I was low on squid, needed another box so Tuesday afternoon I dropped off my kit on the way back from fishing and ran up to Kessingland to get some from Coles; nearly thirty quid later, plus a quid for four herring I was stuck in traffic. As if enough hasn’t happened lately around the end of my road a sewer has collapsed leaving a six foot wide crater resulting in the closure of a main route and, effectively, my road, the relevance of this being that I had no idea whether I would be able to drive to any launch sites and/or return in a sensible time frame to sleep before work. With the squid defrosting ready for splitting into smaller packs though Shaun needed to get over to pick it up and knowing that he’d be able to park on the seafront a few hundred yards away if unable to get through to mine we decided on a Lowestoft launch. A rarity as there isn’t much depth for a mile or more but with the ebb tide available to shuttle us north and the flood expected around midday to bring us home again it wasn’t a bad plan as they go, especially as it’d give us the additional option of trolling the harbour wall for bass if the water was clear enough.
It must be – we unloaded at mine and trolleyed the kayaks down to a super-smooth sea, the water as clear as I’ve ever seen it here. This bode well for bassing.
We set off, calling up harbour control on 14 before crossing the approaches and then stuck our lures out just before Jackaman’s Point. I went ahead with Shaun following behind. Water depth was minimal and with the tide behind us and having to hold back the speed I wasn’t convinced we’d catch in this direction and sure enough we didn’t. Lures-wise I’d sorted a bunch out and then left them in the car, having only the trustworthy current favourite tiger coloured Eco Narrow on one rod and a 13cm Jointed Minnow in pink and silver on the other. Anyone for Tetris?
Down to Gulliver, the Orbis Centre (had a staff day there which saw me staring out of the windows most of the time, great view!) and Ness Point and then out to sea past ‘The Sisters’ (a pair of cardinals marking an outfall).
We drifted and paddled south and east, dropping anchor in 40ft or so just over the drop off level with the Highlight (Lowestoft had a high and low lighthouse in the past, this is the only one remaining apart from the pier head lights). No idea what we had here, sand, rough ground, shingle, mud? Wasn’t showing on the plotter and it’s not a mark I’d fished before but we would run out of flow if we carried on to Tramps…random recce again! It’s all a needle in a haystack anyway, this sea fishing lark. Okay so most of the time ridges and holes and reefs and wrecks and banks and stuff will increase your chances but everything changes from tide to tide, from time to time, from season to season…but who knows what’s about at random?
Right, rods down, 2/0 pennels. I wanted rays, so had herring, and smoothound, so had squid. I needed rays in fact, there’s a point to be had with that and smoothies are just such fun. Shaun was close by, same baits and we sat and waited. The water was so clear I regretted not bringing any feathers, either jigged or baited but such is life and I really wished I’d had the time to go further offshore. We sat there.
I had the first bite, twenty minutes or so into the session at a time when I was doubting my decision to stop. Were there any sharks about today?
Of course. A large pup, maybe going a couple of pounds? It went back swiftly.
Ten minutes later and the rod started banging, I struck into a rapidly moving fish that fought me all the way; not that large, 4lb or so of male starry but a spirited scrap in a mild flow.
A keeper, it was dispatched then gutted and bled to give a scent trail and also try out stringing fish which is something I’ve not done for a long time, the flow normally too strong here. As it was it’d be good to rinse the blood away. It kept swinging out from beneath the hull, right way up and eyeballing me. Very strange!
Was quite a difference from two days ago:
I had one more pup but things were slow. Shaun hadn’t even had a bite strangely, very strange. We needed to unclip though as a Dutch yacht was steaming in our direction under power and it was easier for us to move than to call them up and get them to alter course, especially with all the shallow parts here.
It passed with a wave and we made the decision to haul the anchors and head back via the harbour wall while we still had some flow against us to slow our progress and make the lures work harder. Heading in just south of Ness Point, past the shore anglers, we stuck the lures out and trolled back at a leisurely pace. It wasn’t as clear here as it had been further out but it was acceptable. We’d gone most of the way before anything happened though; Shaun drew level with the nesting gulls when he called out; I turned to see him fighting a bass and paddled out to sea to retrieve my lures and go and take some photographs of it…it was on the turn that my inner rod pulled over! The Eco narrow had AGAIN done the trick, and 45cm / 2.5lb of fresh bass was banging away on the end.
Shaun’s glory shot had to wait a while, in fact we crossed the approaches first before I took the camera back out and then it was straight in for the beach, kicking myself at my bad luck as another few minutes would have given the opportunity to get some video of Cleveland Princess running into harbour on a flat sea.
We landed amidst holidaymakers and unemployed locals basking on the beach, such was the quality of the weather and carried the kayaks up to the promenade where some lovely little old ladies proceeded to chat us up. It was Shaun’s fetching shortie wetsuit which was now undone to the waist that did it I reckon, but we had a date with a cold drink and wandered back to mine where, as an aside, a friend was having lunch with my wife. This friend has a PHD in marine biology (fish) so impressed me no end with the identification of my sea bream and dogfish…
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