Double Bass…27/08/2013 The wind was dropping and the forecast was good; I wanted to head north. At first I thought about Bacton again to drift down towards Happisburgh and maybe try my luck on a different wreck from the book, or go from sea Palling, hit the reefs then head out to a wreck mark or two off there – there are some doable ones about there as well. What decided me though was my wife wanting o go to Norwich and do some shopping for work clothes. I could drop her and that would put me hallway to Bacton OR Weybourne. Now, Weybourne has a wreck close in that has given me a sea scorpion before, has some cod and bass on it, a lot of pout and has been known to throw up a wrasse. Could be rockling too maybe, or something else and I could possibly find a few mackerel to eat drifting around with the feathers and the tide was right. The Rosalie it was then. I dropped Flo and drove another hour through North Norfolk. A pleasant drive with the only hold up being at Sheringham. A fiver for parking and my kayak and gear over the wall and I was off. There was an inflatable kayak out there with a guy drifting with feathers but no one I knew. I’d called Dave and dave the night before but neither were available and I’d only posted on the forum a couple of hours prior so it was too short notice; no matter. Nice sea, gentle swell, little wind, clear water, not too much tide and slackening; off I went railing feathers, my favourite multi coloured ones. I paddled towards the wreck which was completely invisible and wasn’t showing the black can that used to be visible. I got into the vicinity and reeled up, waiting until I thought I was in the right spot and dropping straight down and starting to jig. I was certainly in a right area if not the right area because almost immediately the rod arched over and I had one hell of a battle going on down there; I figured on a string of good mackerel. But no, better than that! A double hit of bass around the 2-2.5lb mark! I grabbed my camera to record this and one spat the hook, a pity that. I got the other in okay and was happy with that! I untangled the rig and paddled back up, not sure exactly where I’d just been and did some more jogging without success. I paddled up again and started talking to Doug in his inflatable. He asked how I was getting on – he’d only had one mackerel and needed two for dinner. I told him about the bass and said he was welcome to tag along with me if he asked if I was okay with his questions (he was new to this). We both drifted about and I had another bass hookup; well I’d regained my brace now. I snagged up here and there but managed to retrieve my gear each time by paddling up, the hooks getting caught in anenomes rather than wreckage. Then Dough got snagged and couldn’t get free. I went over, took his rod, paddle dup and freed it. He only had the one set so I suggested he’d best move off the wreck and just try for the mackerel again before he lost them. A pity really, I’d have loved to have seen him get a bass as a reward for his efforts. Anyway, as happy as I was with a couple of bass I wanted something else. I wanted species. I tied off to a buoy that was showing, a pot buoy. It didn’t mark the wreck though and I sat there fishless. I gutted one of the bass and tried bits of gut and bits of flesh from the bit between the pectorals and gill plate – the scrap bits that get wasted in filleting. Nothing doing and with Doug passing by again he told me there was another buoy further out. I tried it and it was also off the wreck. I had an idea; drift into the wreck and get snagged on one rod then tie off and fish with the light rod. It seemed a bit wasteful but would be cheaper than throwing an anchor in. The first snag held me long enough to get pout number one but it pulled me off the snag. I reset myself by accidentally snagging with. Then I snagged up with my heavy rod so jammed it under my thigh and started to fish the light rod. I lost the rig after the second pout, then had a couple more. I snagged again, lost my rig, retied and managed a brace of pout. No scorpions or wrasse though and I had no idea what was what. I went drifting for mackerel. Nothing doing so I returned and by this time part of the wreck was just subsurface and I hit it on the bottom of a trough between swells. I saw it coming though, I like this clear water malarkey, and stayed upright. I drifted again and then it broke surface, the tide dropping quite rapidly now. I drifted past and around the wreck a few more times but had no time to tie off to the post and with it still dropping and the swells as they were I didn’t fancy it all that much so decided on a paddle out to the deeper water and a half hour drift about for mackerel. Dave had called to say he’d finished early so he was popping down after all but didn’t arrive until just before I had to come in at four to pick Flo up in time. Perfect timing though, he gave me a hand up the steep shingle bank and back to the car park! It’s great to have friends like that. Nice little session that.