The Stray

Watching the surf forecasts at the beginning of the week it looked like a poor outlook for cod at the local hotspots so I decided to look closer to home for some smaller species. I have been promising myself a few sessions on the beaches close to Redcar in search of Bass and flatties. The stretch of beach between Marske and Redcar is known locally as The Stray and it was here that I turned my attention.
I opted for a Vercelli Besta coupled with an Akios Airloop R10 loaded with 30lb braid, on the business end was a pulley rig with a 20lb hook length and a size 1/0 hook loaded with peeler crab. As the surf was quite small I stuck with a 4oz lead. On reflection I reckon the hook link and pulley drop were a bit long, maybe more suitable for rays as a I missed a couple of unmissable bites.

I had reasonable success on what could have been difficult conditions, small surf and clear water. A school bass arrived on the first cast followed soon after by a flounder and finally a coalfish (known locally as billet.

Peeler Delivery

During all my struggles on the beaches, rocks and cliffs I've always been able to put my relative lack of success down to one reason or another.. lack of casting distance, inferior bait etc. One by one I've overcome each issue until I'm pretty much on a par with my peers and have no more excuses to hide behind. The last piece of the puzzle was having no peeler crab bait to use, this was seen off by Dan from the tackle shop who delivered 100 prime  frozen peeler for me.
I was out with my mentor last night on the rocks around Skinningrove and managed 2 barely legal sized codling (which both went back safely) to Martins 5 codling up to around 4 or 5lb. It was nice to be out in the wild weather but I just wish I could keep up!

Last Week

I was up on the cliffs last week, perched high above the north sea. The weather was good and the low pressure was sending down long lazy swells from the northern North Sea, so much so that the usually deserted car park was full of surfing fans after dark.
I baited up with cart wings, squid and mussel and cast out full of optimism... misplaced optimism! The result was about half a dozen rockling, a pouting and a small codling.
I had been inquiring at the tackle shop in Saltburn about gadgets to light up the rod tip, the lights I have at the moment are very bright but rely on a plastic clip that I'm never confident won't trap the line during a cast. After a brief discussion with Dan I bought some waggler adapters and pushed one over each end of a slim beta light then whipped the whole thing on to the rod tip. Its not as bright but will last indefinitely and are a much lower profile setup.