We Have Moved To The North East Fishing News Site

Hi there,

The contents of this blog have been moved to a new site on the Whitby sea anglers domain entitles north east fishing news. All New posts will be made on the new domain which can be found by clicking here :

http://www.whitbyseaanglers.co.uk/north-east-fishing-news/

Sea Urchin Whitby

Sea Urchin was built in Whitby some 40 or more years ago. The boat is still going strong and now under the guidance of a very experienced local skipper is taking daily fishing trips from Whitby.

With fishing at a Whitby currently at a 10 year high and large amounts of all fish being landed including cod, what better time to take a fishing trip from Whitby. If its a great days angling with a friendly skipper your after then Sea Urchin is the boat for you.

Sea Urchin is licensed to carry five passengers and she is ideally suited to smaller fishing parties, be it seasoned anglers, novices, families, all are welcome on either short three hour trips, six, eight, ten, or even. twelve hour trips,
Working seven days a week on a 20 mile cop from Whitby, your skipper (Mick) along with all the modern electronics will do his darned best to get you on the fish,

For details of fishing trips, wildlife watching on an evening and pleasure trips at Whitby please visit the sea urchin page on the Whitby sea anglers website by clicking here.

Holderness coast fishing well again for smoothound, bass and codling.

Well known Holderness angler Chris Mack hit the shore again this week and made some exceptional catches of smoothhound, bass and codling. Results for the nights fishing was :

Macky = 13 hounds to 9lb 1oz and a 3.5lb cod

Mark = 13 hounds and 2 bass

Please read more here - Holderness Smoothound fishing

Whitby fishing forum - hall of fame

The members of the Whitby fishing forum will now be competing for a place in the forum members hall of fame. The idea was thought up by local angler and forum moderator Ray Maddison (aka Ramrod) and sees anglers who report their catches on the forum finding their way into a hall of fame on the main site of the Whitby sea anglers.

There are several categories with top ten places for bass, cod, pollock, coalfish, and flounder caught from the shore. To enter the forum members much catch weigh and photograph a fish from the shore then report there catch in the forum.

At the moment Chris Mack (macky) is leading the bass section of the hall of fame with his personnel best 8 pounds bass caught from a mark on the Holderness coast. The cod section is currently being led by Tim Wright (aka Ringer) from Staithes with his personal best cod of 8 pounds caught from the beach at Runswick bay. In thye flounder section young Jay Kilpatrick from Whitby is setting the pace with his first ever flounder, a fine fish weighing well in excess of 1 and a half pounds.

To read the forums hall of fame please visit :

http://www.whitbyseaanglers.co.uk/hall-of-fame.php

Current leader in the bass section Chris Mack



Jay Kilpatrick with his pb flounder



Tim Wright with his Runswick caught cod

New bye-law means anglers must have permit to collect peeler crabs

A new bye law has been introduced by the north eastern sea fisheries committee (NESFC) under which individuals must now have a permit to be able to collect velvet crabs for use as bait.

Members of the Whitby fishing forum are astounded by the new law and have expressed deep concern at the withdrawal of their right to collect some baits from the shore without the need for a permit.

Rob q from the whitby fishing forum says :

If that is true as you say, it will have a massive impact on NE anglers, It was bad enough losing the right to use edible peelers legally. They got it right in the article when they mention the law being "sneaked in through the back door" !!
We are not allowed to collect a few crabs for bait for our own personal use, as has been done by generations before, whilst the french pair trawlers hammer up and down every day within view of the same foreshores depleting our inshore fish stocks

To read all the comments on the new crabbing bye law please visit this link :

NESFC - PEELER CRAB LICENCE

Whitby Scars

After hearing about my mate Paul Lobley's encounter with a big bass whilst fishing at Cowbar cliffs I headed out onto a local rock mark at Whitby scars in search of a bass. For the first 3 casts of the night the rod never even moved - not a sniff, so I had a little walk further towards Whitby. Due to limited time I only had 2 more casts and both resulted in good sized flounder but no bass - maybe my theory of the bigger bass frequenting the shallow rock marks is wrong, or perhaps I need to try at different states of tide.



Whilst returning to the car I noticed the Whitby inshore lifeboat heading into Saltwick corner near Saltwick nab so I stopped and watched for a while. I first I thought they were practising but then noticed they had picked 3 lads up off the rocks at the back of Saltwick scars. Judging by the tide state its is my guess they must have been stuck there since low water this morning which would have been around 10am. With the time when I saw them being 7 PM they must have been stuck in the back of there for some time - How frightening, especially with the swell in the water as it was today.

Small Boat Fishing In The Whitby Area

Small Boat Fishing - Article Kindly Submitted By Steerser From The Whitby Fishing Forum

I have been involved with boat fishing most of my life, but it wasn't till 1998 that I decided to get a boat of my own in partnership with my brother.

It was a locally built double ender in reasonable condition with a 8hp engine
We only had a few short trips in this boat before we realised that this boat wasn't what we wanted. It was a good little boat for working crab pots within a mile or so of the harbour, but no good for angling.

A lad from Staithes had just bought an Orkney 520 which is a 16 foot grp fishing boat, with a 25hp yamaha outboard on it, a lovely little boat that was capable on a good day of around 20mph..the lad was doing very well in this little craft and was beating everybody else hands down.

That was the type of boat we needed, so after a few weeks of scanning the classifieds, we found an orkney fastliner for sale for £3000. The fastliner is like the big brother of the 520 it's 19 foot 6 long and and can take an engine upto a maximum of 60hp. the boat was in a coal yard in swansea and had been stored there about three years,or so, it was in a bit of a state cosmetically, but structurally it was like new. There was no engine or controls with the boat so that was the next step.

Someone had told us about contract outboards, these are engines that are leased to the RNLI, they are used for a couple of years and are then returned to the manufacturer to be sold off. in my opinion this is the best way to buy an engine, other than a brand new one, as they are regularly serviced and have very low hours on them. we got one of these engines, a three year old 40 hp mariner for £1300 with controls, cables ,fuel tank and fuel lines adding another £250 on, we had boat that was capable of fishing upto 10 miles to sea .

Next on the agenda was electronics..an echo sounder and gps are essential if you are planning on fishing the wrecks.
you can fish over wreckage with just a gps, but you will lose a serious amount of tackle if you can't see what's under you.
After a trip to redcar fish company (marine electronics shop) we came home with a lowrance sounder a Raymarine chart plotter and an Icom vhf radio, a vhf is essential for keeping contact with other boats and the coastguard. by law you are required to have a licence to operate a vhf radio.
most vhf sets these days are dsc (digital selective calling) sets, they can be connected to your gps so if ever you are in a life threatening situation you can press the red emergency button and the coastguard, and other boats will know yor exact position..

A trip to Coates Marine in Whitby, for flares, life jackets, an anchor some chain and a compass and that was us up and running.

Wrecking

There are hundreds of wrecks along this section of the coast, some are huge and largely intact, others are no more than a big pile of wood.that are there some days and then you can't find them as they've been buried in sand. when we first started fishing the wrecks all our tackle was heavy duty... 50lb class rods big reels and 50lb+ braid, we soon realised that this type of gear is overkill ...alright if your'e fishing for large conger, common skate or porbeagle sharks.. but for inshore wrecks round here a 20/30lb rod with similar poundage line is more than adequate. I use a 20lb class shimano beastmaster coupled wth a penn 320ld when I am wrecking I've a had big ling and triple shots of cod on and never had a problem..
Wreck fishing is only possible on slack tides anything above a 5 meter and it's too big.
The main species on the wreckage around here are ling, cod, pollock and pouting, but monkfish, wolffish, and conger are not unknown on the inshore fishing grounds off Whitby.. best results for us have been from bait fishing for ling using BIG mackerel baits but pirks and muppets can be just as good at times.

Uptiding

Uptideing is my favourite way of boat fishing it's basically beachcasting from an anchored boat in less than 50 feet of water, but with shorter rods (9 foot 6 to ten foot) reels like the slosh 30, penn 535 or abu 7000 with 20lb mono mainline are ideal.
Although it is called uptideing it doesn't really matter where in the tide you cast, but you must let out a big bow of slack line so that the tide can pull your grip lead into the ground.
traces are similar again to the ones you would use for shore fishing, with hook sizes dependant on what species you are targeting.
We have had some good trips in late summer fishing in the soft ground for thornbacks with big hooks and big mackerel baits with fish up to 14lb..but it's winter when this type of fishing comes into it's own...for codlings mussel, squid ,rag, lug, peeler will all catch fish ..



Another small boat owned by Whitby Fishing Forum Member Tim Wright (aka Ringer) from Staithes



For Other Articles On Small Boat Fishing Around Whitby Please Visit The Links Below.

Ringer And Steerser Boat Fishing At Port Mulgrave

Ringers Boat - Boat Fishing At Staithes

Things Not Improving For George Metcalf The New Skipper Of Whitby's Chieftain Charters

A BBC report of Boat fishing out of Whitby with George Metcalf on his new boat chieftain charters portrays a pretty sorry state of affairs for the of shore fishing grounds at Whitby.

The BBC Radio Cleveland's Rob Barlow joined other anglers on chieftain charters for a 36 hour trip with the offshore fishing specialist Mr Metcalf. The BBC reporter appeared to have a bad experience suffering from sea sickness for most of the trip and then catching little if any fish.

Rob Barlow says

All though I did see fish being caught, we had to be 70 miles out in order to find them and from what George revealed to me it's getting worse year by year.

In an attempt to explain the poor fishing Barlow reports that skipper metcalfe says :

"The main problem with the cod crisis in the Northeast and further a field is the super-trawlers' towing massive small-mesh nets.

"Although the main intention of these trawlers is to catch sand eels, everything else in the path of the nets is taken. This targets the same species that the fish, seabirds, and marine mammals rely on for survival.

"This takes all the food away for the cod - how can they survive if there is nothing in the sea for them to eat?"

I think it is quite sad that the offshore grounds at Whitby are still suffering from a lack of cod, this must be even harder for the boats working the waters to take given the recent resurgence of cod fishing on the inshore grounds within 10 miles of the coast at Whitby, especially as in very recent times most of the Whitby charter fleet have been reporting fantastic fishing within site of land.

You can read Rob Barlow's full report of his Whitby offshore boat fishing experience at the link below:

BBC On Whiby Chieftain Charters

North East Kayak Fishing - First Cod For Ray On His Maiden Voyage.

Scarborough angler Ray Maddison finally got afloat at the weekend in his new kayak. Along with fellow Whitby fishing forum member Iain sellers Ray fished out of Flamborough underneath the cliffs at Bempton. Between the 2 anglers they managed 15 cod the biggest being just short of 7 pounds. To read more about Ray and Iains Kayak fishing adventures off the Yorkshire coast please visit their kayak fishing topic in the whitby fishing forum by clicking here

Scarborough Sea Fishing - Cloughton Angling Club First Summer Match

Cloughton Rock Angling Club held the first of their summer matches on Monday night. Catches were excellent with most anglers managing to locate the codlings. Chris Scaife from Filey just back from fishing in the states came in first with 6 codlings for 14 pounds closely followed by Mick Chadwick in second with 4 cod for 14 pounds. Scarborough's jeremy robinson took third with 3 cod for just short of nine pounds.

Full report available in the Whitby Fishing Forum Here.

Bass Fishing At Sandsend Car Park

A well known Whitby Angler has caught one of the first decent bass from the area this year. Fishing from Sandsend car park Alan tempted the bass on a ragworm and peeler cocktail fishing at medium range. The bass weighed 4 pounds 1 ounces and is the biggest I have heard of in the Whitby area this year. To read more about Alan's Sandsend Car Park Bass and see more pictures please visit the Whitby fishing forum By Clicking Here

Where To Fish At Boulby

Whitby Fishing Forum Member Dav Says

I'm thinking about targetting boulby area quite alot in the up n coming winter , so im planning on doing alot of recce work down there during the summer , sussing the ground out good and proper , especially during spring tides , etc , ive fished it a few times , but ive never really sussed it out as every time i get down there i just want to fish the first good looking gulley i see , i want to study it that much i want to be able to be confident enough to make the descent and ascent in the dark hopefully ... is there any regulars who fish alot at boulby, post on this site ? that are willing to advise on this particular area.

To read the Replies please click the link below.

Boulby Fishing - A Guide To Fishing At Boulby - Including Boulby Gulley, White stone, Boiler Hole And Hummersea.

Small Boat Fishing From Staithes

Whitby Fishing Forum Member Tim Wright from Staithes has been taking some excellent catches from his small boat. Tim says they use Jiggers, hokeyes, shads and leadheads to catch some decent cod and pollock from the fishing grounds off staithes. Fishing with several friends over the past few weeks Tim has had some truly great catches. Fishing the marks in the Staithes, Boulby and Port Mulgrave area Tim Says.

Sailed out from staithes yesterday for an hour. Caught 10 codlings all around the 4lb mark and a pollock that weighed 5lb.it gave one hell of a scrap and crash dived for the bottom several times.all codlings kept but released the pollock to fight another day.most fish were taken on leadheads and over half of them were full of pipefish.

The fruits of our labour today.Went off with steerser and his cousin on their boat today.fished from 4pm until 5.45pm.we fished half a mile off port mulgrave.all fish between 3lb and 5lb.never caught any on shads.most were taken on pirks with the odd one taking muppets.caught roughly 6 stone.only species caught were codlings.not a pipe fish in sight or in their mouths/stomachs.

To read more about Tim's boat fishing exploits please visit the whitby fishing forum at the links below.

Port Mulgrave Boat Fishing

Staithes Boat Fishing Report

Cos Crisis ? What Cod Crisis ?

Cod Crisis ? What Cod Crisis ? These were the words of sea otter 2 skipper Paul Kilpatrick recently. After experiencing an excellent start to the boat fishing season at Whitby Paul says :

Over the last couple of months ths cod fishing of whitby has seen some dramatic developments with catches of cod suddenly booming things are on the up and up even the local trawlers have been getting some very large catches

Cod Crisis ? What cod crisis - Click to read more.

North East Kayak Fishing, Whitby, Scarborough, Filey

I'm probably putting myself in the firing line knowing you lot but all being well I'll be collecting my Ocean Prowler 13 Angler kayak on Saturday from Robin Hood Watersports. Iv,e been trying to get everything sorted these last couple of weeks. Got myself a spinning rod...........................




Read More - North East Kayak Fishing From Whitby, Scarborough And Filey.

Paul Kilpatrick Whitby Charter Skipper Criticises The National Federation Of Sea Anglers Over Their Stance On Bag Limits For Sea Anglers

Local charter skipper Paul Kilpatrick has spoken out in opposition to the NFSA who say they are in favour of the Priniciple of bag limits for sea anglers. In reponse to this statement by the NFSA

Re : Bag Limits - The NFSA will therefore support the concept of bag limits where it is part of a balanced campaign to conserve or improve a specific fish stock or stocks. For the avoidance of doubt we will oppose such proposals where controls are placed solely on anglers whilst other users have free access to fish stocks important to sea anglers.

The Sea Otter 2 Skipper says

There is one thing for sure the NFSA wont get 1 pence out of me bag limits which planet are these idiots on.

Please visit the Whitby Fishing Forum To Read More.

Yorkshire Division Of The National Assocition Of Sea Anglers To Reform

The Yorkshire branch of the National Federation Of Sea Anglers is to reform. After a meeting on the 30th April 2007 at the Scarborough sea anglers social club it was decided there was enough interest to reform the Yorkshire regional division of the NFSA.


Read More Here

National Federation Of Sea Anglers - Yorkshire Division

I attended the NFSA Regional meeting tonight at the anglers social club in Scarborough. The turn out was pretty decent (better than I expected I must say). With no exact agenda other than looking at the potential for reforming a regional division of NFSA I felt things went ok. It was good to see the 2 reps from NFSA travel over and put the view point of the NFSA across on the Licence and Bag Limits issues.

Re : Licence - The NFSA position is to oppose the principle until significant improvements in the sea angling experience are recognised.

Re : Bag Limits - The NFSA will therefore support the concept of bag limits where it is part of a balanced campaign to conserve or improve a specific fish stock or stocks. For the avoidance of doubt we will oppose such proposals where controls are placed solely on anglers whilst other users have free access to fish stocks important to sea anglers.

Info On Bag Limits And Licences From :

http://www.nfsa.org.uk/news/2007-03-05.htm

Communication between the NFSA and anglers in the region was raised as an issue and the gents at the table said they hoped to improve that in the future.

Please read full article at NFSA In Yorkshire

Fishing With Shads

Shads arent expensive at £3.50 for a pack of 6 that is just under 60p each and some dys you can fish all day with just one shad plus the catch rates on them far outweigh most other lures including pirks which are far more expensive.

Read More On Fishing With Shads Here

Whitby Boat Fishing - Pollock On Shads

28th April 2007

Cod And Pollock to double figures on sea otter 2

The Whitby Charter skipper Paul Kilpatrick is reporting excellent fishing at Whitby again with Pollock now beginning to show. Saturday the 28th April 2007 saw one of Paul's Anglers catch this fine double figure Pollock using a shad

Click Here For More Updates On Boat Fishing At Whitby

Recent Topics In The Whitby Angling Forum

Coalfish Showing In Good Numbers

Robert Goodwill MP Speaks Against Fishing Licences

Parts of the governments white paper refers to the introduction of a sea angling licence. I am firmly against the introduction of such a licence. In particular I am concerned that this may have serious effect on the charter fishing which takes place out of ports like Whitby. If A day fisherman had to buy a licence for £25, and it was the only days fishing he would have in that year, it would be a real disincentive for clubs and organisations to organise fishing trips for their members.

Pollock Fishing In The Whitby Area

I think if you spin off the end of long hole who knows just what you might encounter in the summer months pollock must be favourite but i am sure you might get a big surprize and get a few cod you are straight into deep water there.

Fund Raising For Whitby East Pier Bridge Replacement

Talking to a friend the other day and he suggested that we shoud try and raise funding to replace the bridge on the east peir i think i will to have to speak to somebody in sbc

Fishing At Boulby

anyway thought ide break the silence with a question .im thinking about targetting boulby area quite alot in the up n coming winter , so im planning on doing alot of recce work down there during the summer , sussing the ground out good and proper , especially during spring tides , etc , ive fished it a few times , but ive never really sussed it out as every time i get down there i just want to fish the first good looking gulley i see , i want to study it that much i want to be able to be confident enough to make the descent and ascent in the dark hopefully ... is there any regulars who fish alot at boulby, post on this site ? that are willing to advise on this particular area , every time ive been down there i always fish to the bottom and the right in them gulleys , never been to the left as yet , heard theres a mark called white stones , ? is it very recognisable , ie big white stones etc

Boat Fishing For Cod

went off on boat tonight for half an hour.used jiggers and was fishing between 40 and 60ft of water.plenty of billets and 3 nice codlings.biggest was around 6lbs.couple of other boats out earlier this morning from staithes also had codlings on jiggers.one lad had 3 on the same drop.gonna go in morning for a couple of hours.

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North East Kayak Fishing

Hi Just a quick post to let you know about a great new article on the Whitby sea anglers site.

North east kayak fishing is an article all about kayack fishing in and around north yorkshire. The article was kindly written by Iain Sellers of Scarborough AKA quint from the Whitby fishing forum

North East Kayak Fishing

Trot On In The Whitby Angling Festival

Rather than starting another topic ill stick this here.

Local Junior angler Dan Craig sure had a "grand" day out on Paul Eddon's Charter Boat Trot On in this years Spring boat fishing festival at Whitby. Dans catch, a ling of almost 15 pounds made him the youngest winner to date of any of the Whitby Angling Festivals, and earned him the first placed prize of £1000 for the biggest fish caught in the event.



Dan (centre) is Pictured Here receiving his prize money from (left to right) Paul Kilpatrick Chairman of the Whitby charter skippers association(also representing stagecoach supertram the festivals main sponsors from Sheffield), Mark Stringer of local firm Buildings Ltd, Mike Clarkson of MC Electrical services, and Paul Eddon skipper of the winning boat Trot On.



Above : Dan Craig with his winning Ling from Trot on charters.

The winning boat owned and skippered by Paul Eddon is a 105 offshore class and with 430 horse power under the deck is capable of up to 25 knots.

Anyone interested in booking a trip with Paul can contact him on 01947 821694 or 07766995847, or by email at : pauleddon@yahoo.co.uk



The Whitby Charter Skippers Festivals are sponsored by :

Stagecoach Supertram
Mc Electricals
Buildings Limited
The Fleece Public House
The Ship Inn
Arbutts Cafe
Mister Chips
And The George Hotel

Details of the sponsors can be found here : http://www.wcsa.co.uk/sponsors.php

Whitby Fishing Forum - Recent Topics

The Whitby fishing forum is now growing ever more popular and each week sees more members signing up and guests reading the posts increasing daily. The forum is not only about fishing at Whitby but also about all types of fishing (course, game and sea) all around the north east. With the forums members now debating new topics on a daily basis the forum just gets more and more interesting.

Whitby Fishing Forum

Amongst the popular topics within the Whitby fishing forum this week are :


Kayak Fishing Under Bempton Cliffs - Forum Member quint says

I took my kayak and tucked under cliff about 300 yards off opposite the high water mark boiler - had 5 fish all 2 to 3lb mark and a smattering of billets

Whitby's MP Robert Goodwill Speaks About Proposed Fishing Licence

I agree. If this is seen as just another stealth tax there will be tremendous resentment among recreational fishermen, but if they see that there are some concrete benefits their attitude might change.

Peeler Crabs For Sale At Scarborough Tackle Shop

Scarborough Castle foot tackle shop has 500 fresh peeler crabs if any one is interested. The largest is of average size, most are dogs and they are 70p each.

North East Kayak Fishing

Hi all .....

I run the website www.kayakfishing.co.uk and am based in Kingston Upon Hull. We regularly from marks off Withernsea, Bridlington, Flamborough, Cayton Bay, Whitby ..etc ...

Its nice to see another fishing related website covering our area. Do any of you lads use kayaks for fishing or is it more shore and ledge based fishing.

Hornsea RNLI Open - Turned Into A Debate On Catch And Release

"murder matches" Should be a thing of the past!

be it cod, yting hounds, skate etc.

How long is it going to be before a match is runb that just so happens co-insides with a big run of hounds.
on a good day on the hounds u can get 15-20 fish between 6-12lb
and if 160 anglers all caught 5 hounds, thats 800 hounds slaughtered for what.......pot bait!.

same goes for cod,yting.

Reel Review - Abu 6500 C3 CT

Well now Ive looked I dont know which one I mean appears to be so many 6500's from Abu these days.

6500 C3Ct florida orange
6500 CT Chrome Rocket
6500 CT Mag High Speed
6500 CT Mag
Premium 6500 CT
6500 CS Mag

Are they all that same crappy side plate material. Paul you know I dont pay over much attention to my reels and these things corrode like shit if you dont really look after them - which I know I wont. I need one with brass side plates like the 7000 syncro that Dav uses or like the 7500 c3.

Which Spinning Rod ??

Daiwa Whisker 9ft, shimano solstace, greys 10 ft grx 15 gr to 60 gr, daiwa alltmor-s 7gr to 40gr,
shimano sustain 4000 fd, dinky 7ft sr 842-2 glx rated at 1gr to 9gr

Ramrod Says :

Can anyone recommend a good spinning rod to buy? I don,t want to spend a fortune but at the same time I don,t want a stick of rhubarb either

Local Angler Dan Craig Wins Whitby Fishing Festival On Paul Eddon's Boat Trot On

Whitby club Junior member Daniel Craig has gone into the lead of the Whitby charter skippers Spring boat fishing festival with a Ling of almost 15 pounds caught from Paul Eddons Boat Trot On.

Filey Brigg Fishing Club New Website

Just a quick update to let you know that I have redisgned the filey fishing club website on the behalf of the lads at the club.

To take a look at the new site please visit.

www.fileybrigganglingsociety.co.uk

Mackerel Fishing At Whitby

The Main Summer Species At Whitby Are The Mackeral

Mackerel is the main summer species for anglers at Whitby. It has to be one of the most enjoyable species to catch. Warm summer evenings spent on Whitby's piers can produce decent catches of mackerel for all anglers. The shoals often arrive in June and stay right through the summer.

Please click here to read more about mackerel fishing at Whitby

Rod Review Century ttr, zziplex vmax f1 reelsport response

Rod Review -
Century TTR,
Zziplex Vmax f1 or
ReelSport Response.

currently on review over in the Whitby fishing forum are the rods listed below from reelsport, ziplex and centuary. If you want to read about the rods or add your opinion -

Centuary TTR, Zziplex V max f1 or Reel Sport Response

Then why not head over to our forum and join
the debate.

http://www.whitbyseaanglers.co.uk/forum/index.php

Season Over

Well after 6 months of match fishing twice a week the Whitby Sea Anglers Association winter league finally came to an end on the 28th March. Its funny how as you get older you notice things pass by a lot faster. I know I'm relatively young having not reached 40 just yet, but you do get to wondering how many more seasons you can get up and down those cliffs - I hope I'm still going strong like my old mate Whacker Atkinson whose up and down the cliffs like a mountain goat still - at the age of 65.

This season has been rather special for me as I actually managed to achieve a long time goal of mine to finish top of the league. After fishing the club for 10 years now I thought it might never happen but this year I finally managed it. I remember emailing Scottish international angler Steve Souter a couple of times and asking for a few tips on match fishing. Amongst a lot of things he told me was "you need a hyde like a rhino lad" - "The more fish you get the more people will be on your case". Well that certainly was true. I managed to locate a couple of fishing marks where I could scratch out a whiting or 2 (and sometimes a dozen) on the calmer nights when I knew some of the other lads would struggle for a fish if the whiting never came to the beaches at Whitby. I remember the first time I put them on the scales - All the hardline cod anglers turned up their noses and I could hear comments of "bloody whitings" floating around in the background. Being quite a sensitive person it felt pretty bad and at times I must admit I felt like not fishing at all and walking away from the club. But those words of Steve's stuck in my mind and so did his advice of "make an achievable goal and go for it - and don't be put off by others". Its a fishing club not a cod club I said to myself and so I continued.

Next came the enquiries about where I was catching the whiting from. I couldn't go bait digging or pleasure fishing without enduring endless questioning from 2 people in particular as to where I was catching my fish on the calmer nights. I managed to dodge the questions and refused to speak to them about the matches.

Through the early part of the season up till Christmas I had some great catches. Luck had played its part and I'd even managed a 10 pounder in a bag of 5 fish weighing 19 pounds from from one of my favourite marks. When the sea was rough I fished for the cod and when it was calm whitings were the target. Christmas came and went and I thought that might be the end of the better catches as things go down hill usually in the new year. But that wasn't to be the case this year and at the end of January I was struggling back up the cliffs with my heaviest bag of the season - 5 cod (all of a similar size) for 23 pounds in total - a bag which was to later turn out to be the heaviest caught throughout the season by any angler in the club. Not bad for a whiting angler - I thought to myself.



On the following Sunday one of the whiting venues I'd been using was discovered by the lads who had interrogated me many times over the season. "found you" came the shout from a grinning face as their car pulled up a matter of seconds behind mine. The 2 year game of hide and seek was finally over. As we got onto the pier question after question came about where to cast, what bait to use. It was the 4th February and I had a 50 pound lead, so I didn't worry to much although one of the lads who had found me was the lad in second place. Comments of "were gonna catch you up" although said tongue in cheek did knock me out of my stride a little but I still managed 10 pound of fish that night whilst they only managed 4 between them.

As we headed into March I still had the 50 pound (and a bit more) lead I had had at Christmas and although I had been worrying about being caught up I felt with a month to go I was about home and dry. Through March I went on and fished well, infact I was very pleased as I often catch nothing at all in this month. I managed almost 30 pounds in total this month also getting the heaviest bag of the month at 12 pounds and the heaviest fish of the month at around 6 pounds. In the end I finished 75 pounds ahead of the next person behind me.

Needless to say I was over the moon at finally winning. As I said to myself in November (and every other month) when a certain few were making things difficult because I was targeting whitings. This will probably be the last season I will compete 100% in the fishing club. I will still be there next year as there are some good mates who also fish and I would miss the social side of things with them if I didn't fish, but I wont fish as often and on those calmer nights Ill probably stay home rather than take stick for catching whiting - I wont be competing to win from now on, just enjoying the fishing.

I have set myself another goal now and that is to start fishing the local open matches a lot more - something I've never done. Although I don't expect to win if I can get up there amongst the top 3 in the odd one I will be more than happy.

Well that's another season over. It's the presentation dinner this month and I have 3 trophies to collect - Heaviest bag, Most fish and League winner. Not bad for a whiting angler if I say so myself.

Now its off to collect the bait for next years fishing.

Fishing Port Mulgrave

Information On Fishing At Port Mulgrave can be found on the following page:

Cod Fishing At Port Mulgrave

Boat Fishing At Whitby

I have just added a new page to our Website entitled Boat Fishing At Whitby.

Please Visit this link to read more :

http://www.whitbyseaanglers.co.uk/whitby-boat-fishing.php

Late Winter Storms At Whitby

Thought some of you mike like to see the pics of the rough seas at Whitby on the 20th March 2007. With the biggest tides of the year coinciding with strong northerly winds and a deep low pressure over the north sea it was always going to be a rough few days. I understand some of the houses in Church street were flooded as the river broke its banks. The beach huts on the west cliff were also smashed to pieces and dragged into the sea. Having a couple of weeks off work I managed to get into town with my camera and took these pics.

Funny How It Goes

Isn't it funny how things turn out sometimes. Take our fishing match on the 21st March this year. With the match being fished from 90 mins after high tide to 2 hours before low tide on the largest ebb tide of the year I felt chances of cod were pretty slim with my best chance being from 9 until 10 pm (the last hour of the match) at Boggle hole. I arrived at Boggle at 6.30 and had a quick look at the conditions, the high seas of the previous 2 days were now subsiding and conditions looked near perfect, but with the mark I wanted to fish inaccessible until around 8.30 I had to find somewhere else to fish and pass the first 90 mins of the match. I decided to head back into Robin Hoods Bay and fish one of the marks up there so I set off on foot and arrived there about 6.55pm. I baited and cast into the heaviest coloured water I had seen at Bay in some years. The storms of Monday and Tuesday had really given the bottom a good stir up and the conditions looked good. Thinking I had little chance of a fish at this state of tide at this mark I propped the rid in the rest and set about passing time until I could get to where I felt there would be fish later in the evening. No sooner had I put the rod in the rest I had a tiny bite - Undersized codlings I thought to myself (there has been so many of them about this year). I picked the rod up and stood with it for a while. A few seconds later I felt a slightly better bite and wound down - as I did so the rod pulled right over and as I struck I knew I was into a half decent fish - As it landed next to me I could see it was a nice cod of around 3 pounds. Looked at the watch and it was 5 mins past 7. Only five minutes of the match gone, what a start I thought to myself.

I quickly added a few more worms to the pennel rig and cast it back in. Again within minutes another bite which ended with another cod of around 3 pounds in the bag. The same happened again twice more and by 7.40 I had 4 three pounders in the bag, but by this time the water in front of me was getting rather low. I cast back in and struggled for a bite for about 15 minutes. Just as I was thinking the bait must be about high and dry (the big tides ebb out fast on the shallow marks around here) the rod went over again, the fish must have swam with its back half out the water to get at the bait. As I struck I felt the fish was on but immediately the line went light and I knew I had dragged the bait out of the fishes mouth. When I got the trace back I noticed the bottom hook of the pennel had entangled with the top hook and was upside down which had meant there was nothing for the fish to get caught on. I wish I had a pound for everytime this happens with a pennel rig.

Realising it was pointless to cast back in I headed out onto the scars at Robin hoods bay, but after a couple of casts I realised the fish had vacated the area and as it was about 8.45 it was now time to head into boggle hole. Having got 4 fish in the bag already and now going to the place I was most confident about before the match began I now fancied I had a good chance of another couple of fish and taking the bag weight over 20 pounds. I got cast in around 9pm and immediately my line was heavy with loose weed (it can really be a problem at this venue). Needless to say I spent most of the next hour casting back in and suffering the same problem of weed on the line meaning it was impossible to fish. I never got another fish. I got to the weigh in at Whitby and weighed the 4 fish I caught early on for a total of 12 pounds.

In analysing the nights fishing I thought to myself - Funny how things turn out at times. Id ended up with 4 fish from somewhere I thought I hadn't got a chance and the mark I thought was a banker produced a blank.

Test Post - Filey Brigg Sea Angling Society

Trial run for Filey Brigg Angling Society. Below is a new picture of my 13 year old nephew with his personal best fish,a fine cod of 6lb 2oz.This fish was located at a mark in Robin Hoods Bay on a medium Northerly Sea with plenty of colour in the water.

Shark Fishing At Whitby

http://www.seaspraywhitby.co.uk/sharks.htm

Traditionally boat anglers at Whitby have targeted mainly cod, however a recent research article undertaken by The North Eastern Sea Fisheries Committee has suggested that Whitby along with other north east coast ports could benefit from a diversification of fishing methods to target species of shark living off our coast. One of the first Whitby Skippers to try such fishing methods with any level of success has been Malcolm Pitman on his Whitby boat sea spray Charters.


To read more please go to this page about Whitby Shark Fishing.

Whitby Fishing Forum

Links To Interesting Topics In the Whitby Fishing Forum

Fishing Robin Hoods Bay

Strange Fish At Runswick

Runswick Personal Best For Tim

Lucky 7 For Lobley In St Marys

Port Mulgrave Report - Sea Angler

Fishing Cloughton Wyke

Creta Block

Sandsend Sewer Hole Cod

Cowbar Jetty

Storing Black Lug Worms

Fishing Hayburn Wyke

Runswick Beach Sea Fishing

3 Double Figure Shore Cod

Tope From The Shore

Uptiding At Whitby

Sea Otter 2 - New Website

http://www.sea-otter2.co.uk/index.php

Over the past few days I have re wrote the sea otter 2 website for Paul. The new site has some exciting new articles including one on shad fishing at whitby produced by boat fishing monthly. I intend to add some others in the coming months about various types of boat fishing including : Wreck fishing , shark fishing and Winter uptiding.
The site replaces the old one which was written in frames therefore giving it a low ranking in the search engines. Hopefully with the few on page optimisation tricks Ive applied the new sea otter 2 site should appear quite high in the search engine rankings.

The urls below are the urls for the new site. Please feel free to browse at your leisure and I hope you enjoy the site.

www.sea-otter2.co.uk/index.php

http://www.sea-otter2.co.uk/paul-kilpatrick-skipper.php

http://www.sea-otter2.co.uk/sea-otter-2-charters.php

http://www.sea-otter2.co.uk/whitby-boat-fishing-gallery.php

http://www.sea-otter2.co.uk/contact-skipper.php

http://www.sea-otter2.co.uk/whitby-fishing-links.php

http://www.sea-otter2.co.uk/shad-fishing.php

http://www.sea-otter2.co.uk/monthly-catches.php

http://www.sea-otter2.co.uk/sponsored-by-shakespeare.php

Shad Fishing At Whitby With Paul KIlpatrick On Sea Otter 2

http://www.sea-otter2.co.uk/shad-fishing.php

I Called Paul for a chat about the general state of play regarding cod fishing out of Whitby, and I was pleasantly surprised by the response he gave me. Were catching plenty of fish here Dave, and I'm not steaming more than 3 miles outside the harbour!" Paul explained. " Come up and have a day out you will see it for yourself". "Oh and bring some light gear with you - something like an uptider, or a 12/20lb boat rod and a reel loaded with light braid... were using shads for them !!" he continued.

For more details on Whitby Boat fishing with Shads please visit :

Whitby Boat Fishing

How To Use Shads

Shad Fishing At Whitby

North east coast cod fishing picture archive.

http://www.whitbyseaanglers.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,166.0.html

I've been wanting to start a bit of an archive of sea fishing pictures from the north east taken other the last few decades. Up until recently I have been unable to find any at all. However forum member bassman has kindly sent me a few of his pics taken whilst fishing in Whitby and so I'm starting this thread to show them and hopefully encourage others to post up or send their pictures on so we can get a bit of an archive running.

















For more information please visit

Whitby boat fishing for cod

Fishing Hawsker Bottoms 27th Jan 2007

After a run of extreme bad luck for me (crashed the car whilst going fishing, snapped the tip of my rod, lost my bag off the cliff, lost my tiga headlight etc etc) things finally came right last Sunday night whilst fishing a mark near Hawsker bottoms at Whitby.

Our match started at 6pm and I fished a little gulley at the foot of the cliffs. After an hour with no bites I decided the mark was either empty or the strong crosswind was stopping me from fishing it properly as my gear was fast up on every cast. I pondered for a moment as to head into the gullies to my left (nearer the car - quicker to get away later in the evening) or to my right (one hell of a place to get back from at high tide and the tide was now rushing in). Remembering a fantastic catch by a fellow angler several years earlier in the same conditions I decided to go right. After 20 mins without seeing the rod twitch I thought "nothing here as well" When I started to wind in, just to confound my misery I was stuck fast), A couple of good pulls and my rotten bottom broke out but the rod was still bent over but I was retrieving line. Thinking it was weed I thought well what else can go wrong, then the weed kicked waking me up to the fact it was a fish that must have been laid on. I got it to the rocks below and picked it out, it was a nice fish of 6 pounds 8 ounces. Brilliant after going almost a full month without much to shout about I had one and a good one at that. Just makes you wonder how a 6 pounder can lay there and not move - bizarre but I have had 9 pounders do the same.
I cast straight back in with a bait I had prepared whilst watching the rod on the last cast. This time I had put different bait on the hook. After 20 mins nothing. I wound in dissapointed thinking there was only 1 fish there. Just to make sure I had a third cast with the same bait as the first cast - half a green peeler, 2 mussels and about a dozen small lugworm wrapped around a 6 o hook. Within minutes the rod lurched over and I was into another nice fish this time about 3-4 pounds. I unhooked it and wrapped a few more worms around the hook and cast straight back in. same thing happened again and with 5 mins I had another fish of about 5 pounds. Next cast same again but the fish came off half way in. Was the bait getting too big on the hook ?? bait up another and cast back in got 2 more fish to make a total of five. Next cast I lost another off half way in - again about 5 pounds. It was now getting late and it was nearly time to go. Just one more cast I thought hoping to get that 6th fish. After 15 mins the rod went right over again. I hit the bite but missed it so left it out for another 5 mins. Now I'm getting worried about missing the weigh in beacuse I've stayed longer than I should do. Just as I was going to wind in the rod goes again, but again I missed it. This time I had to go so wound in and set off back to the car. 45 mins later and after traversing rocks the size of houses I arrived back at the car then went onto the weigh in. I was absolutely kackered when I got back but glad my luck had finally returned, and somehow pleased I didn't get those extra fish - the bag was very heavy as it was when I climb up the 300 foot cliffs.

All in all not a bad night. Five fish for a weight of 23 pounds.

Whitby Sea Fishing Club - Results for January 2007

Wednesday 31st January 2007

A bright moonlit evening met the members of Whitby angling club as they headed out to fish their midweek match on an ebbing to low water tide. With a slight northerly swell in the water expectations of good catches were high but for some reason the fish did not show in the bigger numbers seen over the previous weekend. Paul Kilpatrick was the night's top angler with a single codling of 2 pounds 7 ounces, Bernado Vasey came in second with a codling and a rockling for 2 pounds 4 ounces, Brian Harland took third with 2 billets and a rockling for 2 pounds 1 ounces.

Results : 1st Paul Kilpatrick 2-7(1), 2nd B Vasey 2-4(2), 3rd B Harland 2-1(3), D Thompson 1-15(1), D Hansen jnr 1-12(1), D Perett 0-6(1).

Sunday 28th January 2007

A dieing northerly sea swell met the Whitby sea anglers as they turned out to fish their 4 hour Sunday night match fished on a small low water to flood tide. Catches were better than of late with 16 anglers weighing in a total of 31 fish mostly codling. Glenn Kilpatrick was the nights top angler with 5 fish for exactly 23 pounds. Glenn’s bag now leads the way in the heaviest bag of the season competition and beats his previous seasons best bag of 19 pounds 5 ounces caught back in December. Brian Harland came in second with 3 codling for 13 pounds 2 ounces. Dave Perret took second place on the night with 4 codlings for 12 pounds 11 ounces.

Results: 1st Glenn Kilpatrick 23-0(5), 2nd Brian Harland 13-2(3), 3rd D Perett 12-11(4), P Kilpatrick 8-15(4), R Allison 6-13(3), D Thompson 5-10(4), A Cass 5-2(2), W Atkinso 4-15(2), D Smith jnr 3-7(1), T Wright 2-8(1), P Mead 2-1(1), A Kelly 1-13(1), D Waters jnr 1-12(1), B Vasey 1-11(1), J Gilpin 1-8(1), C Stainthorpe 1-7(1).

Wednesday 24th January 2007

A big north to north easterly sea swell met the Whitby sea anglers as they turned out to fish their weekly midweek match. Expectations of good catches were high after almost a month of flat calm seas, but as is often the case on the roughest nights the fish did not show in the numbers expected. Junior member Dan Craig continued his excellent season and came out on top in this match beating all the clubs senior members with a fine cod of 5 pounds 8 ounces. Rob Allison came in second with 2 codling for 4 pounds 13 ounces. Third place on the night went to Phil Mead with 1 cod for 4 pounds 5 ounces.

Results: 1st D Craig Jnr 5-8(1), 2nd R Allison 4-13(2), 3rd P Mead 4-5(1), D Hansen jnr 4-0(1), P Kilpatrick 4-0(2), D Perett 3-8(1), T Wright 2-8(1), A Craig 1-4(1), D Thompson 1-2(1).

Sunday 21st January 2007

Sunday saw 9 members of the Whitby sea angling club fish the bell trophy team event over in Scarborough. Fishing against teams from across the Yorkshire coast Whitby faired well coming in second only a few ounces behind the strong team fielded by Scarborough Rock Anglers Society. Five of the nine Whitby anglers managed to find fish. Colin Stainthorpe showed his knowledge of the Scarborough area coming in first with 3 codlings for 8 pounds 7 ounces. Paul Kilpatrick had a good day taking second with 2 fish for 7 pounds 3 ounces. Philip mead continues to find the single codling with 1 fish 1 pounds 12 ounces.

Results: 1st Colin Stainthorpe 8-7(3), 2nd P Kilpatrick 7-3(2), 3rd P Mead 1-12(1), W Atkinson 0-9(1), G Kilpatrick 0-8(1).

Wednesday 17th January 2007

A slight north westerly sea swell met the Whitby sea anglers as they turned out to fish their 3 hour midweek competition. This match was fished over low water which usually gives a good chance of catching codling from the scars and kelp beds which are exposed over the bottom of the tide. It was a great night for Colin Stainthorpe who caught a personal best cod of 10 pounds 5 ounces to win the match. Colin’s fish now takes the lead in the heaviest fish of the season competition narrowly beating Glenn Kilpatrick’s fish of 10 pounds 4 ounces caught on the 3rd of December. In second place was Rob Allison with a single fish of 6 pounds 8 ounces. Dave Perrett took 3rd place with 4 fish for 5 pounds 9 ounces.

Results: 1st Colin Stainthorpe 10-5(1), 2nd R Allison 6-8(1), 3rd D Perret 5-9(4), B Vasey 4-2(1), D Thomspon 2-10(2), P Mead 1-14, G Kilpatrick 1-1(1).

Sunday 14th January 2007

On a mild windy evening the Whitby sea anglers fished their 4 hour Sunday night match with a slight long distance northerly sea swell in the water. Twelve anglers returned to the scales with a selection of fish including codling, rockling, whiting and flounder. Glenn Kilpatrick managed 18 whiting to take 1st place with 14 pounds 2 ounces, Dennis Thompson took second with 3 codling and 4 rockling for 13 pounds 12 ounces. Paul Kilpatrick had 4 codling for 8 pounds 5 ounces to take third place.

Results : 1st G Kilpatrick 14-2 (18), 2nd D Thompson 13-12(7), 3rd P Kilpatrick 8-5(4), R Allison 6-10(1), W Atkinson 6-9(3), D Hansen 4-12(1), B Harland 4-9(4), D Perett 4-1(1), D Craig jnr 2-9(4), A Craig 2-7(5), C Stonethorpe 2-1(3), B Vasey 0-4(1).

Wednesday 10th January 2007

A moderate north westerly sea swell and coloured water gave good conditions for the Whitby sea anglers mid week match fished over high water. Catches were not quite as good as expected possibly due to the sea swell growing throughout the match. William Atkinson continued his good recent form and took 1st place with a mixed bag of 2 codling and 2 rocklings for 7 pounds 7 ounces. Rob Allison caught 3 codling for 6 pounds 14 ounces and came in second. Dave Perett came in third with 2 cod for 6 pounds 2 ounces. Dave had a rather unlucky night and could well have finished in first place as 2 fish he had caught earlier in the night were washed out of his bag never to be seen again by a wave.

Results : 1st W Atkinson 7-7(4), 2nd R Allison 6-14(3), 3rd D Perett 6-2(2), C Stainthorpe 4-15(1), B Harland 3-10(2), D Thompson 2-5(1), P Kilpatrick 1-13(1), P Mead 1-6(1), D Smith jnr 1-3(2),

Sunday 7th January 2007

On Sunday the Whitby Sea Anglers fished the annual Ship Inn Open match which also counted as their club match. Calm conditions meant the going was tough in this cod only match but anglers still managed to find the odd fish. Phil Mead had a great day and came in first in the Whitby club match with a fine cod of 9 pounds 6 ounces. Dave Perret took second with a codling of 1 pounds 15 ounces. Glenn Kilpatrick finished third with his codling of 1 pounds 9 ounces - Glenn also caught a ling of approximately 4 pounds which unfortunately he could not weigh in due to the cod only rule. Ling are very rare from the shore and this was possibly the first to be caught in the Whitby fishing club.

Results : 1st P Mead 9 pounds 6 ounces, 2nd D Perett 1-15(1), 3rd G Kilpatrick 1-9(1), P Kilpatrick 1-8(1), R Allison 1-6(1).

Ship Inn Open results to follow when I receive them from Paul.

Wednesday 3rd Januray 2007

A moderate north westerly sea swell provided good conditions for the Whitby sea anglers first match of 2007. The match was fished on an ebb to low water tide which can be very productive at this time of year. Berado Vasey had a fantastic nights fishing finding 4 cod for 15 pounds 4 ounces the biggest of which weighed 6 pounds 4 ounces. Bernado's bag and biggest fish set the pace in the clubs heaviest bag and fish competition for the month of January. Brian Harland took second place on the night with 2 fine cod for 10 pounds 3 ounces. Rob Allison finished 3rd with 3 cod for 7 pounds 11 ounces.

Results : 1st B Vasey 15-4(4), 2nd B Harland 10-3(2), 3rd R Allison 7-11(3), W Atkinson 7-8(3), G Kilpatrick 4-14(1), D Smith jnr 3-2(2), C Stainthorpe 2-13(1), D Perret 2-2(1), A Kelly 0-11(2), P Mead 0-7(1), J Gilpin 0-5(1).

St Mary's fishing club matches

Brian Miller caught a cracking 7lb 8.5oz cod in the St Mary's match - but it wasn't enough to earn a top three spot and he lost a bigger one.

The drama unfolded at Runswick beach where he caught the biggest cod of the match but lost the better one when his line parted after a 15-minute battle.

Paul Lobley won with seven codling for 14lb 12.5oz from Port Mulgrave, in a match fished by 18, with seven weighing in a total of 20 codling.

Terry Dalton was runner-up with four codling for 12lb 12oz from Runswick, while Darren Dalton caught four for 10lb 15.5oz from Port Mulgrave.

Paul Lobley says

I had 7 for 14lb odd mate, nowt like the stamp of fish you had Sunday mate, i only had one good fish 5.5lb the rest were mops, but, which im sick of saying now, i lost an absolute monster.
i was reading a post about the filey lads ,about a massive fish keeps getting the better of more than one angler or something, this has me thinking, that maybe i have hooked the same fish twice down port, the one that nearly took my eye out when the real handle snapped off, i just dont know, but what i do know is that i lost something special sunday night, i've had doubles down there, this was a real pig with fins, :'(i miss my TTR)

For more details visit

St Mary's fishing club - cleveland and yorkshire coast cod fishing