The fishing is still good with cod, ling, mackeral, whitings,pollack, all being caught inshore, and hopefully the Autumn fishing festival starts on the 1st September until the 14th lets hope it will produce some big fish locally as in previous years,

still plenty of room on the sea urchin during the festival, single anglers no problem along with groups give me a call on 07855439380 for immediate response and confirmation

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Dave from teeside pictured above, gave his dad Brian a real surprise retirement present as Brian in days gone by worked at the Whitby ship building co. for a while  Dave thought it would be a real surprise to book a day sea fishing on the sea urchin,

and as you can see Brian did real well and he caught a lovely brace of cod one around 10lb and the other around 7lb in no time at all, again prooving you don’t have to go miles and miles to catch good size cod from Whitby when conditions are right.

I seem to be sending lots of these vouchers out of late as surprise presents for friends and families

if you are interested all you need do is email me stating what type of trip you would like,I send the voucher to the recipient you send the money with them in a envelope to pay on the day, and then they can contact me to arrange a suitable day,

great for birthdays, Christmas gifts,

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Here are a few recent pictures I said I would add for my anglers of late, first is of Dave and mates from Leeds with lots of put backs, and sorry I cannot remember the names of the other anglers still all had a good time and that’s what my trips are all about.

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the festival is now over and in reflection we did not loose any days to bad weather, but nearly every day was bad weather swells,winds,rain, we had it all creating not ideal conditions to catch fish inshore at least our best fish of the festival came in around 13lb a ling caught by regular angler Chris from chesterfield, and gave him second place on the last day, also a second place was won the week before by local angler Dave (Rosco) with a cod of 10lb and some but what impressed me were the number of good cod around 10lb mark we caught during the festival the one in the photo caught by bob from darlington a regular on the sea urchin weighed in at 11lb dead, and during the festival we were catching cod every day over 8lbs a good sign?  I hope so,

and last but not least I would like to thank all my anglers for there support in getting the sea urchin on the winners board I know everyone really tried there best, thanks lads there is always another festival.

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Whitby fishing festival angler Adrian Stacey caught more than he bargained for during Fridays competition,

Both myself and Paul eddon had  been let down by anglers not turning up on the morning   so we decided to amalgamate both our depleted anglers into one trip on board trot on charters,     (come on anglers it only takes a phone call?)

now for my part I came along as a pleasure angler, come helper, come photographer, and this was a opportunity for me to fish marks my boat could not practically reach in festival hours anyway, the weather was brilliant and the crack out there was just as good,

Paul decided to drop on a wreck a good way off and first drop I was in, then other rods were soon bending and cod after cod came flying in, I thought to myself this cannot be beaten great fishing great weather, little did I know an hour or so later I was about to whiteness the most spine tingling experience most sea anglers can only dream about,

just as I was pulling a decent cod up Paul shouted SHARK off port side, and a fabulous porbeagle came within two feet of my position wow what a sight,  and that was that, now  after a few more drifts Paul shouted wind em up lads, and I noticed one bloke at the Stern shouted for the gaff, and as I was already up I thought I would try video the landing, now Adrian as we now know him as seemed to be taking ages to lift what we thought was a big ling (as he was fishing a mackerel flapper on the bottom) and the fish took it on the bottom but when it surfaced both me and Paul never expected this awesome sight which still makes my skin tingle every time I watch the video, a  wonderful porbeagle shark around 4 or 5 foot long and mabee around 150lb ? and for a  brief moment I think everyone was in total shock, as the shark came closer to the boat and things settled down Paul tried to slide the gaff down the line to knock the hook out which was unbelievably on the most outer edge of this porgys  mouth, even an inch either side and this fish would have been lost on the first strike, and within a second it was off the hook and swam off safely you must take a look at the video, I am not the best cameraman in the world but under the circumstances hey its not every day I capture a shark on video,

these porgys are here in numbers I saw one last week around eight mile off and many other skippers have also witnessed recent sightings what next Whitby is well known for its great cod fishing but shark fishing? this  for me at least proves Whitby is still one of the best and most interesting ports around the UK for sea angling

to view the video click this link  http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=DCht8lahebo

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fishing has been good in the early stages of the festival with lots of cod showing on the ground and wrecks, ling we have caught has been small to date biggest around 8lb, and the best cod so far off the sea urchin was caught by Shane a regular angler from chestfield with a lovely specimen of 9lb 5oz but just out of Thursdays  prizes, better luck next Sunday mate, when Shane and his pals have another go in the festival of the year, still lots of places available see next post.

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This weekend 9th, 10th, and 11th May

 As I had been away the week previous I had not got any honest information to give on how the fishing was, this being the second most popular questions asked by the anglers who have trips booked with the sea urchin.

 local reports were mixed so with the water dirty and all three bookings were short and coupled with big tides, I was limited to my venue’s so I decided on up-tiding on the Friday and we caught heaps of coal fish some put backs, but a couple of real clonkers near double figures, so as you can immagine I was optimistic for the Saturday how silly of me we struggled to find fish all day I tried everything and at the end of the four hour trip only three fish, I really feel for the anglers on days like that having looked forward to the trip all week and hardley  a fry to show, now the Sunday was foggy and cold but with the tides starting to drop a little I thought I would give a few inshore wrecks a go and bits of ground close by and having set the lads up with different rigs it was clear to me only one set up was catching on the wrecks we tried, so after changing rigs and a change of tide we started to catch codling’s around the five pound mark as well as ling pouting and a few whitings, yours truly had a lovely cod nearing double figures on really light tackle a great end to the  weekend’s fishing for me, and the lads had a really good show of cod at the end of the day, ps. sorry to the bloke on the left of the photo for cutting you in half mate.

Oh I suppose your wondering what the most popular question asked when my anglers phone in is ? yes you guessed it  (is everything on for tomorrow skipper.)

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FRIDAYS DAILY FESTIVAL WINNER  Ian Cornwell from Stockton with this 5lb 8oz conger, fishing from the Sea urchin,  Ian also won third prize with a cod of 5lb

Now the Cornwell family are regular anglers with the Whitby charter skippers, and Bob along with his son Ian and grandson Harry, had decided to charter the sea urchin for there spring festival outing, with the weather we have had and the days forecast I decided to use the tide and concentrate on some ground with the anchor down north west of Whitby and with plenty of bait aboard we were on our way,

Harry (age around 12yrs) was eager to to put his name on the leader board after missing out to third place on the sea urchin in last years autumn festival by only ounces with a cod of around 5lbs  on another cold windy day,

And after a promising start catching pouting on squid and mackerel things slowed down as expected, this was always going to be a hard day for catching anything let alone a winner still with a fish of only just over 7lb leading  the festival and the weeks forecast everything was to play for,

until the flood started to come through we waited silent and without a single bite for what seemed an eternity,

at times like this its hard for any skipper trying to convince the anglers things will pick up soon and inwardly convincing yourself you have got the venue right,

 I kept looking at the gps clock and reasuring Bob and the lads it wont be long now, there silence said it all they were loading the gun and I was undoing my boot laces in readiness,

 then as if on cue I had a bite and another and as I turned round I could see Ian had a decent bend in his rod and in no time a cod of around the 5lb was on board, not too long later Ian had another on around 3lb things were picking up and my foot was safe for today at least, the conger came within the same hour I think and at first sight thought it was a ling to be totally honest I was not concentrating on the species as much as getting it safe in the net and what a fight for a small fish and what a mess it made of my new landing net, now after talking and listening on the radio to the other skippers of the w.c.s.a. it was clear that all the boats had struggled to find fish eager to feed that day and at a guess we were in with a chance, on the journey back to Whitby the conger had many attempts at escape and even at the weigh in was in no mood to play, now after talking to the other skippers it seems this conger is somewhat of a rarity to the w.c.s.a. festivals and only a few of the senior skippers can remember around three if any for years at the weigh in before, can anyone remember a conger been weighed in a festival within the last 10 or 20 years? please let me know via my web site I would love to hear from another angler or anyone who could enlighten me,

Anyway congratulations to Ian on his first and third placings bagging him £70 for his efforts

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 Boat fishing and rig set up can be confusing to some beginners and understanding why on one day we catch and next day we don’t can be frustrating to anglers, and sometimes me included, Now I don’t profess to understand all that happens under the boat and while a simple hook and bait can produce fish, if a little effort and thought is put in you can give yourself a much better chance of bigger and better catches, The tide/wind/ and water clarity all play a major roll which we cannot alter on a given booked days fishing trip, but what we are in control of is the way we present our bait/lure to the fish,  I spend lots of my time during the school holidays with novice anglers/ day trippers, (see my 3 hour trips under fishing news) and I like to keep it simple and get them catching from the off, the system I use is my home made two hook Muppet rig (soft squid like lures) attached to 0/4 or0/5 circle hooks and tied to 30lb or 50lb clear mono line, these can then be fished over a simple lead or attached to a bar pirk, and on really hard days I like to attach long thin strips of frozen squid to add a scent and some realism, the circle hooks while more expensive offer almost self hooking abilities great for the novice angler who can find it hard to discriminate bites from the bottom, also even if the line go slack while winding in they usually stay on  and hooks nearly always stick in the corner of the mouth which aids unhooking so causes less harm to the fish if it is to be returned,These rigs are hand made by yours truly and great care and time is given to the choice of hook and the way I attach the Muppets to the hook is painstaking but ensures the hook doesn’t pull  back through the soft lure,unlike some I have seen in which the hook is simply pushed through the top, eye and all, leaving a split for the hook to re emerge on the first drop and end up in either loosing the lure, or worse leaving Muppet hanging in the bend of the hook and looking totally un natural,These hand made rigs are now available from me on the boat and now online at the new

Whitby sea anglers shop site,So why not give yourself the edge and take a look via the link   http://www.whitbyseaanglers.co.uk/whitby-tackle-supplies/

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