Runswick Kayak Comp 2017

Last weekend saw the return of the annual Runswick Bay kayak comp on the UK’s Yorkshire coast. This comp has been running for quite a few years now and is a firm favourite amongst UK’s kayak community. The main target for the biggest fish comp is Cod though there are good sized Pollock and Ling around so you never quite know what you are going to get.

Since there is a mix of species are try to target both with the same rig, on the bottom is a 4oz jighead with a 6″ shad which should attract the Cod but up the line I also fish a jellyworm which should attract any Pollock that are still in the deeper water.

There was a delayed start due to the snotty sea but wasn’t long before the air horn went meaning we were off! 20min paddle later and I’m on the cod grounds, within 5mins I was into my first fish and it gave a good scrap. It turned out my jellyworm for Pollock worked as a decent sized Pollock graced the net. Excellent I’m on the leaderboard.

Unfortunately as is always the case with me I peaked to early! Even though I caught plenty more fish I just couldn’t catch anything larger so with my dodgy shoulder giving me some stick I decided an early finish was in order. I knew my fish wouldn’t be a comp winner but I was hopeful of a top 10 finish. Eventually everyone else headed in and some nice fish were landed but to my surprise not many larger than mine so I ended up with a joint 3rd place. Not bad for a few hours work.

Roll on next year’s comp 🙂