Shore sport continues to be fairly poor with decent fish difficult to find amongst lots of undersize flounders and dabs. However the odd sizeable cod and coalfish have been taken from several areas, mainly from Roker Pier, South Shields Pier and the rock edges north of the Tyne. Best fish reported was a cod of exactly 10lb taken from Dunstanburgh Castle by Graham Guy during a recent pleasure fishing session. Don Nicholson won a Whitley Bay match with a cod of 2lb 10oz from the Pipe End, Dave Walker had two cod for 3½lb from Newbiggin to win a Bedlington Station match, and the Tyne produced a winning bag of five coalfish and a flounder weighing 5lb 6oz for Steve Harper in a Tynemouth match. Ten year old Mason McLachlan showed some of adults how to do it when he landed a cod of 2¼lb from South Shields Pier. Out at sea Arthur Smeaton fishing from his own boat off from Whitley Bay had half a dozen cod to 7lb 14oz.
Hartlepool Pirates fished on Friday and with in size fish being few and far between only two weighed in. Sid Burtcher won with two coalfish and a single flounder weighing 2lb 6oz and Dave Robinson had a four ounce rockling. Next match is Friday March 25th fishing from 7pm until midnight, and the next meeting is on March 31st at 7.30pm in the Stranton Club.
The last Ryhope match saw 30 of the 91 entrants weigh in mainly flounders from the river Wear. Steve Graham had the top bag when he fished the Wear and had a bass, a coalfish and a flounder for 1.33kg. Runner-up Lee Burton had a single cod of 0.855kg from South Shields Pier; this was also the heaviest fish. Steve Harriman had two flounders for 0.81kg to finish third while Tamsin Kenfield was top junior with a flounder of 0.55kg and the best flatfish was a flounder of 0.60kg taken by Dave Mould.
The Eastenders Wednesday evening sweepstake saw four out of 16 weigh in five flounders. Barrie Wright took first and third place with specimens of 14oz and 11oz fishing at South Shields Long Beach. Barrie Robson joined the other Barrie at Long Beach and finished second with a fish of 13oz and Brian Turnbull fished the Wear to land one of 10oz for fourth place. The Eastenders club match on Friday saw all 18 anglers blank. Another Eastenders match on Sunday saw better results with seven out of 20 weighing in seven fish. Chris Hossack had a codling of 1lb 9oz from Roker Pier, while Michael Sopp had a flounder of 1lb 5oz from the Wear and John Dixon had a flounder of 1lb 2oz also from the Wear.
Sunderland S.A.A. fished Sunday and had seven out of the 13 anglers land seven flounders and three rockling. Steve Rackstraw had two rockling and one flounder weighing 1¾lb, followed by a tie for second place with Steve Mordey and Bill Gamblin each having 1lb 5oz.
Seaham fished for the Lawson Trophy on Sunday with 11 out of 66 finding 14 in size fish weighing a total of 10.84lb. Dean Furness won with three fish weighing 4.07lb taken from the Green Wall while second placed Dean Ambler fished the Blast Beach to weigh in two fish for 2.07lb. Third placed Edgar Tallentire land a fish of 0.70lb from the North Pier.
South of the Tees shore sport is also slow with flounders and rockling the main species to expect. Tony Baker did manage to win a St. Mary’s A.C. match with two rare cod of 2lb 11oz and 1lb 15oz taken from Goldsborough. Second place went to Darren Lister who targeted the small stuff and landed 10 rockling and two blennies for 2lb 2oz. A recent Saltburn A.C. match saw Richie Spaven win with 11 rockling and a single flounder for 2lb 5oz taken at Whitby, and Andy Clark was second with 13 rockling weighing 1lb 15oz.
