TIME MACHINE

Looking back through our archives.

MARCH 2008

■ Geordie angler Gareth Thomas landed the North East’s biggest shore cod of the winter, thanks to a 24-pounder from Castle Rocks, adjacent to Tynemouth pier. He caught it on lug and rag on a Pennell pulley rig armed with size 4/0 Sakuma Manta Extra hooks.

Freddie Gooderson, a roofer from Poole, Dorset, caught 18 flounders, the best pair scaling 4lb 1oz and 3lb 2oz.

All the fish took ragworm baits.

Bins for anglers to dispose of line were installed in key locations around Poole Harbour, in Dorset. It was part of the SeaClean project, a partnership of coastal visitor centres and organisations along the Dorset coast.

Scottish sea anglers were uniting under one banner – The Scottish Sea Angling Conservation Network.

Martin Regan, of Plymouth, Devon, caught a personal-best pollack of 23lb 6oz while fishing on the local boat Crusader, skippered by Richard Matthews.

1998

■ Morfa beach, near Neath, was the scene for Sam Griffith to catch a 22lb cod on a large black lug bait on a Pennell rig.

Peter Cade’s

42lb cod was the highlight of the catches. The angler, from the

Isle of Wight, caught it off the Needles on a squid and mackerel cocktail while aboard Ross Staplethurst’s charter boat Albatross, out of Bembridge.

There was also a 35lb 12oz cod for Alan Deeming, again from Cowes, who was boat fishing near the Nab Tower, and one of 26lb for Ken Moore-Rosindell, of Hampshire, while fishing at the Needles. Barry Sokell, still holder of the British shore-caught flounder record, confirmed his reputation as a top flattie angler by boating specimens of 4lb 5oz and 3lb 15oz while fishing from a dinghy in Devon’s River Teign. ■ Ray Waite, from London, spent six hours waiting for a bite and was rewarded with a 35lb 8oz blonde ray. It took a double squid bait fished in 75ft of water. Ray was fishing from a private boat out of Dover, Kent.

■ Mark Fletcher caught an 8lb 6oz 13dr ballan wrasse, at the time believed to be the third-biggest ever caught on rod and line in the UK. Mark, from Guernsey, was fishing in a local competition.

1988

Plymouth’s Martin Gourd took his third shore-caught 40lb conger. The fish was bagged while he was fishing from rocks under Plymouth Hoe.

A cod weighing 30lb 3oz 8dr was caught by Brian Hayes, of Bournemouth, Dorset, while fishing at nearby Hengistbury Head. The following night, Stuart Reed caught cod of 26lb and 16lb from the same area.

Junior angler Darren Miller, of Plymouth Sea Anglers, caught a 5lb 12oz whiting on a strip of mackerel, while boat fishing off Cornwall’s Rame Head.

The Isle of Wight’s shore-caught cod record was smashed when Rene VanOevelen, of Carisbrooke, landed a 29lb 4dr cod from Yarmouth pier. He fished a hermit crab bait on a size 4/0 hook.

1978

■ Cover star was crane driver Ken Brook, of Doncaster, with a 25lb 4oz cod taken while fishing out of Plymouth, Devon, on Bob Williamson’s Gay Girl II.

Spencer Vibart, of the Bass Anglers’ Sportfishing Society, started his 1978 season in style with two shore-caught bass, the better one scaling 13lb 11oz.

The National Federation of Sea Anglers (since replaced by the Angling Trust) was reporting a host of new affiliated clubs and an increase in personal membership.

John Holden joined Sea Angler as the casting tutor. The magazine said no-one was better qualified because his furthest cast went 304 yards. John