Element Of Surprise

..::Pike Pirate::.. · #1 11-05-2006, 10:01 AM

as the title says, we had the element of surprise for this trip! we saw the tides, sea state and weather and decided it looked perfect. so we got some rag and some more grip leads from the Friarage and headed out to Hartlepool for a night's fishing. We fished the tide from low tide up from around 8 until midnight.
We initially were going to fish the Banjo, but it looked very precarious with all the rocks around at low tide, so we drove the full 200 yards over to the Middleton!

things kicked off early when I got a rattling rod tip after about 10 minutes, which turned out to be no fish. there were a few more rattles until dad hooked into something!! it splashed across the water and i thought "Flattie!" but in reality..."Crab!"

well.
just as i was helping dad unhook thay skittery zoo creature, my rod started to wildly rattle and jerk with...this!!!
i apologise for the rather funny facial features but i was ducking my head down as far as i could to keep it in the picture

it went quiet for about half an hour while the next shoal of whiting came in and dad scored first blood with that lot

and i must say, this particular shoal of whiting was either very aggressive or very large, as my rod was jerked about to the point where i was worried if it was going to fall off the pier! they were like bass bites they were that strong

we got one of them but chucked it back before our camera battery went low so we didnt take any pics of it.
then, about 10 minutes later there was another shoal, and i hooked into the biggest of the night...which is todays tea

it was well over the size limit so we gutted it ansd chopped its head off right there and then (after letting the priest deliver the last rights of course) heres the beauty (not me lol i look horrible)

so, all in all, a better night than the luck we have been having recently, 4 whiting (all takeable size) 3 chucked back and of course, the compulsory shore crab.