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In the main this produced cod and ling, but with increasing numbers of pollack too in certain areas.
Winter time was slightly different. Then the boats would anchor much closer in for uptide fishing, which
again proved very effective. So effective in fact that it is now an established part of the Yorkshire cod
fishing scene.
But it wasn't entirely a case of the wheel turning full circle from bait inshore to pirks and muppets over
the wrecks then back to bait closer in. Paul Kilpatrick and the others didn't completely forsake the lures.
The era of the shads was just about to open up.
In a way, shads look a bit like the old style redgills. Soft rubber or plastic fish shaped bodies, but
generally shorter and deeper with less reliance on the long swimming tail. That however is where the
similarity ends.
Many are now self weighted, though not nearly heavy enough to get them down into the feeding zone
on their own in a good lick of Whitby tide, which is important. For unlike redgills, which as soon as
they touched bottom were on their way back up using a slow retrieve looking to pick out fish which
could be many feet clear of the reef or the wreck, at Whitby, shads when they touch bottom need to be
fished at the bottom, because for the most part, that's where the cod will be feeding.
Presentation differs too. Very long flying collar rigs present swimming lures at their best. A three way
swivel on the end of the braid with a short weaker monofilament link from the bottom loop to a lead,
and around four to six feet of fifty pounds bs monofilament to the shad is the Whitby way.
This is then fished lift and drop with the reel out of gear and the thumb on the spool to let out a tiny bit
more line if required on each down stroke to make sure the lead actually touches bottom every time,
which it needs to do.
Colour can be important too, though again, as with the redgills over the channel wrecks, this can vary
day by day, and even within a day, depending on water clarity, surface conditions, and available light.
So never be afraid to watch other people if they are having a good day and take note, and what better
person to watch than the skipper himself, who in Paul Kirkpatrick's case is out on the cabin deck of 'Sea
Otter 2' for every drift.
Whenever he lost a shad to the wreck,
I noticed he would invariably go back
to the same pattern, which was a four
inch rhubarb and custard. That, from
a man who's out every available day
fishing every available drop, and with
a lot of good cod to his credit, has to
count for something.
There is another experience worth
relating here, which in terms of
timing, slots into the gap between the
hey-day of muppets and jiggers and
the shads. It's a little out of sequence,
but I didn't want to break up the flow
of the historical Whitby story.
Actually, for me at least, it all started
at Whitby anyway in the days when
Dave Devine and I used to trail our
Decent Whitby summer Cod
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