When there has been a bit of movement on the sea cod have moved inshore in reasonable numbers, and some of the beach marks have been productive with whiting showing in large numbers after dark. Most marks have produced the odd cod to 6lb with good numbers of smaller specimens showing from the local rivers and low water marks. As the rivers Wear and Tyne seem to be full of fish at present most club matches have been won from these venues with a few better mixed bags also reported from South Shields pier and the Hendon Wall area. The Durham beaches and Hartlepool marks seem to be full of whiting with some anglers taking bags of over 30 fish on worm and mackerel baits. Steve Moore had a good session from Hendon last midweek taking seven cod to 4lb.
Hartlepool O.M.A.C. fished their first Winter League match on Saturday weighing in 70 fish for 55lb 10oz. Chris Smith had the heaviest bag with a mixed catch of 28 fish weighing 18¾lb. Mark Brallisford had 22 fish totalling 15¼lb to finish second and Steve Gibbins had the heaviest fish, a cod of 1lb 6oz, followed by Ian Palmer with a nice dab of 1lb 1oz. Next match is November 5th fishing from 6pm until midnight.
Ryhope saw 77 anglers fishing their last match when the winner Joe Lemon fished the Tyne to land 10 whiting for 2.94kg. Runner-up Anthony Lowther had eight coalies weighing 2.45kg from the Wear, and Wayne Harriman fished the Tyne to land four cod, a flounder and a whiting weighing 2.22kg. Mick Telford had the best round fish, a coalfish of 0.64kg, and Mason Burton had the best flounder at 0.57kg.
The last Cleadon match saw nine out of 33 weigh in mainly from the Rivers. Trevor Green fished the lower Wear to win with a bag of 11 whiting weighing 6 – 13lb while second placed Mark Shotton chose the Tyne and landed a mixed bag of cod and whiting totalling 6lb 6oz. Third spot went to Paul Smith whose bag of cod and coalfish weighing 4lb 7oz included the heaviest fish of 2¼lb.
Flounders dominated the Tynemouth retired member’s match when Arthur Styles won with a four fish bag of 3lb 13oz, followed by Dave Hayley with two dabs, a cod and a whiting weighing 3lb 5oz. The Tynemouth Sunday League match saw Shaun Brunton win with a bag of 5½lb consisting of four big flounders; Marty Elliott had a late season pollack of 3lb 14oz to pip Willy Brunton for second place. Willy had had three nice flounders weighing 3lb 11oz. The Tynemouth Winter League match on Wednesday evening saw yet more mixed bags with winner Steve Hardy landing two cod, two whiting and a flounder for 5lb 11oz, followed by Steve Elliott with a single cod of 2lb 7oz.
Settled conditions at Amble saw flounders and whiting dominate with winner Andrew Taylor taking eight flounders and four whiting for a total of 7lb 10oz. Ian Harrogate finished second with eight flounders weighing 7½lb while third placed Gary Stewart had nine for 6lb 6oz. Jacek Juszczyk coalfish of 1lb 1oz took the prize for best round fish.
Hartlepool Pirates also got some fish out of the Tyne during their last match with eight out of 10 weighing in, winner Aaron Dixon taking two cod weighing an ounce under 3lb from the Walkway. Aaron was followed by L Ringwood with four whiting and 2 dabs weighing 2lb 14oz, and Bill Bradley whose South Shields’ pier catch of three whiting and one dab weighed in at 2lb 11lb. Next meeting is in the Stranton Club on Thursday October 27th at 7.30pm.
Dave Maughan had a good mixed bag of whiting and cod from South Shields pier during the week with the best cod making 6lb.
A bit of an outside swell on the sea late last week brought the cod inshore, mainly in the north of the Region. Ian Galbraith had one of the better winning bags with five cod for 19lb 13oz, the best weighing 7¾lb, taken from Colleywell Bay to win the last Whitley Bay match; Chris Stringer had two for 6lb 9oz from the Rex Promenade.
Seaton Sluice A.C. had a good match at Lynemouth with six anglers weighing in 45lb of cod. Ivan Stott won with three totalling 11lb 1oz, Steve Alexander had three weighing 9lb 9oz and Peter Stuart had four for 9lb 6oz. Gary Appleton had the heaviest fish of 6lb 5oz. Gary Willis won a Bedlington match with three weighing 12lb, including one of 5lb 3oz, from Hartley and Mark Wilkinson won a South Shields match with three cod weighing 8lb 5oz, the best weighed 4lb 1oz, while fishing from the pier.
The R.V.I. Fundraiser Open match last Sunday raised an excellent £427 from the entrance fees and donations. The top three heaviest fish all came from Seaham North Pier where Mark Bressnan won with a cod of 3¾lb, followed by Adam Smith with one of 1lb 15oz and Dean Redden one of 1lb 4oz.
Some brief details of forth coming Open matches –
October 30th Bedlington Station and Redcar Navy and Gentleman’s Club
November 6th East Coast Warrior Open
November 12th Hornsea All Night Open and the Harrington Open
November 13th South Shields Open
November 26th Whitley Bay Evening Open
November 27th Sunderland Shore Angling Festival
