It hadn’t occurred to me to go fishing, strangely, as I was tired, between shifts and hadn’t managed much sleep but Garry and James were heading north to Sea Palling and conditions looked doable. Not great, but doable. The only question was whether the residual swell from a few days of rough and wet weather would have made things a bit tricky. Well, it was a better option than putting up another shelf. So, with three hours sleep before my shift I drank enough coffee and after grabbing my drysuit from home I jumped in the car and set off.
Thirty miles later I was there. It looked flat enough but dirty. This wasn’t the best news but it wasn’t the worst either so I unloaded on the ramp, got dressed and took the car back to the charity car park, paid my quid and walked back. A nice, easy launch and a quick paddle to the end of the reef saw me chucking out my Mackerel Minnow 13 Jointed and my pink and silver Minnow 12, the catchers of the other day. With my freezer stock already sorted in one trip I wanted a fresh bass or two for tea the following evening.
The tide was dropping still but wasn’t down enough to see where the reef line was and with a reasonable swell coming onto the reefs from the northeast I had to pay a lot of attention to things; looking ahead and inwards for submerged rocks that appeared and disappeared and backwards to the outside for larger sets. The water looked like coffee so I could only hope for vibration, movement and passing the lure straight in front of a fishes nose!
Straight down to the bottom reef, adjusting and skidding and moving in and out, further from the reef than I’d like and of course I didn’t have a touch. Okay, I had another hope too, I’d rigged one of the cameras to shoot behind me in the hope I’d have a surfing seal again. Well, I spotted my friend from last week looking at me but it wasn’t interested today; perhaps the lack of fish in the tankwell had something to do with this. Never mind; I decided to troll the inside of the reef for once.
Halfway up and nothing on the inside rod. Eventually, twenty or so seconds after it had attacked it, I turned my head inshore to see the rod banging away…fish on! It was calmer in here but no clearer and after a spirited fight I lifted in a perfect 42cm spiky. Lovely job.
I carried on north, heading back outside the reefs again and a few reefs up, again on the Minnow 12 (this has been really productive for bass though I don’t use it often as I don’t get a lot of movement on the rod tip to tell if it’s swimming okay) on the inside rod and this fish really fought, hooping the rod over and pulling the tip under again and again. A superb scrapper of 45cm soon came into the boat and joined its fellow bar of silver in the tankwell. That was a fine dinner sorted. It coughed up a sandeel.
I don’t half love these Xtraflexx 10-30g rods! I missed them over the winter.
Back up the reefs heading for Waxham on the outside, a good stretch that took the best part of an hour. Slack water was upon us now and with slack the fish weren’t in the mood but at least the swell was dropping though the colour didn’t drop out. I went up to the penultimate reef then turned and came back down, again without a take but having had a chat with Shaun who’d managed a fish too.
Opposite the launch I saw Garry and James heading out so stopped and waited to have a chat before the three of us headed back down to Waxham, fishless. We passed the bottom reef which was now a mass of rocks jutting out like teeth and Garry followed me around the inside, James heading back on the outside. This was my last pass as I needed to get back to the beach and home so I could try for four or five hours sleep before my next shift.
James was well ahead of us and on the inside when I turned for home – great news, his first kayak bass! He was happy! A chat and some pictures and then I headed for shore, somewhat less energetic than before but glad of my decision to come. I was also pleased, with the huge clap of thunder and threatening clouds, to be heading home!
So, having now taken a whopping nine bass in two days off over two miles of reefs I decided to let the North Sea have a rest for a while to recover, after all I’ve seen how easy it is to empty an enclosed field of rabbits by putting in a concerted effort with a silenced rifle from a hide at a hundred yards, a team of ferrets, smoke bombs, snares and nets and how it takes almost a whole day before another is seen and in such a small piece of water with no tidal movement and every fish in the area clearly having been caught I decided that I’d better leave them to clear up the certain population explosion of sandeels that was to come. Besides, the Lord Jesus could feed five thousand people on a mere seven fish and I only have a family to keep in quality, organic protein.
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