With a slight bit of movement on the sea over the last few days mackerel have tended to be scarce and have started to move offshore to be replaced by whiting, flatties, and cod, particularly on night time tides. Classic autumn conditions have produced some nice mixed bags for those anglers in the right place at the right time. Night tides have seen quality whiting moving inshore and both the piers and beaches have produced a lot of fish on some tides. Cod up to 5lb have been reported taken on fresh crab baits, the low water marks have been the most productive, but Roker pier, South Shields pier and the lower Tyne have also all produced cod to 5lb.
The rivers Wear and Tyne are both on top form with some fine specimen flounders showing from several venues with bigger fish over 2lb taken from the lower Wear and upper Tyne. The river Tyne also has a lot of small codling and coalfish in the lower reaches. Most clubs have now finished their summer matches on the rivers and are now fishing open boundaries along the shoreline and rock edges.
Some nice pollack have been taken from both the boats and shore. Dave Keeller fished Tynemouth pier rocks to take one of 9lb.
Dennis Miller fishing off Upholder out of Amble took and returned one of 10lb, while George Ford fishing from his boat “Abidan” also out of Amble, took one of 8lb. Walter Turnbull fishing out of Burnmouth on his boat “Charlotte” also netted a nine pounder, and thirteen year old Chris Lyons fishing aboard “Hermitage” out of Sunderland was very pleased to land one of 6¼lb. The Hermitage has also seen ling of 24lb and cod of 17lb taken, the best of a seventy fish haul. Richard Roll and his mother fishing aboard their boat “Stingray” reported the best days fishing they have ever had, when they landed forty one ling to 8lb, most returned, and a few cod, although Rich took most of the fish, his mum took the heaviest a cod of 9lb 9oz.
Ian Harrogate won the last Amble A.C. match with seven cod for 10lb 4oz from Cresswell and C.Taylor in second had four for 7lb 7oz, best 2lb 5oz.
Tynemouth A.C. fished a match at Beadnell last Sunday with nine out of fifteen weighing in mainly single fish. Doug Spivey won with two cod and two wrasse for 5lb 10oz. Peter Brockwell took second spot with a wrasse of 3lb 9oz, and Bob Maughan finished third with a wrasse and a cod weighing 1lb 14oz.
Cleadon A.C. had their first winter match recently with fish coming from all areas. Terry Wood was the best of the nineteen out of forty three that weighed in, with six flounders from the Tyne for 6lb 4oz. Olly Feenan had four cod for 5lb 9oz and second place from the Walkway and third placed Mark Weigmann had a mixed bag of cod, coalfish, and flounders for 3lb 8oz from Marsden Beach. David Carrick took fourth prize with two cod for 3lb from South Shields pier. The heaviest fish went to Paul Rogers with a cod of 2lb 8oz.
The Seaham Durham Nighthawk match last Saturday saw good conditions with twenty nine out of fifty nine weighing in one hundred and thirty-two whiting, seven plaice, six cod, six flounders, two dogfish and a lone gurnard. Richard Bryant was miles ahead with forty-four fish for 27.56lb, followed by J.Morrow with seven for 11.64lb, Anthony Price with twelve for 7.51lb and Joe Gibson with thirteen for 7.48lb. Junior angler Katie Peel had the heaviest fish with a specimen dogfish of 2.65lb.
In the Wear, the Eastenders sweepstake last Wednesday saw all twelve anglers take fish. Bob Surtees won with four flounders for 138cm, ahead of Jim Dobie with four flounders for 120cm, Lee Burton on four for 112cm and Ernie Hunter with four for 109cm. Jim Dobie had the longest fish at 39cm.
The Ryhope club match on Sunday saw a good turnout of eighty-seven fishing with forty weighing in mixed bags of cod, whiting, coalfish, mackerel, flounders, eels, and wrasse. Joe Lemon fished the Wear to win with nine eels and a flounder for 3070 grammes. Runner-up Mick Telford had two wrasse, best 805 grammes, for a 1595 grammes total. Scott Brown was third with two flounders and a coalfish for 1525 grammes. Top junior was Adam Harriman with 1275 grammes which also included the best flatfish of 715 grammes.
The Whitley Bay 50th Anniversary Open on Sunday saw one hundred and eighty anglers fishing with fifty seven seniors and four juniors weighing in. First place went to Trevor Ferry with five cod for 14lb 2oz taken from Cresswell, Joe Wall was second with one cod and one pouting for 12lb 4oz, his superb cod of 10lb 3oz was also the heaviest fish. Steve Harper had six cod and three coalfish from the Sandbar for 11lb 11oz, and Don Nicholson had two cod for 11lb 5oz from Hartley, which included the second heaviest fish of 7lb 2oz. Willy Emery had the third heaviest fish with a cod of 5lb 9oz from Newbiggin. Top junior Sean Herman did well with one each of pollack, coalfish, plaice and pouting for 4lb 5oz from Cullercoats. Runner up Jordan Crozier had a flounder of 14oz and Micheal Hall in third had a flounder of 12oz followed by Dean Swales with one of 7oz. Top lady was Shirley Newton with a flounder of 1lb 6oz, which also won her the special 50th place prize.
