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.