Whitby Charter Boats sea urchin

New record ling on sea urchin

This week I had a group of lads on from Helmsley mostly novices who were fishing a big tide of around 5.4m, still there was no wind and the water was clear as a bell, Robin Molesworth was fishing baited Muppet’s on my hire tackle when he hit into a huge fish on some ground close to Whitby.

 We had been catching a steady run of mainly cod around 3/6lb and I decided to keep the same drift while fish were coming up. Drift after drift fish every time even by his own admitions Robin was a newbie only ever fished from a boat some 20 years previous.

 When he hit the big one he had gained much from the codlings that were coming aboard so did not panic at all he just kept steady pressure on the fish as we all stood by in envy the rod bent almost in half.

 I knew from my experience this was a real good fish after around 12Min’s I could see its length beneath the boat this is a big one I said still fifty feet down it looked huge, Finlay it broke the surface at the same moment my gaff hit it under the chin bingo, (believe me I have missed a few in my time but this was unmissable)

 What a fish I knew as I lifted it over the hand rail it was the biggest ling I had seen for many years, at that moment another angler local lad (Mike Butler from the endeavour pub) shouted I have a big fish on get the gaff ready please skipper in all the excitement I had not realised he was still fishing another rod bending ling broke the surface only to meet the gaff again another cracker

so up to my electronic scales and we all hazard our own guess at the weights and the first  ling weighed a whopping 29lb 10oz a new record for Robin and for the Sea Urchin and it’s many years a fish this size has been landed by any whitby charter boat so close in. The second fish of Mikes was just on 20lb, after all the excitement we had drifted a good half mile off the mark what with the big tide and all so I headed back up the same drift while the lads were taking pictures.

I set the boat up again then one bloke at the back who spent all morning tangling the reel getting stuck and finding it hard to get to grips with the drift trebble hooks and the rough ground,  hit another big fish at first I assumed he had the bottom again has he had during every other drift but no he was retrieving line and the rod was showing signs of a nice fish with deep bends as the fish nodded it’s head in an attempt to dive this time a cracking cod which weighed in at 14lb exactly.

 What a brilliant day even without the three really big ones there was plenty of cod for everyone to take home, once again just shows small tides don’t mean big fish and you don’t need to be an expert to land a fish of a life time if you have decent tackle and a little guidance.