Latest Fishing Reports: Sea Urchin IIl
Back to Main Charter Page-
22/07/2024
Fishing Report by Andy Savage
22 Jul 2024 by Andy Savage
Apologies for the delay in the catch report …..Saturday saw the lads from The Keel Inn Fishing Club aboard. A day I really look forward to, as they’re all brilliant company and the p**s taking is relentless and brutal in equal measure!!
It was the last day of the Summer Competition and with a 16lb fish required to get in front we had a couple of options. With it being a 5m tide, we would usually split the day between wrecks and rough ground. But with very light winds and not great numbers of fish showing on the rough ground, the lads were happy to fish the wrecks all day in the hope that a better fish would come their way.
With the tide being fairly slack, we started on a wreck just over a mile from the pier ends straight away. We got a couple of fish every drift, but they were just strap Ling in the main. We then moved out to the rough ground at three miles to try for some Mackerel; which turned out to be patchy, but we got enough to get us going. Whilst drifting the rough ground, we noticed that despite the predicted tide, nobody was actually paying out line on the drift and they were all fairly vertical. That was the decision made, we opted to commit and run South to have a go on the wrecks for the rest of the day.
We were pushing the Ebb tide but thankfully, there were no boats ahead of us, so we could pick and choose the wrecks which suited the drift the best for the whole day. The Ebb tide produced fish off every wreck, some more than others. Tog Edwards managed to find the biggest Codling of the day at 5lb 8oz and Gaz managed a 10lb 6oz Ling. The fishing was far from fantastic, but that seemed to be the same across the board when speaking to the other Skipper’s.
When the Flood tide came through the sport literally dried up. We took only a handful of fish for the last couple of hours and unfortunately, the monster we were searching for didn’t materialise. The lads fished hard all day and whilst they fish hard, I will never stop trying. Thanks for a great day out lads. -
17/07/2024
Fishing Report by Andy Savage
17 Jul 2024 by Andy Savage
It was fantastic to get back out to sea today.
Gary Grantham and five friends had the boat booked for the day and they’re always excellent company a decent anglers to boot. With it being a small neap tide we ran out to a patch of rough ground to try and catch a few fresh Mackerel to supplement the Squid. After around 30 minutes we only had 20 or so, but couldn’t afford to waste any more time……we had some “wreck hopping” to do!
We opted to push the tide and try some wrecks south of Whitby which I always enjoy fishing, especially when they’ve not been pressured too much recently. The first one we fished, everyone went over with the usual muppet traces baited with Squid and/or Mackerel. We had a reasonable start taking five fish the first drift and the same again the second. Along with a couple of strap Ling there was a reasonable stamp of Codling with almost all them being 4lb - 5lb and no chuck backs.
This wreck kept us entertained right the way through slack water before sport slowed a little. With plenty to go at nearby, we moved on to try another; caught a few, then moved on again. The pattern for the day was set, and on the turn of tide the breeze eased off giving us a cracking drift line. The lads all fished brilliantly and as the day progressed, the stamp of Ling improved and we managed to take plenty in the 5-7lb range along with half a dozen low doubles. Gordon Blyth was “Top Rod” today and put together an 18 fish box of Cod and Ling plus a few throwbacks. But everyone got in on the action which is what it’s all about.
It was one of those days where if we couldn’t get a few with the excellent tide, weather and sea conditions it would have been a bad job. But the boys didn’t disappoint with some solid angling and great banter. Thanks lads for a great day out. -
25/06/2024
Fishing Report by Andy Savage
25 Jun 2024 by Andy Savage
I’ve struggled to find time to do a daily report recently, but the last three days fishing has seen a familiar pattern emerge each day for us.
All three days were spent fishing on Spring tides between 5.1m and 5.3m, not enormous, but certainly a quick enough drift to make for challenging conditions with a bit of breeze. On these size tides, the days are generally spent on a mix of wrecks around slack water and drifting rough ground when the tide was running.
The way the periods of slack water fell, meant we started each day with a couple of wrecks. It was noticeable, that as soon as the tide dipped, the fish started feeding well and we had a reasonable start each day taking Codling and Ling with a couple around the 7lb mark. Slack water was quiet each day, then as soon as the new tide bent through, there would be another feeding spell until the tide built up to full speed.
Each day, once the tide was at its peak, sport literally stopped. The fish were there, but clearly just weren’t feeding. Over the three days we’ve fished rough ground at 3, 5, 7 and 20+ miles with very similar results.
We kept on the move during these periods, trying different areas and lines, but we had meagre pickings, with just an occasional odd fish. Thankfully on Sunday and Monday the second slack periods also delivered a few nice fish to end the day, which was great.
Tactics wise, it was the “Whitby usual”…Muppet traces baited with Squid and/or Mackerel for the wrecks. Baited Hokkai’s on the rough ground. Shads were tried a couple of times, but not with much consistency. My son William accompanied us on Sunday along with Grandad. He’s caught on rough ground plenty of times, but on Sunday he had his first go at wrecking fishing. He landed (on his own) his first Ling from out of the wreck at 4lb 8oz, so it was a proud Dad moment for me! He’s only 11 and it was a battle royale all the way up.
A huge thanks to all the anglers who’ve been out with us the last three days. Everyone was fantastic company and I am so grateful for the support. -
22/06/2024
Fishing Report by Andy Savage
22 Jun 2024 by Andy Savage
Great to be spending so many days back at sea again.
The last two days have seen us fishing on building tides. Friday saw a group of mixed experience anglers aboard and it was planned to be a mix of wrecks around slack water and rough ground when the tide was pushing.
Unfortunately it didn’t turn out like that, as the South Easterly wind just kept building throughout the day, presenting the anglers with some challenging fishing conditions.
Even with 16oz leads on, the lines soon streamed away from the boat. This is where the more experienced anglers have the upper hand, as they are able to keep the tackle on the bottom in order to get bites. Joe Clough, Ian Smith and Chuck Stubbly managed to do this consistently and kept the bites coming throughout the day.
We spent the majority of the day on the rough ground at five miles, drift fishing with squid baited Hokkai’s. For the lads who could control their gear, there were plenty of small Codling, Haddock and Whiting willing to feed. To end the day, we ran back into the three mile ground and picked off some lovely clean Codling, with Chuck taking a new PB of 7lb 12oz. Great angling in adverse conditions.
Today I had the Keel Inn Fishing Club aboard for the first time this year. A great bunch of lads who are a pleasure to have aboard. Stacks of banter and there’s some solid anglers amongst them as well. The first couple of wrecks we tried weren’t too bad. Tog Edwards helped himself to a 7lb 4oz Codling on only the second drift. We took a dozen fish, then tired another one. This time Daz Hilton had a 7lb 12oz Codling to knock Tog off top spot for biggest fish of the day.
The rest of the day was spent on wrecks and rough ground. We caught fish in almost everywhere we stopped, but it was just odd fish here and there. Certainly a lack of consistency. I felt there were more feeding fish on the ground yesterday, despite today’s weather conditions being much better.
Everyone fished hard all day but Tog was certainly the most consistent, regularly being the first one to catch on a drift. Whether it be muppet traces or Hokkai’s, he rang the changes well. Good angling. See you next month lads. -
20/06/2024
Fishing Report by Andy Savage
20 Jun 2024 by Andy Savage
It’s been brilliant to finally string a few days together and great to see a few anglers today who I’ve cancelled countless times due to poor weather. We had a middle of the road tide today (4.8m) and it was destined to be a mixed day. Wrecks in the morning with the really light winds and then ground fishing in the afternoon if the South Easterly lifted.
We started the day off chasing a few Mackerel. They’re here, but they’re still patchy. We tried three different spots but only took around 20 or so fish. That was enough of the day wasted, so we dropped onto the first wreck four miles from the pier ends. We had half a dozen drifts, taking fish every run through. But to be fair, the sport was similar to the last couple of days. Five to ten Codling/Ling from the wreck but nothing massive. After half an hour or so we moved on, and this formed the pattern for the remainder of the Ebb Tide. Pinch a few fish, then move on.
With the lack of Mackerel, we didn’t get pestered by strap Ling too much, with the muppet traces baited with squid taking a majority Codling catch. We got absolutely hammered by Pouting today for one reason or another, with them either stripping the baits off or hanging themselves which was frustrating. Jamie Britton caught so many that I wished I’d brought him a keepnet (only kidding Jamie)!
The sport dried up at slack water, which coincided with the South Easterly wind lifting and making the lines stream. We tried a couple more wrecks, but I thought it was futile and opted to run back to the rough ground at three miles to finish off the day. This actually didn’t turn out to be a bad move as we took some nice Codling and a few Ling to finish off the day on baited Hokkai’s.
The fishing certainly wasn’t exceptional, but I’ve had a lot worse days. The company was fantastic with lots of laughs throughout, mostly at my expense; but I love a bit of banter!! Thanks lads. -
19/06/2024
Fishing Report by Andy Savage
19 Jun 2024 by Andy Savage
The last couple of days have been really enjoyable aboard Sea Urchin. Completely contrasting; but great fun, none the less.
Tuesday saw Sea Urchin regular Alan and his friends take the boat as usual. We had agreed to do a 12hr trip, so were away just after 0500hrs. Everyone wanted to try for a few Mackerel, so we had a go, and for the first time this year, we caught loads of them. Once everyone had a bucket full for bait, we set about trying a few wrecks while the tide was against the wind. We ran out to try a couple in the five mile stream and picked up a few fish each drift. Nothing photo worthy, but there were some decent pan-sized Codling to the Squid muppet traces.
As we had plenty of fresh Mackerel, that was used by the majority, so we got a lot of strap Ling sniffing it out during the day. We ran out to a wreck at nine miles for the slack water period and it wasn’t until the Flood Tide came through that it sparked up a bit. Henry Fong taking the biggest fish of the day, with a Ling of 13lb. We finished off with some more Mackerel as the wind behind the tide made it tough when bait fishing.
Today was one of “my” fishing days. Four of us went out to do some Lure fishing. Starting off hard inside, the water clarity wasn’t great and we never had a sniff. Pushing out, we dropped on a couple of wrecks on the way and had limited success. Simon West “cheated” and caught a few Codling on a muppet trace with squid, but Tony Firman also had a couple of fish on the Slow Pitch Jig which was good.
Ultimately we spent the best part of the day on a strip of rough ground at five miles. Tackle wise, we used Lure Rods in the 10-50gm range, 5oz leads and small Shads. Even though we were fishing in 50m of water, you could still fish effectively with good tackle control. During a purple patch the Shads were taken in the first couple of lifts, but using the small light gear, every fish was a battle. It’s become my absolute favourite way of fishing and I lost count of how many we caught and also the different species.
Fantastic fishing in fantastic company -
17/06/2024
Fishing Report by Andy Savage
17 Jun 2024 by Andy Savage
For the last two days we’ve had fairly similar sort of outcomes in terms of the fishing results. The sport hasn’t been frantic, but there are fish almost everywhere that you try.
Sunday was a group of mixed experience anglers and we started off trying to find a few Mackerel. I don’t like to waste too much time trying for them until they’re here in numbers. After two drifts we had amassed about a dozen and then we moved off to try some wrecks with it being a small neap tide. Each wreck we tried we had a few fish, but it wasn’t fantastic.
I don’t really like weekend fishing, as there are so many more boats about than during the week, which on the small tides makes it difficult to get a clear run at the wrecks you want to fish. Looking south it was very busy, with a couple of the of the other Charters boats and loads of buzzers zooming around. I watched quite a few boats run past us, then went in the opposite direction, heading North.
It was much quieter up there (for a change) and we spent the rest of the day wreck hopping. Everyone had a few to take home, but we were mainly plagued by strap Ling on the fresh Mackerel. The biggest fish we took was only around 5lb, so no great shakes in that department.
Today was a great group of lads. Simon Ulyott always books the boat for his friends and I always look forward to their days as they’re excellent company. We planned to have a similar sort of day as Sunday, but went south this time as today there was only a couple of boats out, so we could pick the wrecks we wanted to fish. The Mackerel drift produced only four fish so we moved onto some wrecks.
In a similar vein, we just got a few from each wreck, but they had probably all been visited during the weekend. Every now and then we managed to find a better fish, and Jon Cammack went for quality over quantity taking the biggest fish sweep with a 9lb 12oz Ling, backed up with a 7lb Codling. With most of the boys using Squid on muppet traces, we had a few more Codling today, amongst the strap Ling.
I’ve really enjoyed the last few days and it’s been great to finally string a few days together at last. Thanks to everyone for their support -
15/06/2024
Fishing Report by Andy Savage
15 Jun 2024 by Andy Savage
Today I had the pleasure of the Milnrow Sea Anglers aboard for their first trip of the year. The six lads had booked the boat for a day out on the wrecks. I didn’t do a catch report for my last trip (Thursday 13th), because quite simply it was very poor fishing. We tried everything for very little return, so I was hoping for a marked improvement today.
We headed out with around an hour until slack water. Instead of wasting time trying to catch Mackerel we dropped straight on a wreck a couple of miles from the pier ends. With us losing tide, I’d recommended going in with bait traces (as opposed to Shads) and we hit the ground running, taking up to four fish a drift for the next couple of hours. After the last trip, I was relieved to get a few fish. The water looked to have cleared out a bit and we took mainly Codling and strap Ling, with an odd Gurnard and Pouting.
Once sport slowed up, we moved on, having a quick drop for Mackerel whilst on our way to the next wreck. With the tide now running some of the lads switched over to Shads and they worked well for the rest of the day, which suggests the water clarity is improving again.
We fished a further four wrecks while moving progressively further south. I noticed that the further south we went, the lads on Shads were not catching many fish clean in the mouth and the slower the sport appeared to be overall; so just after dinner we ran back north a few miles. That did the trick and we ended the day in a similar vein as we started. I don’t accurately count numbers of fish, but I’m fairly sure that today the Shads must have equalled the bait caught fish.
Pink and white were the standout colours today on the Shads and Hokkai’s. If we put fresh Mackerel on we got pestered by strap Ling, so we mainly stuck with Squid, or Shads which the Codling showed a preference for.
We caught no monsters today, with the biggest Ling being around 7lb and Codling to just over 5lb; but the most pleasing aspect was the consistency. With experienced anglers aboard, they knew when to make the changes to get the best from the day…….and the banter was brilliant!! Thanks lads. -
03/06/2024
Fishing Report by Andy Savage
3 Jun 2024 by Andy Savage
The weather forecast today wasn’t settled enough in the morning to run the 14hr trip we had booked in the diary, so unfortunately we had to put that to one side.
With the winds due to fall away from midday I thought it would be a great opportunity to have a few hours fishing in the afternoon/evening with a few mates……none of them were available so I went with the three reprobates in the pictures!!
Ian, Dave and Tony love their lure fishing (as do I) so we agreed that we would try fishing hard inside on the rough ground where we Uptide fish in the winter. It is fantastic fun and can be very productive on light tackle.
We all had three or four rods setup each, so we could quickly switch between tactics. A regular bait fishing rod with a muppet trace, a lighter shad fishing rod, a light lure rod and/or a slow pitch jigging rod.
Initially we ran North a couple of miles, stopping occasionally to check the water colour/clarity. We generally find the clearer water is necessary for the lures and shads to work properly. What I saw didn’t thrill me at all. It was very green and with not much clarity, I thought we would struggle…..and initially we did!
We all tried for over an hour in the rough ground with the light tackle, but all we managed was two lost small fish and a tiny Whiting. Plan B was definitely required. I thought our best chance of success was to try a couple of wrecks, where hopefully the fish would be a bit more concentrated, so we moved out to a nearby one.
This had the desired effect and first drift three out of four rods had a fish. We initially went with squid on muppet traces, but then quickly started switching methods as we knew there were plenty of fish around.
For the next few hours we fished away and caught fish on all four methods, but the highlight was definitely at slack water when the four of us were using 10-50g jigging rods, 4oz leads and small shads in 40m of water catching quality Codling of 4-5lb.
It was an absolute pleasure to spend a few hours with likeminded anglers and we never stopped learning new things. Definitely my most enjoyable session this year….thanks lads -
02/06/2024
Fishing Report by Andy Savage
2 Jun 2024 by Andy Savage
Today was a “Tick Over” type of day…..We didn’t smash it out of the park, but equally, it wasn’t a complete wash out!
I had a great bunch of lads on, and with everyone being aboard for 0615hrs, we had a nice early hop. After a couple of days of moderate Northerly winds, I thought the inshore grounds might still be a bit green, so opted to run out to try a few wrecks. First stop at 12 miles was a wreck we filled up on a couple of weeks ago; but today the water resembled a “Kermit the Frog Smoothie” with the May-Bloom. After only three drifts and three Pouting, we pressed on for another eight miles.
Next stop was a bit more encouraging as I drifted over the small wreck, it was lit up nicely on the echo sounder, so clearly some fish in residence. The boys went over with a mix of muppet bait traces and Hokkai’s baited with Squid or Mackerel and we started to pick off a fish or two each drift. Paul Mawson took a nice Ling just under double figures and we had a reasonable stamp of Codling 3-4lb, plus Haddock and a couple of Coalie’s. We persevered through slack water and waited for the flood tide to come through, before eventually moving on another five miles to what turned out to be, our last wreck of the day.
The drift line allowed us to run along the substantial wreck and we spent the next couple of hours taking 2-3 fish a drift. As mentioned, the sport wasn’t electric, but it was consistent. Everyone managed a few fish and Joe Fender took a nice new Pb Codling of 6lb 12oz, which was great to see. Just towards the end of the day we were joined by “Sammy the Seal” and after stripping off a couple of fish, sport dried up. We agreed to have one more drift and pleasingly, Will Freeman connected with a nice Pollock which he wound as fast as he could, while we all laughed and waited for the seal to nick it. Thankfully he managed to land the fish and we headed back into Whitby.
As alluded to earlier; it was far from a Red Letter Day, but the lads all fished well and kept at it consistently. Thanks for coming everyone
