The River Tyne and Crawleys (Browns Bay) 22nd September 2016

I have had a lot of time off work this month and had yet to really get out for a good bit fishing. Weather today was forecast to be lovely so I picked up some bait and headed out to a mark in the River Tyne that I had discovered a few weeks back.

HW was at 0800 and I was only just able to make it for dead on high tide due to doing the school run this morning.  Conditions looked great so I baited up (fresh crab) and got to it.

I only fished for a few hours but managed 4 or 5 small codling.  I decided to make a day of it and so I headed off early to grab some lug worm from the tackle shop.  I then high-tailed it down to the coast to find a rock to sit on for a few more hours.

Crawleys is a great mark just on the northern edge of Browns Bay.  I had heard that it had been producing some good fish lately so I thought it was worth a shot.  I got set up for half-tide and planned to fish down to LW at 1400.

First cast saw me get a few small bites which came to nothing.  Second cast saw me pull in the first red Cod of the season which weighed about 1.25lb.

 While fishing I noticed lots of small fish swimming around in the rock pools.  This little chap stayed still long enough for a snap...

I fished until about 1320 until disaster struck.... my rod stand tipped while I chatted to a few fellow anglers.  My rod hit the rocks and I smashed/snapped/destroyed 5 rings which put an end to any further fishing....

Oh well at least I had one!

Whitley Beach 14th Sep 2016

We headed out for an early winter session last night.

Although it is typically the back end of October before Whitley Beach starts fishing for the winter, conditions were good so we took a chance and headed out over Low Water.
LW was around 2100 so we arrived at 1800 and got set up.  There was a nice bit of movement on the water and despite the thick mist it was quite a pleasant night for fishing.

We had bites more or less immediately.  My dad pulled in a small lobster on his second cast.

As the tide dropped we moved out on to the rocks and fished into some heavier ground.

An ever-so-dependable rockling turned up a few casts later followed a short while later by a bigger Lobster.  

As darkness fell the bites continued but we were unable to catch much else other than a few small codling.  I had a go of capturing a few shots of the beach with my Galaxy S6.

Once darkness fell we found that in the rockpools around us the crabs were out and about.  I caught this guy trying to catch one of the small codling we had caught earlier in the evening.  If you ever come across one of these (Velvet Swimming Crabs) be careful.  They move like lightning and are aggressive as hell.

We packed up at around 2100 and headed home.  All in all a pleasant (albeit early) start to the winter season this year.  We plan to fish a lot more of the local beaches this season so hopefully a lot of these reports will include lots of cod!

Boxing Day session 26th Dec 2015

After a hectic Christmas I felt the need for a session out this afternoon.  We initially headed a little north up the coast to Craster but the sea was much bigger than was forecast.  Conditions were a little rough to fish the several marks we took a look at.

We made the return drive via Cambois and took a chance fishing the blocks as the sea looked lovely. There were some huge swells coming in every few minutes so we had to keep an eye on the sea while fishing.

The sea was relentless and as High Water approached it picked up.  We were hit face-on with a few swells that literally knocked us over.  Every few minutes a big one came in and we had to turn away from the water and just get a good soaking.... it was great!

First cast produced a good cod for my dad of around 5lb.  Despite trying to replicate the bait combination and the cast location we could not hook into any other fish in the 3hrs we fished.

We left just as darkness fell.  We were soaked through completely even though we had full floatation suits on and waders.

It was a shame that we had no more fish but to at least see the one caught made the session worthwhile....and to be honest I enjoyed the wave-dodging immensely for some reason.....

River Tyne (B&Q) 19th April 2015

After resisting the urge to head to the coast today by myself I decided to take my daughter out fishing for the first time.

As it happened she decided she would rather bake with her mum (after I had bought the bait!) and so my son decided he wanted to come instead.

To save time and ensure a comfortable session I headed to a mark I regularly fish with him opposite B&Q on Scotswood Rd.  It was a beautiful day and conditions looked perfect.

I usually fish the same spot on this mark and to be honest I had always assumed that it was the same mud flats that most of the top end of the river was comprised of.  I had swung by earlier just after low water to find that not to be the case.  I snapped a few useful pics of the features in the area and I chose a few marks along this stretch to fish later in the day.

I decided to fish the light gear as I usually do on this mark,  You can fish with beachcasters and multiplier reels if you wish but I have always found that if you do then you can't catch much when only the smaller fish are biting.  With the light rods you get great sport no matter the size of the fish.

I was using my Shakespeare Alpha Bass and my son was using an Overload Spin (8ft) that I had purchased new for a tenner a few months back....bargain!

Both of us used small spinning reels loaded with 15lb.  Rigs were kept as simple as possible with small hooks, small bomb weights and short snoods.

We started fishing a few hours before High Water in the first of two marks I had identified.  Almost immediately we had bites.  I started with a small codling of around 9 inches after 5 minutes and then my son had his first ever codling soon after!

This set the tone for the rest of the 2.5hrs we fished.  We had 5 fish each and lost probably as many again.  All were codling except from a flounder that my son had on his last cast.  None of them were huge but all of them were great fun to catch.

The other guys on the same stretch had very little from what I could tell.

As I learned it really does pay to research some marks at Low water before fishing them at High.