Every year the Whitby Charter Skippers Association run a series of boat angling festivals for anglers fishing on their member’s charter boats.
The Spring festival kicked off on 5th April and runs through until Easter Sunday. The fishing has been very good recently and the water is beginning to clear bring better sport for the lure anglers.
On 10th April Mistress regular Mike Dearing from Beverley was using a bright orange 4″ sidewinder shad when he contacted a big fish. As soon as it hit the crew knew that it was something special.
Mike’s Daiwa Kenzaki boat rod buckled over with some very strong lunges from the fish as it stripped line from his reel each time. Mike though is a very good angler and was patient to the end, patiently easing the fish up slowly from the depths. Those on board could see the fish coming up through the gin clear water, and could see it was an excellent fish.
Once boated, both skipper Rich Cope and Mike were absolutely buzzing, it took the boat scales round to over the magical 20lb mark which Rich knew it would. Once weighed back ashore it went 20lb, 7.5 oz, and is now the current leader in the competition.
Prospects for the rest of the WCSA Spring Angling Festival look great and this fish is sure to provoke added interest – check the Mistress’s availability page and give Rich a call. With the fish hitting shads and lures this could be a Festival to remember.
