Shy-Torque Wreck Fishing

07/09/2026

07/09/2026

It seems an age since we posted something up on here!
Main reason is because I am officially semi retired now and only working on the better, smaller tides (which I’m really enjoying!)
The other reason is that when we have had the better tides, the fishing has been anything from good!

Anyway I thought it was about time to pop something on and let you know what we’ve been up to.

A short report this is then! 😃

The amount of feed in the water off Whitby at the moment is bonkers!
Herring, Sprats etc… giving the fish that we target a free feed for all!!

This slow catch rate time has happened for ever, even when my Dad and me worked commercially on our “jigging runs” many many moons ago.
That was when we could go out and knock a ton of Cod out with just 4 rods in one session!

We would always take time off when the food chain (mainly herring) became so heavy that you could see the oil on the water on glassy calm days (shoals of Herring come to the surface during the dark hours) and leave an oily trail where they have been.

Our idea, along with the other skippers is, why would a fish want something that we’re offering them when they can gorge out so easily! That’s where we are at at the moment when it comes to catching our usual Cod and Ling.

The few fish that we are catching are properly belly busting and spewing oily fish up all the time.

Yesterday was our first day out in the September 2027 angling competition here at Whitby.
The competition runs throughout the entire month of September as did our Summer competition this year.

The conditions were far from easy yesterday with a crappy SSE wind all day and we really struggled with our catch. We only managed a handful of fish to keep on the boat for our 4 lads from Preston. Our best being a Ling of just 8lb 8oz. Plenty of Mackerel on the morning too.
The heaviest fish of the day, taken to the association scales was a pound heavier than ours.

Today we set out again in the hope of bettering ourselves with a few more sizeable fish 🙏🏼

We struggled to find the Mackerel at the start of this morning and straight away I thought oh no, here we go again!!
After a couple more stops we eventually found the little critters and gathered enough for our bait stocks for the day.

Slack water at sea was 10.30hrs so we tramped off to our furthest wreck I’d plumbed into the plotter.

An hour and a half steam and we arrived on a wreck notorious for chucking out so many festival winners over the years.
One of my mates of over 50 years, Paul Eddon taking one from this wreck a few years ago which went 33lbs!

The wreck showed signs of a few fish being there on the first few drifts, with 3 Ling coming over the side all nudging the double figure mark.

We worked the wreck for a couple of hours in not so great conditions. A fairly fresh WNW breeze making things tricky.

At slack water the breeze did drop away for a bit and at last a half decent fish poked its head out and fed on Glenn Stocks’s bait he’d offered.

A proper tussle on a sloppy, rolly sea and just over 5 minutes later we had a nice Ling on the surface.
Difficult to get an accurate weight on a choppy sea but it was bouncing between 21 lbs and 23lbs on my digital scale.
When the fish was on the deck it puked its stomach contents of Herring out, probably a half kilo! 😃

It’s always good to see a fish over 20lbs. They really aren’t as prolific as they were years back.

Today we also managed around 8 Ling, 10 Haddock and only 4 Codling.

Certainly not a bumper day numbers wise but it was worth the run out.

A few more days off now for winds and the bigger tides. Our next run out will be next Wednesday when we’ll try and find another one to take up to our weigh master Dave Perrett.

I’ve collaged a few fishy pics from our last 3-4 trips in this short report including today’s fish which weighed in at 22lbs 1oz on Mr Perrett’s scales and took the daily £50.00 prize.

Cheers for now,
Rich

NEXT YEARS TIDES ARE NOW WITH ME AND THE 2027 CALENDAR IS LIVE NOW ON CBUK AND OUR WEBSITE.
BOOK EARLY TO GET THE BEST TIDES!!

07733 233352
[email protected]

05/08/2026

This years Summer angling competition finished on the 31st July.

This year it was won by my old mate of nearly 50 years, Paul Eddon.
Top bloke and skipper!
Well done mate.

We didn’t have anything of any size to contend with the winning fish but Chris Wear from Ambleside did land a lovely Cod of 12lb 4oz on the Shy-Torque which won him a nice £250.00 in cash plus the Pete Rose memorial trophy.
Well done to him.
We did have number of Ling to just over 12lbs over the competition too.

I’d like to thank all those who fished with us this year on the Shy-Torque III and to everyone else who came and had a go.
Also, huge thanks to all our sponsors who help to support our Association events.
Without them, we would struggle to host these great competitions!

Moving on now to our last couple of trips this last weekend.

I’d advertised last weekend as a “Wall” weekend due to the size and strength of the tides. 5.5M.

On Saturday we had one of our Chinese groups fish with us.
They wanted to target the Acadia redfish.
This species can be quite prolific on the Wall this time of the year and the lads had a ball with them. Around 50 of these were caught over the day along with Codling, Ling and Haddock.

A really great day out even though the pesky Westerly breeze wouldn’t let go all day.

On Sunday we were back out there again.
This time with a group of mixed anglers who fish with us.
The first drift showed good signs with half a dozen Codling to keep.
After that we were just picking here and there for the rest of the day.

Young gun Alfie fished alongside his Dad Ben and showed everyone how to go on, ending up with the best bag at the end of the day.
His best fish, a Ling hovering around the 9lb mark.
Well done to him.

Our next competition is less than a month away now and runs for the whole of September.
Our calendar is fully updated and shows any spaces we have left in that one.
If you fancy a crack at the £1000.00 first prize, let me know with a text or a call.

I’m available to chat every day from 08.00hrs.
No calls are taken after 20.00hrs.

I’ve added some of our catches over the competition month with this post plus this last weekend.

Cheers for now.
Rich.

07733 233352
[email protected]

05/08/2026

Struggling to post up at present. Something going on with my Shy-Torque account.
Just gonna pop this up and see if our followers can see it.

If this goes live I’ll post a proper post.

Rich.

10/07/2026

A nice day on a “flat calmer” again today.
Ground fishing was fairly good today with a nice number of Ling to 12lb 4oz and Codling to 5lb.

The best Ling today would have gone on the leader board but was gutted mistakenly!!! Oooops!!

The wrecks didn’t fish too well for us (on the ones we tried) with just a few fish from them.

Another Mediterranean like day on the Yorkshire coast. 😎🎣🎣🎣🎣🎣

Cheers
Rich

07733 233352
[email protected]

10/07/2026

During the Summer Competition I won’t be dragging out the daily reports with detail.

A short summary for each trip basically.
I’ll pop a full report on at the end of the event.

Yesterday was a great day with plenty of Mackerel to start the day off.

Two wrecks fished with well over 60 fish boated.

Cod to 7lb and Ling to 9lb 7oz.

Enjoy this fantastic weather chaps!!

Cheers
Rich.

08/07/2026

After a short 4 day break away from the job we were back out there again today taking part in a 4 boat police (mini competition)

The idea was to species hunt inshore (no wrecks!) for the day, with very light gear and the smallest of small hooks/weights.

These events are always great fun and today was no exception.

Sailing at 08.30hrs, the initial plan was to get a few Mackerel first and start the bottom fishing at 09.30hrs. This changed because by 08.45hrs the lads had caught plenty of Mackerel for bait, including the 4 each that they were allowed in the competition, so we started the bottom fishing at 09.00hrs.

We trotted South a couple of miles and set the boat up for our first drift.
The ground in there is such that we can let it drift for a good 1/2 mile or more if needed with a good chance of catching all the way.
For the first half a dozen drifts until the tide eased, that was exactly what happened and we saw some lovely fish coming aboard too.

Codling to just under 6lbs and a lovely Pollack which scaled at 8lb 1oz (check the picture of the sounder!) Fish going mad!!
Both these were caught by Chris Shaw from Lancashire. Well done mate!
Great fish and exceptionally good sport on the light gear in under 10 fathom of water!!

We barely moved all day, only up and down the same drift and at the end of competition at 15.00hrs the tally was a total of 198 fish boated between the 8 lads.
A nice result.

Mackerel = 27 for the comp (plus lots for bait)
Cod = 40.
Coaley =1.
Pollack = 21.
Pouting = 43.
Wrasse = 29.
Dabs = 24.
Flounder = 1.
Plaice = 1.
Blenny = 1.
Poor Cod = 10.

A really cracking day out there with a fantastic team of lads.

Obviously far too many fish coming aboard to picture every one!!

If you have a group of (up to 8 anglers) who fancy doing one of these trips don’t hesitate to contact us on the usual number.
You will have to have your own gear.

Back to some proper graft tomorrow in the WCSA Summer Competition which is running all the month of July.

Cheers
Rich.

07733 233352
[email protected]