Steward Calligan has been catching cod off the East Yorkshire coast and vowing not to feed gulls again

For my last fishing outing, I chose a sunny autumnal day with golden sunshine warming the sleepy villages on my way to Withernsea.
Stewart Calligan was fishing off the East Yorkshire coastStewart Calligan was fishing off the East Yorkshire coast
Stewart Calligan was fishing off the East Yorkshire coast

After a short boulder clay descent I was on the beach surrounded by sand flies swarming over rotting seaweed.

I was amazed by the amount brought up from the depths by violent seas. A large dead gull sprawled out on the weed with a ringed foot proclaiming, STAVANGER MUSEUM 360830 Norway. I am attempting to contact the ‘ringers’ but as yet, to no avail.

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Another gull, which I had met before on my previous two visits, came looking for titbits and before I could stop it, it picked up my baited rig of hooks, line and 175gm weight, and was flying off. I shouted so loud that it dropped its meal into the incoming surf. Try as I might, I couldn’t find the £4.50’s worth of tackle.

Vowing never to feed gulls again, I rebaited some new pennal rigs with freshly dug lugg and squid and cast out as far as my poor old back would allow.

The sea had a two-foot swell on and looked like a weed soup up to 20 yards out. I put one rod out and wound in after five minutes only to find four kilos of weed on my line.

As the tide filled up the beach, I found I was able to cast over the soup to clear water. Keeping the rod tips as high as possible on the rod rest I avoided the worst. Bites were plentiful.

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Good whiting had been reported in this area but my big baits were targeting bigger fish. Sure enough, I had a good strong bite and landed a nice cod just under the legal limit. Two smaller ones followed and all were returned.

It was a nice, sunny day for the time of year and I was grateful to the two Hull anglers who gave me the freshly dug lugg. They had a good day landing some whiting and cod.

I’ve kept my beady eye on the super trawler, The Margiris, since my last article.

After fishing off East Yorkshire with nets the size of six football fields, it spent a few days, presumably unloading its catch, in a Dutch port, then operated off Newcastle and is presently near the Faroe Islands. Although the Dutch owners say there is no ‘by-catch’ it got me wondering if these huge nets are catching the salmon I should be catching.

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As my crab and lobster pot buddies know too well, some of the trawlers snag and destroy their pots. The skippers of these foreign and UK trawlers ignore the coordinates provided by the potters and tow away a line of pots.

Footnote: My lobster luncheon club has been scuppered by the rule of six, so we are using the services of Anette at the Lily Pad Café, Burnby Hall, Pocklington where appropriate physical distancing and sanitisation are in place. We are still eating Bridlington lobsters.

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Thank you

James Mitchinson

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