...and so it came to pass that I was stuffed for Friday night but Tim and Jason were on...maybe I’d get out around 9 though with luck...but life always has twists like Friday becoming available for me last minute through illness and Jason having to pull out. Either way Tim had a pass!
Tim and I hatched a plan that he arrive at mine around 7 to give me an excuse to leave earlier and this he duly did – it would have worked if I hadn’t forgot his cup of tea so it was twenty past when we finally left mine for Hopton. Passing Dogger I decided to just divert and show him where it was for future reference. The wind seemed slight so he suggested giving it a try and I agreed. Down we went, unloaded, launched and paddled out for the middle hole. Anchors down, bang on the mark and we set to fishing.
Neaps...but the current was streaming through, passing England’s most easterly point half a mile south of us and the wind was pretty fresh, exposed as we were. We sat there for maybe an hour and with some stronger gusts coming through I made the decision to up-anchor and abort. I’d had a couple of good whiting but not really felt them...but a heavier than normal rod revealed a hermit crab – my first ever! Really a beautiful creature and it reminded me of the children’s story ‘Sharing a Shell’ as it was indeed sharing a shell – with a ragworm. This I knew as I bust the crab out for bait, evil bastard that I am.
Yaks back on the vehicles and all the gear loaded into my van we drove the three miles north to Hopton, kitted up again and launched. It was like a different evening! The current had slowed and the wind seemed a fraction of what we’d had at Dogger. We settled down to fish.
The first whiting came in shortly after and then, reaching around for my dive bag, my newly bought gaff went overboard. I unclipped and set off in hot pursuit but didn’t see it again. I then decided to bring my lines up and paddle back to where I hoped I’d find my anchor reel (it was dark) and pulled up my PB dab. Thank you! I carried on paddling towards Tim and slightly inshore and bugger me if the anchor reel didn’t appear a foot from my right hand! Perfect.
Tim drew first blood on the cod front with a plump 3lb’er as I got stuck into the whiting. We were on some rough ground I’d marked from the side imaging the week before and the fishing was constant. It took another half an hour but then I got a gentle bite, started to reel and down went the tip – first codling of the night for me! A heavy fish, it was pulling, nodding and scrapping valiantly – the tide had eased off quite a bit so I could feel the fish nicely on my braid and 12-20lb rod. Up she came and bugger me! It was a beauty! I didn’t want her twisting off the hook like the double the other week so rammed my thumb in here gob and hauled her in! Gentle, like. Tim weighed her on the beach at 7lb – a new PB by 4 ounces
We carried on and then another gentle tap...cod on again! About 5lb. And again, 4lb, and again, 4lb. these were probably 20-30 minutes apart and some whiting came in between them. The dive bag that kept being brought forward and then put back in the tankwell was getting bloody heavy and as the fourth went in (nearly losing the third, the bag three-quarters full by now) I put it into the tankwell, taking up all the spare space and figured that was it, the tankwell was full and the bag was full...
...any more fish would have to go in the footwells. This I did with whiting eight and nine (ten going back). Then, another gentle tap, the tide hardly running and battle was joined as another 5lb’er came up and in. it’s quite funny paddling a Scupper Pro in with a cod under your leg!
That was enough and so we decided to head in. With 5 codling between 4 and 7lb, ten whiting (one returned) and a dab caught I was over the moon- m y biggest bag ever, it must have gone 25-30lb in total.
I passed Tim my camera and he did the honours:
There are five in that pic but they were too big to all be visible. And the biggest, my new Personal Best cod:
An absolutely top evening with really good fishing in the last two and a half hours. By the time I’d finished gutting them at home it had gone 2am and so filleting was left for morning, fish then being either frozen or distributed to friends and the dab laying forgotten in the fridge until I arrived at my parents to give it to my dad ;D Amazingly though a better prediction for Saturday night resulted in worse conditions, a snotty sea, a blank and a ditched anchor and reel. You never can tell...
I went out again in the morning, meeting onmas on the beach and failed to find my bloody anchor - the sea is rather a large place it would seem. Quite a large swell and the shore dump was interesting too but a nice paddle about, good for the old fitness and practice. So quite a costly bunch of fish this weekend - one dive reel, one anchor, one float (need a bigger one) and a baiting needle.
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