Latest Fishing Reports: Sea Urchin IIl
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08/11/2024
Fishing Report by Andy Savage
8 Nov 2024 by Andy Savage
There’s no getting away from it…….today’s fishing conditions were challenging for the lads aboard Sea Urchin.
We left the harbour with the Flood tide running and a SSE wind blowing. This gave us a wind against tide situation, which held the boat up on the drift. I optimistically thought we’d try a wreck to begin with, but after three drifts with the lines running away and only a strap Ling to show for our efforts (as well as some lost tackle), I sacked the idea off. I now knew that unless the winds dropped away (which they were forecast to do in the afternoon, but didn’t), that we would be drifting the rough ground for the remainder of the day. As it turned out, that’s exactly what happened.
We had two or three drifts on the three mile ground, but there was a fleet of pots running through the most productive area I’d found, so after half a dozen clean Codling, but more lost gear, we moved out another couple of miles. Slack water, was around 1100hrs today, but with the breeze we had, I doubt many people would have known! Gradually the drift line of the boat changed and we now had wind and tide together.
The drift speed of the boat increased, so we spent the rest of the day on the seven and nine mile ground. We never got above a drift speed of 1.2 knots, but some of the anglers were really struggling to control their tackle.
Sea Urchin regulars Ian Kellock and Dave Sharp had it nailed on. A 16oz lead and a single muppet trace to catch less tide. This has the effect of minimising drag and keeping your bait on the bottom for longer, allowing the fish more time to find it. These small changes make a big difference!
Once the Ebb Tide was running, we found a nice ridge that held some decent stamp Cod. We had a few drifts where we put up some nice bright fish between 7-9lb which was great to see. Squid and/or Mackerel were the main baits today on the Muppet Traces. Ian Kellock was top rod with his best Cod going 9lb and Dave Sharp chipped in with the biggest Ling just into double figures. Fran Schaap also had a good day, taking Cod to 8lb and Ling of a similar size.
Great bunch of lads aboard today -
06/11/2024
Fishing Report by Andy Savage
6 Nov 2024 by Andy Savage
Fantastic weather today and a lovely day out again……
With very light winds and falling tides, we had a nice day out with great fishing conditions. I had a mixed group of anglers aboard, a couple whom I’d never met before, and some who I’ve not had on for a while. Plenty to talk about all day; it was set to be an enjoyable one.
We started the day off with a couple of wrecks. Unfortunately the first one had a fleet of Crab �� pots running off it, so we couldn’t get a drift in. The second one we tried was free of gear, so we got stuck in on the run into slack water. First drift we took a couple of plump Codling on Squid baited traces, which told us there were a few fish at home. As we began to lose the Flood Tide, the next few drifts saw two or three nice fish each run through. Mainly Codling around 3-4lb with an odd Ling.
Unfortunately, as soon as we got to slack water and even waited for the Ebb to push through, sport just tailed off. As the tide was now away, we headed for the seven mile ground and spent an hour or so on the drift. With the light breeze we had, the drift wasn’t perfect and instead of running along the usually productive ridges, we were crossing over them. This reduced the amount of time in the target area, which reduced the number of bites.
We took small Codling, Haddock, Pouting and Ling every drift when we were on the ridges, but very little from the softer areas.
After an hour or so, I thought we’d be better off on the nine mile ground, so that’s where we spent the rest of the day. A few fruitless drifts at the north end of the ground had me thinking I’d cocked up!Heading further south, thankfully we found a few fish again to spend the last couple of hours.
One area in particular gave us a few good drifts, with Keith Pickering taking his first double figure Ling at 10lb 8oz and Harry Bateman taking the biggest Cod of the day at 8lb 4oz. Everyone had a few fish to take away today and after three overcast days, the sun finally burst through to end a really enjoyable day for me. Thanks lads, you were brilliant company. -
05/11/2024
Fishing Report by Andy Savage
5 Nov 2024 by Andy Savage
It’s been a few days since I’ve managed to find the time to get a catch report together.
The incredibly settled weather (for the time of year) has continued on, so thankfully we’ve been out at sea every day. It was Spring Tides over the weekend, so, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday saw us Uptiding.
After a couple of promising signs earlier in October, it looks like the colour is dropping out of the water again with the settled weather.
A similar pattern emerged over the four Uptiding days. Leaving the harbour with the Ebb Tide running, it wasn’t particularly prolific on any of the days. We caught fish, but sport was patchy. Resident Codling, Pouting, Whiting, Haddock, Dog Fish, Wrasse and Lobsters came our way, but nothing worthy of getting camera out.
Sport improved each day with the Flood Tide and it coincided with us catching the few fresh run fish that we landed. All the fish came on the usual baits of Squid, Black Lug, and Crab Cart.
Tony Firman took the biggest Cod we had over that period with a fish of 5lb. Like I said, there were plenty of bites (apart from Monday, which was very quiet), but the average stamp is currently quite small.
With the tides now falling away and yesterday being poor fishing at anchor, today we were back drifting the rough ground and a couple of wrecks. With it being a 5m tide, we started the day off around slack water on a couple of wrecks in the five mile stream which yielded very little. Once the Ebb came through we started working the ground marks. Five mile produced only a handful of fish; seven mile wasn’t a great deal better, but we took two or three fish a drift of mainly Ling and Haddock.
A run out to the nine mile ground gave better results and we found a few more Codling and a better stamp of Ling. The five day period hasn’t seen any amazing fishing, but the anglers I’ve had aboard have been brilliant and have kept at it all day. I’ve had a go with a Shad today and still took an odd fish or two, so there’s still good clarity in the water for those coming over the next few days.
Thanks to everyone for the continued support. I really appreciate it.
Tight Lines
Andy -
30/10/2024
Fishing Report by Andy Savage
30 Oct 2024 by Andy Savage
Lovely group of lads aboard Sea Urchin today.
We broke the 5.0m tide barrier, so I knew that we’d be drifting a bit quicker on the ground; but with light winds forecast, I fancied us to find a fish or two. We followed a similar path as the previous two days. Starting off on the five mile ground, we had a couple of drifts for only a handful of small Codling, then moved further south on the same stretch of ground, but this time found a few fish.
As has been the norm, we caught mainly Ling on this mark, with an odd Codling or Haddock. We didn’t get anything huge, but Pete Allard who was using my hire gear for his first trip, got straight in on the action. On only his third drift, I saw the rod go over and with a bit of a tussle he landed an 11lb 8oz Ling. Not bad for your first sea fish ever!! A couple of drifts later he also had a 9lb Ling to join its mate in the fish box. When your lucks in, it’s in!!
Once it quietened off, we pushed out a couple of miles, but the three drifts we did didn’t yield much. The wind wasn’t giving us the right drift line for that spot, so I took us out to the nine mile ground. We had one rough ground drift for a couple of Ling and Haddock, but I noticed the lines were now a bit more vertical, so I took us to a nearby wreck. On arrival, we were greeted by a big old seal, and first drift saw us get nothing……..bugger!!
As the tide eased, next drift we were in business. It didn’t last long, but 3-5 fish a run during slack was most welcome. Neil Swallow took the biggest fish with a Ling just into double figures. We spent the remainder of the day on the seven and nine mile ground picking up fish on the muppet bait traces or Hokkai’s, baited with Squid or Mackerel.
My son has been crewing with me for the last few trips during half term. Today was a fishing day for him and he showed me that he’d been listening to the advice I offered. I was so proud to see him get two new PB Ling from out of the wreck on his own. They were 6lb & 7lb but he had no help from me at all. Very proud Dad. Well done Will ����
Thanks lads, a really enjoyable day once again, spent in fantastic company. -
29/10/2024
Fishing Report by Andy Savage
29 Oct 2024 by Andy Savage
Three day catch report aboard Sea Urchin......Apologies for the lack of reporting ( and lengthy report), but I've struggled to find time to put one together, with quite a lot of background stuff going on.
For once, October has given us a bit of reasonable weather, where we have managed to string a few days together. This report covers Saturday 26th, Monday, 28th and Tuesday 29th October.
Instead of giving a blow by blow report, day by day (as is usual), I thought it would be useful to go through a few patterns which emerged over the three days, so hopefully anyone coming in the next few days can hopefully use the information to their benefit.
We have been drifting rough ground and a couple of wrecks for the last three days (no Uptiding). The tides have been steadily building, from 4.3m on Saturday to 5.0m today.
Each day has seen groups of mixed experience anglers aboard. At Whitby we have rough ground available to us from three miles to nine miles, so it gives us lots of options. Basically, the further from land we go, the less tide we get and that is how I shaped my days, to give the best fishing drifts I can.
Having tried the three mile ground twice; it only produced a few small fish in half a dozen drifts, so I didn't visit it today. The five mile ground has been the best starting point for us recently, with a 17lb Ling at the end of last week and again today Robert Warsap took a 13lb 8oz Ling. It's a case of being in the right place, at the right time.
Best Rigs; usual stuff. Muppet bait traces or Hokkai's baited with Squid, Mackerel, or Pouting. Andy Cooper took a 17lb Ling on Pouting, then one of my regular anglers who was struggling, tried Pouting yesterday and got a few quick fish, when he hadn't caught much at all. It might be worth keeping an odd Pouting as a change bait instead of chucking them straight back. The Ling on the wrecks must eat them every day.
A few of the more experienced lads tried fishing with Shads, as the water clarity looks as good as I've seen it all year when you get beyond five miles. We got a couple of fish, but for the amount of effort, bait is definitely the way to go at present.
We've been going out each morning on the Ebb Tide and I've noticed that the fishing hasn't been brilliant throughout that period. We've kept on the move, consistently trying different areas, but there wasn't a golden key. We found odd pockets of fish, but there wasn't any great consistency.The run into slack water and the Flood Tide in the afternoon appear to have been the trigger to get the fish feeding (they aren't machines, despite what some people think). The last couple of days have seen us put plenty of fish up for the last couple of hours. The average size hasn't been amazing, but keeping the bites coming, keeps everyone motivated.
It would be fair to say, there were more Ling than Codling, but plenty of other species. We've caught Codling, Ling, Pollock, Haddock, Pollock, Pouting, Poor Cod, Octopus, Gurnard and Whiting.
If I was going out tomorrow, I think a Muppet Bait Trace with Squid or Mackerel will "do the do". When you fish with the Hokkai's or Daylights, the small fish strip the bait off in no time all if they're feeding. 16oz leads being crucial in the bigger tides.
It's great to see that there are still a good number of fish out on the rough ground, with an odd one or two decent ones amongst them. Everyone has had a few fish the last three trips, but it would be remiss of me not to mention Mike Lee who fished on Monday.Mike has been out with me on numerous occasions, but on Monday, he had "one of those sessions" where he could do no wrong. For those who have been aboard Sea Urchin, they will know the fish boxes are quite roomy. Mike caught most drifts and by the end of the day I was having to try and shuffle his fish in as he had filled it right up! Well done mate, you did fish brilliantly.
Hopefully, the weather stays calm and the sport continues. I really appreciate the support and a massive thank you to everyone who has fished hard every day.
Tight Lines
Andy -
23/10/2024
Fishing Report by Andy Savage
23 Oct 2024 by Andy Savage
After an enjoyable day yesterday, we hit repeat for today’s anglers……. With a crew of mixed angling experience aboard, from brand new to old sweat, it would be great to try and get everyone a few fish.
No two days are ever the same, but today we faced similar conditions, albeit with a stronger breeze, but a smaller tide and less swell, which kind of equalised the two days fishing conditions wise.
Having worked the rough ground yesterday and finding a reasonable number of fish, I aimed to do something similar today. We headed out at first light destined for the five mile ground again.
Today I started in the productive area of the previous day and there were still fish willing to feed. For around ninety minutes we drifted the various ridges and ledges taking mainly strap Ling, small Codling and Haddock, with a few Pouting thrown in. Andy Cooper was aboard today and he likes to use the Pouting as bait. As we covered a nice drop off, one his Pouting baited Hokkai’s was grabbed by something a bit better.
I could tell by the violent head shakes that it was going to be a decent fish. As he was fishing with his line running under the boat, the lads on the other side saw a sizeable Ling coming up before Andy did. With a bit of effort (as it was also tangled in another line) we managed to net the fish which on the scales went 17lb 8oz. Great angling Andy!
We pushed out to the nine mile ground for slack water and drifted along a nice ledge. On the run into slack it fished ok with mainly Ling taking the Squid baits, but slack itself wasn’t great (just like the day before). The first signs of the Ebb saw things pick up again with a good few drifts. By this stage, everyone had a got in on the action and had a few in the box. The average size wasn’t anything to write home about, but there are certainly plenty of fish knocking about. Once the Ebb Tide got up to speed, the sport pretty much dried up.
The wind made it harder than usual today, but with 16oz leads it wasn’t too hard to control the tackle. The lads proved this by consistently taking fish.
Massive thanks to everyone for coming today. Well done. -
22/10/2024
Fishing Report by Andy Savage
22 Oct 2024 by Andy Savage
What a smashing day out at Whitby today. We had a beautiful clear day with plenty of sunshine for the most part.
With huge 6m Spring tides over the weekend, I didn’t want to be out at sea. But today with the tides dropping down, all the lads were keen to get going this morning. I’d explained that it was going to be a 16oz lead day for drifting the rough ground as there was a fresh Westerly breeze blowing. As it turned out, it was perfectly manageable and we could keep in touch with the bottom and keep the fish coming.
First stop was the five mile ground, but the first four drifts produced very little. I moved us to the other end of the ground and we started to find a few fish each drift. Squid was the bait of choice for most, as the Mackerel have drifted away again. Hokkai’s and Muppet traces (shock!) were the end gear just like usual. We had an hour on the five mile taking a mix of Codling, Ling and Haddock. Nothing massive, but a few in the boxes and a few returned.
After a couple of quiet drifts I opted to push out a couple of miles, as we were losing the tide and there was a ledge I wanted to try with a slow drift. That worked ok and we kept ticking over until slack water, when it went very quiet. It wasn’t until the Ebb tide kicked in that we were back in business. The drift line wasn’t perfect with the offshore wind, but every drift we took fish from where I thought they’d be.
For the last couple of hours we ran out to the nine mile ground. We had a good first drift with Dennis Emeny taking the biggest Codling of the day at 7lb 8oz and Nige Snowden taking an 8lb Ling. Matt Snowden took a surprise Octopus which was returned unharmed.
After a duff start, we caught fairly consistently all day, with everyone keeping a few for the freezer and returning plenty as well. Thanks for a thoroughly enjoyable day lads. Good angling -
14/10/2024
Fishing Report by Andy Savage
14 Oct 2024 by Andy Savage
Managed to squeeze one out today……. A fishing trip in-between the poor weather that is!! ��
Yesterday we had 10ft of swell and rough seas at Whitby. The weather forecast gave it to drop away a bit through the night, leaving around 4ft this morning with light winds for most of the day. Hopefully they would be right, as it wouldn’t take much breeze to spoil things. Giving due consideration, I decided to give it a try.
With the lads aboard, firstly we had an unproductive 20 minute Mackerel hunt (which I thought might well be the case). It was a 4.8m tide and everyone was keen to try a few wrecks, so we got stuck in. The inshore waters were looking a bit green and mucky, so we headed offshore to try some further out. Using the Ebb tide, we ran for an hour or so to our first wreck. It looked like there was plenty of feed around it as we set the boat up.
First drift saw us put up five nice clean Codling with bright white bellies which was encouraging. They fell to squid hookbaits on a mix of muppet traces and Daylights. The next half an hour saw fish every drift, then unexplainably sport just dried up. We moved on to the next wreck, arriving just as we were running into slack water, giving us a nice slow drift. This time I counted thirteen fish on the first drift! Clearly a few at home. A productive half an hour around slack saw everyone getting amongst the fish. Nothing massive, but plenty of lovely clean Codling around 3-4lb with Alan Kwok taking the biggest at 6lb 8oz.
Once the flood tide started to push through, the Codling stopped feeding and we got plagued by Haddock. They were coming up two at a time on the Daylights. I thought it best that we moved on as they were only just around “size” and I wanted to try and find something bigger. We fished another two wrecks, but they weren’t anywhere near as productive. The first drift was the best on each, then it just progressively tailed off.
To finish the day we had a couple of drifts on rough ground, which gave us a few to finish with. Codling dominated the boxes today, with only a handful of strap Ling to 7lb. Everyone got some fish for the table today which was great. Thanks lads. -
08/10/2024
Fishing Report by Andy Savage
8 Oct 2024 by Andy Savage
First catch report aboard Sea Urchin for a couple of weeks.
After a decent set of Northerly winds, today we finally had the opportunity to get out and Mark Johnson had the boat booked along with five friends. The tides are dropping a bit, but we still had a 5m tide to contend with which would present some challenging conditions later in the day. First job was to see if there were any Mackerel left and we had three drifts which only gave us a dozen or so. We knocked it on the head as we didn’t want to waste too much time as we had a SE wind against a flood tide, which would hold us nicely on the wrecks.
We ran south to fish a couple of wrecks in the six mile stream. First stop, first drift and pleasingly we had five rods out of six take a fish; a mix of small Ling and Codling was a nice start. We had some steady sport for around an hour, but nothing exceptional was caught until Jono’s rod went over with something more substantial. His pimped up squid bait was snaffled by a lovely Cod of 11lb which won him the boat sweepstake.
The wind showed no sign of dropping away on the turn of tide, so I knew we would have too fast a drift to stay on the wrecks once the Ebb got going. We agreed to try a couple more wrecks through slack water (which were unproductive) then head to the rough ground for the remainder of the day. We had an hour on the five mile ground first and found odd pockets of fish, but the consistency wasn’t there. With the drift speed up to 1.7 knots the lads had to work hard to keep the bait on the deck. 16oz definitely helped in this situation.
We pushed out another couple of miles for the afternoon, to lose a touch more tide and hopefully find a few better fish. It was patchy to start with, but then the wind eased a touch and the sun came out. This seemed to have the desired effect and the last hour gave us a much better run of fish. We had a few Ling around the 7lb mark and some nice clean Codling to 4lb to finish off a really enjoyable day.
It wasn’t a red letter day, but there were signs that there’s still quite a few fish knocking about. Thanks for coming lads -
16/09/2024
Fishing Report by Andy Savage
16 Sep 2024 by Andy Savage
With the building tides going over 5m today, but light winds forecast; we had a much sloppier start to the day than I’d hoped for. The NW breeze really spoilt things. We struggled for over an hour to get enough fresh mackerel for bait for the day, then had a few drifts on the rough ground at three miles as the wind was holding us up on the drift.
After half a dozen drifts with only a few small fish coming up, we moved out to the five mile ground. The drift was slow enough for us to try a couple of wrecks and the wind began to fall away on the run in to slack water. We fished two wrecks for a handful of small Codling, the best going 4lb or so.
As the Flood Tide came through, we ran out a couple of miles to try some more ground marks. As the tide grew we had a few productive drifts. Martin Novo and Bryan Stanton had 13lb and 14lb respectively on the same drift with a couple in the 7-9lb class boated as well by some of the other lads. Next drift, Chris Chatham also took a 13lb Ling and a couple of other 6-8lb fish came up to keep it company. After a hard morning, it was nice to get a few, but unfortunately it was shortlived.
Once the Flood Tide got away properly, we were up to 1.5knots on the drift and the sport died off. We plugged away for the remainder of the afternoon, but once again, it was another hard day at sea, with very few fish caught. Despite the mediocre fishing, I’d like to say a massive thank you to all the lads for the positivity and great chats all day.
Thanks very much for coming, I really enjoyed your company and hope I can deliver a more productive trip next time
