First Trip

The winter cod season has finally begun on the North East coast of England, I'm planning my first trip of the year on Sunday and I have a feeling the first cast of the winter will be off the cliffs.

Cart and Wings

A few years ago a secret escape from the Yorkshire cod fishing fraternity, a secret that still isn't widely known. The words cart and crab wings broke the surface but don't be too surprised if you still don't know what they are. In a nutshell crab wings are the sack like structures found in female edible crabs and cart is the loose contents of these sacks plus the eggs, also known as coral, which is frozen in to blocks. The wings and cart can be used on their own or in conjunction with other baits to create a cocktail. The idea of cart is that it's partly liquid and lays down a massive crabby scent trail, as such its best baited up still frozen.
The cart comes in blocks and needs to be cut in to sections and wrapped to allow the scent to leak out in a controlled manner, cling film is widely accepted as the best choice of material.
It would be fair to say that these 2 baits have revolutionised cod fishing in these parts but at £20.00 a kilo it does come at a price. I managed to get 35 to 40 decent sized baits to be fished as a cocktail with wings, worm, squid or mussel.

Winter Storms

Autumn is strengthening its grip on my part of the world with a series of storms coming in quick succession. I'm trying to see the positives in the turning of the year rather than regretting the lost opportunities caused by the changes. A metaphor for life maybe? I'm trying hard but its not always easy.
So what does the new season bring us? The cod will be following close inshore in the wake of the rough seas caused by the storms, as such I've stocked up on a freezer full of crab for bait. The colder weather also brings out the bigger perch and pike in the rivers and lakes. I only wish I had time to chase them all.

Bread Line

for a change I opted to fish the River Tees yesterday, a club stretch at low Dinsdale near Yarm in the pursuit of some chub. I had dried and liquidised some bread to use as groundbait and took a fresh sliced loaf to use as bait. Using a bread punch I managed a handful of chub up to just short of 4lb, great fun on light float tackle, a small grayling even turned up to provide something different.

As with all my trips I try and learn at least one lesson, yesterdays lesson was that a single loaf of bread will suffice for a trip, I prepared 3 loafs which was probably enough for a whole week on the river.
I think float fished maggots would be interesting on the same stretch to see if there are any more grayling lurking in the faster water.

A Busy Night

I grabbed the opportunity of an after work session on my local water last night and managed to bank 4 carp to 16lb 4oz, one of which came to a waggler rod, centre pin and 2lb hook link intended for perch. To say that it took a while to tame the lovely little mirror carp on such light tackle would be an understatement but I was amazed how much pressure I could apply and the fine control of the reel was a pleasure.
The perch showed up in large numbers but were generally very small.

Not Singing in the Rain

Its been a while since I've been on my local water so I dusted my carp gear off and headed for the reservoir. I selected a peg on the far side of the water facing into a stiff northerly breeze and set about dropping a bait down each margin and one out in front of me about 30yds out.
As darkness fell it started to rain and I had 2 bream to my tally and I was beginning to doubt my sanity, I'd missed a simply unmissable run and was coming to terms that that was my quota for the night. I had decided to start packing up at 10.00pm so it was a huge relief with 30 minutes to spare when my right hand margin rod screamed off.
I played what I thought was a decent fish for what seemed an eternity when finally my carp rolled on the surface and I slipped the net under it. I was amazed when the scales showed it was only slightly over 12lb because of the scrap it had put up. A beautiful long lean mirror carp and one to look out for in the future.
After the relief of my capture all that was left to do was pack up in the dark and the rain and head home.

Any Fish Anywhere, Six and Bait

During my cliff fishing last year it came to my attention that my pride and joy rod , Vercelli Besta, was quite up to the rigours of hauling fish through heavy weed or up cliff faces. With the new cod season looming I took a trip to see Dan at Keiths Sports in Saltburn to talk to him about a rod I almost bought last year. I came home with an 'Any Fish Anywhere' Six and Bait Mk 2 rod, I went for a 15 foot version for the simple reason of keeping me back a little bit further from the cliff edge when hauling fish up.
I have yet to try it but am really looking forward to coupling it with my Penn Battle reel and I'll let you know when I do, my plan is to use the Besta on cleaner venues and the Six and Bait for heavier work.