Friday morning saw me running around for squid, food and drink before heading south via Lakeside where I ran into Decathlon to buy myself a new small tent for the various demos and meets where I’ll be camping (due to the banter on the campsite beating the comfort of the hotel). Arriving at Westgate bay in Kent just after 1pm I went straight to the launch point (luckily) and got myself ready for the first session of the meet. Dumped into a long conversation (in my underpants) with a local by another forum member who was already glazed over I got kitted up rapidly and made excuses about missing the tide etc before legging it down to the beach with the Scupper to launch and head out to sea.
The sea was glorious – flat and quite clear; the weather was outstanding – warm with only a slight breeze and there were 17 of us on the water. I had a look on the charts loaded into my Humminbird and headed for a drop-off, 46ft of water a mile out, thinking that this looked promising. I was away from the main group and dropped anchor with Bluey on each of my rods. I had bites from the outset and loads of them. First up was this feisty fella:
More missed nibbles and bites and then another followed before I watched my line tighten and start pulling the rod tip down...game on! I was into my first Thornback Ray, or Roker as they call them up where I live, tempted by frozen black lugworm tipped with bluey. It gave a good account of itself and took a bit of effort to bring up from the deeper water but finally I had it in the yak where I worried about the effect of its skin and thorns on my drysuit!
Another doggy was followed by the most curious capture I’ve made yet – I don’t know what the hell this is but it had eaten the bait and had two 4/0 Vikings in the top of it. I didn’t really want to touch the bugger but it was easily unhooked and released over the side unharmed. Another doggy followed it in and then I had the rod bend over again...Roker number two, a bit bigger, had taken a squid body stuffed with herring. I was chuffed ;D
The constant bites slowed and I was starting to get a headache so I up-anchored and wandered in. Spotting Lozz I went over for a chat and then heard Amos give a yell as he finally got his thornie...
Then Lozz, who’d already had a few, started hauling up another...
...it looked like an excellent meet was on the cards!
I dropped anchor again but tempted no further fish and soon we all headed in, loading up and heading for the campsite where, at around 7pm, I parked next to the electrical hook-up Milesfromthesea ordered (figured it may be a useful pitch to be near) and cooked myself a bacon sarnie, my first food of the day. I needed a starter before the main course of barbecued ribs you see. This was all washed down with the only beer I could possibly partake in. Here I was in Kent so Shepherd Neame had to be the brewer of choice...and I was in Manston so there was nothing for it – I had to have a night on the Spitfire!
Saturday dawned slightly hung-overcast and so after bacon and egg sarnies (note to self, fruit and veg adds colour) and paying a disgruntled but actually very nice and friendly site-owner (‘We don’t allow vans of that size/commercial vehicles and it’s lucky you arrived yesterday after we’d gone and you’ll have to pay extra etc’) I got some toys out of the van...the new Ocean Kayak Prowler Ultra XT (with the ice box and live bait kit, both of which should be available soon), a bunch of Lendal paddles and three Pacific Action sails. I had mine attached to my Scupper and one attached to the Ultra (the forthcoming style) and attached the other two to Amos’ yak, which was already rigged for it, and to Todaymueller’s which just needed a couple of screws undone for a temporary fix...job done!
A lot of interest was shown in the Pacific Action sails – after all, if you’re like me once you’ve bought way more than you need to buy and a bit more you finally run out of kayaks and fishing stuff to spend the money on...but sails are another toy to add to the mix and enhance/increase the use of the kayak and it’s rare to see them attached to a kayak in the flesh and with the opportunity to play with them which is an important consideration when thinking about getting one.
Time was getting away from us; fish were swimming a few miles away. I offered a sail-rigged Ultra to Mattyoga who had fished the day before in his Frenzy and unsurprisingly he accepted. Of course, he will now become the face of ‘Kayak Anorak’ Monthly ;D
Off we went, heading for a promising looking mark. A very slight breeze was used to assist us along although this soon grew into something a bit stronger which had white horses ahead of us.
My Scupper Pro kept yawing as we had wind, swell and tide all moving in conflicting directions and as I couldn’t get it to stay in one position, from which I planned to photograph Matt with some fish, he moved the Ultra out of the rather large zone I occupied and started to fish. I, however, was already landing whiting.
The trouble was my frozen lugworm had got a bit moist so to stop them breaking up I had to dry them out. Luckily I had the solution ;D
It was quite funny really. Todaymueller arranged a fishing meet but hadn’t stopped whizzing around in all directions!
Bloody hooligan! Ah well, the tide was turning and we weren’t getting thornies unlike Lozz and so he, Matt and I set course as a fleet for Lozz’s position and let rip with the sails, zooming along and with me being a pain in the arse because I couldn’t steer and film at the same time.
Arriving near Lozz I ran around the back of Baileybridger and noted the ground dropping from 12ft to 16ft. I dropped anchor and dropped the first rod down with bluey on a 4/0 running leger.
I popped this one back having enough to take home with yesterday’s pair and watched as it swam away. There’s something fascinating about them, these pre-historic sea-monster type fish. Matt was alongside again by now.
No more fish followed and after a couple of hours I decided to head in. Up came the anchor and as I started in Ben started to make odd noises, kind of like Yes! Hurrah! Woohoo! Etc. I paddled over to see if he was okay as I could see he had his rod in his hand ;D
Perfect timing that was and a great end to the session for me. I raised the sail and headed in, almost into the wind. I hauled the sail right down on one side and held it in place with my foot while paddling gently against the tide...I was making 3.5mph on my way in.
Matt and Andy both ended up on the beach at around the same time and an irresistible shot presented itself as the two Ultra’s sat in their natural element.
The night passed in another blur of banter, food and beer with barbecued dogfish a hazy memory but at least I knew when to quit...
Sitting here a couple of days later and I’m wondering why I didn’t fish Sunday. I should have got up, fished and then came home. The fishing was excellent, the banter too and with the weather it really ended up being a top weekend. I think that I can honestly say that with all those factors it’s overall the best meet I’ve attended to date and hopefully it’ll be on again next year.
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