MISTRESS MAYHEM
A trip to Whitby where non-stop, rod-bending action was the order of the day…
Uptiding for cod out of Whitby.
Rich Cope started out boat angling in Whitby when he was just seven years old. He fished regularly with skippers such as the late Tut Uttley on board North Star, Mick Norden on Tina Dawn and the legend that is Paul Kilpatrick, on Ceedan (who now runs Sea Otter 2).
After realising early on that he wanted to run his own charter craft, at the age of 15 his dad purchased him a private boat – a 21ft vessel called Sea Spray.
Rich became a marine engineer with BP on the tankers, and during this time he completed the relevant safety courses required, and then passed his Yacht Master Offshore qualification. He’s never looked back.
Once he had all of his qualifications, his dad bought him a hull, which Rich built to become his first charter boat, called Growler. He soon became busy with Growler and quickly upgraded to a bigger boat – the Mistress.
With almost two decades of local knowledge and experience of the wrecks, reefs and fishing grounds at Whitby, Rich is as mad keen now as he was when he first started, and I keep hearing good things about him from anglers.
When he’s not skippering the boat, Rich can often be found fishing the shore marks in summer for bass or in winter for cod. To say he’s obsessed is an understatement. In fact, he’s in the process of launching a shore-guiding business too, for those days when it’s too windy to get out or he hasn’t got a charter.
THE BOAT
Mistress is an Offshore 105 powered by a large Sabre turbo diesel engine, giving her a top speed of nearly 20 knots, meaning she will cruise comfortably at around 12 knots.
The brand has a great reputation for being the perfect angling platform, having a huge working deck and being extremely stable while underway and for fishing at anchor or on the drift.
Mistress is licensed to carry 12 passengers and two crew, allowing Rich to operate within 60 miles of Whitby. There is plenty of space onboard Mistress and ample seating is provided. There is a large bait and filleting station fitted, which will also hold up to 12 rods. This gives the advantage of a clear, tidy, uncluttered deck.
Mistress has been fitted with the latest navigation equipment, including a fully integrated Raymarine navigation network system. It gives pinpoint accuracy when locating wrecks or prominent fish-holding features on the many reefs. Mistress is also fitted with a flushing sea toilet in an enclosed space.
EASY UPTIDING
The key when fishing out of Whitby is to keep things simple. For the most part you’ll be fishing over broken ground, so you’re likely to encounter patches of tackle-hungry rock mixed over a muddy sea bed, along with lots of gullies and crevices.
For this reason it pays to keep your rigs simple. A single size 4/0 hook or Pennell rig is all you need. I opted for a Pennell tied on 3ft of 40lb mono with size 5/0 hooks, which is my standard winter cod fishing rig when uptiding.
As far as tackle is concerned, a simple uptiding outfit is all you need. Use any rod that is capable of casting a 6oz lead weight and bait away from the boat. I chose my DB1 boat rod matched with a Daiwa Saltist BG 20H multiplier loaded with 30lb braid and a 40lb clear mono shockleader. You can use a 12lb or 20lb-class boat rod too if you’re just lobbing your bait out.
We’d taken a few boxes of squid and a load of wraps of black lugworms for this trip, but one of the lads had a secret stash of frozen cart.
Cart is basically the scrapings from the inside of the shell of the female edible crab, which is frozen into sticks. You can either whip the sticks to your hook with bait elastic while it is still frozen, or you can place it inside a mesh bag, finger bandage or a piece cut from some tights, then secure that to the hook. Either way it’s a proven catcher of cod, and is also deadly from the shore, too.
With only five of us on board, including Rich, I opted for a two-rod approach. I fished a black lug sausage and squid cocktail on one rod, with a single whole squid on the other. At first the bites came mostly to the cocktail bait, but I reckon the larger fish I caught came to whole squid. It’s well worth experimenting like this if you get the chance, not just out of Whitby.
OUR TRIP
The weather was blowing a fairly brisk 25mph westerly, but that’s not a bad wind for Whitby, bearing in mind that once out of the harbour you either turn left or right and fish under the shelter of the cliffs. What you don’t want here is anything with a lot of northerly or easterly in it.
Accompanying me was my friend Roger Cooling, and two others who had made lastminute bookings. It took a matter of minutes from leaving the berth to where we dropped anchor, probably 20 minutes maximum, and as soon as we cast in we were straight into the fish.
The key to successful inshore cod fishing off Whitby is to keep moving to find the fish. You’re fishing a series of ledges and gullies, and if the fish aren’t in one, they’ll be in another. If the fishing is good, then slows down, it’s a good idea to move to another spot, and so on.
Rich learned this tactic from the master himself, Paul Kilpatrick, who skipper’s Sea Otter 2. Those of you who follow my exploits will know that
I usually fish with Paul at least once, sometimes twice a year. My mate Roger Cooling organised this trip and his choice was a good one. I’ve met Rich on numerous occasions while in Whitby, mostly in the bars after a day’s fishing, and I’ve kept on saying we’d have a day out with him.
As the cod kept coming, I had a strange bite on my left-hand rod.
It was more a series of slow pulls, which I knew instantly was a lobster.
I wound it in slowly and Rich grabbed the net. To say I was gutted is an understatement because this one was a female that was full of eggs (berried), so I opted to put her back. However, I did get my chance again two hours later when I reeled in a ‘taker’, which went straight into my coolbox.
The action continued throughout the session, with Rich moving the boat to a new mark each time the fishing slowed down. As the sun began to set, we decided that we’d caught more than enough fish and we’d all had a fantastic time, so we headed back for home.
SEAL ATTACK
Although it doesn’t happen every trip, sometimes the local seals can be a bit of a pain. We only had one encounter on this trip, but it was a big ‘un!
One of the lads fishing on the stern hooked into a codling, but as it neared the boat his rod suddenly arched over and line began screaming off his reel. After about ten seconds everything went slack and he reeled in a bare hook – those seals are getting cleverer by the day up in Whitby.
Skipper Rich also reeled in a codling that had obviously been attacked, because there was a big chunk of flesh missing from one of its flanks.
We’d had a rather splendid day’s fishing between the five of us, with well over 60 codling caught, 40 or so of which we kept. I ended up taking seven prime codling home with me. I also had that lobster, too – what a fantastic day afloat.
If you want guaranteed cod fishing, then Whitby really is somewhere you need to fish from. ■