide. We set off at 1.30pm and headed to the tackle shop to pick up our bait. We collected two lug and a score of blacks after being persuaded that they are an excellent bait (Which they were! More on this later).
Arriving at the blast at 3pm we had a look around the area, Phil wanted to fish off the top of a cliff, which I reluctantly agreed to. First cast and Phil brought in the smallest codling we had ever seen, must only have been 5cm long. After reeling in the first cast we soon realised fishing off this cliff was not a good idea, just trying to get the hooks and weight up the cliff without snagging was impossible, never mind if we had a fish on!
After this we moved down on to the actual beach, about half way along. We fished for around 2 hours, but all that was caught were two rockling. We eventually retired due to the sheer number of snags, talking to another angler fishing off Hawthorn point he told us he couldn't stop catching whitey.
We packed up at 5.30pm and headed for Steetly. When we arrived there was a bunch of kids in the site with a large tyre fire going, further to this the entrance in to the magnesite works had been blocked by two large blocks and a beam of concrete. We tried moving it but quickly realised it was going nowhere fast! We then sat in the car waiting to see what the kids were going to do next, they walked in our direction and to our surprise started throwing rocks at the parked cars! We heard a loud noise so jumped out and chased them but they scampered in to the bushes. Worried that a car had been damaged we checked them over with the torch but it seems no rocks hit the cars. Needless to say we didn't feel safe leaving the car here so moved on to Middleton.
Arriving at the Middleton it was clear it was packed on there. There was about 10 people fishing the end, with small whitey and rockling being pulled in regularly. We set up and cast out but after a short period realised it was getting a bit crowded, we also didn't want to waste our costly blacks on just whitey. The police chopper was overhead scanning the beaches with it's search light, I felt like asking if he could find the fish for us with his search light
Two policemen came up the pier 5 minutes later asking us to keep an eye out for a woman wearing a white 3/4 jacket, most likely drunk and likes to be near the water There wasn't much happing at Middleton therefore we moved on to Seaton Carew opposite the Staincliffe hotel. The tide was a bit to far out to realistically fish the beach so after a short period of deliberation we decided on the Heugh.
We got to the Heugh at about 9pm. The were a lot of people on fishing in a competition. We caught another tiny codling and by 11pm the people in the competition had left so we moved into their spot at the end.
Various sizes of whitey were caught over the next few hours and also a dab. It was good entertainment while waiting for the elusive cod, and we didn't have to wait too long.
At around 1am Phils rod started nodding, it was a classic Whitey bite, we had caught a few so weren't to bothered about rushing to strike it and left it for a few seconds. Then all of a sudden the tip shot down, and stayed down. Phil struck into the fish and judging by the bend we knew it was a good one, we shouted to some guys if they had a drop net but with no luck. As the fish neared the surface I shone the torch on it, we had just bought a 3.5 million candle power torch so half the pier light up
It was now we saw this was no ordinary fish, it was a cod, and a cod which had a head the size of a CD at that! Estimates by the people now gathered round to take a look were 12 to 15 pound. People told us it was the biggest fish seen off the Heugh for a long time. With Phil struggling to reel the fish in I climbed down ready to handball it up, however at the last stages it fell off the hook! It was literally inches away and a few more seconds I could have grabbed it but we had no such luck. Obviously we were gutted, it took a good hours to realise what had actually happened, it was an absolute monster.
Although we were not happy at losing the fish we managed to put a positive spin on it, we had seen a big cod and know they exist in a place we can catch them, we've now got more experience to handle the situation next time and our blacks weren't a waste of money! Phil has now dedicated the next week of his life to building a drop net
We stayed until 5am with a few more whitey caught, but the beast did not return. All in all it was an eventful weekends fishing with some exciting moments, but in the back of our minds we know that could have been the fish of a lifetime.
