This is an annual event ran by seaanglingreports.co.uk to help raise money for the web fees. With a member list of nearly 200 you’d think this would be easy enough – unfortunately the reality is probably less than 20 are regularly active and still post on the forum. But those of us that do refuse to let it go; rather than attempting to compete with larger angling forums (or heaven forbid Facebook/instagram), SAR has become sort of a virtual angling club, and with most of us primarily North East and Scotland based it makes the annual meet a bit easier.
This years event was to be held at the old smokehouse on the north side of the mouth of the Tyne. 6 members turned to fish and a couple more stopped by for a chat – poor compared to last year, but we had to rearrange the original date due to bad weather, and those who could not attend were still generous with donations.
I was first blood with a 32cm Codling on frozen Crab within the first 5 minutes. All fish count in this measure and release match and this was enough to keep me in top spot for a good portion of the 4 hour match
There were a lot of nuisance Dabs and small Whiting about with little else of substance showing up. Some of the lads managed to find something more interesting to do by busying themselves with the local Sprat population, which were taking advantage of the peat stained water and clearly feeling confident enough to take their Sabiki’s fished down the side of the wall.
Their presence was clearly noted however as despite the murky water I managed a chunky Mackerel on lugworm of all things, which at 40cm turned out to be the biggest fish of the day, winning me the coveted Piscan Pot Trophy.
It was just as well as Reg managed a 34cm Codling half an hour before the end of the match which would have pipped mine by 2cm.
All in all it was a nice few hours out – nothing to write home about fish wise, but enough money raised to keep the site going another year. Pop along to seaanglingreports.co.uk if you fancy being part of a non-typical group of genuinely nice people. It might not be as busy as elsewhere on the internet, but it’s certainly not as volatile either!
