The forecast is rubbish. I’m going out though, somewhere. I need to get up early to keep my head straight for my next shift at midnight so a 5am start is as late as I can leave it. I reckon an inshore fish at Corton in the hope of smoothound could be a goer. This is the reserve in place because I don’t like the look of the hoped-for Sea Palling session as suggested by Pieman and Spark, so I make my excuses and that’s the end of that.
Spark phones me. “I think you’ll regret it”. He knows his stuff so I change back again! That’s why I set off at 05:30 for the 30 mile one hour drive to Sea Palling. It’s my first time back since last summer.
I drive up the dune, drop the Scupper at the top and then turn and head back into the village, parking up at the charity car park. A quid rather than the rip-off closer by. I gather my gear and Spark pulls up, early. We chat and head down to the beach together.
I leave him to stow things and take advantage of a flat spot to launch. The wind is fine, nothing like forecast so he is proved right as I paddle out to the reefs. It’s a bit lumpy inshore of them mind and, oh, that’s a big one! The swells coming through the other side aren’t tiny and they’re hitting the rocks pretty impressively. I decide to do the first reef from the inside…
Nothing. Okay. I take a diagonal course and head across the gap diagonally, coming out offshore of the second reef to the north. The water ain’t that clear, I’m relying on the vibration and noise from my J13 and Sliver Rapalas and am unconvinced they’re going to attract anything. I paddled by the reef, as close as I dare. The swells are 3-4ft predominantly and when they hit they crash and either bounce back or along, either way they suck the water down and expose rocks below and scarily close. That’s why I don’t come here that often!
I reach the end and decide to try flicking a lure inside the swirls and eddies at the end on the inshore side while I wait for spark to catch up. I wish to give him verbal abuse. The tide is moving me as fast as the popper though so no joy there and then I decide he’s taking too long and, as I can’t see him because of the height of the reef, I decide to go around and have a look for the wreckage and see what I can salvage.
As I am about to head out he reaches the end and turns in, “it’s not fishing too bad is it!” he says. WHAAAAAAT????? Three bass he’s had. I’m amazed to say the least. I’ve not even caught a rock. I swear at him for a while and he lends me his lucky Yo-Zuri. Off we go again. We’re paddling against the current but it’s not bad, not bad at all. It’s a pleasant time we’re having and it’s a reasonable workout but with nothing happening we turn to head back south, leaving the top reef as it’s sanded up and Spark says there’s no clarity at all there…so now we take the conveyor belt down.
We’re making good speed and that’s a problem. I don’t like trolling downtide, the lures don’t shake my rod so much as they’re moving at the same speed; hold back my drift and they catch up. I’m not convinced we’ve made the right move in going up then down then up, especially as the water is getting dirtier…we should have maybe gone down to the Waxham end first and then up to the top and had a full run but that’s hindsight and we didn’t.
We try the inshore side of one reef and all is going swimmingly, though not fishingly, when I snag up on a rock. With this current it’s a pain and I get into all kinds of strife while taking in my other rod and end up cutting the lure off to retie it…five minutes pass and then I’m ready to paddle up and retrieve it; it pops up of its own accord then…Glad it didn’t go like that in the swell of the other side though, I’d have been a bit concerned.
We carried on down, back to the offshore side and the water continued to get murkier as we moved faster. The reefs that were now covered looked promising and I went in closer, too close a couple of times, but got away with it. Damn but these fish were hard to find today. Nothing. I reached the end and turned to head back, changing to a couple of smaller, noisier, brighter Rapalas. I drifted a fair way in the time it took to attach them and then started my paddle back, straight over the bottom reef. It took some time and effort.
Still nothing and we kept slogging on; the tide was at full bore now, running around 3 knots but as it gushed past the end of the reefs it seemed to pick up more and a real effort was needed to push through at times. We had to face the facts, we weren’t going to get anything and so we headed in as we approached the launch ramp.
Pieman arrived then and was chatting to spark as I waited for a slightly larger wave to hit the beach with. Even the waves here were disappointing today! It took a while and then something with just enough power to make me smile rolled in with me at the front of it…the jury is out on the effectiveness of my new hat.
It was a nice day out anyway!
I leave him to stow things and take advantage of a flat spot to launch. The wind is fine, nothing like forecast so he is proved right as I paddle out to the reefs. It’s a bit lumpy inshore of them mind and, oh, that’s a big one! The swells coming through the other side aren’t tiny and they’re hitting the rocks pretty impressively. I decide to do the first reef from the inside…
Nothing. Okay. I take a diagonal course and head across the gap diagonally, coming out offshore of the second reef to the north. The water ain’t that clear, I’m relying on the vibration and noise from my J13 and Sliver Rapalas and am unconvinced they’re going to attract anything. I paddled by the reef, as close as I dare. The swells are 3-4ft predominantly and when they hit they crash and either bounce back or along, either way they suck the water down and expose rocks below and scarily close. That’s why I don’t come here that often!
I reach the end and decide to try flicking a lure inside the swirls and eddies at the end on the inshore side while I wait for spark to catch up. I wish to give him verbal abuse. The tide is moving me as fast as the popper though so no joy there and then I decide he’s taking too long and, as I can’t see him because of the height of the reef, I decide to go around and have a look for the wreckage and see what I can salvage.
As I am about to head out he reaches the end and turns in, “it’s not fishing too bad is it!” he says. WHAAAAAAT????? Three bass he’s had. I’m amazed to say the least. I’ve not even caught a rock. I swear at him for a while and he lends me his lucky Yo-Zuri. Off we go again. We’re paddling against the current but it’s not bad, not bad at all. It’s a pleasant time we’re having and it’s a reasonable workout but with nothing happening we turn to head back south, leaving the top reef as it’s sanded up and Spark says there’s no clarity at all there…so now we take the conveyor belt down.
We’re making good speed and that’s a problem. I don’t like trolling downtide, the lures don’t shake my rod so much as they’re moving at the same speed; hold back my drift and they catch up. I’m not convinced we’ve made the right move in going up then down then up, especially as the water is getting dirtier…we should have maybe gone down to the Waxham end first and then up to the top and had a full run but that’s hindsight and we didn’t.
We try the inshore side of one reef and all is going swimmingly, though not fishingly, when I snag up on a rock. With this current it’s a pain and I get into all kinds of strife while taking in my other rod and end up cutting the lure off to retie it…five minutes pass and then I’m ready to paddle up and retrieve it; it pops up of its own accord then…Glad it didn’t go like that in the swell of the other side though, I’d have been a bit concerned.
We carried on down, back to the offshore side and the water continued to get murkier as we moved faster. The reefs that were now covered looked promising and I went in closer, too close a couple of times, but got away with it. Damn but these fish were hard to find today. Nothing. I reached the end and turned to head back, changing to a couple of smaller, noisier, brighter Rapalas. I drifted a fair way in the time it took to attach them and then started my paddle back, straight over the bottom reef. It took some time and effort.
Still nothing and we kept slogging on; the tide was at full bore now, running around 3 knots but as it gushed past the end of the reefs it seemed to pick up more and a real effort was needed to push through at times. We had to face the facts, we weren’t going to get anything and so we headed in as we approached the launch ramp.
Pieman arrived then and was chatting to spark as I waited for a slightly larger wave to hit the beach with. Even the waves here were disappointing today! It took a while and then something with just enough power to make me smile rolled in with me at the front of it…the jury is out on the effectiveness of my new hat.
It was a nice day out anyway!
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