Whitby east pier - reply from councillour G Allanson

Pier pressure in finding the money for essential repairs

From: Coun G Allanson, Scarborough Borough Council, West Street, Muton, Filey.
I REFER to the letter from Mr Glenn Kilpatrick regarding East Pier, Whitby (Yorkshire Post, August 18).
In the letter, Mr Kilpatrick says that "the Borough Council always passes on the blame, saying that there is no budget for repairs".
I would like to reassure him, and your readers, that the council is not seeking to attribute blame in this matter. However, with some 14 km of coastal defence structures to maintain, it is not always possible to effect repairs or enhancements as quickly as we would all like.
The piers at Whitby are several hundred years old and there is no doubt that works are required.
However, the degree of funding required will be extensive and will require the support of National Government to deliver.
A recent bid by the council to Defra has not been successful and so the council will need to proceed in a prudent manner to see if other avenues for funding are available.
Mr Kilpatrick alludes to the coastal protection works at Scarborough. These works were carried out due to the fact that there was an imminent risk of failure of the defences and Defra funding was made available, without which there would have been little prospect.
The council is, as always, mindful of the needs of Whitby having spent many millions of pounds there over recent years.
It is proud of the town's heritage and status and will continue to pursue initiatives and schemes which will preserve and enhance the reputation of the town.

Tope Fishing - Fishing for tope at Bridlington and Flamborough

My fishing is a bit slow at the moment so I have little to post up onto the blog. The long term weather forecast is giving little in the way of autumn weather and so it looks like the rough seas we require for cod fishing from the shore may not materialise for a while yet. Its been one of the mildest and most settled Septembers I can remember. To be honest this is quite annoying, Im longing for a big northerly gale to fetch in those winter cod.
Anyway Although I have little post about my own fishing I was sent some pics and a report from Martin Wilding and Chris Scaife who have been fishing for Tope and Bass from their boat out of Flamborough which is down near Bridlington. I thought I would share the report and pics with you here.

Sunday 10th September 2006 - Tope Fishing

Scarborough angler Chris Scaife and his fishing partnet Mick went Tope fishing on Sunday, they had 9 in total, Chris had 5 and Mick 4, they also lost 3 more [dam cercal hooks ] all in about 4 hours. At one point it all got pretty hectic and Chris had 2 tope at once on one occasion [fishing 3 rods] shame it was the north of England cod champs that day as Chris would have liked to have fished that , but the temptation of bigger fish was too much. As you can see in one shot from a previous trip all thats neaded is a good egg beater spinning real and a spining rod

all thats neaded is a good egg beater spinning real and a spining rod

says Chris










Bridlington Tope Fishing - Sunday 24th September 2006

This weekend saw the conclusion of the Scarborough fishing festival but Chris Scaife, Martin Wilding and Jeremy Robinson Didn’t bother with the All-England match on Sunday – Instead they opted for the Brid tope option – They launched at South Landing around 0700, & wished for about an hour or so that they hadn’t bothered – a snidey North Easterly wind, bit of swell, rain & white horses while they had a troll for bass (Jeremy caught the only schoolie) made them think that it wasn’t going to be fit for topeing. They had a run across to one of new found marks and once they were past the shallowest bit, the conditions improved greatly, although mackerel were pretty well non-existent at the start, probably due to the strength (strong!!) of the tide. They eventually found a few near to where they were going to fish for tope, & as soon as they put the anchor & ruby-dubby bag in, then the mackerel found them … & there were literally thousands once the tide slackened a bit!!

Again, Chris and Martin thought the tide was running just a bit too hard for tope at the start, but as the flow started to slacken, Chris had a couple of bites. The first dropped the bait, but he made brief contact with the second – unfortunately his trace wire gave way…..shop-bought as well!! Then shortly after Jeremy had a run, missed it, but left the bait & it got taken again straight away. He eventually landed a very nice male tope of around 50lb – his first ever tope & after quite a few trips!! He got another about 25-30lb pretty soon after & that was it until after slack water.

A while after slack water, when they were about ready to give up, Martins uptider showed a real screamer of a run – he hooked it & despite pretty strong drag it just carried on running, & was getting within about 30yds of getting “spooled” when all went slack –

"I think the mainline (20lb mono) must have rubbed against something on the seabed!! I’m sure I didn’t have that much drag on to break the line!!"

says Martin.

That was the only chance they had on the flood, but they trolled 7 or 8 bass up on their way back in, biggest a nice 3lber to Chris.

Looks like a tope has had his teeth into this mackerel bait



Martin Wilding With 1 of Sunday's Tope



Jeremy Robinson from Scarborough with his first ever Tope - Approximately 50 pound - Not a bad start.



Thanks Go To Martyn, Chris, Mick and Jeremy for sending the report and pictures. Cheers lads keep them coming and good luck with the tope - Dave Brown reckons we have potential 80 pounders around here.

Sea Anglers Conservation Network

The Sea Anglers Conservation Network is an organisation for sea anglers similar to the National Federation of Sea Anglers. In my opinion the sacn is probably the best of the 2. Dealing with the issues of the moment and working towards improving the lot of the sea angler in the long term, sacn appear more visible in the world of conservation. Visit the numerous online forums and websites about sea angling or type the phrase sea angling conservation into any search engine and material from sacn wont be far away.
The Sea Anglers Conservation Network is headed up by Leon Roskilly whoose name you will find on every fishing related internet website, their work involves representing sea angling at a national level. Recently sacn was involved heavily in lobbying the government to introduce new legislation to increase the minimum size limit for bass. Their list of other involvements is endless, but you can find out all the latest news at their new website .
If your an angler interested in conservation, fed up of the current situation: fishless sessions, polution, restrictions denying you access to your favourite marks then the sacn website is the place to visit.
Membership of sacn is free, and signing up couldnt be easier so why not head on over to thier site and see whats on offer today.

Fishing Marks South Gare To Sandsend Cliffs

Port Mulgarve - Many Peoples Favourite Venue

PORT MULGRAVE is host to the next set of worthwhile fishing marks. The old harbour at the base of the cliffs is all but ruined now, but this is one of Yorkshires very best cod marks. Access is via the lane signposted Port Mulgrave from the A174. The path down is steep dangerous and a no go area for all but the super fit (or super mad) but the walk is well worth it with the winter cod fishing being betterd hardly anywhere in the country. Best tidal period is from half flood to half ebb from the inner jetty wall but as with all this coast there are also plenty of low water rock edges and gullies. Again the favoured baits for Port Mulgrave are lugworm and peeler crab

Click here to read about more north east fishing marks including : Runswick bay , Kettleness , Skinnigrove, Goldsborough and Sandsend Cliffs

Dead whale - an unfortunate accident

Paul Kilpatrick on sea otter 2 sent this picture yesterday of a dead whale in the sea out off whitby. Paul says the whale had crab pots hanging from its mouth and looked like it may have choked on them. Its a sad site - A very unfortunate accident.

Getting ready

The winter fishing season draws ever nearer. The local fishing club starts a week on Wednesday and I'm raring to go. Just spent a couple of hours tieing cod rigs, making rotten bottoms and generally preparing my gear. The reels look like they require a bit of a service and that is a job for the coming days. With a bit of a south easterly swell running I think I might head out tonight and use up a few peelers. Fingers crossed for a few codling from the rocks.

Undersize codling petition - Save The Whitby Cod

Well after a year I finally got around to sending my petiton to Mr Bradshaw the fisheries minister. I waited untill now as I felt it would be the best time with the herring spawn fishery just kicking off again. I dont expect anything to change but as the old saying goes the squeeky hinge eventually gets oiled.

Dear Mr Bradshawe,

Re: Online Petiton viewable at-

http://www.petitiononline.com/COD/petition.html

For the past year I have been collecting signatures in an online petition specifically asking DEFRA to assess juvenile codling discards from the autumn north east coast herring spawn fishery - which coincidentally has restarted this past week. The discards are said to be as high as 50 percent with many many undersized codling being needlessly killed. Rhumours on the local grapevine say that for every box landed the same is discarded dead. This appears to be supported by recent cefas research (see : http://www.cefas.co.uk/FSP/publications/FSP-03-04-Project-3.pdf) which clearly states this fishery is of a juvenile stock with high discards. In such times when cod are so low in numbers it appears mindless that this practice still continues every year.
I realise the petiton is not the biggest you will have ever seen and more than likely is not in a format that DEFRA will accept but please take some time to have a look and at least think about what is being said.

Your sincereley - Glenn Kilpatrick

Just wait for a reply now

A Taste Of Things To Come

Well I was just looking through some old archives from Scarborough angler Pete Atkinson and found this snippet. Pete has given me permission to copy his results from the scarborough evening news onto my site and I thought this little article about last years cloughton festive sweepstake would get you all motivated for the coming winter season.

"Anglers enjoying a break and a traditional time for big fish along our coast anglers have been busy although the conditions have not been ideal, on Wednesday 29th a Sweepstakes match was ran from the Red Lion at Cloughton and the eventual winner with a bag of seven fish for 39lbs 8ozs was Ray Maddison, include in his catch was a very fine Cod of 19lb, by far the biggest reported in club boundaries this year and reported to have come from the Ravenscar Area New Year's day saw anglers fishing the members day competitions and with freshening wind and sea conditions were expected to be difficult but proved to be more productive than expected, angler of the day was Ian Thompson who managed 16lb 8ozs 12drms including the heaviest fish of the day a cod just short of 8lb, fish came from far and wide on the day with the winning fish coming from Cloughton"

Please double click to view the full sized image

New leader in autumn festival

There is a new leader in the whitby charter skippers autumn festival. Unfortunately I have been unable to get down to the weigh in so I thought I had missed the photo opportunity, however the fish was caught on John Whitton's boat Never can tell a and John has emailed me the picture. Unfortunately I dont know the anglers details but Ill get them off Weigh master Dave Perett tomorrow. All I can tell you is that the lad had never been sea fishing before and thought that the fish was a cod! Not bad for a novice on the biggest tide of the year.

21lb 9oz ling caught on Never can tell-a on Saturday

Whitby tides - Biggest ebb tide at Whitby for 20 years

According to the Whitby Tide tables the last few days have seen some of the biggest tides for 20 years on the north east coast. These tides are of great interest to shore anglers as they allow you to get out at low water an identify potential fish holding gulleys into which you can cast at high water or on the smaller low water tides. I have been out and about looking at Fishing marks and have added more information to my own personal fishing mark data base. These are just a few of the 200 pics I took this weekend whilst out and about.

Filey angling festival 2006

Cod fishing tonight.

After a decent nights mackerel fishing last night on Whitby's west pier the sea had roughed up a bit today so I headed out with the big rod and a dozen peelers. I fished 2 hours at one of my favourite early season marks. I managed 3 size codling (returned 2 and kept 1 which was deeply hooked) and 2 just under size with quite a few more bites. The 3 fish that were size were all 37 cm long so it looks like a fish measure is going to be an essential item for fishing the matches this year.

Anyone unfamiliar with the legal fish sizes can check out the nfsa size limits on theWhitby sea anglers website

Last night session - Whitby angler Phil Mead with a string of mackerel caught on Hokeyes

filey angling / fishing festival - Bielby's winning bag

Filey Angling Festival got off to a racing start on Saturday thanks to some very large shoals of Mackerel around our coasts at the moment.
The winning weight on the Saturday, the opening day of the festival, was a massive 103 pounds taken by Dave Bielby who was fishing at Filey Brigg. The heaviest fish of the day went to Mick Chadwick with a cod of 5 pounds.
Sundays Filey Festival match was cod only with Mick Chadwick coming out on top with 14lb of cod.
With autumnal weather imminant the mackerel should soon disperse bringing normaility back to our fishing and the prospects look good for the cod anglers with fish now showing at most marks.

This weekend sees the filey festival drawing to a close with Saturdays match being for the heaviest fish and Sunday is the festivals premier event The North of England codling championship.

Full details of all the matches on the Whitby sea anglers calendar page

http://www.whitbyseaanglers.co.uk/calendar.php#Filey_Angling_/_Fishing_Festival_2006_


Thanks to Scarborough angler Pete Atkinson for the information.

North East Fishing - Top 8 north east fishing baits

I have recently created a page on the Whitby sea anglers site that gives my top 8 baits for north east sea fishing. The list reads as follows.




1. Number 1 bait whilst fishing for cod from the rocks on the north east coast has to be the peeler crab. 1,2 or even 3 common shore or velvet peeler crabs whipped onto a 5 or 6 ° hook with elasticated cotton has to be the way to go. If its a big north east cod your after then peeler crab will give you the very best chance.

2. Lugworm - On its day the Blow or black lug will out fish anything you can lay your hands on. I've had to go home before today because I've sickened myself watching others catch fish whilst I couldn't get a bite simply because I had no lugworm in my bait bucket. If the cod are hunting lugworm no other bait will do. A fantastic bait if there are small codlings (1-2 pounds) about.

For the rest of the top north east biats article please click here.

North East Fishing - Rock Fishing For Cod

Rock fishing is just another type of fishing. It's nothing special and can be mastered by all anglers, all that's needed is time and a willingness to learn the art of rock fishing. Over time the rock angler will learn what areas will hold cod and at what states of tide cod are likely to turn up. Rock anglers start to learn their marks by fishing lots of different rocky areas including: small reefs that run into or parallel to the shore, patches of big boulders, rock ledges like fingers that extend out into the sea and are surrounded by deep kelp filled gullies. Also worth a try are the ends of rocky headlands that extend out into sea such as those at Robin hoods bay, Marine drive in Scarborough, Filey Brigg and Ravenscar where a strong tidal current forms. Food gets washed past these areas and so you often find the north east coast cod sat waiting.

To read more about north east fishing for cod please click here



Whitby angler Niel Ingliss with the towns record shore caught cod of almost 30 pounds.

Peeler crab for bait - How to keep peelers

Peeler crab article

About a year ago I wrote a page on the Whitby sea anglers website about keeping peeler crabs in tanks in filtered sea water to reduce the effort involved in changing water etc whilst keeping peelers. For some reason Google has ignored this webpage and very few people have viwed the peeler crab article. To give it a bit more of an airing I will post a link to it here in the blog where hoipefully more eyes will se it.


This article will cover the fairly untouched subject of keeping peeler crabs in tanks using filtered sea water which reduces the work necessary to keep healthy crabs to use for your bait. I love fishing with Peeler crab and it is one of the countries top baits for many species including cod, bass, flounder, coalfish and quite a few others. Most aspects of catching and using peelers are well covered in internet articles but when I found very little information on keeping them in a tank I decided to write about it. Please click here to read more of the Peeler crab article

Whitby Charter Skipper Association Autumn Festival - Day Two

The weather today deteriorated as the day progreesed with most of the boats heading back to port early due to torrential rain and strong winds. Paul Kilpatrick on Sea otter reported an excellent mornings fishing with lots of fish being caught on his boat including cod to 10 pounds, Pollock and double figure ling. Malcolm Pitman on board sea spray reported a good days fishing but said mackerel were proving quite a pest at times. As most of the boats returned to port early today the weigh in started earlier and therefore I missed the opportunity to take a few snaps when I arrived at the normal weigh in time. Todays winner was Simon Smith on Rich wards boat shytorque and his 17 pounds 2 ounce Ling takes overall first place in the Festival. Simon will no doubt be preying for bad weather for the next 8 days so that none of the boats can get to sea allowing him to collect the first place prize money which is £1000 for the autumn festival.

Results for day 2.

Simon smith was todays winner and goes into 1st place overall. Simon will be preying for bad weather for the next 8 days so that he can claim the forst place prize of £1000

1. Simon Smith - Rotherham - Ling 17lbs 2 oz - Shy torque -Rich Ward
2. Glenn Stocks - Rotherham - Ling 15lb 0 oz - Sea otter 2 - Paul Kilpatrick
3. K Fellows - ? -Ling 14lb 8 oz - Two Doggs


With the weather turning bad the weigh in started early so when I arrived any photo opportunities had been missed.

Glenn Stocks with 2 10 pound cod caught on sea otter 2 today

SeaFishing At Whitby - cod

Whitby is the cod capital of the UK with the record cod a massive fish of 58 pounds 7 ounces being caught here from Stu Johnston's boat Sea Trek. There are 2 main ways to catch cod from Whitby and they are from a boat or from the shore. To read more about sea fishing for cod at whitby please click here

North East Junior Anglers - Baza's trip

I saw this great post on the North east section of the world sea fishing forum's. The post is about a young lad who went Boat fishing off the north east coast and had a cracking days fishing. The young lad called Alan caught a huge Pollock of 8 lbs and 2 more just a tad smaller. The smille on the young lads face confirms he will be hooked on fishing for the rest of his life. Well done to the lads who made this happen.

To read the report please click here

Whitby Charter Skipper Association Autumn Festival - Day One

I went down and helped out with the weigh in today for the Whitby charter skippers autumn boat angling festival. It was a good day for anglers on Paul Kilpatricks boat Sea Otter 2 as They took all 3 of the daily prizes. Todays results were


1. Ian Campbell - Pickering - 16lb 4 oz Ling - Sea Otter 2 - Paul Kilpatrick
2. Dave Barret - Ripon - 15lb 8 ounce Ling - Sea Otter 2 - Paul Kilpatrick
3. Nick Kelly - Ripon - 14lb 14oz Cod - Sea otter 2 - Paul Kilpatrick

Whitby Charter Skipper Association Autumn Festival - Off To A Great Start

Today is the first day of the Whitby charter skippers autumn fishing festival. Paul Kilpatrick (aka Big cod) had an excellent start aboard his boat sea otter 2 with the first fish caught being a cod around the 15 pound mark. Paul has emailed me in this picture of the fish and asked me to post it up on his behalf. Ive just spoke with him on the phone and he says they have some ling aboard the boat of a similar size. Im going down to the way in at tea time and will take some more snaps. Ill post more details of the first days action later today.