Getting Fresh…18.02.2012

After last week’s blank and after the lack of cod on my yak and with the charter boats nailing them in the same place I made the rare decision to get some fresh worm for once. Friday afternoon, as I’m leaving work I call up a shop and ask if they have some – they do. Are they good? Yes he tells me. So I drive there. Nice shop, loads of sparkly stuff and so on and to be fair he was telling the truth, they were good worms – dug that day, fresh and firm. We have a differing opinion of good though and to me a good worm is not something that would barely fill a size 1 hook which seemed to be the case with a good 3/5 of my 25 lug…I should have gone for his fresh blacks I guess. Perhaps I’m spoiled by the big old snakes that I usually get out of my freezer and expect too much but I’d rather buy by weight to be honest, far fairer. Anyway, I handed over my fiver to a pleasant guy and walked out after a pleasant browse.

So there I am at 04:00 pressing the snooze button for another ten minutes in bed before finally dragging myself down towards the jar of Gold Blend. Sounds a bit windy outside, it’s not just the lug that are fresh. I’m not meeting anyone so don’t hurry things and it’s not until 05:45 that I get down to the launch, on the water for 6am. It’s a stiff old breeze alright, a Force 4 gusting 6 when I checked before leaving the house, but from the south west it was do-able. With high water timed at 06:27 I was originally intending to head south with the remnants of the flood to fish Corton but conditions would not allow a dash for cover there if it picked up and I had strict instructions to be home by ten…I paddled uptide instead and anchored 500 northeast of the ramp at Hopton. The wind pointed my nose out to sea regardless of the current. I heard old matey boy the seal clear its nose ten yards away and looked around just to see the swirl as he dived again; I was in an area with fish then. I’d left the electronics once again and just positioned myself on the regular spot by dead reckoning.

My worms came out of the baitbox and they were still lovely and firm, juicy without being watery and I stuck one on each hook of the wishbone rig of my right-hand rod, tipped with a bit of unwashed squid. The left had some manky, smelly, rotten black lug remaining from last week that I’d not removed from the hooks. This sounds grim and lazy but is my secret weapon – bottom feeders are scroungers and pick up whatever protein they find on the sea bed especially after rough weather and the rotten stuff has been quite effective for bites of late. I just tipped it with some squid and chucked that out too.

It didn’t take long. A couple of minutes maybe? Then in came the first whiting. I’ve seen hardly any of these since the start of the year and it reinforced my view that fresh lug won’t get as far as the cod finding it without bags of luck. Anyway, it was a bit light and went back.



Then the manky rod went and I pulled in another. I had more on each bait (the fresh lug holding up really well, better than any I’ve had before) before removing the remains of worm sludge and threading some frozen blacks up the hooks on that rod. Back out it went. It was maybe 06:30 by now and just starting to get lighter.



By the time the tide stopped running, about an hour after high water, I’d landed 11 whiting and kept 7 but had loads of others I’d not struck and some I’d missed; I was waiting for cod bites. One rod now had big baits, whole squid, quite large ones on each of the two hooks and for a good few minutes it was rattling away with whiting and then it all went quiet for half an hour or more as it swung around and started to go back up towards Yarmouth. I used the time wisely in gutting my catch; every one had roe in them, a nice appetiser for me.

Soon after 08:00 the rod tips started going back to work and the whiting started coming aboard again. Then I heard the roar of engines as Marty pitched up to say good morning – the wind had held the sound away until he was only a couple of hundred yards away. We had a good old natter before he spun in close for my camera and headed off at high speed for his usual mark.



It was 08:30 now and the wind had picked up, it was now a 6 gusting 7 and the swell had built with the reversal of the current. I was comfortable though, no chop and no swinging…I called up High Flyer when I saw them on their way out and was touched by Jon’s concern: “Are you alright in that thing?” ;D I was but to be fair darkness hides a lot of the concerns! Sadly the kettle wasn’t on yet but he swung by for the camera as well, throttling back to keep his wash down even though I could have done with one to get the squid out of my hair. As he passed I brought in the second double shot of the morning.



I gave it another half an hour, deciding to go on twenty if I could and that last one was a good’un, meaty and full of roe. I stowed my gear, spun the kayak around in the usual manner (quick release binned after reinforcing my negative opinion of it) hauled anchor and headed back to shore, straight into the wind and across/against the tide. A good workout to be sure. There was nothing on the beach though and I parked up softly…I got back home on time too.
Epilogue.
I’d rationed my fresh lug too well, I still had a good dozen of the smaller ones left. Fair enough, I’d see if the girls fancied going down to the pier in the afternoon – they did. It started to drizzle just before we left and by the time we’d fished for half an hour it was pissing down. Nothing was biting either.



We sat in the car for a while and just before four we jumped out and brought the rods in just as Cleveland Princess returned to port.



Abigail had done me proud though, no fish came to us but she did snag up on a very pretty and fresh rig – a big yellow Gemini breakout lead tied up to a Portland rig, all on yellow line. A perfect match to my van and kayak…I took it home, untangled it and explained to the girls exactly how it worked…I’m such an anorak!