BANG! Thor brought his hammer down on the clouds and it pissed down. Thunder, lightning, rain. It stopped…I knocked off and headed to my mark anyway. It started to spit again, then I heard the thunder and drove home. Five minutes after it started in Lowestoft an inch was running down the road. I’d made the right choice. As an idea of how strong it was, how loud, there was a fire in a bedsit a hundred yards down my road just after 8pm and we heard nothing. Oh well, tomorrow maybe?
Sweltering again and though it looked iffy at one point things held together and so I left off and headed off to Gorleston and my parking space on the cliffs above the White Swan.
The sea looked good, flat with a slight rolling swell, the sky looked pleasant and the wind was within limits but there was a dark brown shit-stain right over the wreck. Bugger.
Lures might not be too effective tonight. As it was the tides were wrong, it was on the flood, a couple of hours in already, about opposite to what I wanted. But I was going fishing so tough.
Scupper. Trolley. Paddle. Rod. Lures: Check. Boots, sidewinders, cag, PFD: Check. Five minutes after pulling up and I’m on my way. C-Tug broken down and in the hatch and I’m paddling out. No faff, just straight in and no messing.
A brief troll to start, recceing the extent of the swirling brown water. Yep, it was pretty dire. Trolling was going to be a waste of time too, seeing as how I had a seal blowing through its nostrils a couple of metres off my stern for a few minutes ;D I was pleased, I’ve never had one come so close before and there must have been fish about. I went and clipped onto a marker buoy.
I flicked a shad for ten minutes without a sniff so changed to a Dexter. Pow! Straight in and along came a 41cm bass. Perfect size for Flo and I. On the head and in the hatch. I carried on flicking across the wreck, attaching more and more wedges and shads to the superstructure – she was hungry tonight. It took another hour of constant casting before I again had a take and after the best fight I’ve had yet a 51cm bass joined its younger sibling in the hold. Family-sized, this one.
Another age passed and then, finally, another take and a 34cm bass came in. I was happy to have persuaded him to take and with a quick measure for curiosity – I could see it was too small – back it went for another day, flicking its tail and shooting away strongly.
That was it. But what a pleasant evening. There I was, clipped up, legs over the side with just a gentle rolling swell. It was great as it was but along came my new buddy…
Bolder and bolder, it came closer.
Staying up then flipping over and diving
It was great! Really making my evening special. I was giggling, turning around to try and spot it. It would pop up next to me on either side, or down the way a bit, or behind me or I’d hear it snuffling in front of my bow, playing hide and seek with me! Brilliant fun. Then the cheeky bugger glided up from below and nudged my foot, over the side, and I jumped ;D I was laughing my head off now, such great fun and then it nuzzled the other foot, more gently this time. It doesn’t really get better than that – unless it stays still long enough for a good photo:
That last nuzzle was it and off it went. I hung around a bit and then headed in myself. Here’s the 50cm:
I hit the beach, trolleyed up and headed for my van, being greeted by a nice fella who asked if I was Pinkfoot ;D Now I know I’m handsome but I’m not that good at fishing! We had a chat and were then joined by a friend of his, an RNLI crewmember who pulled up and asked if I wanted a coffee from his campervan – nice one! I didn’t as I had to get home but the offer was appreciated and I forced him to see my VHF, Flares, Solas tape, PFD light…well, no point having the stuff if you can’t show the officials once in a blue moon!
I headed home, said goodnight to my wife, made something to eat and then dealt with my catch. The larger of the two fish had a couple of crabs inside and I was amazed at the size of the larger one. The smaller coughed up a mostly-digested fish.
Brilliant evening, one of those really special ones. Not only that, the rain held off until I got in the van and drove off.
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