24th April 2004 saw us take off forBeadnell bright and early. As usual. been the first trip everything took ages to sort out and loading the boat and preparation took a long time. The bait shop at Gateshead was shut ( never opens early) so we went to ID Fishing at Chillingham Road, got what we wanted and set off.
We got to Beadnell about 10am, the wheels staying on my "Snipe" trailer for this occasion.( The significance of this will be apparent to you all during the season).
The sea was like glass as we arrived, we had to get the launch permit which had not gone up at all at £100.00 for the seaon and so I paid for a parking permit as well ....£40.00
All set we found we had a new tractor driver but he was really helpfull and carefully put us into the sea. He also dropped the trailer at the top of the beach for us.
I was able to drive out at full speed there been no swell at all........not even a ripple.10 minutes and I had switched off and we were fishing.
The weather was really good and I even considered removing my t-shirt but it just wasn't warm enough. I hit my first fish after about 10 minutes making it three in under 25 minutes. I was at the five figure when Jim joined in and we continued doing fairly well until late afternoon. the weather and tide changed though and we were soon wearing jumpers and our coats. The wind against tide made the sea worsen and so we headed back around four athough we were on the beach by 10minutes past. We had kept twelve fish and the best been a 5lb taken by Jim. The rest were all returned to catch another day.