Bream me up! Harrison nets surprise catch
CLEETHORPES angler Andrew Harrison went to Ireland to do some sea fishing - and had a surprise catch.
His group were catching the usual species - cod, pollock, ling, conger, wrasse, bull huss and other dogfish.
Then Andrew had a big surprise - and it could turn out to be a new Irish record!
He caught a 6lb Couch’s bream, a fish I had never heard of before. It appears that this species is not on the Irish species list and therefore would be counted as a record catch.
It has a slightly more elongated body than most other sea bream species. Overall colour is red/pink fading to a silver underbelly. The Couch’s bream feeds on small fish, crustaceans and shellfish. It is mainly found throughout the Mediterranean, off the coasts of Africa and around North and South America.
Andrew and his group had a fantastic trip and even saw several whales, including Finn, Pilot and a humpback.
Meanwhile, closer to home, the Fishing Friends group were in action on Tuesday night on Cleethorpes Promenade near to the Big Wheel.
The longer casters took the honours on the night. With it being a fairly low tide, a decent cast was needed and clipped down rigs were the order of the day.
Yours truly managed to get the first fish of the night. I was doing well, but then Ian Nelson changed his tactics. He was getting very good bites but kept missing them, but he made a change of hook style and whipped his bait tightly. As many of the anglers’ rods laid motionless, Ian was catching two whiting at a time. He managed to get 14 fish for 399cm which made him the easy winner on the night.
I was second with nine fish for 271cm. It was very frustrating and after the tide turned, I only managed a couple of fish. Another interesting fact was that most of the fish were caught from three-week old wrapped worm. Third was Steve MacGregor, who was next to me and managed to find the bigger fish later on in the match - he had five fish for 156cm.
On to the coarse fishing and Claytons Angling Club were in action at the weekend for their second leg of the winter league.
There had been a severe drop in the water temperature during the week. This had put the carp off feeding, especially in Ben’s Lake. The wind did not help, with a cold northerly it made it difficult on some of the pegs to present the bait correctly.
Peter Bensley, who is in top form at the moment, decided to draw the fish to him by feeding heavily with maggots - and fish the top two sections of the pole. This plan had worked the week before and once again it paid off.
He had a mixed net of mainly silver fish for 31lb. This was top weight on the day. In the back pond, the experienced George MacKay was finding a few fish whilst the others struggled. Using his vast knowledge of angling he managed to land a double-figured carp on light tackle which boosted his weight and he had the second overall weight over the three lakes.
On the big pond it was yours truly who managed to take top spot and third overall. Catching a few small silver fish on the waggler and the feeder, a change to the pole brought some better quality fish including a couple of nice bream to boost my weight to 13.6lb. I was closely followed by Mally Frost, who was fishing next door to me and he also had a couple of bream to take his weight to 12.4lb.