It must be about 3 years since I last fished Workington Beach, the steep shingle beach to the south of the pier. The carpark at the top of the beach makes it an easy accessible venue, however the top of the beach has had the shingle removed. This has made the first 20 metres strewn with big lumps of slag, a remnant of our local industrial past.

At the bottom of the shingle it turns into sand, so a 40 metre cast from the high tide mark clears the shingle onto the sand. The beach is known for plaice, flounders and dogfish this time of year. There is also the chance of a thornback ray and an early bass.

Conditions were good for the target species, plaice, flounder and dogfish. Starting fishing 3.5 hours before high tide with a calm sea and overcast sky, chances were looking good for a few of the targeted fish!

The first hour was quiet, with crabs stripping baits off the hooks within 10-15 minutes, with a strong tide run left to right towards the pier.

I opted to fish using two rods, one targeting dogfish and rays at about 80-120 metres and the second targeting flatfish at 40-60 yards.

The longer range rod was using a two hook clipped down rig with size 1 Kamasan uptide hooks. The baits were sandeel and squid.

The shorter range rod targeting flatfish was armed with 2 hook flappers with size 2 Mustad flatfish hook 32601N. Bait for the flat fish was frozen black lugworm.

The first fish I caught was a small dogfish, which had taken a sandeel bait at range, this was unhooked and returned to the water. After about 2 hours a small rattling bite on the shorter range rod indicated something was having a go at my lugworm bait. Leaving it rattling away for a few minutes, I then lifted the rod tip and started winding in. I was hoping the fish was hooked. The weight on the light graphite tip on my Teklon Competition 2 rod indicated there was something on! With the clear water I eagerly watched for my rig to show and as it came into view I saw a nice sized flatfish coming through the water towards the shingle beach. Carefully sliding the fish onto the shingle I saw it was a nice sized flounder, which measured 36cm.

About 2 casts later I had a cracking bite on the distance rod, which indicated a dogfish taking an interest in my baits. When I started winding in I could tell by the arching rod, it was a decent sized fish. My first thoughts were correct, a fantastic marked lesser spotted dogfish slid onto the beach. The doggie had again taken the sandeel bait.

The very next cast on the short ranged rod I noticed a slow nodding of the tip and I thought this looks like a plaice bite. Again letting the bite develop I waited a few minutes and then lifted the rod tip and I could feel the weight of a fish on! Reeling in I saw the brown flatfish with orange spots appear in the shallow margins at the waters edge. A beautiful marked plaice of 35cm slid onto the beach and another of the fish I was targeting was landed.

My final casts had been made 1.5 hours after high water and the short range rod tip began to give a few nods. Unsure what was biting, I gave it time to take the lugworm bait down, then lifted the rod tip I could feel some weight, indicating a fish was on. I began to reel in and the fish appeared in the waters edge. I initially thought I had caught another flounder, but as I slid it onto the shingle I identified it as a big dab. When measured the fish hit the 30cm mark, which is a cracking sized dab. So I packed up very happy with that final fish.

Having not fished that beach for a number of years, I will be giving it a few more visits after a very enjoyable session.