A guide to the cod fishing at Easington.
Winter sessions on the Holderness Coast offer plenty of bites…and codling too!
After a period of intermittent northerly winds along the east coast of Yorkshire, with some massive seas and horrid weather, the cliffs and get-downs get very sloppy. At times like this, it’s better to err on the side of caution and look for an easy-access venue.
Feeling the urge to get out fishing, I decided to fish Easington beach on the Holderness Coast because of its easy access to the water, rather than what could be a tricky descent on some of the muddy cliff marks.
The chosen spot was just past the caravan site. By locating an old boat compound adjacent to it, you’ll see a slipway cut out of the cliff providing an easy walk to the beach. Another bonus is the good parking after the caravan site.
Having met up with my pal Adam Peacham, we arrived early in the morning with the aim of starting to fish around 6am to catch the last hour of the flood tide, fish over the top and back down on the ebb. The tide was 5.2 metres on the Bridlington scale (perfect for Easington), with high tide peaking at 7.15am.
We had a very light westerly wind, which is also ideal, so conditions looked just about perfect, for once.
I had managed to take a look at the beach over low water earlier in the week while I was digging bait at Spurn, and picked out a couple of spots that I fancied. Just to the left, about 40 metres from the small cliffs a concrete pillbox had sunk into the sand. It gets covered by the tide on the flood and has a good depth of water in front of it. It would have been my first choice but, unfortunately, with it being a weekend and good conditions, we were beaten to it by another angler.
RATTLING RODS
As a result, we opted to walk a bit further past the old steps at the northern end of the caravan site. Here there is a good slope down to the sand. Don’t be deceived by the scene just beyond the low-water mark because there is a lot of clay making this venue a bit snaggy at long range or over low water.
Adam opted to fish nearer the slipway, over the flats for the beginning of the session. We had two rods and would fish mainly pulley rigs with size 4/0 hooks, with our bait choices being local fresh lugworms, a few blacks and dirty squid to target cod and large whiting. Occasionally we pick up a bass, thornback ray or dogfish.
As soon as I had set up and cast in, both my rod tips were rattling as the small whiting immediately began pulling at the bait; they can be relentless at times, especially in darkness and in calm conditions. Soon my first fish of the day was landed, and in the first hour I caught four whiting and a tiny codling.
Just as daylight and high tide approached, the whiting eased off a little and I had a good pull-down on the right-hand rod, which was baited with squid and cast to the edge of the clays at about 100 yards. I kept to this area for the whole session to minimise tackle losses, shortening my cast as I followed the tide down. I was soon attached to a fair-sized fish that was fighting back; definitely a cod.
Unfortunately, three-quarters of the way in, the weight on the end disappeared. I clipped on new rig and once again cast out a whole squid bait to roughly the same spot. I switched to full squid or just a big chunk of squid as the whiting were smashing the lug in seconds.
CODLING APPEAR
I could only see Adam’s headtorch, so I phoned him to find out how he was doing. He’d caught a couple of tiny codling and small whiting, with no sign of a decent cod, so he decided to see out his cast and join me.
As he arrived, daylight had just about broken and we were on high water. I had landed the second of the day, again only small, a fish of just over 1lb. With the onset of daylight, high tide and the changing of bait to just squid, the small whiting became less of a nuisance, but we were still picking up an occasional one that managed to scoff our baits.
About an hour or so down on the ebb tide, my rod tip pulled right over twice, and after a short battle, my first sizeable codling of the day was landed. Just as I was putting my rod
down, the second rod pulled over hard and, once again, a short battle resulted in another fish of about 2lb to 2lb 4oz.
I clipped on my two spare baited rigs and quickly cast them out.
As I was getting organised for a photograph, one of the rods was away again, and a third codling of roughly the same size hit the beach. As I had no baited traces ready, I decided to leave one rod out of the water while getting a few photographs. Again, my remaining rod was rattling away, and within five minutes my fourth decent codling and the biggest of the bunch, around 3lb was landed.
I finished off the photograph, returned the fish, sorted out the rigs, baited up and cast out. Half-an-hour later, Adam’s rod pulled over and dropped a load of slack line; he was into a cod, his 100th of the winter season.
GOOD DECISION
We continued to catch a steady stream of codling and whiting as we followed the tide down. Waves were starting to break over the sandbar in front of us, indicating there was not much water left out there. Adam decided to call it a day, but I stayed on for another cast just to use up the baited traces I had prepared.
On my last cast, I landed my 11th cod. Adam had landed four and we had lost count of the number of whiting. The fish were not massive by any means, but it ended up being a very enjoyable session.
On leaving the beach, Adam had managed to grab a quick chat with the guy who had been fishing at the pillbox. He’d caught five codling, with only one of any size, a fish of around 3lb. The better fish started to show later that week.
I reckon that visiting the venue to see the mark over low water on a bigger tide earlier in the week had been a good decision because both the areas we identified seemed to have deeper water and produced cod. Just beyond the low-water mark the seabed was scoured out to clay, with very little sand covering the area. We have found it to be full of gullies, ridges and boulders, which is the reason why we fish the mark on small tides because the tidal pull on the larger ones is too strong and results in our rigs being pulled into snags.
The slipway area is more fishable on a larger tide because there is a lot more sand, but it is a lot flatter so does not have the required depth. This area fishes better over high water, and can be a very good for bass.
You can fish at Easington at all stages of the tide, but remember it can be very snaggy in places over low water.
It is a good venue for winter and summer fishing. Smoothhounds and thornback rays are common in summer, and it can be a good spot for a bass. It is best on a small tide at 5.5 metres and under.