Hi all, i left Gateshead on thursday morn 5am it was -3, i thought i must be crazy, i arrived down at the harbour at 6.30 where would you believe it it was 3 degrees warmer, still pretty cold though. I parked up the car up and walked over to the tackle shop for some last minute essentials and a bacon sarnie an mug of coffee before heading back over to the car park and pontoon.
Down on the boat was 2 other anglers and paul kilpatrick himself, i was very surprised when he started up the engine and pulled away squeezing under the bridge, only 3 paying customers, there was so much space, anyway we steamed straight out for about 45 mins then first drift 3 of us using shads and 1 lad on the bait, paul had 2 fish to the shads, the rest of us none, next drift exactly the same then 3rd drift dropped my gear to bottom,3 turns then tap tap BANG up came a nice codling around 2.5-3lb. This was the scene for the rest of the day, we probably only fished about 4 or 5 different marks all day but all of them came up with the goods,cod a few ling and 1 nice pollaock, best fish was a cod around 5-6lb. I think on the day it was 50/50 between the bait and the shads but the lads who were changing now and then over to bait were picking up a lot of small stuff pouting etc.
I had a good bit crack with paul over the day and let him know how impressed i was with the shad fishing especially with it being the first week in march, he replied " you want to be down here in june/july it gets better", i honestly dont know how it could get any better.
All in all i had a cracking days fishing,probably the most fish i have caught for over 10 years, all my fish fell to 4' storm shads on a 4 foot trace, blue and glo tiger, some tipped with a bit squid some without. I was on a high all day and didnt even feel the cold although it did turn out to be a beautiful day, roll on may 15th for my next trip down there with paul again fingers crossed for good weather and i will take my camera.
Down on the boat was 2 other anglers and paul kilpatrick himself, i was very surprised when he started up the engine and pulled away squeezing under the bridge, only 3 paying customers, there was so much space, anyway we steamed straight out for about 45 mins then first drift 3 of us using shads and 1 lad on the bait, paul had 2 fish to the shads, the rest of us none, next drift exactly the same then 3rd drift dropped my gear to bottom,3 turns then tap tap BANG up came a nice codling around 2.5-3lb. This was the scene for the rest of the day, we probably only fished about 4 or 5 different marks all day but all of them came up with the goods,cod a few ling and 1 nice pollaock, best fish was a cod around 5-6lb. I think on the day it was 50/50 between the bait and the shads but the lads who were changing now and then over to bait were picking up a lot of small stuff pouting etc.
I had a good bit crack with paul over the day and let him know how impressed i was with the shad fishing especially with it being the first week in march, he replied " you want to be down here in june/july it gets better", i honestly dont know how it could get any better.
All in all i had a cracking days fishing,probably the most fish i have caught for over 10 years, all my fish fell to 4' storm shads on a 4 foot trace, blue and glo tiger, some tipped with a bit squid some without. I was on a high all day and didnt even feel the cold although it did turn out to be a beautiful day, roll on may 15th for my next trip down there with paul again fingers crossed for good weather and i will take my camera.
