Further Afield. Christchurch...21/04/09

A delivery trip was due and I was asked if I fancied doing it - it's not my normal role and although I'm not a proper driver I do have a licence that allows me to take a van and trailer so I picked both up and headed out with new colleague Lee for a run down to The Family Adventure Store - great coffee but no it isn't real cream, it's coffee mate. How silly did I feel?! -and then Bournemouth Canoes (who also kindly brought us coffee, thanks chaps!) dropping a load of kayaks and accessories off at both places, neither of which i'd visited before. Screeching to a halt at the hotel I checked in and headed off to the beach with James via Sainsbury's for some sarnies to follow the long-forgotten macDonalds breakfast on a tacho stop.

parked up it was out with the yak, on with the gear and a far later launch than originally hoped for. Not that it really matters though because a session with a mate is always worth doing. Steve111 had sent me a text earlier to ask if I was up for fishing and a reply of yes, in Christchurch was fun to reply with.

Lovely, a short walk to the beach, a short walk to the water and a quick set-up and we were ready to go.



We paddled out avoiding a small surf break that looked like fun in bigger sea (and looked like a bass spot) and began drifting.



I didn't get a nibble on the drift - a slight drift - with a 4/0 pennel and black lug o one rod and squid-baited feathers on the other so dropepd the anchor down and tried that while the sun went down.



Bugger me, there was nothing happening! To me, this is a summer dream of a place with loads of species we don't get at home, clear water and lots of fish (my most ever from the sea was here last year). I commented on this lack of action and it seemed we were both in the same boat. I changed the feathers to a 2-hook boom flapper instead and on James' advice put on some Mackerel - almost guarantees Doggies he told me.

It doidn't take long. As the current picked up to East Coast slack water proportions they came on and I got a lovely big bite very different to the Cod or Whiting bites i'm used to. Picking up the rod I felt a good weight on the end and a bit of a pull (shallwo water) followed by a Doggie coming up. On the surface I let a bit of line off to swing it in and it was off. Bugger. I rebaited and cast again.

Then it was a repeat performance on the other rod - up and off. Both rods now had Mackerel on and for a while it went hectic with both rods banging away as a pack of dogs came through, me landing 4 of them and missing plenty more...I was loving it.



Now, I know i'm regarded as odd for wanting Dogfish but I find them beautiful, fascinating fish. They are also tasty and my children like them and ask me to bring them home. I just can't seem to locate them at home though so I was really happy to get these - what's not to love?



James was getting nothing just fifty yards away at this point. I was chuffed later though when he hauled up a Bream, that's tea sorted out I suspect!

It went quiet for me for a while now and I just sat and waited, rebaiting now and again. I cut a squid in half and hooked it on after a while, dumping the rest as we were planning to go in again and chucked it out. Maybe a minute passed and I was on another doggie! Another bite followed on re-casting but I missed itand then it went quiet for ten minutes before the other rod with washed-out Mackerel went...number six cae aboard and it was time to up-anchor and head in in preperation for the crazywater delivery in the morning and home.

James, thanks for coming out at short notice, for waiting while I got sorted and for taking me out to the dggies - two happy, excited little girls were on me like a flash when I got home, wanting to see the Dogfish (as long as their arms ;D ). I'm now going down to skin them and get one in the smoker...a brilliant night, loved it.

Yak Boarding...17-18/04/09

Well, sometimes you're just wasting your time and bait trying to fish. This weekend looks like being one of those times locally so I figured it was a great opportunity to put my drysuit through the spin cycle to get some of the cod slime out! Seeing as the forecast was for decent sized waves, quite nicely spaced and surfable I couldn't help but rinse off the Yak Boards too, dragging my mate Liam out again for a session as we usually hit the surf together (he doesn't fish but has always liked kayaking).

I picked him up around 7:30 last night and we arrived on the sand maybe 15 minutes later, kitted up and with Yak Boards over our shoulders. The sea looked great! Without further ado I launched and took some video of the conditions, at which point Liam asked if I wanted a photograph of myself - of course I did! He took a bit long to compose it though and a wave picked me up...could have done some damage there!



That done I headed out in the lee of the groyne and grabbed hold of the first decent wave that came along - as most of them were. It was maybe 4ft or so and I flew! Down at a decent angle, allowing me to stay aboard, and then along the face a bit and into the beach...pure joy :D It made up for the battering on the way out with cold waves breaking in my face regularly. Half of these I would not have stayed on for if I hadn't got thigh straps fitted and on occasion they were the only thig keeping me on as I flew in towards the beach!

I passed Liam at a great rate of knots at one point while he was in the water, by maybe 6 feet or so.I meant to say 'Watch Out!' but it came out more like 'Weeeeeee!'. He did a similar one to me as well after a wipeout - purely my own fault, I was trying to film with one hand and move myself with the other ;) It's a great clip.

An hour of fun followed before deciding on the first of our last waves...the fact is the sea was the best we've had it so far for this so we didn't want to go in, even though we were both fairly knackered by now. We finally gave up when we couldn't see anymore :'( My comment of 'Sh!t or Bust!' being precisely that as I wiped out again and wasted my run in.)

Driving back we did a quick circuit of the promenade - there were 'ladies' present in miniskirts etc...jokingly Liam mentioned another circuit and the joke continued to cruising with the stereo cranked up etc...and so, a blue Astra Estate with two Yak Boards strapped to the roof driven by a Typhoon-underfleeced beardy-baldy with a passenger in neoprene 'burned up the strip' with the CD that I knew to be loaded in, much to Liam's embarresment as he recognised the quaint melody, moments before the multi-decible voice proclaimed: "The Gruffalo, by Julia Donaldson and Axel Schaeffer' ;D ;D ;D

I got home, fiddled around and fitted my camera to my helmet with gaffer tape. I've not used the hemet before so i had to adjust it to my head too...I was getting uyp again at 5:30 to hit the surf for 6...

Back out, Liam was unable to join me and so I launched into a slightly lesser sea than the nght before - but still good. I was as much intent on getting video as I was in riding the waves and managed a bit of both. Some surfers turned up after a while and I managed to consistently miss them as I came zooming in past them; I didn't see either catch a wave come to think of it...perhaps they should have come out further ;) I had a whale of a time and although i missed plenty of waves, which weren't forming up as far out as the previous night, I still had an hour and a half of fun with plenty of rides. Since I bought my Yak Board bad forecasts have not been anything to be upset about.

Haven’t the foggiest…13/04/09

Time off at Easter only extended until Monday and so, after a family trip up to Horsey Gap to sea the seals on the beach I set about preparing a nice meal of Saturday’s cod – well, actually just cooking it as it had been prepared the day before when I had laid a gutted and gilled 4lb 2oz fish…



…onto a bed of chopped tarragon, spring onion and sliced lemon, surrounded in sliced orange and drizzled with olive oil, sea salt and cracked pepper before enclosing it in foil. This was baked in the oven, diagonally across due to the size of it, before serving:



…it was quite moreish.



Of course, after a meal like that there’s not a lot else to do except rendezvous with Steve and launch…and so at 7:30pm he knocked on the door while I was struggling into my drysuit. Half an hour later and we were kitted up and were on the sand readying ourselves to launch. I decided to call up the coastguard once we were at our destination a mile south and tell them where we were instead of where we were going.



After all, they’d have probably not wanted us to go out. Visibility was a bit on the poor side ;D

Anchored up, we chatted and waited. Steve had a Whiting on fairly quickly while I didn’t have a touch. Then I started to drift away. All the time I was watching static rod tips…fishing was not going so well tonight. I ended up a couple of hundred metres away, slowly drifting, before I decided to up anchor and head back. I’d felt a fish on once only over the last hour and a half but it had dropepd off. However, as I now brought in one rod I finally found the saviour – I hadn’t blanked!



A Whiting, I’d not even seen it bite. This fish so far had cost me half a dozen good frozen blacks and a lead that had headed further south than the line.

I paddled over to and past Steve, heading up current and slightly inshore. Trouble was, like all good plans, it went belly up and the current took me back the way I’d come, straight over his anchor line and I had to cut free and re-tie. Twice. I also managed somehow to lose a rig, with weight and everything, during this procedure. I settled for being on the offshore side and baited up. A couple of rebaits later and I sent another complete rig flying; it turns out I’ve got a damaged tip ring that has been taking out my braid. Bugger.

Oh my! A bite! Fish on!



Hmm. A small Pouting. Back it went. Steve had a nice codling in his tankwell but I was trailing, badly. I then got one lovely bite…nothing, it came off and left me with a lump of weed. We carried on a little while longer and shortly before heading off Steve brought in a second codling – again a nice fish. We up-anchored around 11:30 and headed back against the tide, landing on the beach and getting things sorted out before going our separate ways around 12:30…Steve at least having got value from his worms!



…besides, I couldn’t really stay out later with work the next day after all…

East Coast Easter...10-11/04/09

I love the weekend, especially long ones and with Amos not due to come down until Saturday evening, Steve not back until the end of the weekend and Bootster otherwise engaged I decided on a solo Friday night cod session.

Come 7:30pm and I was ready to go. The girls were in bed, fed and read and so I grabbed the last bits of kit and headed out of the door. I’d modified my Navlight the night before too:



I didn’t know how until Saturday night however - it turns out Amos made the same modification himself this week. All you have to do is use the adaptor from your Icom VHF and charge it with that – hey presto, a bent navlight ;D Hmm.

Down to the beach I went, to a very calm, very flat evening. It was just on dusk as I launched and as I paddled out I saw a couple of good-sized swirls on the surface, within 50 yards of the beach. Bass? I thought about sticking a rod out but figured I’d spooked them anyway and didn’t have the right gear aboard so instead headed south with the current to my hole off Pakefield. I am sure I saw some more swirls here and there – never seen that before.

I anchored and baited up with frozen blacks and cast both rods out before settling down to wait. The first knock resulted in a just-sizeable codling but it went back with nothing more than a slightly sore mouth.



It was followed by another that was a keeper around 2.5lb and from memory a third. The Whiting also came out to play, I forget how many. The first was not a bad one and hooked in the throat so I kept it, the others going back.



At one point, while sitting there in the yak, I turned slightly and heard the unmistakeable sound of a fish splashing the surface near the yak, presumably attracted by the light…it sounded a reasonable one and that couple with the other ‘sightings’ of swirls made me wonder what was happening. It has been suggested that it’s possibly even sea trout – now that would be a capture and a half!

Come high tide I up anchored to head in, bringing home a couple more codling and dumping everything into and onto the car ready for the morning.

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Morning…05:15 in the morning…try getting me out of bed for anything other than fishing at this time of day and there’s a problem…coffee, drysuit, bait, gone.

Hopton this time, straight down the track off Beach Road, park up by the barrier, yak off the roof onto the trolley, rods out, gear out, all piled on, pick nose and down the slip to this:



What a fantastic morning! I paddled out to the north about 4-500 yards and crossed the drop off into the deeper water, dropping my anchor and baiting up. There was no point casting until the yak tightened against the anchor warp but I’d timed it well – it tightened up as the current started to run as I finished baiting the second rod up and down went the lines. This was followed by a third slung out of the back with half a herring fillet for a roker on the off chance.

It took a little while and then I got a tap. First fish of the day came in and has to be the rattiest looking Whiting I’ve ever had!



The sea was still. There was a hint of fog too that deadened the sound and diffused the sunlight – but there was something else. Something was going on…I turned and maybe 30 yards away was a seal, watching me. He went back down and after having brought another fish up he popped his head up 50 yards downtide of me in a direct line from where I was then casting! Another 15-20 yards and he’d have had a headache, poor bugger, but I didn’t see him again although a couple more appeared here and there throughout the next hour or so.

Next up was a Pouting.



Not long after I again turned around, this time to see a harbour porpoise break the surface 50 yards away, heading northwest. Try as I might I couldn’t spot him again but I was really pleased at how well the morning was progressing! I then spotted Pinkfoot on the beach getting ready to launch and, I think it’s the third time this has happened here, when he came out to say hi – against the tide that was doing a couple of knots by now, my rod began knocking…as he came alongside so did the first codling of the day.



He anchored up nearby and we settled down for a chat and some fishing. I spotted something else I hadn’t seen before after a while too – disturbance on the water in patches, clearly bait fish of some type. It was quite good to watch and when I then saw some fins and backs break the surface in amongst them I started to get quite excited but a freelined lugworm failed to attract a bite so I stuck with the bottom baits.

Not long after Carl asked where I was going…it turned out that I was going 149 metres south, thanks to a codling being enough to loosen the grip of the anchor in the tide that was now screaming through at full pelt.



The last cod came while I was sitting at anchor even further down amongst shoals of bait fish…against a screaming current I pulled one up that weighed in at 4lb 2oz when I got home. I had to actually pump it up to the boat against the flow and the last 50 yards had it coming along the surface, spinning and jumping, mouth open, with as much of a pull as a tuna three or four times the size!

Time was getting short so I pulled anchor and paddled up to Pinkfoot for a quick chat before heading in and home. Revenge is sweet and as I got near he snatched up his rod and struck…



The fight was on and I’d come up just at the right moment – this was only his second fish of the day and I was there to film it just in time.



The grin says it all – and he isn’t really as fat as the drysuit would suggest!



I paddled in and the beach had loads of people milling about. Luckily I didn’t come off as usually happens with an audience but soon had people around the yak. One lady pointed out my cod had been happily swimming around this morning looking forward to the weekend when I’d pulled it out. She was right too, and it explains why it seemed against the idea of coming for a ride on my yak. I think she wanted to eat it – but that’s our Easter Monday dinner. Right now I had things to do at home…

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…they involved filleting a sink full of cod and making lunch for everyone while they went to the beach. This was followed by the girls and I heading down to the pier to try and catch some early prawns for sea trout bait :D



Three. Two starfish and a small Edible Crab as well. Loads of anglers on the pier too – one pulled out a small pout when we arrived. A good hour was spent there before we headed off to the beach further up – I could see a speck in the distance that was Bootster out in my Trident. I sent a text from the beach right by him to say he was too close and what had he caught – seems he wasn’t too close after all as he’d had a couple of codling. In the meantime my girls had stripped off to vest and knickers and were up to their tummies in the water! Madness. They then proceeded to come out and roll around in the sand while my eyes did the same in my head. Bootster mentioned that Amos was rigging up on the beach so that was our next stop and we wandered down for a chat before heading home to make dinner, a launch being planned to follow that.

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It went poorly from the start. I couldn’t park near to my usual launch spot so had a drag down to the beach over a fair distance of sand. The tide was running by now as I headed south to Pakefield. Out I went and headed for a light that I thought was Amos. This meant I had to backtrack 500 yards and crab across the current when I twigged it was a Tilley the other side of the bay and spotted him out to sea!

He was out of the hole but had caught some fish so I dropped anchor and we chatted while waiting for the fish to bite. It took a while. I was still buggering about and between catching my nav light while casting, sending a lead into the distance and assorted other things that would get me thrown out of the School for Kayak Fishing Competence I managed to miss just about every bloody bite I had! Not that there were many and after losing a decent fish halfway up I was starting to get annoyed. Luckily, one codling took pity on me.



We decided after a while to move into the hole to see what was happening over there. Amos was pulling out some decent Whiting but the weed was causing problems and had perhaps been the cause of another dropped cod by me. We anchored up and I rebaited both rods from scratch and cast down. Things were still slow though.

Bang Bang Bang…I grabbed my left hand rod and had a scrap right the way up…a bit more speed and less of the nodding…this was something else, but what? Up to the surface and I pulled it, thrashing, along the top. Going mental near the boat I realised it was a Bass! Not just a Bass but a PB Bass! And the first sizeable Bass I’d had from open sea! A five-pounder! (By the time I got home!) I grabbed it (a two-pounder in reality I guess) and brought it into the yak, my braid snapping at the rod tip at this point for some reason. It tried beating me up but I managed to get the hook out in short order. I was over the moon with this and got a couple of pictures of the beautiful, spiny, shiny special meal for the family…



Lovely fish, and maybe I now see the attraction of them a bit more.

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Spotting freedom he leapt over my leg, landed on my knee, missed my outstretched fingers and disappeared into a gill-net of the future somewhere off the coast! I confess, at this point, to uttering a profanity of three-hundred. Still, Bass should all be catch and release apparently and this fifteen-pounder wasn’t really an ideal candidate for knocking on the head. I mean, what would I do with a fresh, sweet-tasting, firm-fleshed tasty twenty-pound Suffolk bass? Nah, best place for it, back in the sea.

Consolation knock before I can rebait the other rod and in comes a three pound cod…fighting exactly like my lost record-breaking 25lb bass…I can’t believe that I was actually disappointed when it was close enough to see it wasn’t another 30 pound bass! No buggering about this time, in, dispatched, gutted and gilled, deheaded and into the tankwell.

Back out, tap, rattle…



The first of a pair. Next up was a greedy Starfish!



The tide started to slacken around midnight and we set our noses for the beach, me giving Amos a hand up the cliff with his yak before I re-launched and headed north (now in the rain) back home for a good night’s sleep, my plan for a session the following morning scotched by my lack of sleep over the last few days. Time for a break.

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Postscript. Carpyken inspired me to try his dish of last week. Last night’s cod were filleted, boned, skinned and chunked into a Pyrex bowl with fresh dill, nutmeg and sea salt. Cheddar and Double Gloucester cheese were grated, mixed with Colmans mustard, black pepper, milk and flour, warmed and mixed into a sauce and poured over. Bread was liquidised into fluffy crumbs, dried out in the oven, mixed with basil and parsley and poured over the top. A bit of cheeses was then grated on top and into the oven it went…

…half an hour later it looked like this:





Ken, it was delicious – even the children ate it happily and my wife commented thus (of her own accord!).

“It’s lovely, I didn’t think it would be.” She criticises English cookery on many points, with fish being “a crime to batter and deep fry” and “how can anyone think fish and cheese is a good combination?”. Well done for impressing a Frenchie! Actually, 3 and two halves!

Spawney Git!...08/04/09

With my in-laws arriving the previous night I planned to use up some more holiday by being about and cooking etc as well as having some time with my daughters while they’re off school for the Easter holidays. Of course, I was intending to get out on the yak at some point and had figured on an early morning session. To clear the cobwebs.

I woke up early and looked out of the window at the high wind and the rain…and promptly went back to bed, getting up instead to go and buy a salmon from the supermarket with my father-in-law and youngest daughter. Oh, and beer.

Back home and it was out with the knives…at least something fishy was happening! Filleted, cut etc and the off-cuts in the smoker, I then got on with my next task, preparing a nice lunch of cod. The plan was to prepare it in different ways and the end result with four of Saturday night’s refrigerated fillets were battered and deep fried, floured and shallow fried, hot smoked and en-papilotte with cherry tomatoes, dill, sea salt, pepper, lemon juice and olive oil. Rather a nice selection for lunch and while the former came out tops for me the latter was my wife’s favourite. The béarnaise sauce I made was good too,



I needed a paddle to get rid of all that butter! Rather oddly my wife said I could go that afternoon if I wanted - and by now the sun was out and the wind a bit less. I figured that I wouldn’t have time for a proper fishing session though and decided instead to just go for a play.

I launched from the end of the road in the Prowler 15 into some quite nice breakers. Nothing really surfable, quite choppy 3-4ft dumpy stuff that gave me a faceful constantly and I took my time going through it all nice and slowly – it was the ideal day for practicing going in and out and I did so for the next hour or two, practicing sitting in the surf, going in and out forwards and backwards, fast and slow, straight and angled and surfing, bracing etc here and there…good fun and good practice. I only got knocked off once and that was paddling in the breakers parallel to the shore…I learnt quite a bit in that session.

Back home I took out some of the salmon and began preparing sushi…a time-consuming meal that is sufficiently endearing to allow passes…



…passes that needed cashing-in straight away as Bootster informed me that he was catching off the beach…and caught while talking to me. My evening was written in stone – we were off out.

Bootster (who’d landed five codling to 6lb) arrived around seven and we set off for the beach. A quick launch through a sea that had calmed greatly since lunchtime still saw us getting flooded laps but once out we turned south and headed for Pakefield to an almost full moon.



I was pissed off to discover that I’d misplaced my baiting needle – with long frozen black lug this was a disaster. I then missed the first bite while Bootster was still tackling up (my rods are ready constantly). In no time at all another rattler and I wound up the first fish of the night. A Pouting.



Shortly after Bootster also got one, bigger than mine and then it quietened off. The swell was quite calming; although not flat-calm it was pleasant enough and the sound of the waves crashing on the beach in an otherwise quiet night just made things more enjoyable.



But there were no more bites and we were getting hung up with weed. I decided, being quiet now, that I ought to sort out my finder. Id knocked the transducer off with the battery while playing in the surf (didn’t know it was in there!) and had snapped a wire while connecting up before launch. I couldn’t do much about the former but I didn’t think we were in the right place so crawled up to the front hatch, pulled the battery and cable out and stripped the wires. I then re-wired the battery and checked our position. We were off the mark by maybe 75 metres. A miss is as good as a mile so we up-anchored and moved.

Somehow or other I managed to unclip the carabiner of my right hand trolley and so had to revert to the left hand one – my carabiner out the back. It wasn’t the only problem, it was one of those occasions when I was fishing like a twatt! I even caught a tankwell bungee while casting at one point! Next thing I knew, after getting settled down after anchoring, was a bite… a Whiting that was quite deeply hooked. I unhooked it and, hopeful that it might survive, returned it. I then realised that I hadn’t got a pic…I needed another now…



…and I got one. I missed a cod bite too, bringing up just weed (and lots of it). The lines were literally covered in a few minutes and I think this affected our chances greatly. I then compounded things with a nice little crack-off while casting. It was going nicely until something caught up and a freshly hooked black went sailing out, with trace and breakaway, into the night. I was less than happy. Still, we persevered until the tide began to slacken and then I decided it was time to call it a night as I had work in the morning. I up-anchored and drifted towards Bootster then paddled in and tied off for a natter, my remaining rod just sitting in the water from a flushmount all this time.

After a while he brought his lines in, having brought in the only codling of the night and I got mine in ready to separate. It felt heavy and I figured I’d got a load of weed on it. Up near the surface though I felt it kick…then I saw the weight…and the trace…and the beads and blades…and the worm. Must have been the weed after all. I swung it in.

Something wasn’t right though; there was a tangle of some sort, so I started trying to work out where the braid was to get it back on the reel or whatever. Then the braid pulled…and I pulled back…and it felt heavy but the rod didn’t move…bugger me if I hadn’t snagged my earlier crack-off! Not only that but…yep, you’ve guessed it, that freshly hooked worm had done the business!



With luck like that and a night like that it was a happy pair of yakkers who paddled in (and a happy pair of office girls who took home a couple of fresh fillets apiece for Easter weekend)

Saturday Night Fever!...04/04/09

Having spent the day on land after the early morning session I was itching for 7:30 when we were all going to meet up again to get back out on the water for a night session. Hungryfisherman had again driven up from London, Onmas was coming over and Steve111 and I had left the morning’s gear out and ready to go. We were off to Pakefield again; trying a new launch spot that would allow us to be right on the mark within minutes of paddling rather than a one mile paddle against the current which was going to be the alternative. Again we would be fishing the ebb, launching not long after high water, and although I prefer a flooding tide I don’t have the luxury of being able to pick my fishing times.

Hungryfisherman got himself down to Pakefield early to rig up and sent us a text to say he was there. He wasn’t where I was planning to launch so had a longer walk down with the yak than us but it was literally a five minute paddle with the tide to where we were going to fish so he launched and waited for us. Steve and I were next on scene and got the yaks down to the water, waiting for Onmas and chatting to people in the meantime (one of whom had seen Steve and I the previous Friday from shore).

With Onmas arriving, I launched and went out to give Hungry his bait order just as it was getting dark while Steve gave Onmas a hand down to the water. Amos was about 150 metres off the mark (no GPS or charts on his unit) but as he had, in the hour or less he’d been out, had (I think) Codling, Pouting and Whiting it seemed like as good a spot as any so I anchored up 50 yards away, baited up and dropped my lines out.

Five minutes. That’s all it took. The rod started to almost double over on itself (almost) and the line tightened against the rings as a hungry cod made a lunge for freedom with a frozen black. I tightened into it and after a valiant battle on both sides hauled up a lunker…


I was well happy – my smallest cod to date, ideal for my saltwater aquarium. Trouble is, I don’t yet have one and it’s going to take a bit more cajoling before I do! Back it went and I settled down to await the next one. It wasn’t long, and then a rattle before I pulled in the first of the Whiting.



I had quite a few more of these before a gentle knock that might have been a Whiting or could have been some more of the weed that was about now…I started pulling it in and then it got heavy and started to nod…cod! Up came the first real keeper of the night, around 2lb.



Small crab and shrimp in its belly tonight…and amongst the weed on the line a little hermit crab!



It was funny, the bites were mostly gentle and mostly on the rod with frozen blacks. The fresh was being outfished two or three to one and they weren’t bad worms. Both of my best knocks of the night, however, where on the fresh and the first of them was a small Pouting… I’d now got some water on the lens of my camera so apologies for the lesser quality than normal!



Things had started to quieten down so I decided to up-anchor and head for the mark I’d been using this week, dropping myself a hundred yards north of this morning’s spot. Hungry joined me first, with Steve and Onmas following shortly afterwards. As Steve arrived – fishless as yet, having been debunking my bullnuts about bananas being unlucky on a fishing boat (Ha!) or jinxed by anchoring next to Onmas – and we had a chat…at which point my rod tip started to bounce merrily away! A nice plump 3lber was soon aboard ;D He went and anchored…

Hungry and Onmas drifted past before their anchors settled and we settled down to another couple of hours fishing. It was a perfect evening for it – not too cold, clear, a slight swell, not a great deal of current and plenty of fish. I totalled 5 Codling, 13 Whiting and 1 Pouting before running out of bait and all the others had some Codling to take home too. An absolutely top notch evening. Kit upgrades on my part from last week were extra SOLAS tape around the rods at intervals and I’d found my (unused) tip lights which illuminated the SOLAS at the tip nicely (although one has let water in and the battery has rusted already). At 1:30 we all headed back to shore through the surf that was starting to grow as the wind and swell picked up. It wasn’t big though and sounded worse than the reality because of the shingle – no dramas ensued and we all got up the beach with ease, getting out and getting the circulation back into our bodies – which saw me shivering in minutes. An excellent session!



I called into the coastguard to inform them we were back…he asked how we’d done and I told him…

“I’ll have to save up and get myself one…Yarmouth Coastguard, OUT!”

That was it…on that note, laughing, we loaded up, stood around chatting for an hour and then departed.

The Nine Pound Pouting…03/04/09

It’s terrible. You wait all week long and come the weekend it’s foggy. It was foggy before the weekend of course but the hope was that it would lift. It didn’t, not by the time we were planning to launch, but why worry about such trifling matters when it’s the weekend and there’s fishing to be done? So we didn’t.



To be honest the fog was far better than it had been. We could see a few hundred yards most of the time and with an intended fishing spot close to the shore there would be less likelihood of either getting lost or run down – not a major concern anyway with compasses and GPS chartplotters to take care of the former and VHF, airhorns and whistles taking care of the latter. So without further ado Myself, Steve111 and Norfolk By got ourselves ready for a spot of spring morning yakking.



Our plan was to launch and paddle against the ebbing tide south to a spot off Pakefield where I’d had good sport a few days previously. It’s only a few hundred yards out and is an area a foot or two deeper than its surroundings. The current was only a couple of mph and so we made our way down at 2-3mph without breaking a sweat. Anchors down and line let out we settled into our seats and baited up. I had (poor) frozen blacks on one rod and average fresh lugworm on the other, both on my running leger pennel plaice rigs and sent them off downtide and to the sides.



It took a little while before the first knock and I brought up the first Whiting.



I carried on in this vein for a couple of hours, nothing much happening at all when suddenly I got good knock on the rod tip and struck into a Pouting. This was a reasonable size, nice and plump, and had one of the hooks quite far down so I decided to keep it for the table.



As the day wore on the fog lifted more and more and it was becoming pleasant. In the time I was out I missed or dropped three codling, boated about half a dozen Whiting (all of which went back, nothing worth keeping there) and that single Pouting. 9:30 came and it was time for me to head back in as I had a few things to do to…with the fresh and frozen lug I’d used that Pouting cost me nine pounds.

I left the other two to carry on – I think Norfolk Boy could have stayed all day as he was by now hauling codling up every few minutes – they’d started to run now and were right in his patch. For his second time out he was doing great – outfishing Steve and I, outfishing his winter on the beach and having a whale of a time.



The smile says it all really…

No April Fool!...01/04/09

I took Monday off for my birthday and due to my daughter being off school it meant that instead of the planned few hours of fishing I would be spending my day with both my little girls. This was a good result ;D Even better was that I was allowed out for a play when my wife got home as I’d been so good – she brought a salmon home and between the lunch of hot smoked salmon, the smoked salmon pate and the salmon sushi I was riding a good wave.

So, I launched off the beach near my house. No photographs as my youngest had stolen the camera and put it elsewhere. The current was running fast, the wind was up and it was choppy. I didn’t go far due to limited time and slung out a frozen black on each rod. And waited. I had my one and only bite 5 minutes before my planned return and this stripped 90% of the worm off the hook. A birthday blank (but only fishing for less than an hour in a place unlikely to produce).

Now, today, Wednesday, was another matter. I used up another day’s holiday as I had to fetch my parents from the airport at 1pm. They’ve just been out to South Africa and had been travelling for a long time. They were therefore not too happy to be told that there luggage was misplaced at Amsterdam – they had to change their flight, arriving instead at 5pm. As I said, they were not happy – but I was! My plan had been to launch about 3pm after I got back home and fish for a couple of hours. Now I was suddenly able to fish twice as long and straddle high water ;D Any sympathy was tempered by the photo they’d sent a couple of days before…



I’d got my kit ready beforehand and within ten minutes of the plan changing I was into my fleeces and drysuit and on the way. I’ve changed rigs now, the wishbones have been resulting in loads of missed bites lately so I am now using a modified plaice rig. Modified in that it has a 5/0 at the bottom, a 1/0 further up (thus holding the worms off the point of the hook) before the beads/blades. There then follows a swivel and a couple more feet of line. Next comes a swivel, bead, zip slider, bead and swivel on a couple ore feet of line, this attached to the mainline. Yak on the trolley, wandered down to the beach. It looked lovely:



I headed south to the CEFAS building. This is a popular shore mark and Steve111 and I had headed here last Friday evening and done alright. I was heading a bit further out, having picked up a slightly deeper hole on the Navionics charts in my Humminbird, anchoring at the north end of this as the current was running to the south and I’d be able to fish over this mark.

…and what a current. I’d chatted to a guy in a SINK for a few minutes on the way down – we were drifting at around 2 knots. When I started to paddle down I was doing over six. I reckon I’d have touched seven with my usual paddle – being used to it – but I’d taken the demo cranked Lendal Kinetic Wing for a bit of variety and it’s slightly different to use so I wasn’t getting the most out of it. Good workout of a different muscle set though!

I baited up one rod with a whole frozen black lugworm – Norfolk Boy, they’re brilliant, next time you order from your source I want some more – now, when I say a whole black I mean a whole ten inch snake of a lugworm! Top bait for sure. The other rod was loaded with salted and frozen blow lugworm, as a tester.

Not long…thump, thump, thump…



…it had hooked itself. Not big, maybe a pound and it soon went back…after a gratuitously piss-taking photograph…



I texted Steve and told him to look out of his office window ;D I’m an evil swine really. By the time he texted back I was in again – as the phone bleeped the rod nodded and I brought in a two-pounder. I texted back and had to stop to reel in a third! All off the same rod on the frozen black.

Off came the salted/frozen lug. I’ll keep it to try on the Sole but for cod, forget it. A black in its place and out it went. Next up was the first of three Pouting. The second was badly hooked and came home with me but the others went back.



Then, surprise surprise, the first of the year – a Bass. Species Ten of 2009. Not big, and badly hooked but went back and hopefully made it as it seemed feisty enough.



It went quiet for a little while and I rebaited and cast one of my rods out to the side…five minutes maximum when…Bang, bang, bang! This was a better fish and I could feel it nodding on the end. It fought all the way up to the boat and was the best cod I’ve had this year – maybe 3.5-4lb.



That was the last of the Codling and as the current started to ease a bit I began missing some bites…the Whiting were here now and often both rods would tap in succession. Three of them came aboard, to be promptly released, but a fair few outsmarted me.



I tell you what, it was a superb session; my best of the year so far. A dozen fish, 4 of them worth keeping, 4 species including a first for the year and a gorgeous sunny day. I have a slight sunburn and feel nicely refreshed. The mile back to the launch point, still against 1.5mph of current took a little longer than the trip down but at an average of 3.5mph shed a few grammes of accumulated winter lard too ;D It looks like spring has arrived!