View Fishing Report

  • 21/03/2025 Fishing Report by Andy Savage on Sea Urchin IIl (Whitby, North Yorkshire)

    21 Mar 2025 by Andy Savage

    Report on-board Sea Urchin IIl

    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.

    View Boats Page
    UPCOMING INDIVIDUAL SPACES ONBOARD Sea Urchin IIl
    Thu 01/05/2025
    3 Spaces Available Wreck & Reef Trip - 5.41m Tom McGlen - x 6 Eric Swindells - x 1
    		View details
    Fri 02/05/2025
    7 Spaces Available Wreck & Reef Trip - 5.18m Will sail with 4 anglers. Jeff Turner - x 1 Shane Ingram - x 1 Pete Durrant - x 1
    		View details
    Wed 07/05/2025
    2 Spaces Available Wrecking Trip - 4.43m Ian Kellock x 1 Charlie Hewitt - x 1 Andy Baxter - x 4 Steve Milnes - x 1 Dave Sharp - x 1
    		View details
    Thu 08/05/2025
    1 Space Available Wrecking Trip - 4.58m Stan Matthews - x 1 Peter Burton - x 2 Dave Coote - x 3 Derek Coulson - x 3
    		View details
    Tue 13/05/2025
    1 Space Available Wreck & Reef Trip - 5.17m Dave & Del - x 2 Pete Goddard - x 2 Pawel Galamb - x 2 Steve Scott - x 3
    		View details
    Wed 21/05/2025
    7 Spaces Available Wrecking Trip - 4.60m Ian Kellock x 1 Charlie Hewitt x 1 Dave Sharp - x 1
    		View details
    Tue 27/05/2025
    2 Spaces Available Wreck & Reef Trip - 5.49m Dave & Del - x 2 David Craine - x 2 David Glover - x 2 Jane - x 1 Chris Ibbotson - x 1
    		View details
    Wed 11/06/2025
    5 Spaces Available Wreck & Reef Trip - 5.09m Ali Clelland-Ball - x 1 Derek Coulson - x 3 Ian Scrivens - x 1
    		View details
    Thu 19/06/2025
    6 Spaces Available Wreck & Reef Trip - 4.93m Ian Kellock x 1 Dave Sharp - x 1 Dan Evans - x 2
    		View details
    Fri 20/06/2025
    8 Spaces Available Wreck & Reef Trip - 4.94m Will sail with 4 anglers. Stan Matthews - x 1 Jeff Turner - x 1
    		View details
    View Full Charter Availability