I finally got out after nearly half a year in post paternal hibernation, in which I’ve neglected the blog entirely as you can tell! The truth is, my 2nd born arrived in the late Autumn of 2023 and is now nearly 4 months old, so I figured it’s about time I dust off the rods, scrape the rust off a few hooks and get back to being an occasional nuisance to things with fins.
I went for the easy option of opting to chase a few Whiting somewhere locally, which I figured would provide the best prospect of a few rattles. Not the most exciting, but I’m not in serious mode at the minute and just happy to get out for a bit of sport. Steve was up visiting family so we hatched a plan for a few hours on the walkway at South Shields, hoping to cross paths with one of the numerous Haddock that have over-wintered our shores this year. Having been something of a rainbow fish for the last few decades, It’s great to see the Haddock enjoying less commercial pressure locally and coming back in numbers, and hopefully it continues year on year. I wonder if we’ll see a subsequent increase in any other species on our shores in the coming years – it would certainly be great to see the Plaice fishing get somewhere back to what it used to be.
Anyway. It’s unseasonably warm considering it’s February. So much so, I’m aghast to notice that as I walk along the promenade to meet Steve and Martyn, I’m bloody sweating! 10-12 degrees is just ridiculous for the time of year! But, coupled with the lack of any real breeze, I concede that it does make for some rather comfortable fishing conditions so I suppose it can’t all be bad.
I opted for one rod, out of laziness more than strategy, with a 2 hook flapper comprising of size 2 long shanks fixed with a pair of orange floating beads. I use these Floating beads from Turkana regularly, with orange and white being my favourite. They don’t function as pop ups as such, but give small baits that subtle bit of buoyancy which makes them flutter enticingly around in any current, and obviously the bright colour can add an additional level of attraction especially in murky conditions. By no means essential, but I’ve got on really well with them and they’ve made a big difference to my catch rates on several occasions with this type of fishing.
It was a bit of a slow start as dusk descended, but into darkness the fish started to show. I was first of the mark with a 5 bearded Rockling to add to the annual species hunt tally, then the Whiting obligingly start to take everything in front of them and we each work our way through a fair few fish.
It’s Martyn’s first time sea fishing so he’s happy to get off the mark with a few. All of the fish are comfortably over the legal size limit too, although very lean for the time of year.
Fortunate or unfortunate though, the Whiting are so prolific that baits are getting pounced on within minutes of hitting the seabed, with regular double shots, so if there was any Haddock in amongst them they weren’t getting a look in. A slight pang of disappointment maybe but in all honesty I was just enjoying being out and catching fish after such a long time.
As slack water came things tailed off a bit which gave the critters time to come out; I pulled in a nice pot sized Lobster which would definitely have been coming home for a bath, had she not been laiden with eggs, so a quick snap and off she swam seconds later.
Steve also managed a double shot of bugs in the shape of an edible brown crab which was flirting with being legal size, and a surprise in the shape of a north east Spider Crab. They’re not unheard of up here, but they are somewhat of a novelty and you only hear of the odd one once in a blue moon.
Things slow down on the fish front with only the odd one coming in so we decided to wrap it at about 9:30. My recently arrived daughter is of a nocturnal disposition at the minute so I didn’t fancy staying out too late!
I kept 8 of the fish that wouldn’t have gone back due to deep hooking so that’ll keep the family in fish cakes for a bit. I think I probably threw double the amount back – they were certainly out in force!
Never know – I might get out again soon!