Good catches reported before high winds deal a blow to offshore sport

SOME decent fish were taken last weekend before the gales put a stop to things.

Allan Skinner, with the “JFK Two” out of the Tyne had over 50 fish on the Saturday – a mixed bag of ling and cod. Among the catch were four double-figure ling, with the best one weighing in at 15½lb taken by Alan Black. The anglers aboard also had pollock to 8lb and cod to 7lbplus. On the Sunday it was very windy, but Allan took his party close inshore on to the hard ground and managed codling to 7lb.

The “Sapphire” out of the Wear also had a decent catch, with the best fish being a ling of 15lb taken by George Crammen from Horden, while Adrian Dodds from Chester-le-Street landed a cod of 10lb. The fish were taken on fresh mackerel.

A private boat out of Hartlepool fished the hard ground close in off Skinningrove. Among the catch of 28 fish was a ling of 17½lb and cod of 10lb and 12lb.

The Yellow Can off St Mary’s is still giving decent catches of codling to 6lb, plus whiting, pouting and wrasse on a variety of baits. Further north, Amble boats are still managing a few codling off Cresswell and the back of the Coquet.

A couple of weeks ago I gave one or two numbers for boats that will be uptiding over the winter months. Another one to add to the list is the “Lone Shark” out of Hartlepool. You can contact the skipper on 0790 0330476.

Sadly this column will come to an end on Thursday November 9, but any clubs or charter boat skippers who would like open shore competitions or uptiding trips to be publicised please contact me before then so that I can give the details before the column ends. You can contact me on 0191 518 4561 or email samharris01@aol.com.

This week’s special guest on CVFM’s “Gone Fishing” is ex-England coarse angling team manager Dick Clegg, MBE, OBE.

The radio programme broadcasts each Saturday from 8 am to 10 am. You can tune in live on www.cvfm.org.uk “Listen Live”. The programme is also put on to Mix Cloud from the following Monday, where it can be heard at any time.

There are two Open Shore Competitions this Sunday. One is the Seaham SAC Open, which is a heaviest single fish match. First prize for the heaviest fish is £1,000 cash, second prize is £500 and third is £350.

The other Open is the Bedlington Station SAC on the same day. Rob Thirlwell will be giving full details of this match on CVFM Radio on Saturday morning.