An Unexpected Fishing Pass

[Settle Simon]

I was sitting at home yesterday morning with the sun shining and nowt but a light breeze to ruffle my hair (or chill my bald patch as my boys might say ) thinking about what i could do for the day. I decided to check the tides for Hartlepool and notice that high tide was about 2:00pm, so when my wife returned from the Gym, I asked her if she would like to go fishing, as it was a nice day and she could also top her tan up on the beach . As it happened, she didn't much fancy fishing, more because she couldn't be bothered with the drive over to Hartlepool than anything else, but she did utter those immortal words "Why don't you go fishing?"

Within 5 minutes my rods and tackle were in the car, the car had been filled with diesel from the petrol station round the corner and I had cash for bait - Off I went up the A1 and across to Hartlepool, with a quick stop at North East Tackle to get some a pack of rag, one of frozen black (or I think they call it Runnydown over here) and a pack of sandeels.

My intention was to fish the beach to the north of the North Gare, but the height of the surf was too much, even with an off shore wind so i settled for the North Gare (again) which was in altogether much calmer waters.

I arrived at my spot and was fishing by 2:15pm, just after high tide. I had set up two rods on the end, one with a single hook and alternating between black lug and sandeel and the other with two hook rig with rag. I then settled down to enjoy the afternoon, it was a little breezy (south west breeze) but warm and generally sunny.



view across to South Gare and the wind turbines off Redcar



About 3:15pm, I had a cracking slackliner shortly after followed by a pull which lifted the but of my rod off the ground. I struck into something and began reeling in. However, I thought whatever it was must have come off because there wasn't much resistance, when up popped this little chap



He was just 27cm long and was obviously practicing his bite techniques for when he is a big boy, so back he went to continue growing.

Shortly after this I was joined by a gull which came and sat about 20 feet away from my. I thought that it was a common gull,



but on inspecting my bird book when I got home, it appears to be a Kitewake with its dark legs and black wing tips with no white marks in the tips. Perhaps some more experiences twitchy people could put me right on this?

Anyway, this bird stayed with me for the next 3 hours, occasionally taking off and flying around in a circle, just to land again on the same spot. I fed it a few sandeels (I would rather he/she had them than the crabs)

Anyway, over the next two and a half hours I had another 5 codling of a similar size to the first, i.e. all between 26-28cm and caught mainly on rag, with two on black lug.

At about 6:15, I had a different sort of bite to the ones I had been getting and pulled in this



a little rockling again between 26-28cm. My Kitewake friend gave me a look of disgust at having caught a slug and flew off, not to return. So I decided that enough was enough and packed up and got back to the car lust before the rain came.

Not a bad for a session that began with an Unexpected Fishing Pass

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General Info


Time: 2:15pm to 6:30pm
Bait: Rag, frozen black and sandeels (for feeding crabs and birds)
High tide: 2:00pm ish
wind: breeze from south west
Rigs used: size 1/0 two hook flapper, size 1/0 single hook flapper and size 2/0 single hook pulley

[Jammygit]

Fantastic report Simon a great story punctuated with some nice pictures and I particularly like the bit with details of baits used / conditions etc at the bottom I shall be copying that in future
Always nice to read a report where there's been effort put into making it interesting


Oh and well done on getting out and catching

[BigBadCol]

Nice little sesh there bud. I've a book on my phone I ise for twittering lol

[grumpyppops1]

Great report Simon .kittywake and fish ,can't beat it .having a mini get together on the north wall next Sunday,all welcome . /great post

[sharpey]

Excellent report Simon, as ever, riveting read from the start..!! Good result too..?? Few codlets and a decent slug to boot..?? And love the wildlife... Just to clarify;
This is a Kittiwake

This isn't ...


Sharpey

[grandadruss]

Great report Simon,like the check up on the bird as well
As there's a lot of wildlife pictured on some of the....hmmmm shall we say better reports I think this site could benefit from a wildlife section.
I won't hijack this post mate but I'm on the case.
Cheers,and nice post mate

[dabcatcher]

a pleasant session for you. thata basically the stamp of fish were getting locally so lots are traveling south to the hull beaches or the west coast when the weather allows. good to see you found northeast tackle.