Hopton or Bust!...15/11/08

Another early morning and this time the parking was blocked by barriers. The wind was pretty forceful but the sea looked okay and as the tide was down it promised to be a far easier launch than the previous week. Carl had beaten me to the launch site and so we set about unloading and rigging up. He was on lug and squid again while I went for rag and squid. Until the lug are bigger and better I’m not bothering to waste my money on them – the whiting will take anything you stick in front of them and the cod are about in large enough numbers that the rag is still successful for them too.



We launched as the sun was coming out and paddled out a few hundred yards slightly downtide before dropping our anchors, Carl further south than I.



The current was screaming through – I guess at around five knots plus – and I had to lift my rudder to reduce the noise and increase stability – such was the force I had to push it straight with my paddle before I could do anything. Still, the swell wasn’t of any concern and the chop was slight too and my anchor held first time – glad I stuck some chain on again.



I started getting bites on the running leger pennels but couldn’t seem to connect for a while and then I managed to hook into a lump. The rod was heavy and it was pulling strongly – it felt like a double to me for a while and I actually had to pump the fish in. The embarrassing part of this was that it was a codling that only went about 3bs!! The current was that fierce and the bugger had its mouth open into it that it was hard work. Still, it was a nice size for the plate.



I had plenty more bites but just couldn’t connect to them – I was using a lot of weight to get the lines down and was having to bow the line to set the things on the bottom and so bites were missed as I was striking into nothing and the fish appeared to be heading uptide – successful hookups seemed to be as much about luck as anything else...but then another came in, a Pout which gave the hardest bite of the day. Third fish of the day was one that was a bit scrawny and so I was glad it was lightly hooked – so it followed the Pout down.



I altered the bait presentation and stuck both rods down again…and waited. After ten minutes I decided to lift and bounce them just to check they weren’t snagged and within seconds of putting one back down it started to go – another decent pull and the second keeper came up. Not quite as big as the first but not too far off and so it joined its kin in the footwell as I baited up once more.



I had to be home for ten and the tide was still screaming…high tide made no effect it seemed and lumping all my bait onto the rods for last casts I was rewarded with my third keeper. It was time to head in. On the way I stopped (ish) to chat to Carl who was now inshore of me after some anchor warp tangles that had needed a landing to comfortably sort out and I paddled hard for a few minuets while we had a chat – he had the luxury of time and the common sense to stay put until slack water came. Me, I just paddled inshore at a good angle to go in straight!! The water was well up and I was restricted on where I could beach so went in between a couple of beach anglers who weren’t having a great deal of success this morning. Nice blokes and I stopped and chatted with them for a while – I hope things picked up later for them but they’d had some decent cracks of the whip recently so it wasn’t all bad. While this was happening of course the tide had eased and the cod were starting to feed harder – Carl was well into them by all accounts but fortunately I was unaware of this and had been reminded by phone that I was already late getting home…another five fish and another launch closer to my target for the year – and a good, enjoyable and taxing session too. Gutting them at home with my girls (they like to see what’s in them so I don’t do it at sea) the fish all had small hardbacks and shrimps in them. The same knife was wielded for the ensuing minutes and soon six more fillets found their way into the freezer for the coming year. It looks like a good year for getting value from the price of the worms!