Whiting are biting as anglers have fun on the coast
THE whiting have arrived on the Lincolnshire and Yorkshire coasts in massive numbers.
I went along to the Lincolnshire coast at Sutton-on-sea and had just three casts that resulted in nine decent-sized whiting.
On the Humber Bank Wall, anglers have been out in force. The whiting have been the dominant species, but there have been reports of a few codling as well. Further along at Goxhill there seems to be more cod showing. This Saturday it is the annual match run by Anglers and Danglers for a national charity. The venue is the North Wall, Grimsby.
Many thanks to the security on the docks for allowing the gate to be open for the match. There are forty anglers booked in, so it is going to be a busy match. It starts at around 6pm.
As the tide turns, it is expected that the whiting will come on to feed in their hoards.
The Friends Fishing Group fished on the wall at Suggitts Lane. Once again, as the tide turned the fish came in to feed. Jack Barlow was in top form catching most of his fish in the last half of the match - he finished up with 16 fish for 467cm. Then it was Ian Nelson with 15 fish for 364cm. Third place was match organiser Steve Robinson with 13 fish for 359cm.
Phoenix Boat Fishing Club fished their first Winter League match of the year.
Thornback Rays were the main catch, with first and second places made up of rays including a fish of 6lb 10oz bagging the biggest fish accolade for Jimmy Mclernon and second place overall.Terry Branson had a codling weighing 4lb and, along with whitings, it earned Terry third place.
Kevin Cook showed how it should be done, fishing aboard Sea Fret with Paul Wilmore at the middle 7 buoy and finding some quality roker. Kevin was the winner on the day with 25lb of fish.
Onto the coarse fishing and Freezertech Angling Club fished a match on the Stainforth Canal at Wykewell Bridge at Thorne, pegs 164 to 186.
This was the last match of their summer series and was fished in perfect weather. The winner was Steve Cole. Fishing off peg 186, he fished the pole with caster to weigh in 20lb 10oz, made up of roach plus two tench each weighing over 5lb.
Second place went to Col Batchelor. Fishing off peg 183, he fished the pole with bread punch to weigh in 11lb 4oz of roach. In third place was Steve Baker. Fishing off peg 185, he fished the pole with various baits, also catching roach for a weight of 9lb 15oz.The winners of the pairs were Kieron Dryder and Steve Cole.
The final match of the LOR AC
season saw the club go to Grange Park, Messingham and the Osprey lake was the chosen venue. For a change, I drew one of the favoured pegs, number 29, but it did not go to plan at first. I had planned to go for a maggot attack, but the problem was that there had been a lot of new small carp introduced to the water and they decided to come near the reeds. Ric Colman was off to flyer and I must admit I feared a battering.
Ric caught strongly for the first hour then the fish decided to move. Matt Daniel was on peg one but he was having trouble getting the fish out of the reeds. I decided to change tactics and go with soft pellets, shallow, and this paid off. Further down the match stretch, Steve Leary had a very shallow peg so he decided to fish long with soft pellets . This paid off for him and he caught steadily throughout.
I came first with 91lb 14oz ahead of Steve Leary with 75lb 10oz and Matt Daniel with 65lb 15oz.
Novartis AC went to a new venue for the club, Swanlands Fishery. They had a great day and will be definitely returning. It was nice to see Wayne Childs back in winning form. He caught on the pole using maggot at 12m to weigh-in 118.2lb. Then it was Jon Smith, again on the pole, with 99.9lb. Andy Smith was a close third, he changed from the feeder to pole for 97.3lb.