16 Pound Shore Cod For Sea Otter 2 Skipper Paul

Cod Fishing On Whitby West Pier

So what does the north east hardest working charter skipper do on his day off ? No doubt in the same situation most of you would spend some time with the wife or head off down the local for a few pints and a laugh with the lads. Anyone who knows the sea otter 2 Whitby charter skipper will know instantly what Paul does on his day of – He goes fishing.

On Monday 22nd November Paul headed onto one of his favourite fishing marks – The west pier at Whitby. Armed with a bucket of crab, mussel and worms he set about catching himself some cod. With only 2 hours spare before he was needed to help out behind the bar in his own pub – The Ship Inn at Whitby Paul had one of the best days shore fishing he has had in over 10 years. In those 2 hours Paul had 4 good cod for over 30 pounds – The biggest being a lunker which tipped the scales down at Whitby Angling Supplies at exactly 16 pounds.

This is Paul’s Story -

Well glen after a few beers in my local the ship ( sorry my pub) just nicely chilling out well after my couple of hours fishing today i had to just sit and chill out got my best fish for well over 10years. I decided after yesterdays poor session I fancied a couple of hours this afternoon the wind had dropped the sea was just starting to drop, it looked blob on for a fish allmost anywhere so I went where I thought I might have clicked a lunker yesterday, The West Pier at Whitby. I have had over the years some unbelievable bags of fish off that peir but only in the right conditions, today it looked cracking, a lovely big lazy roll so i popped down for a couple of hours. There was a few mops coming in here and there but i put a big bait out purposely to fish for a better fish and sure enough I was lucky and hooked into what I thought was a decent codling of 8 or 9 lb, it wasn’t untill i got it near the pier i realized it was much better fish, then it surfaced, and I knew it was well into double figures looking at the fish I knew it couldnt be lifted so thought about the best options to get this fish ashore. I allways use a 50-60lb shock leader and hook trace for lifting but anything over 10lb is dodgy so the fun began. I was fishing of the end of the west pier there was another 2 guys on the peir one was fishing next to me and another near the corner, I told the guy who was fishing next to me this fish had to be beached other wise i would of had no chance with it, so as i thought the harbour looked the best choice try and get the fish all the way to the bandstand there is some steps there which would be an ideal landing place. It looked one hell of a task but after half of hour of guiding the fish to all sorts of obstructions we finally managed to get the fish to the steps next to the bandstand but in the final moments of landing the fish it became tangled on the handrails adjacent to the steps, but the lord must have been looking down on us and i got it free. A fine fish of 16lb exactly. It was nice to see and i think there is more of those fellows to come this winter. We had loads of cod 13–15lb in the boat this backend so there might be an odd fish nearing the 20lb mark around in the new year when they fill up with spawn. Keep believeing boys.

Paul.