Lowestoft/Hopton...27-28/03/09

Just because it was forecast to be a bit bumpier than last week didn’t mean we had to stay in…

Steve111 and I, both being close to the sea, have the advantage of being able to check the conditions at the last minute and so make a decision on whether to go out on the kayaks without too much forward planning. Forecasts had pointed to the weekend being a no-go for fishing and it appeared, up until Friday morning, that this warranted. Come lunchtime it looked as though Saturday morning would be good and Friday night would be alright for a paddle, for practice, confidence, fitness and what-have-you. “I’ll get some lug,” says Steve “and if it looks okay we can fish.” A pair of enthusiastic optimists with little common sense it seems…

…I had a quick look at the sea on my way home from work, looked lovely…by the time we sat down for dinner the rods were rigged, the gear was by the door and I was on five-minute readiness. Come eight o’clock and I’m standing outside, Yak loaded for the short walk and dry-suited up when the mobile rings.

“Hiya, it’s Steve. I’m outside your house.”

“So am I, I can’t see you.”

He was in the right road though; don’t know how he snuck up on me like that!

Down to the beach we go and it looked a bit snottier than it was a couple of hours earlier. Fair enough, but the rods were rigged already…might as well got on with it and get out on the water.



There’s nothing that wakes you up better on a launch than a face full of seawater from the first wave and that was exactly what I got! It must have been the last of the set, or I must have been as quick as I was intending as I then proceeded out past the groynes without any really problems, apart from drifting to the left from the undertow. Steve, meanwhile, was still back on the water’s edge…I’ll let him tell you about that.

We headed south to Pakefield with a bit of assistance from the tide, making between 4 and 5mph. The swell was around 3ft but felt more at times – like when it was coming at you beam on and you were looking the other way…it was quite dark you see ;D Character building, that’s what they call it.

Once past the line of Tilleys we dropped anchor, ending up parallel to each other (and the beach) and around 50-100 yards apart, maybe 500m out from the beach. Before I’d got my second line down Steve yelled, he had the first cod on board. Now I don’t mess about so I’d say that was within the first five minutes…things were looking good!



He missed another one as I got my second rod back in the holder and sat down to wait. Steve called over a little while later (his second fish aboard) to ask if I’d had a bite yet just as I got my first one…and missed it. This continued for most of the session with me getting small bites and not connecting and Steve getting the quality bites and bringing up the codling. Finally I had one on, a Whiting on a wishbone rig…it fell off at the bow. Unimpressed I cast out to miss some more bites. I rebaited my other rod with another worm and a langoustine tail and cast in. Not long after and I got a whopping bite, a fish that I could feel frequently on the way up…



A Pouting. Cleanly hooked it went back in – at least I’d avoided a blank.

It was getting on a bit now and bites had eased off with the current so we made the decision to head back, having fished a little over an hour. There was a bit more chop now and up anchoring was viewed with slight anticipation but went surprisingly easy and we headed north, against the remnants of the tide.



It finally seemed to begin turning when we were almost back and in anticipation of a wet exit we spread out a bit to run into the beach. I chose to try going full pelt to avoid being lifted too much and while still a hundred yards out felt the back lift under a swell and watched the nose dip…it was close, a couple more inches and I’d have been flipped off. Steve heard me comment on it at the time. I continued powering back in and had a lovely smooth landing, just turning at the last second.

We loaded up and headed back to mine, got things sorted and had a cuppa…a few hours later we’d be at Hopton…

What a lovely morning. Warmer than last week – we had a whole degree!! It was a Spring tide and was flooding and both of us had to be in early so it was a case of launch and paddle north to try and sit straight out so as to lessen the effort of coming back in against the current. And what a current! As planned I did anchor directly out from the slip but had been making headway at 2.5mph on a diagonal course for a good ten minutes to do so…so, a 2 knot current by the look of things, plenty of line out.



I dropped anchor and baited up, casting both rods out downtide, a wishbone and a plaice rig (not for plaice, they aren’t about here, but I wanted to try it for cod). Steve launched shortly after and not long after he’d anchored up I had my first codling in the boat.



This was followed a while later with a starfish. I was using up yesterday’s fresh lug, and good lug they were too, with some frozen blacks as well – fresh worms just piled on with the ones already on the hook. Both hooks (with attendant beads/blades) are in this picture, it’s not another of my monster baits!!



I switched my GPS back on to see if I was still in position, as Steve shouted over that I appeared to be drifting. d**ned right I was! I let the rest of my line out but carried on downtide at 04-0.7mph, picking up another codling on the way ;D After half a mile I decided to wind in, turn around and head back uptide. I drifted quite far doing that…I was being pushed along at over 3mph. The anchor hadn’t tripped...it was pure strength of the current. I tried paddling straight up but figured it’s take me half an hour’s hard paddling to get back in position so cut across and headed into shore, creeping along the shoreline and then heading back out in a dogleg. It also gave me an opportunity to wind my anchor line in properly as I’d just hauled up and streamed it out in the current to save distance. I dropped anchor just uptide from Steve shortly after and drifted straight past him again, settling a few hundred yards down. A few bites occurred here and there as it started to ease slightly and I brought up a Whiting:



I suspect the majority of my missed bites were Whiting and it seems that the wishbone rigs are not as effective now as they were over the preceding months – so many missed bites point to something so it’s going to be plaice rigs on both rods next week…or maybe one and a boom flapper to pick up the Whiting.

After a while we decided enough was enough and it was time to go in so up-anchored and paddled back to shore. I again went full speed ahead on the run in and had another dry landing…must try that a bit more with the Prowler 15.



It just goes to show, when the forecast is bad there’s nothing to beat an on-the-spot Mark One Eyeball. And a lack of common sense!

Oh, I forgot to mention that NFN Ltd have redesigned their kayaking footwear so they look less like farm-wear and more designer-technical…