I pulled up, parked and got out. I could hear the waves crashing on the beach and straight away thought of the previous week when I’d aborted (for the first time this year) once kitted up. I wandered down to have a look and was greeted by a sea that was getting close to the top of the ramp, limited sand and a 3ft shore dump. However there didn’t appear to be any white stuff behind so I decided to get my gear together and launch.
Shortly after I wheeled the yak down the slope and got set up ready to launch. I figured to go deeper than normal to give myself that extra few seconds to break out if needed and so pulled the yak out until I was in up to my thighs, then as the last of the set rolled under me I jumped aboard and paddled out in the smaller waves and headed for the mark.
I was pitching and rolling and the 15mph+ south easterly was pushing me in all directions. There was no way I could anchor safely in this and no way I would even fish it if I did so I decided that I’d have to head in. The trouble was, of course, it was still dark and I’d have trouble picking out the wave to land on. As it was I headed to the next groyne north to try and get some shelter from wind and waves. Luckily it seemed like I had chosen the right moment and I came in easily enough with no drama, landing on the last 2ft of sand not under water! From there it was an easyish lift onto the concrete track and away up the hill. I was not impressed.
I texted to say I’d aborted and went home to fill up on coffee and croissants and see the girls before grabbing some freshwater gear and heading for a river to try and troll a pike up.
Now, today was going to be this year’s 100th launch…and what better place to paddle in this instance than the River Hundred? Now, this is almost a secret river – very few people know it exists even though they drive over it in their thousands each day as it passes under the A12 at Kessingland. I’d not fished it for a couple of years when I’d had a ten pounder out in a tournament as it’s narrow, shallow and weedy. In fact it’s not fishable for the majority of the year…but this time of year should be alright with the weed having mostly died down.
The first change I noticed was some fencing around the bad-enough-anyway launch access. I had to do some fiddling to get in here. I managed though and while loading my gear in a Kingfisher flew past a few feet away…cracking! I saw them 3 or 4 times all in.
I got myself in and comfortable and paddled away from the noise. The water was still, it was reasonably clear, the wind had died and being quite narrow and quite shallow I figured I had a fair chance of a fish. I trolled one rod and enjoyed the scenery as my arse slowly got more and more numb – the water was bloody cold.
I had a chat with a pair of swans as I made my way down to the bends where I’d caught before and as I’d got snagged on weed as it shallowed here I decided to fling some lures for a while.
I began with a popper, went onto a Wildeye Perch then tried a Big S all to no avail. I gave up and paddled some more. It was a nice, gentle paddle and I covered the distance to the sluice and Benacre beach pretty quickly. I pulled up onto a bit of beach on arrival and went to look at the sea…it was fine, easily fishable. I was not impressed.
I trolled back up to the bridge and merrily fiddled with the camera…in the few hours of my gentle trip I didn’t get so much as a sniff of a fish but I did strap on the ATC9K and do a bit of filming to while away my evenings with some editing so at least something came of it.
(Video not posted yet as the audio is cocked up; Windows Live Movie Maker does it again >:( )
Never been so cold on the yak in my life.
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