Strippers

Bait strippers to be precise. On an awful wild night I headed to Teesmouth with some more cod fishing on my mind. I launched big baits on big hooks into the darkness and repeatedly reeled in to find my baits stolen. I had an idea what might be to blame when the snood was tied up in a big knot.
Sure enough eventually a rockling managed to hang itself whilst in the process of tying me up in knots. After a couple of hour of standing in the freezing cold, driving rain and howling wind I admitted defeat and went home to get warm.

Fixed Spool For the Beach

To go with my new braid I aquired a new fixed spool reel. Under guidance from the staff staff at Keiths Sports in Saltburn I opted for a Vega squaddra 75. It comes with a regular spool and a shallow spool and holds 370 yds of 0.40mm line on the regular spool. The line lay looks good and flat and has a nice smooth action. The 4.3:1 retrieve means I have a better chance of getting my gear back over the rough ground.

Spectra Extreme Braid

As part of my sea fishing outfit I got some braid (under advice) to go with my new fixed spool reel. I opted for Spectra Extreme Braid which appears to have been a good choice. I went for 60lb breaking strain to deal with the rigours of rocks and weed which has a diameter of 0.40mm. At £12.50 from Amazon for 500m its a bargain option and the only drawback is the month it took to arrive from China!

The Cod Father

After climbing down a steep cliff path in the dark and trudging along the base of a very high cliff with the surf lapping at my feet we arrived at a mark below kettleness on the North Yorkshire coast. My friend and mentor for the evening set up my gear, baited up for me with a mixture of crab and mussels and and cast out for me into the surf. The result was a cod of around 2lb, my first cod ever and a cod that has me hooked!

New Horizons

A friend of mine and very accomplished cod angler has offered to take me beach fishing tomorrow night. Luckily he's supplying all the kit so all I have to do is turn up and do as I'm told.
Watch this space!

DNA Baits

https://www.dnabaits.com/shop/

Fox Spikey Shad

After a bit of research I think I'll return to the method I used last year of twitching one of these in particular back along the bottom. I bought them in inch and a half length. I will be trying jigheads of maybe 5g instead of 2g.... I'll keep you posted.

The Lure of Lures

With winter approaching its nearly time to hang up the carp rods and go in search of some predators. With this in mind I've been honing my light lure rod, I swapped my reel over to a lighter spinning reel loaded with 10lb braid and extended my lure box.
I think my old pal Jay is heading onto the River Swale in the next few weeks so I'll see if I can get away for the day with him.