Playing in the Washing Machine…03/03/2014

Playing in the Washing Machine…03/03/2014 The sun was shining. Do I need any more reason? Last night had been spent playing with my food and with them still purging in sea water I decided to extract a few fresh mussels for use as bait. I’ve never had any luck with them because they tend to cast further than the hooks they’re attached to but having gathered them here I may as well try them here. I walked to the end of the road. I fancied the rocks down by kiddie’s corner. Down there I fluked shanny, sea scorpion and corkwing last year, not bad since I had searched the twin counties of Anglia for them and every other species in vain. I was kind of hopeful that one or three of them may appear even though it’s winter. I started inside, sheltered from the strong wind and choppy conditions. Nothing in the few feet of water other than rocks. I moved down. Still nothing except snags. I had float and leger rods out. I decided to go the offshore side but saw something floating and went to investigate; I couldn’t extricate the rescue towline that the Coastguard provide and with beach access currently unavailable couldn’t do so at low tide either. It were reet bumpy oot thar. I was happy enough twenty feet away, it was when I drifted right in every now and again that I was less happy, mostly on account of snagging up and losing gear regularly. I was giving my new 7ft 10-20lb Nano’s a go with the overkill LD15 lever drag Maxximus on the leger with the float on the same – too heavy but why not? With rigs running short I headed further out and closer to the harbour wall. With the ebb tide hitting and rebounding it was somewhat lumpy there… But at last a bite came. I missed it. I waited and soon had another…codling! Great! Except I already had them on both species hunts…and the sea was picking up more so with a blank averted I headed towards my launch spot and decided to try the rip I use to get out on the surf kayak… …I cast into maybe 10ft of water and waited. I missed the first bite, again. I was now less than a hundred yards from the closest piece of sand to home, home being three hundred yards away. Then! Hurrah! Another bite! A damned fine bite too! The Nano rods have a nice feel to them though the weight of the reels decries their light-as-a-featherness. Anyway, what had I got here? Another cod? Whiting perhaps? I was after a dab to be honest…up it came, broke surface, whiting…already had one…looked odd though…I swung it in…WHAT THE??? I was whooping for joy…amazed ocne again by a surprise from my back garden. A coalfish of all things. A COALFISH!!! I have never heard of any coalfish coming to a kayak in Norfolk or Sufoflk and have heard of hardly any being caught locally at all. It came, fittingly on my newly-received size 4 Fladen Aberdeens tied on a 3 hook flapper with short snoods of 15lb flouro on 21lb flouro body cast out with a small lead almost to the groyne…and a mussel. Overjoyed I went home. And ate five plates of by now purged back-garden mussels.