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Latest Fishing Reports: Sea Urchin IIl

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29/05/2025 Fishing Report by Andy Savage

29 May 2025 by Andy Savage

With the fresh winds of late, I haven’t been able to get out fishing; hence the lack of catch reports.

I forget who I was talking to now; but on the wheelhouse window on Sea Urchin I always display the current British Record Boat caught fish. The angler I was talking to suggested about maybe putting up the Sea Urchin boat caught records.

I had never thought about doing that and liked the idea, so I’ve been through my records and put my own list together for the last five years since I’ve had the boat.

I love a bit of competition, so going forwards; anyone who breaks a listed species record will win a free 10hr trip aboard Sea Urchin.
19/05/2025 Fishing Report by Andy Savage

19 May 2025 by Andy Savage

After a blustery weekend, it was looking touch and go for today. The winds were remaining in the North, but had reduced significantly and the residual swell was at around 4ft; but with a nice 4.7m tide I chose to bring the lads through and have a run out.

Once again we had a mixed group of differing experience levels aboard, we headed out North just before 0700hrs with the Flood tide pushing through nicely. If we could get away with it, I planned to spend the day on the inshore wrecks. A couple of weeks ago we had a fairly decent day in this area, so I had a similar plan in my mind. First wreck of the day, the wind was very light and we got a nice drift, with five fish coming up. That cheered me right up, as I was concerned that the weekend winds might have stirred things up a bit, but that wasn’t the case.

We fished away steadily for the next three quarters of an hour, taking mainly Codling each drift. Robert Blackburn took the biggest Codling at 6lb 8oz on a Rhubarb & Custard Shad baited with a bit of Squid. All the rest came to baited Hokkai’s or Muppets Traces. Once sport slowed down a bit, we pushed on to the next wreck and that was how the day panned out. Catch a few, sport slows up; move to the next wreck.

The wind did lift a bit during the morning, making the lines stream a touch, which made it a bit more difficult for the less experienced lads. That said, they soon got to grips with it and we continued to pick off fish each drift.
Slack water was fairly quiet today, the Pouting were feeding with a vengeance, but little else showed much interest. Martin Eccles hooked into something a little better when a 7lb Ling stuck its head out of the wreck to take his Squid. His Dad Keith followed it up with a similar size one a short while later.

Once the Ebb tide came through, the drift line changed and we started heading back towards Whitby. With a different drift line we could fish wrecks which matched the boats drift that we hadn’t fished in the morning and managed to keep picking up fish.

It wasn’t a Red Letter Day by any stretch, but everyone got a few and the sport was fairly consistent. Overall, the signs are positive. Good Angling lads
14/05/2025 Fishing Report by Andy Savage

14 May 2025 by Andy Savage

It’s been great to get a couple of days fishing in; even though the conditions haven’t been the easiest with the Spring Tides.

Yesterday I had a lovely mixed group aboard with differing levels of angling experience. Light winds were forecast for most of the day, which is ideal on a 5.2m tide. The plan of attack was to try wrecks around slack water and rough ground when the tide was running. First stop was a wreck three miles from the harbour and after three drifts and only one small Codling, we moved on.

The next one yielded a few more fish, with Richard Gotts taking a nice 4lb Codling as the biggest. There were quite a few lads getting stuck each drift, so a change to rough ground was required. We spent the next few hours fishing the rough ground. Firstly the five mile ground (which was quiet), then we pushed out to nine miles to lose as much tide as possible to help the lads who were struggling to control their gear.

Odd fish kept coming up, mainly Codling and a few Pouting to the baited Hokkai’s. Experienced angler Steve Scott spent most of the day fishing Shads and picked up fish consistently. The biggest problem for most of the other lads was streaming lines…..

It’s essential when lines are streaming on rough ground to continually keep winding up and resetting the gear during a drift. The vast majority of bites come when the lines are almost vertical, so just dropping down and dragging the gear along somewhere near the bottom rarely yields much at all, as the bait flies along the ground and the fish don’t get time to find it. Despite my advice and encouragement it was certainly tough fishing for the less experienced anglers who didn’t quite grasp the importance of the constant resetting of the gear. That said, there were plenty of laughs with Dave and Del keeping us entertained.

Today was one of my own fishing days. The forecast wasn’t great at all, with 12-14mph Northerlies for most of the day. If it had been a regular 10hr trip with anglers I didn’t know, I would definitely have cancelled. The conditions weren’t dangerous, but they were definitely going to be challenging. Friends Ian Kellock and Simon West were still happy to have a go, so we got the 0700hrs bridge and planned to spend our time fishing Shads on rough ground for the majority of the day.

Taking account of the fresh Northerly wind as we left the harbour, it was obvious that we wouldn’t be fishing any wrecks today. Instead, we opted to just push straight out to the nine mile ground and spend the day drifting.
After a sloppy hours run, we were going over the seven mile ground and decided to have a break and try a couple of drifts to see if there was anyone at home…..bad move! After only a Gurnard and Pouting we continued to the original destination!

Once we arrived on the nine mile, we set up a drift and away we went. The Ebb tide was running and the Northerly wind was pushing us back to land. We were all fishing with Shads and it took next to no time at all before we started picking off fish. With the big tide and strong wind, we had only 3-4 minutes to fish vertically (and get a bite) before winding up and resetting. Once the tide was running, we all worked out our routine and caught fairly consistently on a host of different colour and sizes of Shads.

I set up each drift on the outer edges of the ground and we just let it run for probably half an hour or so, covering loads of different areas. Between the three of us there weren’t many dry spells where one of us wasn’t bringing up a fish. It was brilliant fun and we had the usual mickey-taking. Simon got a good ribbing about his Westin Flatfish shads, then dropped down and caught a Codling on them to keep us quiet!!

We fished on until we lost the Ebb Tide in the afternoon and the fishing slowed up again as the wind built. After a brilliant day it was time to run back home with the wind behind us. We didn’t catch anything massive, but we caught well all day between us. On the Shad front, no colour particularly stood out, no size stood out, but a well presented shad got taken willingly. I love mastering challenging conditions, so today was definitely right up there as one of my favourites.
07/05/2025 Fishing Report by Andy Savage

7 May 2025 by Andy Savage

After a really enjoyable day species hunting yesterday; today we had a day on the wrecks. The anglers were a mixed group with wildly differing angling experience; from first time boat fishing, to hundreds of days spent at sea! With a dinky 4.4m tide and light winds forecast, I hoped we could get the full day in on the wrecks.

With the water starting to clear up a bit, I chose to try some of the inshore wrecks first and see if any new residents had arrived. If this failed I planned to push out a bit further, as I don’t like to run out a long way unnecessarily.

After a bit of instruction for the lads on my hire tackle and a half hour steam, we dropped onto the first wreck of the day. Most lads went in with a Squid bait on a muppet trace start off with. Thankfully it took less than a minute before a couple of rods were in and a couple of Codling were pulled aboard. To summarise a bit; the first wreck fished well for an hour with multiple fish each run. Steve Mason taking the best Codling at 6lb 8oz and everyone getting off the mark.

Once sport slowed a little we moved on to the next wreck (and that was the pattern of the day). The stamp of Codling were nice today, with most fish in the 3-4lb range and some lovely bright white fish in amongst the wreck residents. Really positive signs at last. We wreck hopped all day, some were more productive than others, but they all did fish.

Two anglers are definitely worthy of mention today. Antanas Jarosius was on my hire tackle and his first time wrecking at Whitby. I showed him what to do once and he fished like a pro all day. I was genuinely impressed with his consistency. He put together a lovely box of fish and on the second wreck of the day took a beautiful Cod of 11lb 8oz….top angling.

Ian Kellock is part of the furniture on Sea Urchin and he had a really decent day, fishing mainly with Shads. It’s great to see that when Ian gets a few, other anglers are willing to give them a try.
Today was the best days wrecking to date this year, with everyone getting a few and some nice fish amongst them.

The lads were all brilliant company and I thoroughly enjoyed it myself. Massive well done to everyone.
06/05/2025 Fishing Report by Andy Savage

6 May 2025 by Andy Savage

After some moderate Northerlies over the bank holiday weekend, I wasn’t 100% convinced about having a run out today.

A group of lads from the Civil Service Sports Club had come from far and wide and booked the boat for the day to have a Species Hunt and with them already being in Whitby, we obviously decided to give it a go.
Today wasn’t about trying to catch the usual suspects of just Cod and Ling. Each fish caught was recorded and allocated points. The more species of fish caught; the more points gained. Most points overall would be declared the winner.

We set off with a short run to some rough ground around some wrecks at three miles to get the day going. I didn’t know if the water would be clear enough after the weekend, but surprisingly, it wasn’t too bad. The lads got stuck straight in and started picking up plenty of fish each drift, keeping me busy recording them. We drifted the ground for a couple of hours and everyone started to build their scoresheet up. This style of fishing requires good preparation to excel. Lots of rigs pre-tied, some with beads, some with bling, some looking more like Christmas Trees! It was brilliant to see so many different tactics being used. These boys knew their stuff…

Throughout the course of the day, we tried fishing hard inside, three miles, five miles and then a couple of wrecks to finish. As expected, hard inside wasn’t very good, but we caught consistently everywhere else. Nothing enormous was landed, but that wasn’t the aim of the day. A 10lb Cod scored the same points as a 10oz Codling.

Having recorded all the fish, I knew it was fairly close between John Wright and Andy Kaczmarczyk, and while organiser Gareth totted things up on the way back in, it turned out that they actually drew, with 175 points each, which is pretty rare in this kind of event.

To put a few stats on the day…. Total fish landed between the eight anglers was 240 fish, consisting of 14 different species. Codling, Ling, Haddock, Pollock, Coalfish, Mackerel, Plaice, Dab, Gurnard, Scorpion Fish, Wrasse, Whiting, Pouting & Poor Cod.

I love these type of days and the lads were all fantastic company. Well done lads, brilliant angling
22/04/2025 Fishing Report by Andy Savage

22 Apr 2025 by Andy Savage

Two day report aboard Sea Urchin…. With the forecast giving fairly light SE winds with a small neap tide on Monday, we opted to run North and try a couple of wrecks. As we ran to the first wreck, I couldn’t help noticing that the conditions were not as I expected. There was a bit of breeze and when we reached our destination, the first drift gave a couple of small Codling, but the lines were streaming.

We tried three different wrecks and caught nothing other than an odd Pouting. I’m still not sure if it was the fact there were no fish on the wrecks, or the streaming lines that made the fishing so poor. A change of plan was needed!

We ran out to the five mile ground for a couple of drifts and caught one small Haddock. I was now getting fed up with the lack of sport, so we pushed straight out to the nine mile ground and spent the remainder of the day drifting that. There were plenty of bites out there, but the average stamp of fish was small, with the majority chucked back (although they were probably in size, as 35cm is ridiculously small for keeping a Codling). It was far from the day I hoped to deliver for the lads.

Today was a better weather day, with the forecast being more accurate. Very light SW winds greeted us as we ran south to try a few wrecks. First stop at 12 miles saw a steady 45 minutes fishing. With a few fish each drift of mainly Codling, I was optimistic for what the rest of the day might hold. We ran on another five miles to the next wreck and bang, we caught next to nothing!

The water was as clear as I’ve seen it anywhere this year and you could see the fish come up from a long way down. We tried another two wrecks for the same result and I then admitted defeat and we started to nose our way back home, stopping on a few wrecks on the way.

We gathered a few fish here and there and Gary Rowstron caught the first Mackerel of the year. Other than that, it was another disappointing day. The anglers have been fantastic, which makes me more annoyed when things don’t go to plan.

I make no secret of the fact that I don’t like Spring fishing, you can be zero or hero every day. I’ve been zero the last two days….sorry boys.
20/04/2025 Fishing Report by Andy Savage

20 Apr 2025 by Andy Savage

It’s been a while…..what with a family holiday and pants weather etc; but the wind finally eased back a bit and we got the chance to have a run out today.

As it was a tiny 4.4m neap tide, wrecking was the order of the day. With it being a Sunday and seven other Charter boats in action, finding offshore wrecks in range wasn’t easy. Once I knew where everyone else was headed, I opted to push tide and head North to some wrecks at 20-25 miles. I’m not keen on running out that far, but it was definitely going to be the best option to find a few fish in the clearer water.

We arrived at the first wreck around 0930hrs and I noted that it was marking a lot of feed around it. Hopefully the predators would be in amongst them. Thankfully after a long steam we got amongst some fish for a good few drifts. All Codling, with eight fish being the best drift and a nice stamp with mainly 3-5lb fish. After a hour, things had really slowed down, so I opted to push on another five miles.

Arriving at a small wreck just before slack water, the drift was very slow and it appeared the Pouting were feeding but the Cod weren’t. Almost bang on slack Toby Plotzitzka hooked a fish that put a little bend in his 80lb Class Rod! To be fair I hadn’t a clue that it was a bit better sized fish, but in fairly short order he wrestled up a nice Ling of 11lb 2oz! Once the tide Ebb tide got away, the Codling came back on the feed and we fished away steadily for another hour or so, taking fish every drift. As expected, muppet bait traces dominated, baited with Squid or Mackerel (Frozen). No surprise the Ling came to Mackerel….

A lovely group of lads who fished well and everyone got a few fish. At this time of year, I’d class that as a decent enough day…..shame the steam took so long. A massive thanks to everyone for coming, you were great company. Big thanks to my son Will, who was on crewing duties.

Also, massive congratulations to Toby who’s Ling also took first prize and £1000 in the WCSA Spring Competition.
26/03/2025 Fishing Report by Andy Savage

26 Mar 2025 by Andy Savage

What a beautiful day out……. With a reasonable weather forecast and a group of Sea Urchin regulars aboard who were happy to have a run offshore; I had a spring in my step as I made my way to the boat this morning.

We had already agreed in advance to try an area of rough ground that I haven’t fished before, which involved a long run out. I was happy to do it, as all the lads were experienced anglers and knew that we could potentially be running out there for nothing, but….. “He Who Dares Rodders”!!

We used the Ebb Tide to run North and with everyone having at least a couple of different outfits, most people started off on bait traces with Squid to try and get a fish under their belts, before trying the lures.
First drift saw half a dozen small Codling and Haddock, which indicated there were a few fish down there. Ian Kellock had a couple on a Shad and most people switched straight over as we all love the lures.

We ran a few drifts for the next hour, exploring different areas; picking up fish every run, until we lost the tide. A couple of miles away there was a wreck to try, so we headed there for slack water. Everyone was on bait now due to the lack of tide, but we could only muster a couple of Codling each drift and as soon as the tide turned, we went back to the ground marks and Shads. Things kicked in nicely once the Flood got going and we had some solid sport on the Shads for the rest of the day. We found one area that held a few better fish when we covered it and we had a couple of better sized Pollock and Codling.

Shads probably took 90% of the fish caught today and Ian Kellock was top rod with 25-30 fish on his own. If the average size had been 3-5lb it would have been the best day for ages, but there were alot of throwbacks (they were take-able size), but the lads only take better size fish. There was no best colour on the Shads, everything seemed to work today. Everyone caught plenty and the banter was epic as always. Tony Firman deserves a special mention for persevering with the Slow-Pitch jigs and getting his Pollock in far from ideal conditions for them.

Thanks lads, brilliant day, really enjoyed your company as always.
21/03/2025 Fishing Report by Andy Savage

21 Mar 2025 by Andy Savage

Sea Urchin update and two day report.......

After losing the whole of the previous week or so with poor weather conditions, things had settled down enough to get out on Wednesday and Thursday this week.On Wednesday Josephine O'flynn-Ulliot had booked the boat for her son Mal's 17th Birthday. Dad and the boys fancied having a day out Uptiding. All four had never done sea fishing from a boat before, so with such a small group, it was the type of day I love; as it means I can spend the time teaching and helping them to get the best from the day, with no distractions.

With a mid morning start we headed South towards Hawsker with the 4.9m Ebb Tide running nicely. Once the anchor was down we went through the rudimentary's of using the tackle, how to bait up and how to recognise the bites and strike etc. With the rods duly despatched (two on Crab Cart and two on Squid and Black Lug) we awaited the action to commence. After a few minutes signs of feeding fish materialised and Dad Kaylem was straight into the first Codling of the day on Crab Cart. Whilst only small, it was nice to get a fish under the belt early on. We fished on for the next hour or so and caught a few more small Codling. Cart was definitely the better of the two bait options we tried.

As we lost the tide we pushed a bit further south and pressed repeat for another hour, taking a few more Codling and got constant attention from the Lobsters which kept dropping off at the surface! At slack water, we ran back up towards Saltwick to catch the first of the Flood Tide and finish the day there. We'd talked about different species all day, and once the tide turned we managed to add another couple of other species to the fish caught list; with Dogfish, Pouting and Whiting making an appearance to round things off. The action wasn't frantic, but for their first time trying, the lads did brilliantly and they all caught fish and had a few fillets to take home. The company makes the trip; the fish are a bonus!

On Thursday with tides dropping away a bit I had advised the lads that were booked on that I thought the best opportunity would be to run off to get to some clearer water. Using the tide we planned to maybe try a couple of wrecks and then drift some ground marks out in the 20 mile stream. We got away just after 0600hrs for the 2hr plus run out on the Flood tide; arriving around 0830hrs. For the first couple of drifts on the rough ground, everyone went over with mainly muppet bait traces, baited with Squid. There were numerous fish caught each drift, but disappointingly they were all small; a mix of Codling, Haddock and Blue Mouth Rockfish.
We continued to change depths and areas for the next few hours, but unfortunately we never tracked down a Codling over 3lb. Experienced Sea Urchin regulars, Ian Kellock and Dave Sharp switched over to trying Shads fairly quickly and they started clipping a few fish on them which was good to see. The majority of the fish were hooked fair and square in the mouth, which indicates that the water clarity was good enough for the fish to see the lure properly.

Whilst I don't want to try and make it out to be a brilliant day (in terms of quality fish captures), there were plenty of fish about and we caught quite a number of species.....Cod, Haddock, Ling, Pollock, Whiting, Pouting, Poor Cod, Blue Mouth Rock Fish. If the average size of the Codling had been 3-5lb it would have gone down as a decent day, but unfortunately they weren't. With the majority of feeding fish being on the small side, some of the lads switched over to baited Hokkai's which were more productive than the bigger baits. The lads who travelled down from Sunderland brought the Cooked Prawns that they like to use, but the hooks got stripped very quickly, or small fish hung themselves.

We stopped at a wreck on the way back for 45 minutes, but after only four small Codling and a few sets of lost gear, we called it a day and headed home. As I have mentioned already, I'm not a fan of running "right" offshore, but I honestly think that at the moment it will give us the best opportunity of getting a few fish. Dave Sharp and Ian Kellock rang the changes all day and Dave told me he had seventeen fish and Ian had fifteen or so. They weren't all keepers, but at least it wasn't a complete catastrophe. Thanks to everyone for having the run out and giving it a go.I find that March and April are the hardest two months of the year. We're in that transition period from the fish moving off the close inshore marks where we Uptide and new fish taking up residence on the wrecks and running the rough ground closer to Whitby. Over the next few weeks, I'm sure we'll see improvements on the inshore marks, but until then, running off is my favoured option if the weather permits.

To summarise this long report........the fishing has been very hard recently and it probably will be for the next couple of weeks. If you like fishing with the Shads and Lures and don't mind a run off, the water is clear enough out there to get a few fish, but you probably won't fill your freezer.

Please don't think for one minute I'm being pessimistic, but I would rather manage expectations. If every report I posted said "We Smashed It", it would be a lie and I'm not prepared to do that. The genuine anglers understand that we can only and catch what is feeding on the day. Balance is important, at the moment it's hard, but next could be epic! I'll always keep you informed, for better or worse.
08/03/2025 Fishing Report by Andy Savage

8 Mar 2025 by Andy Savage

It’s been a couple of months since we’ve had the opportunity to have a go on the wrecks, but today was a dinky 4.4m Neap tide which was ideal for it. With the winds from the South East, it could have gone a bit pear-shaped if they lifted, but thankfully, it was a beautiful day out in Springlike weather.

I had a group of mixed experience anglers aboard, who were happy to run offshore to try a few wrecks in the 20 mile stream. Whilst I really don’t like spending hours steaming back and forth, I’m happy to do it if I think it’s going to give us the best opportunity of finding a few fish. To make the most of the day, we headed off early and arrived at the first stop at 0830hrs with the tide Flooding against the SE wind. This resulted in the boat being held up on the drift and we literally crept across the wreck, which is ideal as it is a bit snaggy!

The first half a dozen drifts saw fish each run through falling to mainly Squid baited muppet traces. They were all small bright white Codling, but it wasn’t really what I’d hoped for. Then for some reason, the Pouting decided to muscle in on the action and they were stripping hooks and hanging themselves and just generally being a nuisance. Change of plan required…..

There were another couple of small wrecks nearby, so I opted to give them a go whilst the drift speed was so slow. Unfortunately that turned out to be a complete waste of time, as we just lost three sets of gear and never had a bite; never mind a fish. As we’d already had a few Codling from the first wreck and with plenty of different areas still to try, we dropped back onto it and set up a drift right at the very top end.

First run over and we put up four nice Codling between 3-5lb, pressure off!! Thankfully we had 3-6 fish every drift for the remainder of the day. Everyone got a few and whilst we didn’t find anything enormous our biggest Codling went 6lb 8oz, but the average stamp was much improved from the morning.

Squid, or Squid & Mackerel did the majority of the bites today. Big thanks to the lads for a really enjoyable day out.