TT1

Hagfish are not uncommon on the NE coast with quite a few turning up in local pier matches. You can always tell when they are about because traces come in all tangled and covered with slime. Last year quite a few were found in rock pools and stranded on beaches, Interestingly, seagulls will not eat them. They are I understand a delicacy in the Far East anyone fancy trying them?

The SHV has a major problem. When fishing into weed or rock, the spool locks up when a decent fish is being retrieved. This appears to happen because of the spool material and the very fine clearance between the spool and the cage, coupled with the high gear ratio. The SLOSH reels are by far superior.

The biggest rockling are the three bearded variety. The ones we catch round here (Northumberland ) range between 12oz to 2lb. The five bearded variety is much smaller and can be a real pest when fishing for flatfish or whiting. The one you have caught looks like a 5 bearded and is therefore a good one. Very few anglers round here deliberately set out to catch these fish.

I don't wish to discourage big ron too much but the fishing in the Amble to Newbiggin are has been very patchy. There have been a few pockets of fish but many anglers have blanked of late. Paul Westmorland was fishing the High rocks at Bog Hall. There were a number of anglers there and of the 10 cod caught , Paul caught 5 of them. Paul is an excellent angler and caster. Interestingly, the well known faces who normally dominate these matches mostly seemed to have a bad day! There is a good sea running at the moment and with big tides this weekend there should hopefully be some better catches.

Northumberland area Coalfish - Puddlers or Coalies Pouting - Scotch Haddock Flounders - Butts Sea Scorpion - Grannies Blennies - Greenbones