Okay, so a brief paddle to wake up and lift the pots and with the last minute stuff done after a night shift, including cooking crusties, I’m in the car and running south to Felixstowe to share a ride down to the OK Classic in Swanage…a good few hours away. My new Bob Marley CD is blasting out as I’m thinking about Wrasseta and I’m buzzing with coffee and excitement; I’ll sleep in the car.
An hour and twenty and I’m at Garry’s, we load up and head down, picking up some chicken at Fleet Services and some cars at Bournemouth. Satnav thinks it’s quicker to drive through gridlocks than decent bypassing roads. This delays us at least an hour and we end up arriving at the campsite at 5 rather than the beach at 4 where we want to try for some fresh mackerel ready for the comp the next day as well as a good recce of the area. We’ve driven briefly through town, I’ve spotted Jim eating with his wife so jump out, run across the road, tell them off because I wanted a chip and don’t like pasta, kissed his wife, shook his hand and am back in the car and off in a minute; drive-by snapping!…over to the site, still considering fishing but from the first beer we’re stuck. I consume mine having started the process of erecting my huge tent and slowly drifting away from it while the others, too drunk and dumb to realise they’re being conned, make a great job of getting it up in no time. I’d have only delayed them and I still hadn’t slept…
People started drifting in, from the water, from the roads, from everywhere. James has done a cracking short-notice job on decals and we’re getting our Anglian Kayak Angling T-shirts and hoodies on and they look the business. He’s done decals for the boats too and after my bass catch of the other day has been falsely criticised by huggers it’s time to put on the special decal he’s done for me…
We had four of them, Garry managed to attach one as well before the others were pinched and we declined to take the multitude of orders from people who wanted them and with a picture uploaded by John to the forum getting a rapid multitude of likes in no time the position of people regarding personal choice within the legal limits was refreshing. Hopefully people won’t have to fear posting what they catch any more. I digress but it was a hot topic that night.
That night; 26 hours I was up before retiring after a great night of beer, talking fish and meeting old friends and making new ones. I had six hours to sleep before kick-off…and I awoke to a perfect day!
Rigged and stickered I was ready to rock and roll. The welcome, safety briefing and very moving tribute to our mate Cam who had died just over a week before had me holding back the tears, just.
Straight out and trolling feathers and a lure while looking for some fish. I found some marks and dropped down for an immediate bite on my Fladen sabikis baited with pinches of ragworm, this was my bait for the day. Garry had dug some which died overnight but Si had luckily got me some from Christchurch that were in better shape…a whiting I thought until looking at the photo later…species one, a Pollack.
I moved on, found some more marks, straight down and straight into a ballan wrasse on the drift over the fish…number two and twenty minutes in…
And another. We don’t get these at home.
A mayday call to Richi, I’d lost my lighter (it was in my boot). I carried on fishing and headed further out.
Heavier rod out on the other side, hoping for dogs or ray.
Along came Dan, also on a black RTM Tempo, no fish yet as he had no electronics and they weren’t biting otherwise. He anchored up and I found more fish; I called him over on the pretence I needed a hand…”Are you serious?” “yes”…he came close…
…”drop there!”
He caught and I got another ballan followed by number three, a corkwing and some more ballans.
I paddled out deeper, drifted some more, the same set of sabikis then picked up a nice fish, the XtrafleXX pulling straight round as a Pollack took the bait, number four that turned out to be three!
Bloke behind me had a dogfish; I stuck on a three hook octopus rig with 2/0’s baited with rag and squid while leaving the 5 hook number 4 sabikis out on the other side with rag on. I was over flat sand…
Before launching I’d been chatting with Si and then Liz, Cam’s wife. Cam had left me his stepfather, franks, centrepin and his Grey’s 8-12lb rod which was his favourite plaice set up. Cam had promised to take me drifting for these one day, or the other Wrasseta’s, Ken and Si would if he couldn’t. I left the rod on the beach as I didn’t want to damage it today when I had so much stuff with me but up there he joined me anyway and, fishing totally wrong for plaice, he caught me one just the same…my first ever plaice, destined for my father whose favourite fish it is.
I was greatly surprised, I always expected them to fight like a dab but no, the rod banged down and I thought I was on the elusive bream or another Pollack! Thank you Cam! Five? I went on the prowl again, coming inshore once more and coming across fellow RTM team member John who, as the first Classic winner was having an off day with only one species for his efforts. The yellow/red Tempo looked good against the clear blue sea we never get at home and he was chilling now.
I went on the hunt for Bream. Dan gave me a mark that had produced these and undulates but time was too short; I got part way there and fifty yards behind Ed I found a shoal with the best marks I saw all weekend. Drifting gave me a few bites that didn’t connect so I dropped anchor, eventually managing to get it right and be straight over them. Could I tempt them? No I couldn’t. I wasted a much-needed hour there and saw Ed catch a single bream in that team
I headed towards shore, tried one last drop with the sabiki/rag combo and another wrasse came aboard. That was the last of them.
I landed, signed in and registered then went to check the pots which Richi had dropped for me; plenty of spider crabs already but they’d die by the time we got away so I left them out for the morning.
I was back on the beach when Garry returned; he looked happy.
We all looked happy as it happened and my plaice was, I think, the first of the Classic in five years and the first reported in Swanage this year according to the guy who writes the fishing reports. So it must have been my mate looking out for me.
I registered five, we were all happy it was a whiting, that first fish, but the more I looked at the picture the more I decided it wasn’t – I downgraded to four and was well out of the running. Then I discovered that the corkwing with the red fins was actually the less common Baillon’s wrasse! Five for me then and 11th place overall (there’s a tie-breaker on the time in to register your catch). Eight was the winning tally, followed by a couple of sevens and a couple of sixes. 25 of the ninety-five anglers hadn’t managed to score which was a great pity and largely down to lady luck I reckon and though I’d fished very differently to at home, unfamiliar gear, conditions and location, I’d fished well and had landed plenty, just not enough variety…next year perhaps – I’ll be there for sure!
The prize giving passed after the missing man was located on his way home and then it was back to the camp site to eat my Pollack and some bream roe on toast all cooked superbly by Rosa who only needs fish knives and lemons to get her Michelin barbecue star!
More drinks and then to bed – we had more fishing to do tomorrow before heading home again! Great comp, great company and thank you to the team who put it all together.
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