Earlier in the week, Maryport club members expectations were high looking forward to the Parton match.  With a  good possibility of catching a few of the first codling migrating to their autumn spawning grounds. The weather during the weeks preceding the match had been relatively calm with clear water conditions and quite a few summer species still finding enough food to delay their own migration for the winter.  After about 4 days of strong south westerly winds the sea had a good surf running and turned a nice colour, giving the right conditions to get the codling within casting range during a daylight session.  As the week passed the wind was not forecast to drop off, which was not ideal, but remain at an average blustery 22mph on the day!  This would mean a quite rough sea, particularly over low water.

The boundary for the match runs from Harrington Pier in the north and Whitehaven North Pier at the southern end.  It all covers rough ground with the exception of an area fishing onto sand beside the Whitehaven North Pier. So the normal species expected to be caught this time of year could include, codling, bass, whiting, dogfish, rockling and conger.  The match was fished 2 hours down to low water, but the tide remained standing still at low water for quite some time, so realistically there was probably only about one hour of the flood.

It being a small tide it was hoped some fish would just sit close in over low water, but the large surf  was turning the sea into a cauldron of white foam, as the waves rolled in over the shallow beaches.  This can give a churning, washing machine effect that can put fish off coming in close to feed. 

This area historically is a prolific cod fishing ground with some great catches of codling recorded in matches over the past years.   Typically producing winning bags of up to 20 plus codling in the dark!  Also the area in the past has produced quality specimens of cod going into double figures.  With decades of commercial overfishing, if you catch 5-6 fish now you are doing well and the average size of the fish has also dropped, with a fish over 5lbs a rarity.

That said, due to the windy and rough sea conditions a couple of anglers decided not to fish and another 13 hardy souls set forth in the breezy conditions to seek out a fish or two.

The first two hours or so, with a receding tide against the wind produced waves that were being whipped into a white surf rolling over the rocks.  Most anglers found they were able to hold bottom, as long as a piece of weed did not latch onto their line and drag their grip leads out of the seabed. 

Where I was fishing at Harrington I quickly noticed my baits were being stripped off after 10-15 mins due to crabs being very active and found out later, when I managed to hook one of them in their armoured plating, it was the large aggressive velvet crabs that were devouring my large baits in no time at all!  This said, I thought it was a good omen that the crabs were feeding, because if they were in this rough sea, then the cod would be!

Paul Tuck, Kevin Rae, Ray Mallinson and myself chose to fish the stretch of beach from Harrington Pier to the white cliff, the cliff being an remnant of the old iron works at Harrington.  The white coloured slag from the foundry was dumped on the beach, creating a prominent landmark on the shoreline.  Paul Tuck was fishing in the corner on the right side of the rocky point in front of the cliff and managed to catch a small codling early on of 1lb 14.5ozs and missed another fish that had a go at his bait the next cast.   

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Struggling to hold bottom in the big sea Kevin Rea moved further south about 300 metres from  Paul Tuck, having starting fishing between the ruin of the ‘Old Pier’ and the more recently built Harrington Pier.  He was quickly into a fish after moving, a codling of 1lbs 14oz.  Just being pipped by half an ounce by Paul’s fish.  These were the only fish Paul and Kevin managed , but a lot better than Mark Armstrong and Ray Mallinson who could not tempt a fish to take their baits.

Choosing to fish the ‘Boggy Holes” at Lowca was  Jeff Mcallister, Michael Kerr and coming out of retirement and making a comeback, Dick Jack!  The surf there was rather big and making fishing unpleasant and hard work, but Dick Jack showed he had not lost any of his angling skills, landing a codling of 1lb 15.5ozs.  This was the only fish between the three anglers.

The remainder of the clubs anglers chose to fish in the ‘Picnic Rocks’ and ‘Number 3 Bay’ areas.  Most of the remaining fish that were caught came from ‘Number 3 Bay’, with Wayne Stephenson managing to tempt a dogfish and a codling for a bag weight of 3lbs 7ozs.  This proved to be the biggest bag of the day, so giving Wayne the honours of 1^st place.  John Dixon was in the same area and caught a small bass and a huge rockling, which this venue is famous for, giving him a bag weight of 2lbs 12ozs, putting him into 2^nd place.  Tony Lewthwaite fishing in ‘Number 3 Bay’ landed the heaviest fish on the day a nice codling of 2lbs 8oz and putting him into 3^rd place overall.  Paul Hodgson, Ben Shepherd and John Fleming fishing in the same area as these anglers, frustratingly couldn’t locate those scarce codling.

Looking at all the codling that were caught they all were dark in colour indicating that they have been in the area for some time, possibly resident fish and not the paler looking migrating fish that appear this time of year.  I only hope the migrant fish do appear in the next few weeks or it is going to be a hard winters fishing and worryingly that these fish are absent from their traditional breeding grounds!

The next club match is being held at Bankend Farm, Maryport at 1600-2000hrs Sunday 1 November.

A full table of the results can be seen below: