All Weather Window…18/03/2014

All Weather Window…18/03/2014 The forecast was all over the place and I settled on Sea Palling on the yak, or so I thought but chatting to Colin about Sunday’s fish ended up with an invite out the next day with him, Bob and Barry who I’d fished with before. It sounded like a better option especially as Mark fancied Sea Palling on Monday when conditions looked better there. Now, how could I get permission for a full day? I hid the whiting I’d brought back from the day’s session in the freezer and made no mention of it…did some tidying, made a list of things to cross off at a later date, sucked up generally and got away with it. Nothing wrong with being devious after all. I woke up half the house and left before I could be made to feel bad about, pulling up at the car park just before half seven. Bob and Barry were getting their stuff together and Colin was already down at the boat. I figured I’d use the Uptider and 3700R alongside the IM7 and my large KP but managed to knock a ring off the former. Luckily I had one of my Maxximus Nano rods with an LD15 in the car so a last minute swap and I headed down. There wasn’t a breath of wind, it was mild and bright already and I wasn’t really sure that my new Maxximus flotation jacket was really needed but it does get a bit nippy in the wind and at least it’d be there if required. All aboard, we headed out into a flat sea, the wind starting to build ever so slightly, having got tackled up before leaving. The finder was showing fish all the way from Jackaman’s up to the mark and lots of them. And they didn’t look like herring. Would they be hungry? Only one way to find out and the anchor went down. Lines down into a reasonably strong flow and within minutes Barry picked up a huge and fit-looking pre-spawning whiting, well over a pound in weight; into the bucket it went. I was next with the first cod, all of four ounces! So many of these juveniles around. Lovely looker, back to grow for next year! Colin was up next, a huge fish for the skipper! A fish the size of his head… Barry was filling the larder though, pulling some cracking whiting up but all I could get was these small cod for the time being. I was sitting there quite content when suddenly I saw Colin grab the net…a keeper? Barry again and down goes the net, in, under, up and it’s not dropped off as is so often the case. It felt a nice heavy one too and though Barry seemed a little less excited than the rest of us it still promised to be a cracking dinner for him. I was pulling in a whiting at that time, my first. Slack came and though the water was murky I thought I may as well have a play with some sabikis. Some tiny bits of squid and bigger laughs from the others and I dropped my rod straight down expecting nothing but hoping for a little fish of another species. Of course I had to surprise myself and the others with a cracking whiting! The ebb started to move through and I got jealous when first Barry pulled up a spotty dog… And Bob landed a pouting… That would have been two more species for the WSF hunt but never mind, they’ll arrive soon enough to my rods. The others carried on fishing… Ominous sounds appeared from the north and there, once again and far too familiar of late. Air Sea Rescue and the lifeboat were out once again. We hoped that perhaps they’d found one or both of the missing fishermen but it turned out they were out searching for a lady later found wandering around Kessingland safe and sound. They flew around for a while and then headed off again. I heard from Shaun and James, sitting off Hopton in the kayaks and now heading in having had constant action with a dab and loads of pin whiting. The sea was running through hard now and the wind was getting stronger all the time…and for some reason, since slack, the sonar was virtually clear of the constant fish that had been displayed on the flood. Very, very strange. And then the weather deteriorated. Flotation Suit time then, so glad I’d got it! It hammered down for half an hour, soaking everything and then… …and then the sun came out and treated us to the most magnificent double rainbows, a full arc too big for my lens. We carried on catching, a bit slower than the flood but holding our own and then it was time to start bringing rods in before Colin hauled the anchor up to the buoy and pulled everything aboard. As the sun started to drop we headed back home and into port. Another fine day aboard Lead Us.

Slacking Off…17/03/2014

Slacking Off…17/03/2014 “Tell me why I don’t like Mondays” was running through my head having listened to it just before leaving work but to be fair I don’t mind what day it is, they all blend into one. What I don’t like is windy days or rainy days…and today was the most unwind of the week by the look of it. This meant have a coffee before leaving work, stick matches in my eyes and go home to get bait. I should have left straight away but Rome was apparently burning. So I fiddled and arrived at the beach around half nine. Too late, I’d not get all that long before slack. The news for the usual spot hadn’t been encouraging though, none of the boats had a sizeable cod yesterday so I decided to save the pull back up the slope and headed to Links Hill instead and dragged the MidWay off the roof and down to the water’s edge along with a plastic jerrycan that I filled with water and returned to the car when I went back for the rods. More on that later, it featured heavily in the day and may well in the future. Quite a hefty shore dump but the sea past it, though there was a bit of swell running, was looking very comfortable. I waited for the set to pass through then went without hindrance, paddling out a mere two hundred yards or so; I was wanting a dogfish for the species hunts and figured the rough ground here would give me a decent chance as they’re certainly abundant here later in the year. First rod down, 2/0 pennel, frozen black and a squid head. Second rod out, clip the weight on, start threading a black and the rod is banging away; pull up and a good whiting is hanging from the hook. Fine, good start, really promising…I pop him back as I’m not too worried about whiting today. I tip the second rod with squid, cast both in and call up Humber Coastguard to let them know I’m here and static so they don’t get any calls from the public, paranoid after last week’s events. And then pull in the fish on the end of my second rod, missing one on the first. I keep pulling up whiting, reasonable ones, and a juvenile codling and keep a couple of the former but then the bites tail off. The flow is dying on me and the wind is turning me side on to it so keeping the lines tight for a firm strike is tricky and what few bites I get I’m missing. I stay with the programme for a bit and then decided to call it a day – I’m maybe half an hour from slack, that could last an hour before the ebb and then I’ve got to haul anchor in a strong run (this is a bit of a headland here, strong flows) and I just can’t be bothered. I pull up and paddle in, there’s people waving on the beach. They’re not where I was expecting them but this is quite pleasant and so I head in and land and our volunteer and a couple of residents wander over and see me suited, booted and with fish. They’re getting whiting from the beach, fishing club is up and running again and we have a decent natter before I head back up to the car to be greeted by one of the town lifeguards out for a ride on his bike; he paddles too and knows my old boss so we chat some more. Perhaps not the greatest fishing session lately but I was really pleased I hadn’t just gone home and crashed out for half the day like normal! Back to the jerrycan. Paul gave me his aquarium as I want a marine tank to try. This was the first batch of water for it. It gave me the perfect opportunity to be silly on facebook by taking pictures of a murky tank (the sand hadn’t dropped out of the water yet) and getting my friends to suggest a name for the small shore crab I’d caught while fishing. I chose the first suggestion, Claude. Well not being one to do things by halves and with low water at a suitable time I wandered down to the beach for some mussels and more water, took the children’s shrimp net and found some pools in the sand by the end of a groyne…ten minutes later I had eight shrimps, three tiny dabs and a cracking hermit crab to add to the tank…watch this space!

One Out, All Out…14/03/2014

One Out, All Out…14/03/2014 Up early because I’d need to be in bed at four before my run of shifts start again. To be met by fog. There was no wind and the forecast was superb but would this burn off? It hadn’t by the time I’d run the girls to school, nor had it by the time I collected my kayak from Bruce, left on his car the other day because of the traffic that had seen me walking home from a spot that wasn’t affected. My wife, off for the day, was somewhat unimpressed that I was going out rather than milling around at home waiting to go to bed but I’ll have enough of doing just that for the next fortnight. Meanwhile, Dav, Aaron, James and Ian were threading their way through the traffic to get to Corton, one set of roads closed from a helicopter crash, another from a car crash and everyone on a go slow from the fog which, by the time I’d arrived and got kitted up, had thinned considerably. I headed down to the shore, realising my camera was on charge at home, and launched into a flat sea. I could see the others already out at anchor in a line outwards and to the south of a good selection of boats. I headed out and dropped in the next spot offshore, just past James. I was just inshore and uptide of Andrew on Wader Bay and in a line with Brian on Cleveland Princess. I could see Rob had Katie Louise out a bit further and then Jon pitched up on High Flyer. Inshore it looked as though Silver Fox was also out; then my phone started beeping as a whole morning’s texts, trapped in fog, came through, including a kind invite from Brian who was solo today. Oh well, I’d have only had to cut his day short and gone mad at not being able to have any coffee!!! The first ten minutes saw me getting a few bites and a few small codling, nothing worth keeping. Then the radio sprang into life with some excellent banter making reference to everyone who’d got on our collective nerves this week, plus mickey-taking between the boats. Then the bets started and a fiver was pitched…no idea why but none of my transmissions went through, though both were enquiring where I’d collect my fivers from as I was now getting better bites and had brought my first cod aboard. Lovely fat thing it was, a bit distended for some reason. It had been quiet for a while before that, then I started getting more small ones again. It seemed that the period right in the middle of the flow was the slow part, fish-wise, and they started to play as it started to slow again. Three, four and then a nice pull and the rod bent down again a couple of minutes after missing another good bite on the other rod. Keeper number two! More followed and then sadly one that would have gone back took a 4/0 in the gill rakers and came aboard bleeding heavily. A reluctant keeper, bang on 35cm, the legal landing size. Why it’s the legal landing size I can’t imagine as there isn’t a great deal of meat on them, especially with the size of the head, but it did at least save it from being seagull food and the girls won’t moan at having too much on their plate for once. Decisions decisions. I still had some squid left out but had finished a wrap of blacks…should I open a second or should I call it quits and head in even though the bites were becoming more regular now? Work, sleep and a quick bit of chore-finalising made the decision for me and I pulled up with an hour or so of good fishing time still to come. Not to worry, I had enough for the table. I hauled anchor and paddle dover to the other kayaks in turn to see how they’d got on; James had a nice fish around 3.5lb that coughed up a whole herring, stripped of its silver already. Dav had a nice one too. Aaron had a dog but was still waiting for the cod; one bit as we were chatting and then snagged him up and broke him off. Ian had been hitting into whiting, strangely missing that extra hundred yards or so further out. With him getting bites while we were talking I decided I had to go before I changed my mind, heading back against the flow with no trouble at all and landing where I’d launched. That’s it until next week.

Roker Lookers…13/03/2014

Roker Lookers…13/03/2014 I’d been chattering away on the phone with Brian when he asked what I was doing on Thursday. I’d been intending heading to Corton and sticking some herring down for a roker while fishing for cod with the usual squid and blacks. It’s early but one or two have been picked up commercially and I’ve eaten all the ones I had the freezer now. Anyway, Brian was heading out a bit further hunting the same thing and had a longline he needed cleaning off after a few months in the freezer. With such a fantastic day forecast it wasn’t the easiest decision but Friday was looking just as good so why not…besides, I’ve never tried or watched longlining and at least I’d be able to get further off and fish the whole day, and use the centrepin. I pitched up on time and just before the two Pauls; I’d met the one Paul a couple of times but this was the first time we’d been on the boat together. I felt honoured, both the skippers of Cleveland Princess to show me the ropes! I could tell it would be a good day as brian was practically dancing with joy – forget Riverdance, this is North Sea dance! Cheeky monkey aside we got loaded up and set off, Brian opening up the throttle for the three mile run out to the mark, taking full advantage of the flat sea with seals and porpoises spotted from a long way off. A mile or two further out there were some cracking marks to be seen but with such weather the lure of the further bank was too much to resist. Anyway, we were setting the lines elsewhere and everything was ready to go. But first… Before shooting the lines we had a little play with the rods, mixing herring, squid, fresh and frozen worm and crossing our fingers. With two chunks of herring on a wishbone rig on my Maxximus LD15 lever drag and a lug and squid cocktail on a pennel on the KP Scarborough reel I figured I was in with a good chance but it was Paul who got first blood… …with a spotty dog. He had a second and then it was my turn, my first dog of the year and a decent one at that. A male, it looked rather annoyed at being disturbed. We moved off once the tide started to run and shot the line. Only a hundred hooks, dropped down nice and tight to the sea bed with a dan at each end, a large grapnel beneath and longline anchors set along the bottom line. Then, just downtide, Brian dropped anchor again and the baits went out on the rods. I tried lug tipped with herring this time on the lever drag. Brian was in first with a small whiting and we all followed suit. Four dogs at the previous mark but no more for the rest of the day. Then, a nice surprise on a 4/0, a dab for Brian too, I think he was pleased! I was lovely and warm in my new Fladen Maxximus flotation jacket, comfortable too and it was about time it got some slime on it after owning it a full three days! Lovely whiting that, with most being around a pound this one at 1lb 10z was a real belter and gave me a lovely scrap. We were getting bites constantly the moment we dropped but these must have been pins as they weren’t getting hooked all that often. Consequently we mostly hauled up fish of a good stamp and the bucket was starting to fill with good size filleters. We weren’t troubled at all by the numerous seals or pod of three harbour porpoises that were with us most of the day – they were far more interested in the massive shoals of herring moving around, some of which were spotted in and even jumping out of the water. Well, we carried on fishing until the tied died away and then hauled the line up, bait left only on a couple of hooks but with no roker of cod and just a few whiting to show for it. Worth a try though! Paul set to work gutting while we fished the start of the tide and the seagulls, naturally, appeared in numbers out of nowhere. Now I’ve seen plenty of empty dogfish egg cases on the beach and even one with a dancing embryonic dog inside backlit in an aquarium in South Africa but this is the first time I’ve seen ones straight out of the fish, the yolk not yet formed. The pair of them went into the sea where they may or may not hatch. A few more whiting turned up as we finished off our bait and then it was time to head back as the sun started to drop. A marvellous day to be at sea.