Flaking It!...27/12/2011

Go on then, why not. 6am and I’m downing my coffee, half an hour later and I’m out of the door. It’s windless, practically, a couple of miles an hour according to the RNSYC online weather station. That’s good; bugger all swell predicted too. A pity I got the tide wrong and was an hour out but I didn’t know that until later…

Not even seven, not even light and I’m walking down the lane at Tramp’s Alley. It’s rather wondrous with dawn casting its first meagre light over the sea and the water lapping against the shingle.



I’ve changed my mind and instead of launching at Hopton and running down with the current I’m going to paddle up to the mark against the tide, shouldn’t be too bad only an hour or so in. I launch just a few minutes after 7.



Hmm. A bit slow. It must be stronger than I thought, either that or I’ve grown fat over Christmas…the feeling persists and I can see from the shoreline that actually I’m not making a great deal of headway. Oh well. I give it twenty minutes and drop anchor short of the mark, swinging round and getting a full indication of how bloody strong the current is today!

The anchor holds and I’m sitting there, legs over the side, as the kayak swings a bit. I twig that I’ve got a couple of hours of this, will have difficulty holding bottom with the baits and haven’t got any choice in the matter now. I bait up and drop down.



I watch the sky lighten. The sun doesn’t really come up, it can’t as it’s overcast. I sit for an hour. It’s 9am when the first little twitch is seen. Not a proper bite though and I’m pulling a bit of weed, pumping baits to the surface at times! I rebait.



An hour and a half after I’ve launched And I get a bite. A decent bite. A proper bite. I have to pump this one up and I can feel it pulling and shaking; cod. No idea how big, it feels huge with a bucket-gob full of tide. And then it breaks surface thirty yards downtide, or rather leaps out of the water like a fat marlin when it takes the path of least resistance unintentionally. I haul it across the surface and into the yak, yes! In lovely condition and around 3lb, destined for the smoker. It’s taken frozen blacks inside an unwashed squid on a 4/0 pennel. Let’s hope it’s part of a shoal.



Another long wait with no movement of the rod tip and I decide that it’s time to come in. I up-anchor and spend two minutes returning to the launch site – slight difference! I de-rig and drag the Scupper up to the steps then trolley it up the ramp and along the road to my van. It takes until the kayak is on the roof before Mike drives down the road to see how I’ve got on having seen me out there earlier on; if only I’d had a bumper session to make him kick himself!