Martyn Tetlow on the Sarah JFK landed the best cod so far this season with a monster of 30lb taken on the last drop of the day. The Mistress, also out of the Tyne produced a cod of 18lb for Chris Potts. Private boats fishing the inshore ground are having some great sport with large numbers of smaller cod evident all along the north east coast this year. Gary Walton and sons James and Michael had two recent trips on their boat Maureen 2 taking over 60 cod per trip plus huge numbers of mackerel. Michael had the best sport taking cod to 18lb and ling of 14lb, 12lb and 9lb. Jason Bainbridge won the Tyne Boat Open for the fourth year running with a ling of 22lb 3oz taken on the Swordfish, his fishing partner Jeff Ayre took second place with a ling of 14lb 3oz. The Phantom 2 out of Hartlepool saw Paul Hampton and friends land 92 cod, including 15 doubles, the best at 15lb taken by Tony Monaghan. A previous trip produced a cod of 17lb for Denny Lilley.
Cod are also evident from the shoreline with Roker pier and South Shields piers producing cod to 6lb on late evening and early morning tides when the mackerel anglers are few and far between. James Sanderson had an all nighter at South Shields taking numerous cod and coalies to 2½lb. Neil Lindsey won a Longbenton match in the Tyne with a mixed bag of plaice, flounder, coalfish, and dabs weighing 10lb 13oz, including the best plaice of 1¾lb. Mal McIntyre won a Seaton Sluice match at Seahouses with two cod weighing 5lb 1oz. Paul Foster won a Tynemouth match at Newton with two cod for 5lb 6lb, including one of 3lb 3oz.
Seaham A.C. had a late evening match fishing for the Potter Cup with 24 out of 39 fishing landing 42 coalfish, 31 flounders, two whiting, a pouting, a plaice and a smoothound for a total weight of 83.85lb. Top rod was John Clarke with six fish weighing 5.42lb; Micky Davison had seven for 5.21lb, followed by Ernie Watson with five at 5.05lb. John Williams had the heaviest fish, a coalfish of 1.83lb.
A daylight session on any of the regions piers will produce the seasonal mackerel, as well as the odd decent coalie and pollack together with the odd shad and herring. The piers in the north of the region have produced the best sport while persistent onshore sea breezes and dredger activity has kept the water around Teesbay too coloured to produce many mackerel.
The rivers Tyne and Wear are full of flounders, eels, coalfish, whiting and cod at present although the vast majority are undersize and flounders are dominating most catches. An Eastenders heaviest fish sweepstake at the Timber Beach saw 24 fishing with 17 weighing in 29 flounders, five eels and a solitary coalfish. Mick Davison won with a fine flounder of 2lb 2oz, followed by Chris Hossack with one weighing 1lb 15oz.
A Rutherfords Conoflex league match at the Copthorne Hotel saw Kenny McCoy win with 338cm, followed by Gareth Gardner on 295cm and Andy Rutherford with 291cm.
The last Ryhope club match fished upriver of the Copthorne produced plenty of mainly small flounders and whiting with all 39 members weighing in. Bob Surtees won his Zone for the fifth time in a row, a club record, with 11 fish measuring 230cm. Runner-up Alan Marsh had 10 measuring 205cm while third and fourth places went to Barrie Stowells and John Bryan with186cm and 180cm respectively. In zone B John Lovett had 13 for 239cm and in second place Paul Richardson had 13 measuring 283cm. Third placed Mason Burton had eight for 170cm just ahead of Lee Brown with seven measuring 168cm.
Ryhope A.C. had a bus trip to Port Carlisle for junior members with 35 who fished landing numerous smaller flounders and lots of smaller eels around the 30cm mark. There was a four way tie for the best fish with Oliver Redpath, Connor Dawson, Dominic Mould and Chelsey Henry all landing flounders of 35cm.
