Shore fishing has produced some spectacular results lately for those willing to put in the time after dark when some double figure cod are starting to be reported. Massive sprat shoals are just offshore from the Teesbay area where huge numbers of whiting and cod are being reported by commercial boats. A Norwegian trawler reportedly landed 100 tonnes of sprats at Hartlepool last week. Most of the cod are staying offshore, but evening and night tides have produced some spectacular bags of whiting as they move inshore to feed. Some of the whiting have topped the 2lb mark and there are also some nice fat winter dabs among them, plus the odd flounder and coalfish. Best cod reported was one of 14lb 9oz taken from South Shields Pier by Phil Coates during a club match. Ken Moody landed a smaller specimen of 2lb 13oz from the Tyne for second place. Roker Pier produced two nice cod of 11lb and 5lb for Brian Rushworth during a recent pleasure session
Hartlepool Pirates had a good weigh in for their last match with the whiting out in force from the local piers, when nine out of 11 weighed in mixed bags of whiting, dabs and flounders. Bill Bradley won with 23 fish weighing 18½lb to win the competition. Second placed Dave Robinson had 20 fish for 17lb 14oz followed by Sid Burtcher who had 13 for 11lb 10oz. Fourth placed A. Dendrickson had the heaviest fish of 1lb 11oz in his bag of seven weighing 9¾lb. Next match is Friday February 11th fishing from 7pm till midnight and the next meeting is in the Stranton Social Club on February 24th at 7.30pm.
Hartlepool O.M.A.C. were also lucky enough to find the whiting in a feeding frenzy for their last match which produced a record weigh in and one of the biggest club weigh ins for any club in the North East for many years with all 13 members having a successful night. Paul Lee took the heaviest bag with 40 whiting for 39lb 12oz which included the heaviest fish; a superb specimen of 2¼lb. Runner-up Chris Smith was just behind Paul with 41 fish which weighed in at for 37lb 4oz while third placed Steve Gibbins had 39 fish for 34½lb. Ian Palmer took the prize for second heaviest fish with a whiting of 1lb 10oz and Steve Sweeney had one of 1lb 9oz. A total of 260 fish were weighed in for an almost unbelievable total of 224lb 14oz. The club have a meeting in the Pink Domino on Saturday February 5th to recover.
The last Cleadon A.C. match saw an all cod weigh in, though only four out of 23 managed to find any. Steve Williams had four for 13½lb from the Tyne followed home by Steve Elliott whose single fish of 5lb 1oz was taken from Roker pier. There was a tie for third place with Mark Shotton and Norman Spour each having a single fish of 1lb 12oz. Sunderland S.A.A. fished last week with four out of 13 landing three flounders and two coalfish. Steve Rackstraw won with three flounders weighing 1lb 14oz, Paul Robinson had a coalfish of 1lb 9oz and Ronnie Head had a coalie of 1lb dead.
Seaham A.C. fished for the Dawes Bros Cup last week with 13 out of 57 weighing in 17 flounders and a single cod. Rob Davison was the winner with the cod which weighed 1.50lb from the Blast Beach. Mick Davison finished second with two flounders for 1.27lb and Lewis Barnes was third with two flounders weighing 1.15lb.
Saturday February 5th and Sunday February 6th sees the Sunderland Fishing Festival.
