FORTNIGHT OF FISHING
Holderness Coast angler Matt Hope was determined to make the most of some valuable time off…
Two weeks of fun on the Holderness Coast.
Well, the cod season on the Holderness Coast has been eventful, with loads of small codling caught throughout the area, but trying to find the better stamp of fish has been hard work. Depending when you read this, some of you may be among the multitudes who, on March 7-8, are about to fish or have fished the European Open Beach Championships on this eroding coastline.
This is my regular fishing area. I try to fit in as much fishing as I can here, but two weeks off gave me the chance to try as many tides as possible, family commitments permitting.
After finishing work, I was straight out on the evening’s tide for a short session. I wanted to fish the last hour of the flood, another over the top and an hour or so back down.
A north-easterly blow was settling down and the forecast was calm, with mostly westerly or south-westerly light winds making it ideal for fishing.
My chosen venue was known as Rectory, between Hilston and Tunstall. I had this spot to myself. I made my way to the clifftop getdown, only to find it had been washed away. I walked for a few hundred metres but couldn’t find anywhere safe to reach to the beach.
With the sea already washing up around the bottom of the cliff, and with a good hour of the flood to go, I thought it would be safer to fish from a flat grassy spot on the clifftop. There is a good gulley here, running all the way to Hilston.
I fished two rods, one in the gulley at around 60 to 80 yards, and the other blasted out as far as I could. I ended up with nine codling, nothing big, around 1lb 8oz to 2lb 8oz, with all but one coming from the close-range rod. The long-range rod was plagued by whiting.
ALMOST PERFECT
Next morning I collected my dad, Bill, and we made our way to the coast after a visit to the tackle shop to stock up on dirty squid. I’d used the last of my worms, so we planned to dig some more. However, the tide was too small to dig at the northern end of the Holderness, so we headed for the Spurn mudflats. Hard work at the best of times, an easy day’s fishing afterwards was in order. My dad turns 70 this year, so I didn’t want to burn him out.
We called in at Easington for a quick look over low water on our way to Spurn. There looked to be a few good holes and a slope to the beach.
Bait digging completed, it was back to Easington, by which time a few more anglers had set up in front of the access slope. It meant a short walk north towards the gas works to find a bit of space. Conditions seemed almost perfect; no wonder so many others had ventured out.
As we walked past the anglers, they confirmed that fish had been landed. One of them was Gary Pye, from North East Tackle Supplies, in Ryhope, who had made the journey down to the Holderness Coast.
While setting up the rods, I noticed other anglers dragging in a lot of weed, which dampened our spirits; weed can be a real pain on the area’s southern beaches. It seemed
almost impossible to fish at any great range.
After retrieving our first casts and plucking the weed off our shockleader knots and rigs, we cast out freshly baited pulley rigs. This time we fished closer, around 60 to 75 yards. It paid off and we were soon into fish, which definitely had a taste for our fresh lug and squid. We ended up with more than a dozen codling between us, but nothing over 3lb. Again, there were loads of whiting, but also a welcome bass apiece.
Back at home, I put the remainder of the lug into trays in my bait fridge, and the squid into the freezer. I checked on Facebook and spotted a picture of Gary Pye with a couple of nice fish, the best a 7lb cod, from his session.
CHANGE OF PLAN
Next morning I’d had messages from friends who had done well with better-quality fish. That information changed my plans. I’d go further north to Grimston to get away from the crowds and the weed. It’s a long walk and has high cliffs, which deters a lot of anglers, and limited parking is also a problem.
I’d started at low water and planned to fish the tide up to top water. Footprints left in the sand signified that the only part of the beach that I would not get washed off by the incoming tide was by the get-down.
Rather than lose this bit of beach, I stayed there. Had there been a slightly smaller tide, I would have fished further right.
Things started slowly. The only decent bite I hooked into felt like a good fish, but it found a snag. I managed to retrieve what looked like a dead rose bush covered in more weed, but the fish had gone.
After my pal Adam Peach arrived about half tide up, the fishing improved slightly and we had half-a-dozen small codling each. I was disappointed we hadn’t found a better fish. On the positive side, the tides were picking up in size, offering a good chance of pumping some decent bait.
GARY’S DOUBLE
After a few days off, I was back in the truck and heading to the next venue. I called in at a couple of marks to see how busy they were. The first was Hilston. It was fairly busy, but weed wasn’t a problem, although the cliffs and get-downs were a mess.
As a result, I headed further south to the outskirts of Withernsea, where I found a suitable spot. The wind had swung and the sea had lifted, although it wasn’t the flat calm conditions that I’d been fishing. It felt good for a fish or two. I thought the extra movement would stir things up, so I walked to the left, passing Gary Storey, who was fishing a club match. He’d caught three
cod in as many casts to a gulley at around 100 yards. His third fish was a cod around 4lb.
I walked further up the beach, well out the way of the other anglers and set up. My first bite was a massive thump on the rod tip followed by slack line. I reeled like mad, caught up to the fish, felt a big thump on the rod and the fish got off. Only a bass swims as fast as that. My next bite resulted in a small codling, which was followed by a massive pull on the rod tip. I was straight on it and a nice bass came ashore.
Gary then asked if I’d seen what he just landed. I hadn’t. He lifted the lid on his fish bucket to show me a cod that seemed to be wrapped one and a half times around the interior of the container. My bass seemed so inferior. I guessed the cod was around 12lbplus. It was his shore-caught personal best and only the second double-figure cod I’d heard of so far this season from the Holderness. He’d caught a 9lb 8oz fish only a week earlier.
At the top of the tide, I had a small nod on the rod tip and expected another small codling. To my surprise, it turned out to be the best fish I’d had on for weeks. It weighed a tidy 6lb 12oz.
LAST CAST
The following night, my dad and I returned. The sea had flattened and the whiting and weed were a nuisance. I caught five fish, at 3-4lb. While we packed away our gear, one of my dad’s rods pulled over and he landed a 6lb 4oz cod.
We returned for a third night, but soon regretted it because it was a whiting-fest. The sea was calm and we couldn’t get the spot we’d fished before, so we moved further up the beach, but in the same gulley. I caught five small codling among the whiting, while my dad had whiting and dogfish.
After a night off, I fished a midweek match in a strong southerly wind. I fancied a change of venue, particularly after seeing some reports that the River Humber was fishing well for boat anglers. The match time didn’t really suit fishing the coast either. I went to Old Hall and had landed 11 codling, which, at around 1lb, were undersize and smaller than the usual stamp. Fishing the river hadn’t paid off. Surprisingly, the coast fished well, even a couple of rays made an appearance in the flat calm conditions.
I waited until the weekend to use up the last of my worms, even though a large northerly swell was not ideal for the Holderness Coast. Back at Easington, I was surprised to see it so busy.
Ready to make my first cast, I walked to the left, uptide, about 25 yards and hit the cast as hard as I could, trying to find some depth to the water. I paid out some line, hoping the rig and 6oz grip lead would settle somewhere out in front of me. I repeated the same process with my second rod.
On returning to the first rod, the line had gone slack. I thought the weight had pulled out, but as I picked up the rod, I felt a fish, which turned out to be a bass. It was hard going for the next three hours, but I had two more slack line bites, cod of 2lb and 5lb. These were the only three fish I caught, but it was an enjoyable day’s fishing to round off a couple of weeks. ■
“Gary lifted the lid on his fish bucket to show me a cod that seemed to be wrapped one and a half times around the interior of the container”