Seaham North Pier and Hendon Prom are the place to be for whiting

Seaham North Pier has seen its fair share of the whiting, particularly after dark, with up to 20 fish a session taken.

The end of the pier has produced some good codling with the best around 7½lb.

Hendon Prom has also produced whiting, along with codling to 3lb. Low water fishing on the beach in front of the prom has given the best results.

The top end of the River Wear has fished well for flounders, with 20 fish a session not uncommon.

Twelve-year-old Alex Simms took 11 flounders in a two-hour stint at Claxheugh.

The flounders will be getting ready to spawn soon, so if you do catch one please unhook it carefully and return to the water as soon as possible.

The Rat House Corner on the Old North Pier has been popular with anglers this week and given up good bags of whiting, along with the odd codling up to 2½lb.

Roker Pier has also seen good bags of whiting after dark, mostly from the end of the pier, where there has also been codling to 3lb.

The Rock Marks at Marsden have been a bit quiet, with large amounts of undersized coalfish taking baits.

South Shields Pier has delivered whiting, coalfish and codling with the best codling up to 5lb.

Boat anglers have caught codling up to 5lb uptide fishing in around 10 metres of water, with the areas between White Rock and Souter giving the best results.

The Sapphire fished that area and took 35 codling up to 4lb on squid and lugworm baits.

The Northeastern fished with three anglers taking 10 codling between them. When out again, 12 codling were caught with the best around 4lb.

Twenty anglers fished last Tuesday’s Ryhope Sweepstake which saw S.Rackstraw win with 2lb 8oz, followed by B.Stowells in second place with a 2lb fish.

Last Wednesday night’s Fisherman’s Locker competition saw 12 anglers fishing. First with a codling of 1lb 10oz was Andy Rutherford.

Runner up with a 1lb whiting was Darren Welsh, who also tied for third with Glen Appleby, both had a 14oz whiting.

Thirty six anglers fished The Lunatic Asylum’s competition in aid of Sunderland’s Special Care Baby Unit.

The heaviest single fish (a 2lb 6oz codling) was caught by Mark Robson, who also tied for the heaviest bag with Barry Kerrigan (9lb 7oz).

Eighty four anglers turned out for Ryhope SAC’s club competition on Sunday. Winner L.Prest took 5,480g. Second place went to S.Longhorn with 4,085g and K.Haley took third with 3,710g.

The junior winner Ryan Taylor had 3,460g. The heaviest flat fish went to S.Bland with 715g, and the heaviest round fish was M.Telford’s 2,580g codling.

Sunday’s Seaham Club competition saw 96 taking part with 62 bringing 144 fish to the scales for a total weight of 174lb.

Top rod was A.Birch with 12 fish for 9.14lb. Second was N.Smith with 13 fish for 8.03lb, then J.Dobie was third, with seven fish for 6.82lb.

Sunderland SAC had 11 fishing at the weekend with nine weighing in.

First was Alan Walker with a single codling and 14 whiting for 11lb 11oz, then Ian Bellfield took second with a flounder and ten whiting for 7lb 6oz.

The heaviest fish was a codling of 2lb 1oz and was caught by Alan Walker.

Last week’s Whitley Bay Festival had 92 competitors with 21 weighing in.

Clear winner with eight codling for 23lb 4oz from St Mary’s Island was Whitley Bay angler Andy Crowe.

Runner up was Derek Wood with four fish for 12lb 12oz, and Phil Patterson took the heaviest single fish of 6lb 2oz.

Fifty three competitors took part in last weekend’s Dave Jobson Memorial match with 16 weighing in.

Winner Shaun Brannon managed to catch seven cod for 11lb 10oz. Second place went to Steve Potts with 12 whiting and a dab for 8lb.

K.Riley’s single cod of 6lb 0.5oz was the the heaviest single fish.

Twenty five anglers fished Monday night’s Cleadon SAC match, with four anglers returning a mixture of cod/codling and whiting to the scales, each with a single fish.

First with 6lb 7oz was N.Cutler, taking the heaviest bag and heaviest single fish from The Post on South Shields Pier.

Runner-up D.Hall had a 5lb 9oz fish from Whitburn, followed by B. Heslop in third with 2lb 7oz from South Shields Pier.

Ryhope SAC will be out this Sunday for their club competition (noon-4pm). Ryhope’s midweek sweepstake takes place on Tuesday (7-10pm).

Registration and weigh in will be at Ryhope Community Centre. Entry is £5, with payout for the heaviest single fish.

The Wearside Fisherman’s Locker match will take place next Wednesday (7.30-10.30pm). Entry is £10 (£8 for longest length and £2 for the longest fish) with 100% payout.

Call Andy on the number below for details of the venue.

On Sunday, February 7, The Lunatic Asylum fishing group will be holding a pegged competition at Claxheugh in the River Wear (10am-2pm).

Entry is £10 (juniors are free with a paying adult and must be under the age of 15 on the day of the competition) with 50% payout.

The other 50% of the proceeds will be donated to Sunderland’s Special Care Baby Unit. All are welcome.

0191 5654183

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@Tackledealer