Sunday morning, four days have passed since the postman arrived laden with gear for Eloise. Abigail has been placated with a shirt and cap plus a fiver to blow on toys and Eloise has got her head around all the shiny new kit. Finally, stuff that doesn’t smell of last year’s squid and fish, stuff that isn’t quite so heavy or long (apart from the bloody gorgeous Maxximus 7'6in 12lb IM7 Carbon boat rod that I think I’ll borrow when she’s not looking!) and finally stuff that is HERS. Not only that, the school have granted her permission to have the Friday off to travel down to Swanage for the OK Classic 2012. This calls for a pose!
Well, Abigail had her paddle yesterday and now it’s time to have her turn. Not quite so much generosity in timings though, 06:30 and we’re up, out of the door by 7 and ready to rock. Sort of.
We get down to Harbour Road and meet up with Mike. No sign of Si and his dad but it wasn’t certain anyway. I haven’t seen Mike in nearly twelve hours when we left the Coastguard Station after a visit but he still looks the same, albeit more familiar in proper clothes. Iunload the kayaks and gear and start to get myself kitted up when Eloise announces she’s off…
Fair enough. She has a good look at the latest sunken boat and then the three of us head up to the top end, passing Lead Us on her way out, Colin giving us a tip on where we might find the fish today, though we’re on a sight-see as much as anything so save it until later, possibly. We head for the bay around the wreck of the Yellowtail and then head in for a closer look.
We set up our line and with baited feathers for Mike and Eloise we go on the drift – I’ve already snagged and most my wedge and tinsels so just get the camera out and enjoy chilling out. The wind is taking us where we want to go without much correction and with Eloise baiting up and jigging her rod as shown, with a bit of singing thrown in, we head back towards the harbour slowly.
Mike leads the way.
We pass the Excelsior, minus half a mast. A great pity, I hope they can sort her out soon. She needs a bit of a scrub too after the winter. Mind you, at ninety one she’s doing better than most.
What the hell, we jig near her for a bit.
Then it’s time for a modelling shot…
And of course a play. My girls seem to have as much inclination towards staying dry as I do. Ah well, got to do the test after all…and then it was onto self-rescues. No fish today, not unsurprisingly, but a pleasant morning’s paddle about and Mike carried on after us.
Of course, that wasn’t all. I kept some squid and mackerel out and gave Cinders some homework later, ready for the comp. Practice makes perfect.
It’s not been easy; big sister gets to go kayak fishing, gets kit, gets to go away. So this time it was Abigail’s turn. The Kea was over at my parents’ so we had to go that way first but we could do a loop and hit the river for a paddle which was her choice anyway.
A lie-in this week. That gave me neck-ache and a headache that lasted all day. Still, with breakfast, coffee and the two of us dressed and in the van it was time to head over and frighten Grandpa when he came out of the porch and wake granny up before heading to the river. An enjoyable time so far…
So, Eloise’s drysuit, with plenty of room to grow into, gets unzipped and Abigail dives into it. Next comes my surf boots. I now have a waterproof flipper-wearing Charlie Chaplin, which is pretty cool.
I stick a buoyancy aid on and we head for the water, her Kea going in first and she’s away down-river as I launch.
A lovely, bright morning with only a gentle wind and slow current, we paddle down through the town chatting, looking at houses and wildlife and just taking our time.
I’ve got Eloise’s Tetra and the new Carlisle Enchantment Glass paddle today and both are ideal for this trip. The latter is solid in the water and pushes me along nicely as did the carbon version I had previously. Writing now I’ve realised that I had no twinges in my wrist at all, something I cured with the move to cranked shafts a couple of years back.
We carry on paddling and chilling, reach the bridge and turn back again.
We wave to the river inspector and chat briefly to some South Africans on a narrowboat, racing them briefly. A few minutes later we’re passed faster than the limit and have a bumpy time in the wake, especially with its rebounds and Abigail tells me its fun! I was concerned she’d fall in but no, she waited until the end and then insisted on getting into the water through choice.
I loaded up and on the way home (with Abigail intent on listening to Radio 4 in peace) we headed through town, up past my old school and down past the cemetery where a bunch of workmen had chainsaws out. The bastards are messing with my history; they cut down the bush.
At last! It’s been ages since the weather has coincided with the tides to make things suitable for Eloise to come out fishing on the sea again. She’s had her Tetra 10 since December when she was given the opportunity to represent the Ocean Kayak UK Fishing Team as the first junior member but apart from one pike fishing session on Boxing day which resulted in blanks all-round we’ve been inundated with high winds or poor weather whenever we’ve been on neaps and while dad has been getting out in, or indeed into, all sorts of crap she has been left at home with a long face even though she isn’t a horse. Mind you, she’s cheered up a bit with the news this week that Fladen Fishing UK would also be pleased to sponsor her with a selection of tackle! She’s got the genes, she’s got the guts and now she’ll have the gear too…go girl!
At last things have changed for the better and with sub-10mph winds, flattish sea, small neap tides and sunshine she was finally able to get back in the saddle and get herself ready to compete in the OK Classic kayak fishing tournament that is less than a month away. That’s why she was awoken just before six this morning and dragged out in the cold. It’s still taking a while to warm up but, suitably clad and with the heater only on half strength we headed off for a Hopton launch.
Ten minutes away and we had to turn around. Si had roofrack problems and sent a text asking if I had space for his Caper…luckily my RRRapido was on the J bars rather than on the back of them so I was able to help and with it safely dumped in his garden I set off again.
A slight swell, a small shore dump and the sun already up things were far removed from the two-hour darkness of our recent pre-dawn launches. It felt like lunchtime to be honest and with the three of us kitted up we launched just before seven for the brief paddle out to the sabbelaria beds.
There’s not a great deal being caught right now, the occasional dab and some pin whiting but the spring run of cod is imminent, as every optimist insists, and the bass and thornbacks are also heading our way, preceded by the dogfish. Now, as much-maligned as these small catsharks are I love them and Eloise had yet to catch one so I was keeping my fingers crossed. With those beautiful green eyes and mottled bodies combined with the pull they give here on the East Coast I’m as happy catching them as I am any other species – who cares if it takes a cod bait that can go back down?
I get to the zone and drop anchor; bang on the mark when I settle. This is still saved in my unit as Steve as he outfished those around us from here one day three years back. Eloise manoeuvres in closer and we lash the two kayaks together so we can talk and I can teach and assist where necessary. Her Fladen Ice Pike rod is rigged with a 2/0 spreader wishbone and one of my Shimano multipliers and we start baiting up with frozen black lugworm and unwashed loligo squid; I picked up another 13kg of it yesterday and damned near bankrupted myself. Ever since the sword rattling started again down in the Falkland Islands the price has been rising as the boats have to return to Port Stanley each time instead of offloading along the South American coast…who decided to dispose of the Sea Harriers? Not an angler, that’s for sure!
So we sit there, baited up, for a good two minutes before her rod tip rattles and she picks it up waiting for the bite to develop. Great, I’m going to be outfished by her AGAIN! It goes again and she strikes, I start to film and she winds in what looks like a decent whiting, swings it in and as it unhooks itself by her feet she picks it up to show me…her first cod! Undersized maybe but that’s one more than I managed in fifteen years of shore fishing. It’s good to see the youngsters around and it bodes well for the next season. I miss a bite while taking her photograph and have to wait and play catch up now!
She’s in again, she’s missed two fish and I’ve only had that one bite, this time it’s another new species and she’s over the moon – doggie! Unhooked, she has a good look, asks me what sex it is – female – and remembers to kiss it for luck as must always be done with any shark then back into the water it goes, swimming away strongly. Another small first-year fish this.
Finally! I get a hell of a bite, fishing braid straight down in 30ft and up comes a codling. Undersize as well and initially really pale but I’m off the mark and it’s given a fair account of itself. It’s my first for some weeks and gets easily unhooked and returned.
I catch up, a skinny, spawned-out whiting. Sizeable but not worth eating it goes back and then it’s her turn again with a plumper one of similar length. A keeper, that’s lunch for her then. She likes whiting, lucky considering how often it’s been served up this winter! En pappilotte, she tells me, that’s how she’s cooking it. Not battered, not crumbed but in foil the French way. Now she wants one for her sister too.
I get the next fish, another doggie. I’m chuffed, first of the year and I’ve been hoping for one since my brush with it’s somewhat larger cousins the other side of the equator a fortnight ago. I don’t get pulled along on a six-knot sleigh ride this time and soon have it to hand to unhook and return. I’d have kept it if it was Eloise’s, they’re tasty enough and this one would have fed her and her sister but she’ll catch her own soon enough I’m sure and then she can have it served up with pride and tartare.
She takes the lead again with another whiting and I follow soon after and then things go quiet as the tide eases off. The bites cease and, with that northerly wind blowing on us, it is time to take Eloise back in, her hands suffering from the cold as we’ve not brought any gloves with us and I really need to get her some warmer clothing to go under the drysuit. We wind in, I untie her and she starts to paddle in while I up-anchor. Si catches up and joins her and I play catch-up once again by the time I’m sorted. Si’s happy enough, he’s had four as well and watched the Grand Prix on his phone (tart) and lands first then nearly re-launches when he sees us holding back off the shore for five minutes and guesses something’s wrong. It is. I can’t get the right angle for the picture I’ve been planning! No matter, I snap a few and we head along to the landing spot. I hang back and film as Eloise paddles in, nice and easy and catches a small wave to surf in the final bit. Impressive stuff!
We load up, I bump into an old customer from ten years ago and we catch up and then Steve pulls up to see how we’ve got on, fishing on ‘his’ mark! A nice ending to our session, that.
Eloise's Report:
On 14th April I went fishing at Hopton beach. I got up at 5:45 and then we went to the beach. I launched all by myself and I paddled to the spot where we were fishing. After 10 minutes I caught my first codling. I was constantly getting bites but not catching anything. After about half an hour I caught a whiting and my first dogfish (also my second shark). I caught another fish (whiting) and then we paddled back. I surfed the last small wave. I caught 4 fish!
I really enjoyed it and wish I could go a bit more often.
No early morning for me, instead I was back up the scaffolding and painting my house for the second day in a row. Fortunately I had an escape route and at half three in the afternoon, with the paint spiralling down the plughole after my bath, I was heading out to the van for a launch at Gorleston. I had a good time ahead.
A daytime launch? Me? Must have been a special occasion. Well yes, it was. It was a game of two halves and this first bit saw me meeting up with Pavman, Westie, Fenboystu and Trimanyellow for a spot of paddling about and training. The latter pair had not launched at sea yet and were keen to do some anchoring and self-rescue practice. All dressed and ready we trolleyed down to the water’s edge and got ready for launch. The wreck of the White Swan was very prominent, the boiler completely visible and the sea was flattish with just a slight choppy swell brought on by the fresh north easterly. A small dumping wave at the shoreline was also present and the conditions couldn’t have been better for our plans other than the tide having slowed down a bit much for truly illustrative anchoring practice.
We launched, some of us twice and headed north for a warm up, against the wind and the start of the flood tide. Stu and Lee soon got to grips with things and were more than happy and after about half a mile Tim and I started to get excited at the site of the cauldron kicking off in the distance though we didn’t go for a play in the end. While Pav tried for a few herring – we were very optimistic and brought out tiny feathers in the hope one might be able to swim close enough to spot them in the murk – I paired off with Lee and Tim with Stu and we set about dropping and hauling anchor a couple of times. No problems there! We carried on north.
Self-rescue time. We dropped our buoyed anchors over the side and stowed rods and then it was time to get in the water. Lee was first and as he rocked his Trident from side to side more and more the knowledge of how far it’ll go and what it feels like when it is about to tip hopefully stashed themselves away in some corner of memory. Then he was in, a balmy eight degrees or so, and I hopped over the side and went to talk him through from the water while Tim took my Scupper in tow.
I described the routine, demonstrated and then let him get on with it. Right first time. Again? Yep…and he did it with no bother. No further practice needed and I swam over to Stu and he did the same. I should charge for this, I could buy some old rope; D Seriously though, very well done the pair of you, after a brisk paddle and in less than inviting conditions you nailed it first time.
We fetched the anchors and then drifted back to the launch with the feathers out to no avail. The wreck was covered now and boiling away and we’d mistaken the time (hadn’t we Tim!) so had to rush in through a small but fast surf and couldn’t spend the time to have any real landing practice; next time maybe. Then it was up the hill, change and head for Great Yarmouth. I called up the Coastguard to inform them of our return, as requested and just managed to resist the temptation to ask them to get the kettle on!
I was supposed to test out a new paddle too, a glass version of the Carlisle Enchantment , but as I’d have plenty of time to do so over the weekend I gave it to Stu to try as he wasn’t keen on his RUK one. A bit of a difference to say the least! Ninety quid retail fellas, available as of now from your local JO dealer and a bit of a bargain…commercial bias noted as I work for the distributor but yeah, it’s a good set of blades.
Ten minutes later and we pulled into the car park. The session wasn’t finished yet. I’ve been in touch with Mario Siano, local Watch Officer and the National Angling Liasion Officer, a fair bit over recent months and we’d been invited to come up to the Maritime Coastguard Control Centre in groups over the coming months. This was the first visit and we joined Paul, John, Don and Marty who I have adopted into our ranks because he stocks my freezer when my mojo gets soggy ;D
Coffee and Jaffa Cakes awaited and we sat down to watch a video that Mario wasn’t going to show us. It was very informative and quite dull as most corporate videos are; ugly women, bad radio procedure and now-sold tugs kept us all amused no end as did some funny noises coming from an i-phone and of course Mario himself. We spoke of EPIRBS and DSC, VHF and AIS, ugly women and cod, safety and how Don doesn’t know where he is because he’s a pilot, how the Coastguard and its European equivalents co-ordinate rescues and invite the Royal Navy to come and make tea if it’s a big disaster, of lifejackets and coalfish, sharks and ugly women…and then went through to the control centre where all but Glyn were off ill and everyone on the sea was off the sea for Easter and not calling in. Then it was charts and screens and computers, more tales of fish, fishing, ugly women and so on and what worked on which computers and why it’d be appreciated if we put our names on our kayaks, our details inside the hatch, registered on the CG66 scheme and called in to let people know where we were and what we were doing. Oh, and not saying 'for your information' or 'over and out'! The importance of personal flotation was reiterated and brought home to us locally in the telling of five Broads deaths last year that could have been one. Then, after a couple of very useful, informative and amusing hours it was time for everyone to head home, bar me who stayed until midnight nattering and looking at stuff, catching up with Glyn (who I’d known years ago). Quite the afternoon, so thanks Mario and Glyn for your time and thanks to all of you who came along on Easter Saturday.
It’s good to be back. Going away is always good but being home is nice too and the sky is blue everywhere anyhow. It only took five days to be back on the water again and to be fair I’d been chomping at the bit from the time I landed. Perhaps the early start wasn’t so inviting with the lack of expectations of good fish but with Aaron and Si both up for a launch and the forecast looking nice it was still worth getting out of bed at six.
The trouble, of course, is that everything was in disarray. Time to leave saw me still wondering where the hell I’d left my boots and with them decidedly hidden (by my wife as it turned out) I had to make do with a pair of plimsolls until I found my surfing boots in the back of the van at the launch. I figured on a play to get me back in the swing so just grabbed a mackerel and three chunks of bluey. Just about to leave, I received a text from Si asking if I had any squid spare. I didn’t have any at all! No matter, he had some prawns and cockles in the freezer. I set off.
Aaron texted next, asking what time we were going and if I had any bait spare and a knife he could borrow after his dunking last week; the latter was no problem and a chunk of bluey from me and some bits from Si sorted him out when he was unable to get anything from the tackle shop. So it wasn’t just me that couldn’t get things going this morning!
It was lovely and bright and the sea looked pleasant when I arrived. Frosty maybe but not particularly cold. I fiddled around while I waited for them to arrive and then got kitted up for the launch. The sea was right up the ramp by the time we carried the kayaks down.
We launched with no problems and headed out and north against the tide for a few hundred yards before we dropped anchor. Nothing changed and Si set off for Corton on a ploughing trip as Aaron called our presence in to the Coastguard and our friendly seal popped his head up to welcome me home.
I baited up a size 1 wishbone rig on my Scarborough and dropped down. It didn’t take long for a bite but my rolling lead and the swift current saw me losing my soft pieces of bluey rather than any fish coming aboard. I changed to mackerel and a breakaway and things improved immediately with a double shot of whiting. One was sizeable but not large and I just didn’t feel in the killing mood so I popped them back and dropped down again.
Another came soon enough and then Marty called from the cliffs at Corton. He was off to see his parents before getting his boat out and would give us a shout around ten when he’d be on the water. He asked about the sea and it sounded a bit cloudy for the herring with only six inches of visibility but it just looked such a nice day.
Si came back and joined us a couple of times and Aaron drifted a bit so I let the rest if my warp out and got within shouting distance as the tide started to ease. The fishing started to ease to and with five caught and returned it was time to up-anchor and head in, landing on the ramp again.
Marty called up as we were heading in and I could see him to the north as he shot some nets. I landed, loaded up and headed home and heard from him next as I entered town; he was back in after a very brief session that saw him pop by later on for a coffee and to drop off some fresh silver darlings.
Rollmops and bloaters are all done and I’ve had two meals of grilled herring so far with plenty more in the freezer. Yep, it’s good to be back and it’s even better to have good mates to come back to!
Well, Abigail had her paddle yesterday and now it’s time to have her turn. Not quite so much generosity in timings though, 06:30 and we’re up, out of the door by 7 and ready to rock. Sort of.
We get down to Harbour Road and meet up with Mike. No sign of Si and his dad but it wasn’t certain anyway. I haven’t seen Mike in nearly twelve hours when we left the Coastguard Station after a visit but he still looks the same, albeit more familiar in proper clothes. Iunload the kayaks and gear and start to get myself kitted up when Eloise announces she’s off…
Fair enough. She has a good look at the latest sunken boat and then the three of us head up to the top end, passing Lead Us on her way out, Colin giving us a tip on where we might find the fish today, though we’re on a sight-see as much as anything so save it until later, possibly. We head for the bay around the wreck of the Yellowtail and then head in for a closer look.
We set up our line and with baited feathers for Mike and Eloise we go on the drift – I’ve already snagged and most my wedge and tinsels so just get the camera out and enjoy chilling out. The wind is taking us where we want to go without much correction and with Eloise baiting up and jigging her rod as shown, with a bit of singing thrown in, we head back towards the harbour slowly.
Mike leads the way.
We pass the Excelsior, minus half a mast. A great pity, I hope they can sort her out soon. She needs a bit of a scrub too after the winter. Mind you, at ninety one she’s doing better than most.
What the hell, we jig near her for a bit.
Then it’s time for a modelling shot…
And of course a play. My girls seem to have as much inclination towards staying dry as I do. Ah well, got to do the test after all…and then it was onto self-rescues. No fish today, not unsurprisingly, but a pleasant morning’s paddle about and Mike carried on after us.
Of course, that wasn’t all. I kept some squid and mackerel out and gave Cinders some homework later, ready for the comp. Practice makes perfect.
