A nights fishing:
A cold December night fishing with my brother Mike a few years back. We were planning on finding a few of those winter Cod so we headed to Roker Pier in Sunderland. The pier itself is situated at the mouth of the river Wear and is 609 metres long. There is pay and display parking close to the pier and toilets during daylight hours. The postcode for parking for anyone outside the area heading over is SR6 0ZZ which will take you to the Harbour View car park on Marine walk. Please note the pier was closed due to storm damage in October 2023 and is not due to be reopened until summer 2025 so it’s worth checking before making a long journey.
The mark:
Roker pier offers some fantastic fishing with a wide range of species in the summer and nice Cod in the winter. You can fish the river and sea side as well as the pier head. In bad weather the pier gets shut so once again it is always worth checking to see if the pier is open before travelling. The seafront webcam on the Sunderland City Council website is a great tool to use to see if the pier is open as it overlooks the pier. In the summer anglers will find Codling, Whiting, Coalfish, Flounder, Dab, Corkwing Wrasse, Ballan Wrasse, Shore Rockling, 5b Rockling, Yarrels Blenny, Tadpole fish, Pollock, Common Eel, Long spine sea scorpion, Short Spine Sea scorpion, as well as Mackerel, Herring, sprats, Sandeel and shads. They are other species but these are the species I have caught here while species hunting in the past. In the winter big Cod can be found up and down the pier. Over the years I have had 6lbers while I have witnessed Cod up to 14lb being landed here. The pier is mixed ground with a lot of snags on the sea side with the head and river side quite clean ground.
The session:
On this trip we got to Roker pier while it was still light and found it to be a mass of fishing activity with the pier crammed with anglers. Even at 3pm it was bitterly cold at -2 with a biting offshore wind. The sea was flat and it was just approaching high tide as we set the rods up in a small gap of anglers opposite the first set of steps. I set up the big rod with an RNB pulley with a Breakaway Escape link for distance work with a Sakuma 3/0 Manta baited with big cod baits made of mackerel and black wraps. The small rod was set up with an RNB mini species rig built in a 2 hook flapper style with sz 10 hooks baited with tiny bits of black for dropping down the side of the pier wall. Remember small hook and small baits for the minis. You will be amazed at what you catch down the side of a pier or harbour wall. December isn’t the best time for species hunting but they will still be enough to keep you busy.
From the start it was all go on the small rods with a steady stream of small codling, Coleys and rocklings but the nothing on the big rods at first.
The night wears on:
Darkness settled in and it got cold. Brung me rod in to rebait and it was like bringing in a sack of coal and was expecting a ball of weed or a carrier bag and bloody result, a nice cod just shy of 5lb.
Cast back out and had a banging bite and me rod took off, sliding along the wall: another cod this one 4 and a half lb, followed by a 4lber. The last Cod was a lucky one as I got snagged on the retrieve but after a few tugs the washer on the breakaway escape link let the lead loose and the rig and fish came back in.
A bite to eat:
It got really cold later on so we broke the stove out and put the army rations on. They did the job and warmed us up: the sausage casserole was nice and tasty. And the cracking fishing continues.
Finished around 11ish: cracking night. Brother bagged his first species for getting back into fishing. We
had a fair amount of fish with Cod up to 5lb and a few different species. Result
