I parked up and started unloading. The Scupper was (already) rigged for fishing and sailing and so it was a case of getting dressed, including my new home-knitted socks that my wife had given me that morning and tackled up. In the mean time somebody wandered up the ramp in a drysuit...
“Snapper?”
“Yes, Hi!”
“I’m John’s brother”
Aha...this made sense. It looked like he’d beaten his brother down here. Justin had been out and had a nice (first) trip downtide before coming back to the beach again and had caught a codling too. So we went back out together.
I didn’t know quite what time the tides were doing what so ended up in the exact spot I needed to be before deciding I was the wrong side of it, paddling south and being completely off the mark as the tide was still running. Bugger. Anyway, life’s too short to worry about such things and so I baited up and got the lines out. A few small nibbles on the 6/0 pennel kept me awake but frustrated.
The sea was a bit bumpy and t was both damp and misty out there but nothing to be concerned about. The 25mph south westerly was a pain in the arse but still okay and the pair of us sat it out. Then it started to drizzle. I headed in at slack to fetch something from the van and picked up a lovely wave and surfed the last fifty metres inadvertently (but nicely). I then had issues getting out again and had to let go of the yak before mounting it. Funnily the sea had changed in that short time.
I sailed out to Justin and clipped back up to my anchor reel the tide had now turned and we were wind over tide. The current was picking up, the wind was picking up and the waves were picking up. I concentrated as I rigged up, figuring that my decision to stay or go would be made over the next half an hour – if it got any worse we were going in. As it was, it eased as the tide picked up. It was still snotty but fishable.
Then I got the first bite since coming back out. Hesitant it was. Ten again a few minutes later. Then a monster bite and the rod tip bounced around like crazy – I wound down and up came this:
My PS codling! A good sign this, a year-old youngster. It went back of course and I continued to fish to no avail although Justin had one of a similar size.
After a bit more inactivity I started to run low on bait and decided it was time to head in. Bites had dropped off and the tide was still increasing so in we went, recovering our anchors with surprising ease and landing on the beach with no trouble at all. After a good natter with Justin it was time to head home to prepare sushi and barbecue.
You can’t beat a days fishing on your birthday.
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