Old Press Cutting

[Skaterboy]

I found an old press cutting yesterday when I was looking for some old photos. It shows the record cod caught off Whitby in 1992
from the boat Sea Trek. When I went boat fishing I fished on Sea Trek a few times and the skipper always found us a few fish. When boats started fitting Decca Navigator, an early GPS system, there were some huge catches from the newly accessible wrecks off Whitby measured in thousands of pounds of 20 and 30lb cod. The best boats were booked up months and sometimes years in advance by clubs from all over the north of England and as an individual it was difficult to book a trip .I missed the bumper catches but had some good catches in later years. I caught my best fish in 1992 but by then the boats were having to travel a lot further to find good fish. On the day I caught it the skipper told us he had found some bigger fish the previous day a long way out and asked the anglers if they were prepared to risk the long journey to find them. Everybody agreed and the 10 hour trip turned into a 4 hour steam to the mark, 2 hours fishing and 4 hours back to port. Luckily he found the fish straight away and the risk payed off with good fish for everyone. Whitby still has a few charter boats which still catch fish but nothing like those days.

 

[Trampster]

Great report from 'the good ol' days' Skater!

 

[Wolf]

Great write up

 

[Coxy]

Oh for those Halcion days fishing with pirks and cod feathers over mid channel (& not so far) wrecks . Catching 2 x 20lb plus cod at a time with ling & pollock thrown in. Congers up to 90lb and cod on cuttle guts when anchored up. Fished on "Nikaria" out of Newhaven skippered by the late Chris Martin.

 

[The Third Earl]

I fished with Stu Johnson on Sea treck many times, before and after Noel Cook caught the biggest, the one in Skaterboys post ,he would set off and head straight out to the “Big Wall “ leaving us sat on deck for what seemed like ages, when we arrived it was always hectic, Cod and more cod, up to 15 or 20 lbs plus regularly coming over the gunnels . It was hard work, we used 2 lb plus Whitby Rippers , with a home made 6 inch muppet on a 6/0 hook above, never more than one muppet as if you hit three fish it would be arm breaking work bringing them up.The muppet was made from the orangey pink nylon tape used to mark holes in the road, a Penn 4/0 or 6/0 reel, 50 lb class rods and a form of line called “Eltex” which was actually what car seat belts were made from, we bought it on bulk spools from a place in Bradford.
After a day out on Sea Treck you ached all over, your arms were shaking , back aching and thighs and legs bruised where you had braced yourself against the gunnels. We used a big wheeled cart on the pontoon to get the catch back to the car sometimes two journeys with the cart full of fish both times.
Stu Johnson , who was an ex ambulance man, would race around the deck, gaff fish, then using the gaff he would remove the hooks, using the gaff like a “T” bar, leaving the fish flapping on the deck for you to deal with whilst he went onto the next angler to boat his fish, he never stopped.
Stu Johnson and Kevin Bewick another charter skipper, who used to run an old converted trawler called “Golden Bells” had a sort of long standing competition between themselves, who could buy their wives the most Jewelry , they would meet up in the “Little Angel “in Whitby and compare their purchases, which were displayed on their wives who were always decked out in their finest bling.

One time we could not get on Sea Treck, but instead booked on Golden Bells with Kevin, we arrived on the day, but the other anglers had given backword, Kevin was a true gent and took the two of us out for the whole day just charging individual prices, he never went out as far as Sea Treck because Golden Bells was a chugger and it would have taken him a week to get out as far as Stu Johnson, instead he knew the inshore marks well and although the fish we caught were mostly in the 6 to 12 lb bracket we still had a catch between the two of us which you would never see these days.

Many years ago,fond memories, we will probably , nay almost certainly never see their like again.

I still have the 50 lb class gear. These days I use, as most do ,much lighter tackle to target smaller fish , usually up to small doubles and occasionally hetting a bigger Ling.

The thought of a day pumping 2 lbs plus of lead for 6 hours, sometimes bringing up double shots of double figure Cod plus the pirk against a hard running tide , then having to drive 95 miles home with enough fish to fillet to fill a supermarket makes me wonder how we ever did it .

I remember one time, I owned a Caravan on a site in Filey, myself and a mate went up to Whitby for a day on Sea Treck, we bagged up , and took the catch back to the caravan site to stay over and travel home the day after, we gutted and filletted the fish on the site, and ended up with a big audience, most of the happy caravanners had never seen a Cod fresh from the sea, and almost certainly had never seen so many of them in one place.



Dave

 

[Trampster]

I fished with Stu Johnson on Sea treck many times, before and after Noel Cook caught the biggest, the one in Skaterboys post ,he would set off and head straight out to the “Big Wall “ leaving us sat on deck for what seemed like ages, when we arrived it was always hectic, Cod and more cod, up to 15 or 20 lbs plus regularly coming over the gunnels . It was hard work, we used 2 lb plus Whitby Rippers , with a home made 6 inch muppet on a 6/0 hook above, never more than one muppet as if you hit three fish it would be arm breaking work bringing them up.The muppet was made from the orangey pink nylon tape used to mark holes in the road, a Penn 4/0 or 6/0 reel, 50 lb class rods and a form of line called “Eltex” which was actually what car seat belts were made from, we bought it on bulk spools from a place in Bradford.
After a day out on Sea Treck you ached all over, your arms were shaking , back aching and thighs and legs bruised where you had braced yourself against the gunnels. We used a big wheeled cart on the pontoon to get the catch back to the car sometimes two journeys with the cart full of fish both times.
Stu Johnson , who was an ex ambulance man, would race around the deck, gaff fish, then using the gaff he would remove the hooks, using the gaff like a “T” bar, leaving the fish flapping on the deck for you to deal with whilst he went onto the next angler to boat his fish, he never stopped.
Stu Johnson and Kevin Bewick another charter skipper, who used to run an old converted trawler called “Golden Bells” had a sort of long standing competition between themselves, who could buy their wives the most Jewelry , they would meet up in the “Little Angel “in Whitby and compare their purchases, which were displayed on their wives who were always decked out in their finest bling.

One time we could not get on Sea Treck, but instead booked on Golden Bells with Kevin, we arrived on the day, but the other anglers had given backword, Kevin was a true gent and took the two of us out for the whole day just charging individual prices, he never went out as far as Sea Treck because Golden Bells was a chugger and it would have taken him a week to get out as far as Stu Johnson, instead he knew the inshore marks well and although the fish we caught were mostly in the 6 to 12 lb bracket we still had a catch between the two of us which you would never see these days.

Many years ago,fond memories, we will probably , nay almost certainly never see their like again.

I still have the 50 lb class gear. These days I use, as most do ,much lighter tackle to target smaller fish , usually up to small doubles and occasionally hetting a bigger Ling.

The thought of a day pumping 2 lbs plus of lead for 6 hours, sometimes bringing up double shots of double figure Cod plus the pirk against a hard running tide , then having to drive 95 miles home with enough fish to fillet to fill a supermarket makes me wonder how we ever did it .

I remember one time, I owned a Caravan on a site in Filey, myself and a mate went up to Whitby for a day on Sea Treck, we bagged up , and took the catch back to the caravan site to stay over and travel home the day after, we gutted and filletted the fish on the site, and ended up with a big audience, most of the happy caravanners had never seen a Cod fresh from the sea, and almost certainly had never seen so many of them in one place.



Dave

Great write up Dave!

 

[John Mitchell]

The seas have been plundered

 

[X525]

I fished with Stu Johnson on Sea treck many times, before and after Noel Cook caught the biggest, the one in Skaterboys post ,he would set off and head straight out to the “Big Wall “ leaving us sat on deck for what seemed like ages, when we arrived it was always hectic, Cod and more cod, up to 15 or 20 lbs plus regularly coming over the gunnels . It was hard work, we used 2 lb plus Whitby Rippers , with a home made 6 inch muppet on a 6/0 hook above, never more than one muppet as if you hit three fish it would be arm breaking work bringing them up.The muppet was made from the orangey pink nylon tape used to mark holes in the road, a Penn 4/0 or 6/0 reel, 50 lb class rods and a form of line called “Eltex” which was actually what car seat belts were made from, we bought it on bulk spools from a place in Bradford.
After a day out on Sea Treck you ached all over, your arms were shaking , back aching and thighs and legs bruised where you had braced yourself against the gunnels. We used a big wheeled cart on the pontoon to get the catch back to the car sometimes two journeys with the cart full of fish both times.
Stu Johnson , who was an ex ambulance man, would race around the deck, gaff fish, then using the gaff he would remove the hooks, using the gaff like a “T” bar, leaving the fish flapping on the deck for you to deal with whilst he went onto the next angler to boat his fish, he never stopped.
Stu Johnson and Kevin Bewick another charter skipper, who used to run an old converted trawler called “Golden Bells” had a sort of long standing competition between themselves, who could buy their wives the most Jewelry , they would meet up in the “Little Angel “in Whitby and compare their purchases, which were displayed on their wives who were always decked out in their finest bling.

One time we could not get on Sea Treck, but instead booked on Golden Bells with Kevin, we arrived on the day, but the other anglers had given backword, Kevin was a true gent and took the two of us out for the whole day just charging individual prices, he never went out as far as Sea Treck because Golden Bells was a chugger and it would have taken him a week to get out as far as Stu Johnson, instead he knew the inshore marks well and although the fish we caught were mostly in the 6 to 12 lb bracket we still had a catch between the two of us which you would never see these days.

Many years ago,fond memories, we will probably , nay almost certainly never see their like again.

I still have the 50 lb class gear. These days I use, as most do ,much lighter tackle to target smaller fish , usually up to small doubles and occasionally hetting a bigger Ling.

The thought of a day pumping 2 lbs plus of lead for 6 hours, sometimes bringing up double shots of double figure Cod plus the pirk against a hard running tide , then having to drive 95 miles home with enough fish to fillet to fill a supermarket makes me wonder how we ever did it .

I remember one time, I owned a Caravan on a site in Filey, myself and a mate went up to Whitby for a day on Sea Treck, we bagged up , and took the catch back to the caravan site to stay over and travel home the day after, we gutted and filletted the fish on the site, and ended up with a big audience, most of the happy caravanners had never seen a Cod fresh from the sea, and almost certainly had never seen so many of them in one place.



Dave

when i first moved up here from Portsmouth, whitby was a weekly( weather permitting) trip, with either kev or stuart the first 2 calls lol
Kev Buick bought sea trek off stuart, if i remember correctly, and she was renamed Heartbeat
cracking hull, based on a type of offshore powerboat design if i recall

then stuart got the bullet ( sea trek TNG ) ( which rich ward is now running as Shy Torque)

had many many days with each , and latterly rich ward, and the early days would see box after box filled to overflowing

did a couple of foc trips early on, on a %% share ( cant remember the boat) when the boats all had their own psl ( pressure stock licences )
can remember setting off at 3 in the morning for a 4 hr steam, 6 hrs solid pirking and a 4 hrs run in, all boxes filled to the brim, and the area of remaining deck space covered in cod, half way up to the gunnels

got a good days fishing out of it( fkin hard work mind) and a decent drink at the end of the day

wont see days like that again in my lifetime

 

[Topwater]

Nothing lasts forever when over exploited. It's the same story the world over. Human greed kills everything. We are a disgrace to our planet!

 

[Skaterboy]

did a couple of foc trips early on, on a %% share ( cant remember the boat) when the boats all had their own psl ( pressure stock licences )

I remember some of the huge catches taken in the early days on that semi commercial basis. The Boys and Dark Island are two of the boats that come to mind.

 

[X525]

I remember some of the huge catches taken in the early days on that semi commercial basis. The Boys and Dark Island are two of the boats that come to mind.

they were just before my time up here, but not by long, seem to remember alan? ( rich wards old fella?? ) ran some, but memory may be playing tricks on me ??

cant remember the guys name, but we used to do the same trips, BUT, always the opposite way to the actual whitby boats that did em and ran further north torwards hartlepool from
staithes, an old wooden plodder, shallow draught, well rounded hull shape
rolled like a fkin ball soon as there was any movement, horrendous days out there on that, and staithes is 100% tidal access dependant
if it were proper lumpy, and tides dictated you couldnt get back in, it was either sit it our n roll round till you collapsed, or run for whitby n try n catch a set of swells that wouldnt stick you bow on into the pier ends or turn you sideways to the swell lol
near on shat meself on several occasions lol
stamp of fish was not as big, but quantity wise, was absolutley un believable

 

[Topwater]

My family in Shetland fear for their local stocks, particularly around Muckle Flugga, as do I. The fact is that from these depths there are very poor chances of effective C&R. Once the bigger fish are gone they take time to replenish, much longer than the current rate of killing allows. The writing is very much on the wall

 

[Dutchman]

The seas have been plundered

I have said this on a previous site, yes they have been, but we as anglers also have an impact.