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Sunday 24 August 2008

Shimmering off Sheringham...24/08/08

Sometimes you just need a change of scenery. This can often bring a change of fishing conditions and species and I’ve long fancied hitting the North Norfolk coast as although geographically close it is a world away. I’d also meant to catch up with Carl who posts as Pinkfoot on a couple of the forums and who I have been in touch with for a while. The plan, arranged towards the end of the week, was subject to weather forecasts and could only happen on Sunday due to other commitments and so, at around ten PM on Saturday night the decision was made that we would go for it.

Those who know me well are fully aware that any time with an AM suffix is not favoured for anything remotely involving effort, and if it in the bottom half it’s banned. This made getting out of bed at 5:30 (to the sound of my new alarm, a downloaded sonar ‘ping’ on my mobile phone because I’m such an anorak) all the more amazing.

A quick coffee and half a packet of cookies – not my fault, they were in plain view, in all their sullen chocolate-chippedness – and I grabbed the nearly-forgotten C-Tugs and crept out to the van. In the back with the rest of the gear, a Trident 11 and Trident 15 on top (rather a difference side-by-side), I set course for Sheringham on the north coast. I’ve never fished up here but my father’s maternal side originate not too far away and I’d lived in the area as a child. Summer weekends had often involved rock-pooling at nearby Cromer where my grandparents had a beach hut and quite frankly I was really looking forward to it.

I stopped just past Aylsham to check the quickest route on from there to Sheringham when a minute later Pinkfoot turned up quite by chance. The timing was superb and I followed him in. Half an hour later and we were on the promenade looking at a flat sea before heading off to the tackle shop to get some ragworm as soon as they opened. From there it was a quick drive down to where we could park for free and walk down the slope to the beach, the tide out a bit.

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I’d stuck a demo Trident 11 on the roof a couple of days previously as I had wanted to see how it handled waves and surf, only to drive home to a flat sea that had been pumping for days. Carl actually got the benefit of this as he asked me if I knew when the new Tridents were going to arrive – so I asked if he wanted to have a play in one (rather than leave it on the roof of the van) instead of bringing his along. As he is a Mini-X paddler I was quite interested in his thoughts and opinions on it too as I compare everything with the 15-footers I’m used to.

We trundled down the slope and onto the steep stone bank. Rather a change from the beach I’m used to although there was a decent strip of sand at the bottom which we could wheel the yaks across to the waters edge. Packing all the gear into hatches and getting our PFD’s on we finished off tackling up and launched, heading straight out. The weather was pretty rubbish with one of those light drizzles that seems like a load of raindrops just hanging in the air and I was pleased of my drysuit – I also had a fleece underneath. IN AUGUST! Ridiculous. I’d taken the Trident as it was fully rigged for my 757c and I wanted to make use of my Navionics chart as I didn’t know the area and having bought it I want to use it!! I stuck it on split screen and paddled out.

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What a difference! Within a few paddle strokes I was in a depth of water that would be a mile out from Lowestoft. Half a mile out and we stopped in 34 feet – I don’t have any marks in reasonable distance that deep on my patch. The other really noticeable difference was how the water looked. It was blue, it was clear and it was not too disturbed. Carl had said it was a bit coloured up but I’ve never seen Lowestoft water this clear. It bode well, and Carl was soon into the mackerel. With rag on feather rigs I finally got my only bottom fish – a Pouting.

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I sat watching my rod tips doing nothing for ages…the currents and wind were swinging me about all over the place and the lines weren’t staying tight and so I decided to reel in and take a look. A few bits of rag needed adding and I decided to try and catch something by using the feathers mid-water on this rod – a 7ft boat rod and a multiplier not being ideal for my plans but what the hell. I cast and started a jerky retrieve from 50 yards out.

Wahey!

This was fun, something was shooting off all over the place…I brought it up to the surface and…

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…it went back down again. I brought it up again and…

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…it didn’t stop. Brilliant! My first ever Mackerel, it’s beautifully vivid stripes and the flashes of iridescence from its silver flanks with turquoise, gold, green and blue shades really made me appreciate this mini-tuna.

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I should have stopped buggering around admiring it and snapping it – it got off as I was putting my camera out of the way. Do I never learn? Still, who am I to complain? I loved it, a really fun fish to play with and I think I’ll go after tem with a really light match rod sometime – that’ll be something. They fight in a very similar way to a Yellowfin Tuna too, just on a smaller scale. They dive, they stream off at an angle and they pull doggedly. Very underrated fish.

I carried on fishing and soon had some more fish on. Two this time and instead of messing around I landed them:

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A beautiful fish and so I was somewhat annoyed that I couldn’t close its mouth for the pic but never mind. I then had the presence of mind to take a pic with the tournament voucher too:

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Not that I needed to as it wasn’t returned and therefore wasn’t valid. If I’d returned it after this pic it would have died anyway and besides I had plans for the Mackerel I brought home. It involved a smoker, a barbecue, a couple of recipe books and no doubt a lemon or two.

Then the tide started changing things about and I started getting hassled by a pot buoy. I’d drift into it, or my lines would drift over it, my hooks would snag it and so on. The final straw was the Mackerel that decided to attach the rest of the feathers to it and not only release itself but cause me to bugger about with anchor warp, pot buoy and trace. Funny thing about this Mackerel though…

I’d suddenly seen the first fish return beneath me of the day. About 6-8ft down the whole screen suddenly started to fill up with fish symbols (I know, arches are more reliable for definite fish returns BUT fish symbols show the depth of the return at a glance and so I tend to use that more often). I am talking about almost the whole of the top of the screen being filled with fish. It was fantastic and I brought the line up from the bottom and hooked up. It was literally a whole shoal passing beneath me – magical.

Anyway, I’d had enough of the buoy and so I freed myself off and went over to where Pinkfoot was. He was doing well with Mackerel and had also had a Scorpionfish. He was also enjoying the Trident 11. I anchored up pretty close to him and started fishing again. The wind and swell had picked up a bit by now but there was nothing to worry about and the fish were about.

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Carl kept bringing in Mackerel on his feathering rod, nothing on the bottom rods, and I had a few from casting for them or winding/jerking up fro m the bottom. I then decided to tie a set of feathers to the yak via an overhand loop slipped over a Ram rod holder. Jerking them soon brought me a Mackerel. I was loving it – until they disappeared and I had to stick on a shrimp rig to replace it, soon bringing me a trio of fish.

Midday came and it was time for me to start thinking about driving home. I could have stayed there all weekend – it was excellent – but instead, having cleaned the fish at sea we headed in, straight in but with a hard wind against us and everything was going smoothly until I feathered up a pot rope. That cleared I went for the beach, the water now covering t he sand:

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We helped each other up the stones onto the promenade and chatted to the tourists and ‘Foreshore Officer’ (he was keeping an eye on us as he thought we were quite far out and a member of the public had alerted him to our presence earlier). Then, up the slope to the transport to change, load up, say our farewells and head home – me via my grandparent’s grave on the way. A brilliant day out, my first ever Mackerel (Species 27 for the year and ten of them brought onto the yak to go home for dinner) so thank you Carl, very enjoyable.

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Sunday 17 August 2008

An evening of excitement...17/08/08

TEN DAYS! That’s how long it’s been since I last launched. I don’t know why – there’s no excuse. I’ve been busy but I’ve been busy before. I’ve been tired but I’ve been tired before. It’s dreadful. Still, tonight I just had to go…I needed to paddle, I needed to fish and I needed to type. It was a beautiful evening.

The beginning was pleasant too. Low tide saw my daughters and I scrabbling around in the mud digging harbour ragworm and turning rocks looking for softback crabs, I had one from digging and the girls found millions of tiny ones which they enjoyed catching. Then I found a couple of small eels, maybe 6 inches long. Though undoubtedly excellent bait eels have become somewhat less common here of late and so I let them swim away after the girls had felt them squirming in their hands.

After dinner I drove down to Lake Lothing and got set up ready for a launch. I’d taken the Kinetic Wings off my shaft and put on a pair of Kinetic S blades to try (like the Wings these were salvaged from the scrap box). Paddling with them was pleasant and effortless but I prefer a bit more power. I would try some Kinetics but at the moment there are four right hand blades salvaged and no left-handers. Bugger. I paddled down to my mark:

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I like this time of the evening when the wind is down as the reflections are great

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I started by the Sea Survival and Safety base as the sun sunk lower

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Nothing was doing so I moved

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Still nothing, I headed for the wreck. I had a bite, but just lost the rag with no fish. Then the wind picked up so I moved to calmer water where I could actually see the float (a small 4bb waggler). Trouble was there was no fish here so I moved back into deeper water and cast it in. Richi had wished me luck beforehand and told me not to do as he had done twice this weekend and blank. I texted him to thank him for putting a curse on me.

As I got his text reply the float went down and I was in!
Bar of Silver!!

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Unhooked it swam strongly away and I reported that I had outfished Richi this weekend :D

I stuck a lightstick on the float and cast again. Straight under, but I failed to connect. No more bites were forthcoming so I decided that I’d had enough of their shenanigans and would go hunting…for monsters!



I paddled to my secret Goby mark. I tackled up – most people make the mistake of fishing too light for these and then wonder why they lose them. They can grow to well over an inch and have rows of nasty looking teeth, their large, powerful tail capable of propelling them to speeds unheard of throughout the rockpools of eastern England. No, I play it safe and use 4lb line with a size 18 specimen hook, barbed and with a sharp point to ensure that they don’t escape once onboard. I also only ever use one rod when targeting these as you’re playing with fire if you try to fish two. Believe me, one rod is plenty.

I found one...well, two in fact,

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I made sure that everything was in place – it doesn’t do to mess about when dealing with Gobies and everything must be in place ready for when they come aboard, thrashing and twisting.

I dropped the bait down. Almost immediately it approached, sniffing the blood in the water…it eyed it up – the tension was unbearable…A TAKE!!!

The Goby hit the bait, I struck…



I tried again.

This time, success smiled upon me and after a lengthy battle of many seconds I brought it alongside. No gaff (flying gaff handles can cause a lot of damage) and no net (hooks caught in the mesh can cause all kinds of problems), Instead I hauled it in by hand, over the gunwhales. A real beauty…



I went for a brace…I was clearly targeting females now - teasing me they refused to swallow.

Finally one took and after the usual fight it came in and was unhooked and released.

Then, while waiting for more to be attracted to my rubby-dubby, I noticed a pair of glowing eyes…what was this weird sea creature looming up from the depths? I had to catch it…

ON!



OFF!

I tried again and…


It was no shrimp, that’s for sure. A keeper, but tonight was catch and release only…I was there for the sport.

Back to the Gobies…and two more came in. Now, with five fish caught, I decided to turn for home, exhausted by my strenuous battles – on a par with Hemingway’s story of ‘The Old Man and the Sea’…but wait, I had only video of my captures – no still photographs of these splendid fish. I needed one more…

And sure enough my patience paid off and I skilfully landed my last.

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1 Bass, 5 Gobies and a Prawn. Not a bad night’s work.