North East A little tiddler

[AndyA]

After thoroughly enjoying my first attempt at sea fishing 3 or so weeks ago, I've since spent many evenings watching numerous lure and shore fishing video on YouTube. They make fishing look so easy!

Today was the last day of my long weekend off, they come around every 4 weeks with my job. This morning after watching a couple of more fishing videos, I started getting itchy feet and decided to head off over to Sandsend to do some actual fishing . . .

It was just around low tide when I arrived at the car park, not a bad looking day at all and well worth a wander along the shoreline no matter what. Now, I'm a complete novice at this fishing lark and no doubt anyone watching would have soon worked that out for themselves. I spent around 2 1/2 hours going up and down the water's edge, trying various lures, losing one along the way too. Not a hint of a bite was had.



I walked back up to the car and poured myself a cup of coffee, had a bite to eat and pondered what to do next.

As I looked over to my right, I could see Whitby Pier in the distance ..... Now, I'm the quiet type, I'm very friendly, but I'm uncomfortable with busy places and crowds of people. So there I was, parked up by the Whale bones in Whitby, straining to see how many people were on the peir and if any of them were fishing. I eventually told myself f*** it, just give it a try!

As it turned out there were 3 guys fishing at the end of the pier (the one on the left) and they all had a couple of rods each, I rocked up with my measly 9' lure rod and began chucking lures and then the Mackerel feathers out.

Eventually, I caught this little tiddler on the feathers, I think it might be a Whiting, but I'm not sure? I saw ons of the 3 guys catch a little Whiting too, but that was about the sum of the afternoon. I packed up my gear just before 7pm and headed back home. I didn't blank, so that's something to be happy about

 

[flappy]

I think that’s a baby pollack.

 

[AndyA]

I think that’s a baby pollack.

Thanks Flappy, I've just done a quick search and it does look very similar

 

[Mr Fish]

Pretty sure it’s a whiting

 

[Shirleycodlin]

Well done

 

[Shirleycodlin]

Looks like oceanaus ratticus. Ie, a sea rat, or whiting if you prefer

 

[chesilpete]

You gotta start somewhere.... well done.
I think chucking lures in the North East in October is a tough gig.

 

[Trampster]

Nice report and photos Andy! Well done!

 

[AndyA]

You gotta start somewhere.... well done.
I think chucking lures in the North East in October is a tough gig.

I was hoping there might have been some Mackerel hanging about

As I was fishing, a chap walked up along the pier and mentioned that there were Seals nearer the shoreline. That likely didn't does us any favours?

Also at one point I heard one of the anglers at the pier end start talking about a Dolphin a little further out, I looked over and whatever it was, it was black and larger than a Dolphin. It swam round in front of where I was fishing and surfaced a couple of times, before heading off around the other pier.

Fascinating to see and I even tried to get a bit of video, it was just a bit too far away to see clearly

Edit: added a couple of photos

 

[Beach]

I was hoping there might have been some Mackerel hanging about

As I was fishing, a chap walked up along the pier and mentioned that there were Seals nearer the shoreline. That likely didn't does us any favours?

Also at one point I heard one of the anglers at the pier end start talking about a Dolphin a little further out, I looked over and whatever it was, it was black and larger than a Dolphin. It swam round in front of where I was fishing and surfaced a couple of times, before heading off around the other pier.

Fascinating to see and I even tried to get a bit of video, it was just a bit too far away to see clearly

Edit: added a couple of photos

View attachment 71873 View attachment 71874

I have never seen a seal with a fin like that. Unless it was swimming on it's side.

 

[AndyA]

I have never seen a seal with a fin like that. Unless it was swimming on it's side.

This was the Dolphin type creature, further out from the harbour. The Seals were nearer the shoreline, so I was told anyhow. I didn't see them myself.

 

[flappy]

Sperm whale.

 

[Wolf]

Great piccys, I think it's a baby pollock.

 

[geejayy]

keep at it m8, first fish is always a good fish, i'd call coalie for specie but have only seen a few , head looks odd for a whiteing but juveniles are oft difficult to i,d.

 

[Valleyboy]

Pretty sure it’s a whiting

100% whiting although the mouth does seem small

 

[The Third Earl]

Next time you try Whitby Pier, drop your feathers right down alongside the structure and jig them slowly up and down, there are lots of fish around the stonework and you could catch small Pollack,Coalfish, Whitings, maybe small Wrasse even.
If you dont catch just jigging the lures try bait ing the hooks with small slivers of Mackerel, or Small bits of lugworm.

You may not be aware, but you can get down to the lower level of the pier by going down the ladder that is underneath the light on the very end , its not so far to drop your line down there .

Tight lines .

Dave

 

[AndyA]

Next time you try Whitby Pier, drop your feathers right down alongside the structure and jig them slowly up and down, there are lots of fish around the stonework and you could catch small Pollack,Coalfish, Whitings, maybe small Wrasse even.
If you dont catch just jigging the lures try bait ing the hooks with small slivers of Mackerel, or Small bits of lugworm.

You may not be aware, but you can get down to the lower level of the pier by going down the ladder that is underneath the light on the very end , its not so far to drop your line down there .

Tight lines .

Dave

Cheers Dave, thanks for the tip!

I did try that method, just as you'd described and that's how I caught the tiddler. I had 2 other bites close in to the wall doing the same, but I failed to actually catch them. I could tell thaf both were only small.

 

[The Third Earl]

Try s set of Sabikis instead of Mackerel feathers, again baited with slivers of Mackerel,Sandeel or similar .
The smaller hooks are more likely to be effective but if you hook anything of size you may have a problem getting it up the wall
Great fun for a couple of hours !

Dave

 

[Beach]

Next time you try Whitby Pier, drop your feathers right down alongside the structure and jig them slowly up and down, there are lots of fish around the stonework and you could catch small Pollack,Coalfish, Whitings, maybe small Wrasse even.
If you dont catch just jigging the lures try bait ing the hooks with small slivers of Mackerel, or Small bits of lugworm.

You may not be aware, but you can get down to the lower level of the pier by going down the ladder that is underneath the light on the very end , its not so far to drop your line down there .

Tight lines .

Dave

If the sea is rough, make sure you put diving gear on first - wet suit (no need for flippers)

 

[AndyA]

Try s set of Sabikis instead of Mackerel feathers, again baited with slivers of Mackerel,Sandeel or similar .
The smaller hooks are more likely to be effective but if you hook anything of size you may have a problem getting it up the wall
Great fun for a couple of hours !

Dave

Thanks Dave, I'll take a look at Sabiki.

At the moment I have just the one reel, it's a crossfire 3000 loaded with 10lb mono (the shop did that for me when I bought it). I've lost a few lures since then and some of the line too as you'd expect. I've recently taken delivery of some 9kg PowerPro mono that I'd like to start making use of, it's a 275m spool, so probably twice as much as my current reel can hold. Should I be looking to get a larger capacity reel, or is it best practice to just load as much braid as my crossfire can hold and snip the line off?

My apologies for the novice questions