5:30. I’d seen it before once or twice but not in recent times. But that’s when the alarm went off this morning – Mike was due in half an hour for his first session at sea with a rod. A four hour pass had been wangled by me, somehow and with arguments involved to tell the truth. You see as I was not ‘doing the conger’ and was not at Old Warden (both theoretically possible after all as her sister is over for a week and thus we have two cars available) I felt it was only right that I, as hunter-gatherer, should be allowed out to play, compromising by saying I’d be back in at ten and thus we could still go out and do family stuff etc, especially as neither of them would be ready to go out before 11 anyway (12 actually!). So we came to a compromise – I said I was going and she gave in. Good tactic that!
Besides, I’d bought the ragworm already.
Mike duly arrived while I was finishing my coffee and we loaded the yaks on the trolleys and dragged them down to the beach.
The sea was nice and smooth, the sun was out and the wind wasn’t anywhere near as bad as predicted. We launched and trolled spinners out before deciding which way to go, heading north to the buoys marking the outfall at the back of Birds Eye, directly off the most easterly point of the kingdom.
Passing the harbour the current picked up and we were soon in the vicinity of the ridge. Anchors down followed by ragworm on two hook rigs. The current was pretty quick and we were both drifting. At one point Mike suddenly shot backwards as his anchor got a firm hold for a short while – looked pretty hairy from where I was sitting!
So, time for breakfast – coffee and a hotdog followed in short order by a burger.
Fed up drifting I decided to try again for a firmer hold in a better spot and began hauling my anchor up. Bugger me if it isn’t turning out to be an expensive week – bloody pikey’s must have nicked some scuba gear – 1.5kg of scrap for them and an urgent need for a pot buoy for me!
Finding one I tied off. Plenty of returns from the area and being quite close inshore and close to rocks but with 7 metres underneath me I was pretty confident but after an hour gave up on it and began a drift, the current now slower and on the flood. Mike drifted a bit further out. I found a spot close to the rocks a bit further up and tied up again to another buoy while Mike carried on out and got his first Yak species. A starfish.
It was my turn next (at last!)…
…and I reeled in a nice sized Dover Sole – my first sole, and my first saltwater yak fish! Not sure if it took the bait before or as I reeled in as I didn’t notice a bite but nonetheless it was fairly hooked in the mouth and went into the dive bag for later consumption.
It must have been the new lucky hat. Actually, it’s my mums and I nicked it off her – she nicked it off my auntie who had them made for her boat. She’ll have to get another when she goes over again in October! Like it?
(Do I look a little bit like Bruce Willis in that hat do you think? Do you?)
Re-baited and re-cast, it was about 5 minutes before I got a cracking take. It felt good when I tightened up to it but then it snagged me up. Either my line had damaged or I scraped it over a rock but the 40lb Powerpro parted and I swore. Nothing else happened and after a while I decided to untie as the current was picking up and Mike was quite a way down from me by now. I soon caught up and showed him my catch, being quite excited by now!
Tying off to another buoy we tried for another but the current was too quick here and I decided that it was unwise to stay on it so we headed back past the harbour and into the shelter of the down-tide side. I’d heard of small codling coming from here this week but I couldn’t tempt them and phone call to my wife failed to get an extension so we headed in, the wind and swell a bit more than when we had launched but still a nice easy landing.
Packed up, sorted out and photographed we headed back to the house, depositing the yaks onto my car ready for the afternoon’s family time.
Poor old Mike – I made him wait for his coffee while I prepared ‘Our Sole’ (say it aloud) first of all – it was coming up to time for elevenses (I’m so decadent me!).
So, take one sole, wash it, wash it some more (slimy bloody things) and then wash it. Lay it flat onto a piece of foil – whole, not filleted (though you may want to gut it first although I didn’t bother)
Wanting to keep it simple I then sprinkled on some sea salt and cracked pepper and splashed some olive oil onto it, a small amount of lemon juice, folded down the foil into a parcel and stuck it under the grill (full heat) for a few minutes each side.
Taking it out it looked done:
Being distinctly odd I decided to serve us each an upper and lower half rather than a straight fillet and thus buggered up the final presentation somewhat but this didn’t affect the taste so isn’t important for elevenses.
It tasted good. Nice and firm, clean white flesh and a real fresh ‘taste’ to it. Though Rick Stein says they should be left for a couple of days to became more tender and develop their flavour I shall reserve judgement until next time – best sole I’ve tasted by far.
Wasn’t any left. I knew there was a fish off Lowestoft.....maybe another one will come by soon, same time next week then Mike?!
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