Malc

Wouldn't buy bait from most "fishmongers" 🤢 Had one for lunch 😋

DFDS, pilots, tugs, trawlers, cargo vessels...you're having a 🦒 If I'd remembered the camera...

Saw a slim opportunity to get out for a few hours as we've had easterly winds for a while, but overnight the winds dropped giving a window before a S easterly later today. I could have gone to the inshore wrecks but saw the DFDS ferry wasn't on its berth so would probably be inbound soon. I knew that there were herring about and the mackerel had moved offshore so decided to have a try for some silver darlings. Went out towards the bouys that mark the channel edge and saw a shoal of fish on the finder and dropped a set of sabikis with a large koster down and as it went through the shoal, nod, nod and I was in. Three of them with two dropped as I reached for the net! And so it was for the next two hours, sometimes they were off before I saw them and most were taken mid to surface, I could even see them breaking the surface or occasionally splashing. I did have fun with more than the fishing as I heard Tyne VTS say to the DFDS ferry that there was a kayak in the main channel not moving so I radioed back "...just leaving the channel now..." I bet they weren't expecting that 😁 I believe if there are no pictures it never happened so...

Hope to get out tomorrow myself, big tide so we'll see how things pan out.

Nice session! Love the colour of the Gurnard, and I'm not envious of those slime monsters.

Better than a day in work!

Awesome day by the looks of it!

Think I am leaning towards Grey due to the fins, the start of the 2nd dorsal is in front of the start of the anal and the pectoral looks like it wouldn't have reached as far back as the anal. I should put it in the PB section 🤣 Cheers everyone 👍🏻

I looked in my very old copy of "The observers book of sea fish" and that was the fish I could rule out and as it is immature that makes it harder to ID, more so because we rarely get them this far north unless we are on the west coast.

Forecast was good but I take them with a pinch of salt, so the idea was go out past the piers and fish the wrecks, if the bar was too choppy I would fish the river on the incoming tide for herring. Set off before the tide was really moving and had a couple of drops when I was passing over baitfish or fish arches mid to bottom of water column, but the river was manky from recent rain thet had washed from the roads rather than down river. Phoned the boss and told her (also known as - getting permission) that I was heading out over the bar and headed for the first wreck. There was a merryfisher iirc near the mark and they were bemused to see me peddling over, I got the drift totally wrong, which isn`t uncommon first drift, and headed back to try again and the merryfisher motored off and another boat headed over, also with bemused looks. They were feathering for mackerel and we had a wee chat until I hit the wreck square on and had a double header of codling and mackerel, the mackerel was kept and I passed it over to them as they were wanting fresh bait. It was hit and miss with most fish either just downtide of the hull or 50m away where the water gets a bit deeper with some nice codling , pout, and the occasional mackerel. Several boats came over but none were interested in anything other than getting mackerel, later a potter came by asking if I had much and I told him what I`d had and he went in close to the north pier (Tynemouth) to try there as the flooding tide comes from the north and gets a kick out by the north pier making it attractive to mackerel. After a while I saw he was getting some herring so I headed over but it must have been an isolated shoal and I was hitting mackerel, most I could T bar off but I ended up with four for making fishcakes. I tried a few drops inside the piers hoping to get into the herring as the flood was cleaning the river up and I thought I was on them when I got a light rattle and a pretty gurnard came in, which is most unusual for up here. I was just moving out of the way of a container vessel and the pilot boat when I got a call and had to head in, one deeply hooked codling for a neighbour and four fresh mackerel to take home and I was happy to have made it out of the river and back without incident. Any ideas what kind? Red Gurnard? Greedy codling...

Indeed, but it does open up the idea that we should probably be fishing for those fish that might be there as well as those we know are. Tope and smoothie north of Flamborough? Turbos?

Yeah, not going there...

They are up here, some muppet on WSF in Sunderland deliberately foul hooked one and said that he thought it was a baby seal!!! WTF 🤬

Do you remember the name, might be interesting to follow that up online, I'm sad like that!

I've been thinking, strange but true, about the changes in marine life. At one time bass and doggies were a rarity and noteworthy up in the NE of England and E Scotland but they are being caught with more regularity. This week I caught a Gurnard off the mouth of the Tyne and in the 70's and 80's pout were also a rarity up here and now I can almost guarantee to get one or two a session during the summer. I wonder if it is just the warming of the seas rather than the removal of big cod by fishing and lots of other possible things, sandeel decline, increasing herring numbers etc etc Your thoughts?

Not on any benefits, not for another 3 1/2 years otherwise I wouldn't be panicking at how fast our savings are disappearing! I'll have been retired 11 years soon 😊

Tomorrow hopefully as the wind is nice and low, unfortunately its a neep but we'll see what is going on.

BZ, I was there in 78 and then on to Caledonia, but was a lazy scrote and had to retrain as a stoker.

Nice chunky mackerel.

Getting stuck in to the last batch with cheese and crackers and we've just picked a couple kilos of hedgerow pears for Christmas pressies and ourselves today too.

I bought, very cheaply, a book on Tapas which we both love and one of the recipes sounded interesting as it requires small pears; Garlic chicken with pickled pears. We enjoy raiding the hedgerows and had found a few pear trees which had small pears on them last year, but as it was early summer we went to the local supermarket and got some small pears, first were conference and the next batch was a pale skinned pear meant for kids lunchboxes. Not only good with the chicken but excellent with cheeses or pates etc. 600gm small firm pears 300gm sugar 300ml cider/sherry/white wine vinegar 50ml sweet sherry Pinch of saffron (nope, didn't use it as I like it in paella) 1tsp toasted cumin seeds (absolutely essential) 3 long strips of orange peel 1 cinnamon stick (wife doesn't like it so didn't use it) 2 small dried chillies (warmth not burn your butt heat) 8-10 black peppercorns 2 star anise (again boss doesn't like so didn't use) Dissolve sugar slowly in vinegar and sherry while you peel the pears but leave the stalk, when sugar is dissolved add spices etc and turn up to a boil and add pears. Turn them now and again. I used a posh jar as I have loads for pickles, chutney, jams and sloe gin but any jar will do, but sterilise in the oven at 120C or boil in pan of water. When the point of a knife goes in easily pot them, cover with the spiced syrup and put the lids on. Let them mature for a month or two. GARLIC CHICKEN 2 tbsp OO 10-12 chopped garlic cloves (yes, really) 3 tbsp dry sherry/white wine 500gm boned and skinned chicken thigh chopped into 1" cube S&P Parsley to serve Mix all the ingredients apart from Parsley together and put in a bowl in the fridge for an hour. Thread onto skewers, I like the bamboo ones but soak in water while the chicken marinades, fry in a non stick heavy based pan or plancha or BBQ until nicely brown. Scatter with Parsley and chopped pears

Yup, another Spectra user here, I also tried agepoch which is good but appears thicker for same specified BS. Didn't like spiderwire, flat and colour gets on everything.

Such a shame on both counts, but good stories to tell!

Ouch! Hope it's a quick and good recovery for you. I don't know why photos like that make me feel a bit funny, I've seen loads of dead bodies and smashed up body parts (ex firefighter) but these pics give me the ick.

My wife has been visiting her twin sister so I have had time to fish my heart out. First was a session with my very good friends on their boat and although MSW said 0-1ft there was an onshore 1m+ swell which topped to nearly 2m at times but was fish able with care. Several codling and sometimes the lures were stopped several times on the way down by mackerel as there were so many. To top the day off we were drifting a wreck just outside the piers and got some nice photos of the sun setting and the moon rising over the marina. I have a better shot with the sun directly behind the lighthouse but its on my camera and I have not downloaded it yet. Next was a shot off the pier. 30 minutes and 3 big fat mackerel later and I am heading home to prepare them for the neighbours. A few E European people bagging up but lots of people without a scooby getting nowt. Next was the kayak the next day hoping to find the herring, a big tide and when I am heading past the red pier there's a nasty chop, wind against tide so I peddle into the main channel and spot several shoals of bait fish and predator arches but I can't fish the channel from the kayak! I get to the spot where the tide kicks off the bend of the big pier and outside of the channel and drop down a set of micro sabikis hook size 12-14 and a 40gm koster on the point. The mackerel hit both! So after getting half a dozen I try other areas and I can't miss the mackerel, so I peddle back in at the top of the tide. The spots I saw the big shoals of bait fish are empty but I will be back. Day after next I go to the red pier with plenty of sabikis, I was a little early and lost some as I know where the snags are but I know fish will be close by but the low water means I misjudged it. Eventually I get a mackerel and would have returned it but I couldn't shake it off the hook into the water as the pier slopes out. Shortly after I thought I had a sandeel until it hit the tide rip close in and eventually I have my herring and followed by another before the tide slackens. Always good when a plan comes together. I've missed a couple of days that we not that remarkable but I decided to try early this morning and fish to the top of the tide and then an hour of the ebb. We had two days of easterly onshore and north easterly winds and a mix of sun and clouds but it was to be westerly and sunny in the morning, so another try for the herring. Second cast and I had one, about the length of my index finger 🤣 nothing else for 90 minutes towards high water and then the sabikis were fishing slow and deep and I got a succession of tiny codling and a single micro whiting! The wee codling looked lovely though. Then the dolphin turned up, tried to get photos but they are blurred or are shots of disturbed water. I have never seen them hunting as hard before, several times I saw them throw a fish in front of them as they jumped out of the water, amazing to see, I wished I had been out in the kayak with them.