JUNE 2000

On June 9th a party of four anglers from Leeds came up for 2 days fishing. The first day was inshore Pollacking. On the second day we managed to get out to our tope grounds and caught and released 36 Tope up to 45 pound, beating the old record by 4 fish. Apart from an hour when they were coming on board 3 at a time it was steady with a fish approximately every 10 minutes. An exceptional performance was put in by Paul (Big Norm) Hunter. On June 19th Scott Povie came up with a group of friends who had never sea fished before, 2 reels exploded whilst fishing for the Mackerel. I told Scott there was a four hour window in the weather and we would run out to our Tope ground. At one o'clock we had to run for home after having caught and released an amazing 22 tope to 42 pound on three rods in three hours. The record would have gone again that day had the weather been kinder. On returning inshore we fished for Pollack and had 50 Pollack to six pound. What a first days fishing for these angling virgins!

The Pollack fishing is being affected by the weather as we can't always get to where we want to be. At the moment we are catching and releasing fish to 9 pound most days. When we can get to our sand eel marks then double figure fish are coming aboard. Another noticeable day was Onyer Marks having 20 haddock over 2 pound, with the best well over three pound. Go West released a haddock over 4 pounds. Not bad for a species that hasn't been seen in our waters for 15 years. The tope bonanza is continuing with 48 tope in two days for Onyer Marks. Saturday, June 24th, I contacted Jimmy Storey after a late cancellation and offered him the slot. He quickly rounded up two others and they were rewarded with 22 Tope! Jimmy had the best fish in the mid-40's.

On June 26th Keith Wilkinson and his son John with 2 others had four days fishing with Onyer Marks Too and had some great Tope fishing with the best fish weighting 45 pound"."On June 26th 3 anglers (last years record holders with 32 fish) released 20 Tope and on June the 27th the same anglers had 28 Tope to 48 pound. That means that the lads from Wirral have caught and released an amazing 108 tope in their last four fishing trips. On June 28th the Wirral Lads were joined by shore-angler - and now converted boat-angler - Ken Buckley. He put in a superb performance with 10 Tope - one just below and one just above the 50-pound mark! The weather has been hampering our toping but Onyer Marks managed 18 tope to 40 pound earlier this week. Fortunately the bigger Pollack are back on again after a quiet spell with the Easterlies.

JULY 2000

On July 9th Richard Setz from Dumfries caught and returned an 11.5 pound Pollack on board Go West. July the 10th saw 7 double-figure Pollack with many fish round the 7-8 pound mark. Best fish of the day came from Onyer Marks Too with a Pollack of 13.5 pound for Gordon Stewart from Copebridge closely followed by a 12 pounder from Keith Ashwood. The two Phillips from the borders both caught and released double figure Pollack from Onyer Marks.Skipper Ian Burrett was trying out his new range of rods and had double figure Pollack on both the Onyer Marks Float Rod and the Onyer Marks Pollack Rod (see the Chart Room for details) All fish were released from all 3 boats. The catch and release policy is showing itself to work as most of the double-figure fish came from marks we have designated as our own conservation area; all fish must be returned from these marks. As we are the only boats that fish these marks, there should be big fish around for years to come.

The week beginning July 3rd was a fairly typical week with no exceptional catches but good consistent fishing. On July 11th Cederick McMillan from Hexham arrived to fish on Onyer Marks for 5 days fishing with his son Alex, aged 10. My personal belief was that 5 days would be too much for him, particularly with the rough weather we have been having. However, he proved me totally wrong and showed his dad up with the pollacking (sorry Cederick) by landing an 11 pound Pollack.Because of the weather we were only able to fish the Tope grounds once and Alex again put in another great performance with a Tope close to 30 pound. He's certainly the youngest to catch a Tope on our boats. They were joined on the third day by Cliff and Norman, also from Hexham. They were determined to catch "fish on the fly" These two purists quickly gave in and starting adding mackerel strips and small leads to their rig as they saw all the Pollack young Alex was catching. They continued with the fly rods and were told by clever clogs, yours truly, that they would loose the bigger fish. How wrong can you be?

On July the 14th Norman landed the biggest Pollack caught by any angler on our boats weighing a massive 17 pounds on a fly rod. A great performance as any one who has had an inshore double figure Pollack will testify. Not to be out done I returned a bigger Pollack on the same day estimated at 20 pound on the new Onyer Marks custom built Pollack rod.   (nice plug Ian ~ webmaster) To prove it wasn't a fluke I returned a Pollack of 17.5 pound Saturday the 15th of July. So the Onyer Marks record was broken 3 times in one week. This is conclusive proof that our conservation methods are working as all these fish as well as many other doubles were caught in our self imposed conservation area. The last two weeks of July have been fairly slow  All boats have been releasing plenty of Pollack but the better fish aren't feeding, probably due to the high pressure and brilliant sunshine. Pollack up to eight pound is the typical days catch. The Tope have also proved difficult and the packs have either gone to the Isle of Man for their holidays or they are involved in copulation. Do you stop to eat when you're having sex? The reason for saying this is most of the fish caught are covered in scars and gashes which occurs during foreplay. Also we have been getting short runs with no urgency to them and many dropped or mouthed baits. Best day this week was on Wednesday 26th of July when Malcolm Scarlet chartered Onyer Marks himself and was rewarded with 10 Tope.

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