#3 The Banks of the Tyne

I was born, raised and still live on the banks of the River Tyne in the medium sized town of Jarrow, population 30,000. I’m proud to call myself a Geordie and an inhabitant of the friendly, maritime city of Newcastle upon Tyne. This maritime influence lured many a youngster like myself to take up sea fishing as a lifetime, healthy hobby and kept us out of trouble.

There were many sea angling clubs to join and huge competitions to fish. The winners of these sea angling competitions were worshipped like Gods by the average angler, with star anglers of the likes of Tony Taylor, Bob Gascoigne and Alec Harvey to name but a few!

The Tyne was a hive of activity when I was a child with men working in the many shipyards that dotted the banks of the river in the early 1970’s. At the end of the working day it was impossible to cross the road outside of my house for the never ending traffic that involved thousands of hungry and thirsty men heading to one of the many local pubs for a pint or three!

I lived in Hebburn at the time which is another large town on the banks of the Tyne and my home was just over the road from the famous Swan Hunter shipyard on a purposely built high rise council estate. The estate was built for the local people who worked in the shipyards and surrounding industries and at that time there were many to choose from. The picture above was taken in May 1973, a few years later I caught my first fish from that very spot.

Like many high rise council estates at the time it had it’s fair share of issues but the overwhelming feeling was one of a good community which had street parties, discos in the community centre, trips on holidays together and one where the kids, myself included could take up hobbies, get into mischief and have a bloody great time doing it! And that’s how my fishing story began.

Living by the River Tyne with it’s dark, fast flowing tides was a dangerous place for a child. My mother, a single parent would warn me every day to stay away from the river where many an unfortunate soul had been drowned. For me the temptation to play along the river bank was far too tempting though and the ships, crabs, mud and fish were worth the scolding that I would inevitably earn when I came home with muddy socks and shoes!

The Tyne is a fairly wide stretch of river which is tidal all the way from the mouth at Tynemouth to a few miles beyond Newcastle city centre. You can actually have a pint on the quayside and fish at the same time! The influx of salt water brings with it all sorts of sea fish that swim miles up the river. For example it’s possible to catch codling, whiting, coalfish and flounder with the odd surprise species turning up from time to time.

As a child I would watch the many anglers with envy catching their numerous codling and flounders from the many jetties along the river and piers at the harbour mouth. Eventually I managed to persuade my Grandfather Tommy who I have dedicated this blog to, to buy me a set of fishing gear from the legendary local sports/toy shop called Rippons in South Shields.

Thanks to Tommy I was made, I was a fisherman, a sea angler by god and with my new three piece Shakespeare beach casting rod and a new shiny Garcia Mitchell multiplier beach casting reel all I had to do now was to learn how to cast and then catch a fish!

Night and day I practiced casting on my local football pitch putting up with the frequent ” You’ll not catch any fish there mate” comments and huge irreversible tangled messes of line that seemed impossible to pick apart, birds nests we call them for an obvious reason but eventually it all clicked and I could at ten years old cast an amazing forty yards birds nest free, get in as we say in Geordie land.

So my long awaited first fishing session was on the horizon and my mate nicknamed “Mathas” promised we would catch loads of spunkies from a spot on the river. A strange curious type of fish I assumed that I’d never heard of before! So off we went, I had caterpillars for bait as I couldn’t afford the bus fare to the tackle shop 5 miles away never mind the cost of a bag of artificial ragworm!

So “Mathas” took me to a spot on the Tyne at Hebburn among the discarded shopping trolleys and other flotsam and jetsam that the tide had brought in. Me with my shiny new gear and caterpillars hoping for at least a salmon and him with a long slim wire hook fashioned from an old rusty piece of fencing. Still non the wiser I was quickly disappointed to find that spunkies were most certainly not a type of fish, at least not one I recognized anyway!

Watch, watch said Mathas and out of the stream below us which I later realised was a sewage outfall and not the babbling brook I had envisaged in my dreams came a long white rubber thing with a knot in one end, Mathas promptly hooked it and pulled it up. My caterpillar bait was catching zippo, zero, nada, so it was one nil to Mathas!

It wasn’t long before he had amassed quite a selection of these strange multi coloured spunky fish and began to inspect them pulling and poking them with a twig until one burst and it’s strange thick, smelly contents squirted Mathas splat in the eyes, revolting!

We both laughed until we could laugh no more and I still didn’t catch a fish! So lesson learned caterpillars don’t catch fish and spunkies should be avoided at all cost!

In my next post about the Tyne you will find that I did finally have success that lead to a lifelong passion. I still chuckle today knowing now what those things were but my childhood naivety was still in place back then. If you didn’t quite get the story… spunky equals condom haha.

You can fish from the Tyne at many places along the South bank of it’s shores and a few places along the North side but here access is more limited. The flood tide is generally accepted as being the best time to fish with winter time bringing large numbers of whiting plus codling and flounders in lesser numbers. During summer it’s mainly flounders in good numbers with the odd codling taking peeler crab.

Light tackle works well for flounders at short range with peeler crab from May to November the top bait. During winter when the crab activity reduces, worm baits like lugworm and ragworm are good choices with mackerel also a good bait for whiting and flounder. Fish in the river are in the main no bigger than 4lb in weight however the odd larger fish is caught. Beach casting tactics work well and two hook flapper rigs are my choice for greater success. Fish from the narrow stretches of river during small tides and the wider areas on large tides, grip leads are required for most marks.

If you would like any info on any spots to fish or you simply enjoyed this post please leave a comment,