The Complete Mudeford Demo Weekend 25-27/07/08

What a weekend! A few weeks back I emailed Richi to see if I was coming to this – he said he hoped so and so I checked with Andrew who asked if I wanted to. Of course I did! The attraction of meeting up with old friends, making new ones, playing with the different kayaks and of course the fishing was enough for me to gladly volunteer. I knew that a lot of hard work, long hours and a long drive with a trailer and van filled with yaks was going to be the balance for the fun aspects but as it turned out it was all pleasant enough.

I took Thursday off. My girls had asked me to take them to the airshow at the end of our road and as I’d be away all weekend I really wanted to spend some time with them. We had a great time and around 5pm I grabbed the last of my gear and headed for the office to pick up the fishing kayak demo trailer – the van already loaded the night before, crammed to the gills with even the passenger seats full of kit.

A long drive followed and I got to my hotel at Winchester around 10:30. I’d be missing breakfast as I had to be at the slipway by 8:30 after dropping off some stock at Crazywater en-route.

I parked up; I was then robbed for parking a van and trailer for 24 hours. The wind was blowing quite fiercely and the paddle across to the spit with 4 yaks towed behind, plus paddles, PFD’s, accessories etc was not relished. Here I met John, Crazywater’s owner, along with Toby and Simon. We had twenty yaks between us and poor old Toby had never paddled one before. We sat him in a Prowler 13 and John gave him some quick instruction and he was off.



What a way to begin kayaking!



I was last to launch and began with the Kinetic Wing. I changed to my Enchantment carbon halfway across though as I found I couldn’t use it for power strokes and the wind was making it hard work. I wasn’t particularly sleek!



Once across we got things set up, kayaks on the beach, other kit put in place and almost straight away we had people there. A lot of mums with children were there, being a work day and school holidays and consequently I spent most of the day on the water, patrolling to keep an eye on things. I didn’t use the camera as my batteries were showing as low and frankly I was busy. My new Palm towline came into use a few times too – once to tow a small girl in a Kea who was too young to paddle (her smile made the drive worthwhile alone) and another time to bring back a small girl who handled the Kea well but couldn’t handle the higher-sided Frenzy when the wind got up. She was only six, and quite slight.

Mid-afternoon Lozz arrived and helped out and by around 6pm we paddled the kayaks down to the storage point where we chained them up and put all the rest of the kit away. A quick paddle back to the car park and I loaded up the Scupper Pro I’d borrowed (we needed transport across and I’d fallen in love with this during the day) and the pair of us set off for my hotel to drop the empty trailer, check me in and head off fishing.

Disaster! The booking had gone wrong and it was full so I was booked in at Bournemouth Central instead. Trouble was I couldn’t take the trailer there and so it was then driven around and abandoned in the driveway of Baz, the Crazywater shop manager. A quick portion of the worst haddock and chips I’ve ever eaten followed and we finally headed off to fish for Smoothounds a few miles away. Separate thread here:

http://anglersafloat.proboards107.com/index.cgi?board=catchreports&action=display&thread=3199

Back on the beach we headed into Bournemouth for the hotel. Disaster again! The one I was under the impression of being re-booked into was full and had no record of the booking – instead I was at another one nearby. This was impossible to find and at 1:30am I phoned up, cancelled both nights and made sure I wouldn’t be billed. We headed instead straight for Mudeford Quay again and in a sleeping bag borrowed from Lozz I kipped in the cab of the van (A Frenzy was in the back so I had little choice). Like an idiot I forgot to remove the nicotine patch on my arm and slept even worse than otherwise might have been the case.

Bright and early we awaited the Crazywater team again and paddled over to the spit. We then unchained the yaks and got them to the water, paddled them up to the demo area and then walked all the other kit over. I’d had enough by now and went into the café for two strong coffees and a cracking fried breakfast that set me up for the day. I now felt superhuman and was ready to go again. Richi was about as well and things began to get busy.

I flitted between kayaks, paddling most of them, between aiding John and his team, chatting with the various forum members as they arrived and taking people out on various boats. It was very enjoyable work and with the arrival of Andrew I was able to get some photographs with his camera before he lent me his spare battery. Here’s a bunch of them (sorry for the amount and the time it’ll take to download them all but I’m sure John and his team would like to see them and its because of him we were all there):





















Doggy:



I was amazed at the carrying capacity of the Prowler 13 as Noel Edmond’s old sidekick stripped off the pink spotty suit and had a paddle:





(Back to normal again)







Then an old fart turned up and had a play at standing up



Then, like the child he is, he had a try in the Kea





Even the dogs seemed happy to go aboard



It was great to see all the kids having such fun too









It got quite crowded out there at times






And Richi even took one person out for a fish





Remember Quint, the character in Jaws?



Helen got to grips with plenty of different kayaks and tried all sorts of things on them – standing:



Bracing:



Falling Out:



And I narrowly avoided a repeat of a day on the Nene:





And then it was time to pack up, get kitted up and head off fishing again:

http://anglersafloat.proboards107.com/index.cgi?board=catchreports&action=display&thread=3209

Sunday saw the arrival of our beloved Fuhrer, Starvinmarvin.


Followed by his daughter, Tratty and Luckyrich



Tratty arrived on the first Elite in the UK



And then had a play with my Pacific Action sail (on a Big game as there was no room for my yak)





And then tried standing up – he’d never done it before



He even mastered paddling like that



Later on the Red Arrows came over a couple of times and then a Hunter tore up the beach



Starvin’s boy tried something I haven’t done yet:



And Richi went off for a paddle in his Scupper Pro



The time, as with both previous days, had flown and it was time to depart, heading back in to help with the returning of the yaks to the quay and respective trailers. Fortunately a lot of the demo fleet had been sold by John and there was less to tow back and load up. He also sold a few other items including my paddle once and Starvin’s children’s’ Kea! Cheeky sod. The final photograph from my camera (I’ll post Andrews tonight when I’ve sorted them out) is suitably the one showing the guy who brought us lot into the frame – Richi.



The long drive home followed and I crawled into bed at 1:30. I’d had a great weekend of demoing, paddling, trialling kayaks, chatting to the public, having a laugh with friends, meeting new faces from the forum and being looked after by the guys from Crazywater. It’s nice to know that a retailer is as passionate about the yakking as he is about the customers…so, thanks to John and the Crazywater team for putting it on, Richi for getting the forums involved, everyone who attended and whoever booked the weather!

On Saturday there was this Welshman, see. Tim is our Agent for the Southwest and a kayak surfing champion I believe. He thinks we're all mad. When he first met me he said 'oh God, you're one of those are you?'



Looking at this lot I wonder if he may have been right after all. He was aghast that I was sleeping in the van too. "But how will you have a shower?" I just replied that I'd jump in the sea again...

On Saturday there was this Welshman, see. Tim is our Agent for the Southwest and a kayak surfing champion I believe. He thinks we're all mad. When he first met me he said 'oh God, you're one of those are you?'



Some more to be going on with:





Lozz













Lagachette



Overrun





Stumulletman

























Paul71pc being shown the Lendal Kinetic Wing by me. Caption: "Yeah, this bit here in the middle is another £40".











Helen on the Kea





Beach Bums



The cat dragged this in



Paddling Georgia style



Paddling Georgina style







And that, as they say, is that.

Further Afield. Come and do the Conger!...26/07/08

After another full day of the Crazywater Demo Day at Mudeford it was necessary to relax with a nice bit of fishing and so after paddling back to the quay and getting kitted up (and paying through the nose for sarnies) our happy armada set course down through the run and out to sea, past the famed Black House



Led out by Richi in his Trident were John in his Dorado, Helen in her Scupper Pro, Me in Richi’s Scupper Pro, Tratty in his Elite, Stumulletman in his Elite and his mate (sorry, what was his name Stu?) in his Prowler 13. We had a bit of an audience through the run and going out en-masse was really quite special for me, used to going solo so much.



The conditions were fine – we were against a moderate wind but the tide was in our favour. A slight swell with a superb bit of chop met us at the overfall by the groyne where we were spotted by Simon from Crazywater, out fishing from the shore.



The lovebirds on my left were in great light…and there were no concessions of paddling slower made for Helen, who was and is one of the lads (albeit with a nicer bum!) and didn’t need them anyway, ta very much.



I must confess that John’s Dorado looked really great in that light too and I had to take a photograph of it. I do like yellow things after all :D



The tide sucked us through the overfall – me loving the Hawaii Five-O bit – and we soon happened upon Clint Eastwood



Actually it was Overrun in his Prowler 13. He’d been awaiting our arrival.



So, it was down with the feathers in the hope of some mackerel – James hauling in a Scad soon after I took this:



Having never feathered before I just baited some Hokkais and dropped them down to see what was about, especially as I’d heard that the mackies hadn’t shown all day. I then noticed the light and decided I needed some quality shots. Stu’s mate was in the right place:



Then I hunted around for Richi



Over on yonder horizon I spotted Lozz paddling out to meet us in his Trident, having delayed his launch. I suspect he had to brace though as the roar of thunder came along and he was left in the wake of a speeding gin palace. Hang about though, this gin palace had a bloody great pole and flag on it…nah, can’t be, can it?



Yep, Aikidojohn had arrived in an admittedly fast Big Game that puttered around sounding like a lawnmower until he switched off and started to fish, Lozz arriving soon after.



That made ten of us on the water – cracking! Nothing much doing the others started to move off



Aikido john stayed put while Overrun and Lozz moved off.



Me? I was happy where I was for now and watched them head off.



My persistence paid off - I soon hauled up a Pouting, a Personal Best, and a lot darker than the ones around our part of the coast, and it also had dark stripes on it. I was chuffed as I at least had something as Conger bait. Then my rod tip went loopy...
My first Black Sea Bream; my twenty-sixth species of the year, and another one for the competition. We don’t get them up in Lowestoft you see. My special sized coupon was put to good use! I don’t know what the size is to keep these but frankly it wasn’t big enough for a meal, I didn’t have anyway to ensure it wouldn’t spoil, it was far too pretty for Conger bait and I was happy to watch it swim away. It came with its own pouting companion too.



I decided to go and join the others. It was starting to get a little bit choppy (not a lot, just enough to notice) and I knew that I was heading towards the overfall so decided to upsticks and head over to the mark where the others were anchored. I drifted and chatted to Tratty and was about to anchor when Lozz shouted out that he thought AJ had gone over. It took a while (even though I knew where he was) to spot because in those lighting conditions the pale blue hull of his loaded Big Game was not very visible from low in the water as we all were, especially as it was loaded with outboard and presumably fuel. Richi set off and after depositing my rods with Tratty (figured I’d be better able to help without the d**ned things) I followed suit, Lozz also coming.

AJ was in the water, his paddle held up in the air. Even with the light on him the paddle only really appeared visible from a couple of hundred yards away at most. Yellow blades, but perhaps the silhouette of black might have been better? Glossy ones would certainly have been useful as they would have reflected the sunlight. It was lucky that Lozz had spotted him not being about though as it could have been worse than the embarrassment factor. Between Aikidojohn and Richi the kayak was flipped back up – the weight and drag of the motor coupled with the water that had got in and the width of the Big Game being hindering factors. Now, John is only a small bloke and the Big Game is wide – I don’t think he could have leant far enough across to grab the other side and flip it the way I usually do and the upside-down push-away style would not have been possible. Although I steadied the yak for him to climb back aboard all credit to the rescue must go to Richi – to whom the ‘Another One Off The List’ special prize is awarded:



After staying a few minutes with Imwetandmissingstuffjohn I headed back to get my rods off Tratty. As he pulled in a string of three Mackerel. Me, I just banged out some more Pouting and put the Conger rod down – the first Pouting (dead) slashed five times on each side to get some scent and flesh out as I didn’t have enough thickness to flapper it with the knife I was carrying.

Now, Richi said he thought the fishing wasn’t good that night. For what I’m used to locally I was well impressed – the fishing is a lot bloody easier down south for sure! No wonder you southerners aren’t happy to catch pouting – my bait would hit bottom and bites were instant. I would have to fish for hours for this many at home:



And then, to save the day, one more to the ‘Bag of Sugar’ species hunt :D



I marvelled at how good it looked on my port side at the six navlight-lit yaks lined up like a starting grid at a car race. Sadly I knew any photograph I had tried to take would not have come out but I fixed it in my mind. I then found something I didn’t like about the Scupper Pro. With my legs over the side the leashed paddle was uncomfortable for me. I spent quite some time in this position, banging out 19 Pouting…



John and Helen, whose navlights had been bobbing up and down ahead of us indicating that there was canoodling go on rather than fishing, then decided to go in, joined by Stu and his mate.

I decided it was time to change my bait over. It had been chewed up a bit by something the last time I’d checked. I took the rod from the forward holder and placed it in the flushmount when I decided to prepare the other Pouting first. While I was doing that…

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YES!!!!!!!!!!!

Fish on!

A Conger (presumably) had the Pouting and was running with it. I tightened my drag and started to wind my braid up…I was shifting it and wanted to get it off the bottom as soon as I could as it felt a good, solid fish and I really didn’t want it getting itself holed up or running my line over a rock as happened last time I hooked one.

Then…nothing. It went slack. I wound in and all I had was the hook through the pouting lips of the Pouting. I was gutted. Two Nil to the Conger.

We fished on for a while and then I’mmovingdowntidejohns anchor gave way. Richi offered to accompany him in but I said I’d go – I’d had my run and was happy with that and was starting to get a bit cold but then it seemed like a mutual decision as we all up-anchored and went back to the quay. I paddled in alongside Richi, feeling the current sucking us back into the quay and watched as the bottom became shallow to the point of occasionally touching the hull. I saw swirls and I saw fish. It was a great end to the evening and with twenty fish boated and one Conger run plus some good photographs and excellent company and memories I was more than happy with my evening. And so to a second night in the van.

Thanks to Richi for taking us all and all for going with.

Further Afield. Pure Smut...25/07/08

It was the Thursday evening before the Crazywater Demo Weekend at Mudeford and I was driving down with a trailer and van filled with kayaks when my mobile rang. Lozz was on the other end and he was treated to me telling the GPS to shut up as I knew I’d gone the wrong way while I was pulling into services near Cambridge to chat. The question he had was would I be up for fishing on the Friday evening…well, there’s no other answer to that is there! Lozz had read the forecasts and congering was out on tide and wind predictions so we agreed to head for Smoothounds at Tanners Lane. That decided I carried on south.

The next day saw the setting up and first day of the demo weekend with lots of children and a few adults trying out the twenty kayaks we had on the beach. Lozz turned up in the early afternoon and after everything was stowed for the night we set off to book into my hotel. To cut a long story short I was homeless and so, after making a new booking and consuming the worst fish and chips I’ve ever been sold, we headed off for the mark, arriving as it was getting dark.

Ten minutes spent lifting rocks and weed saw a plentiful supply of small hardback crabs, a couple of small softies and one excellent, large softback which Lozz graciously gave to me as I’d not had a Smoothie before (well, almost, I had one many years ago in South Africa).

We launched and headed out around a mile around low water. I was in a demo (and unrigged) Scupper Pro and was bungeed off Lozz’s bow. With one 10ft spinning rod fitted with a 5/0 conger trace and a running 4oz round leger and the other with ragworm-baited Hokkai’s I dropped down and waited. The tide was running and after ten minutes I reeled in to see a load of weed masking everything. I recast after clearing this and after another five minutes had to do the same. After maybe forty minutes we decided to head in and try again.

We were maybe half a mile out now in six feet or so of water. Lozz didn’t hold out much hope but it did seem that the water was running less here. I dropped down again and after ten minutes Lozz was into the first Smoothound of the session. A superb fight ensued and I got my first sight of what they can do on light tackle in shallow waters as this fish jumped, thrashed, leapt the bungee between us and splashed Lozz until he finally brought it in and unhooked it. A double, it was a sign that perhaps we would have some good sport.

I reeled in and removed very little weed. I had the big softback crab on, whole and with plenty of elastic around it. Just before recasting it I decided to give it a good squeeze to get the juices flowing – I felt a pop and decided it should be fine now. In it went and I settled back, the ratchet on, the drag light and the butt placed into a scupper hole. I didn’t have to wait very long.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!!!!!!!

I grabbed the rod, struck and wound it tight – I could feel the fish pulling well. I placed it safely and grabbed the other rod; reeling it in as quick as I could to keep tangles out of the battle then returned to the Smoothie rod.

As I brought it up towards the yak the fish went mental – it was up to the surface



Then it exploded out of the water



A superb ten-minute fight followed before I grabbed it alongside by the pectoral fin and hoisted it aboard. My first smoothie from the kayak. I duly placed my custom-sized Species Hunt voucher on the fin and took a photograph.



Of course a fish like this deserved a better photograph and so I picked her up and got one that showed its features more aesthetically:



Beautiful! A starry Smoothound lip-hooked and around 6-7lbs in weight I gave it the customary kiss on the snout (a custom with shark species) and popped it back in. I was amazed to see it swimming around on the surface in the light of my head torch.

The bait was still on and so I recast. Lozz was soon in again with another fish and after his battle my baited Hokkai rod let out a scream as another smoothie took the bait…

A bigger fish this one, a double for sure, and after I had it alongside, beaten, I let go of the trace to try and get a photograph alongside. Another Starry, I couldn’t get it close enough with such a long rod and while pulling the rod towards the stern and leaning forward with the camera zoomed out (the flash not being that powerful) it came off. Ah well, that’s life and the photograph would have been worth it.

Lozz was soon in again and another double came to the yak before coming off during landing. I put a hardback on with the softie and recast. Then came another scream as the baited Hookahs went off again.

Another long battle followed, though not pulling as hard as the first two, and at the end of it I had a Common Smoothound alongside. I needed this in for the Species Hunt photograph so didn’t try and photograph it in the water. I grabbed the wrist of its tail - I couldn’t close my fingers around it - and it shook itself free. Another couple of minutes passed until I’d got it back alongside. I grabbed hold of the wrist again and…disaster! It curled itself upwards and snapped through the lower half of the trace! It shook itself out of my grasp and was gone…and I had a hook in my hand, fortunately not up to the barb. But in the yak or not, I’d had the fight and had the fun.

Then Lozz was in again. Another good fight followed and again it refused to come aboard. In the meantime I’d had a couple of dropped pick-ups. Then, with my largest hardback on, the ratchet screamed. I struck - this was no Goby – and it was easily pulling harder than the others. It shot off for about twenty seconds and as I tightened up the drag and began to fight it the line went slack. It was off. How? It felt like it was hooked. I reeled in and to my annoyance found that the hook had snapped off on the bend, presumably weakened from the stress of pushing it through hardbacked crabs.

Soon after we headed back in. A fantastic introduction to Smoothounds with both species captures. Thank you Lozz for being a top fishing partner.

Specimen Hunting...17/07/08

Tonight was one of those nights where sitting at home wasn't an option. Initially I had no intention of fishing - I just fancied a paddle as I felt in need of the exercise and I wanted to play with a borrowed Kinetic Wing to see if I could get on with it.

Arriving at the slipway onto Lake Lothing I realised that the water wasn't fully up yet and if I was lucky I may be able to dig some harbour ragworm...sure enough 5 minutes saw me with a few so I rigged one of my match rods with a float and a size 22 hook and paddled out.

I don't know how many of you have paddled with a Wing (I know Richi has one) but it's quite different to my usual paddle. The shaped face and back of the blade felt strange at first and it took a while before things felt right and I was able to enter and exit the water smoothly. The Wing can be used for a normal stroke but to get the best out of it there is another kind of stroke needed and i need to get some advice on that as I wasn't doing it right I suspect. That said I did seem to be moving at a good pace with ease. I'll have to keep hold of it a while I think.

Anyway, arriving at a spot I wanted to try where I'd seen plenty of Mullet jumping the night before (and where they'd played volleyball with the Smartcast transponders) I put the anchor down, baited up with ragworm and cast out. It was getting dark by now and it took ages, but finally the float went under. A massive fight ensued and finally I managed to subdue the first Bass of the evening:



Two more followed and some d**ned good Mullet flew out of the water here and there but they just didn't want to know about my bait.

I up-anchored and paddled about trying to find some other spots where they may be in eating mood. sadly i could now get nothing at all and come 10:45 I decided to paddle back to the launch point and try for some of the Gobies I'd seen when digging the ragworm.

Yes, you heard right. Intentionally targetting Gobies.

I ran myself right up to the waters edge and used my torch to look around for Gobies on the bottom. They're beautifully camouflaged and it took a while to spot one...I got my bait in place eventually and it started to move onto it. Then it started to nibble (I was watching all of this with the torch in 18 inches of water). Then it stopped, motionless. It was clear why - a shore crab was sauntering past only a few inches away. Gone, the Goby picked at the bait again and I struck...too soon. It disappeared.

A few feet away I spotted another fish - no idea what but perhaps a Mullet. No interest at all in my bait and it swam off. then I spotted another Goby. I positioned the bait and it started to nibble on it...I could see the hook being exposed little by little as it nibbled and then, suddenly, a swirl of water and a small cloud of sand...the Goby retreated and I struck into my first Dab (and flatfish) of the year! I was surprised and highly amused once i'd defeated this monster!



(Now I know I should have put my tournament token into the photograph but in my defence the fish was so small it would have stuck to it if I'd 'plaiced' it on and had I put it next to it and got the token in the fish would not have been seen...Starvin, please can I claim my caught-fair-and-square dab with a technical waiver of the rules? :-[ )

I looked around. Here was some fun coming - a Prawn!!! I placed my piece of ragworm close enough and watched as it approached, picked up the bait (this was an absolutely magical half hour) and started to eat. Now, there aren't many people that can say they've ever struck into a Prawn but I can. I actually caught one many years ago in a river while fishing for Eels but this time my luck was out - it dropped off and didn't want anything more to do with my bait.

Still laughing to myself I decided on one last try for the Gobies. One was located but the first strike failed to connect as it dropped off. it wasn't sppoked however so I dropped the bait down again and watched as it was totally ignored.

That is until another Goby came along. Head to head with the bait between them they both, they both made a lunge at the same time and the sand cloud and disappearance of fish indicated that i had to mmake my move. As I struck I felt a heavy weight and a firm pull on the line....and swung into the yak my alternative target species.



I came in, laughing. Beat that ;D

Further Afield. A Clacton sortie...13/07/08

I damaged my back up near the shoulder the other day. It seemed to have sorted itself out but then last night while putting a cable lock through a yak on the roof of the van it went again – worse than it had been so far. Trouble was I’d negotiated a pass to join Dipseadiver and Essexbuoy down at Clacton. A bunch of ointments and a hot bath provided some relief but I figured I’d have to make my decision in the morning.

I grimaced when my alarm went off at 5am this morning. I grimaced again when I got a twinge from my back. I was awake though, the van was loaded and I figured that if it came to pass that I wasn’t up to paddling on arrival I could stay a hundred yards offshore and take it easy – there were half a dozen of us going, it was flat calm up here and likely to be the same down there and it was already a beautiful morning.

15 minutes later and I was in the van for the 1 ½ hour trek saaf.

Talk about easy to find – I came off the A12, headed down to Clacton, got to the seafront and clocked the pier to my right so headed left and spotted them all unloading and getting stuff ready for launch. Steve promptly pinned me against his car and did what sailors are known to do under the pretext of sorting my shoulder – and it worked! It looked like I was being raped and arrested but I had no trouble at all until after the drive home (slight twinge for the last couple of hours). Anyway, Dipsea and Steve got the yak down for me (I couldn’t do that) and I got kitted up for the trek down to the launch point off a slipway, following Pete, Danny, Dipseadiver (Shaun) and Guinea (Andy).



They launched and headed out.



Steve disappeared and I waited for him – my escort – while the others headed out. I launched and had a little paddle to check things were ok while waiting for him and found that I felt 100% like normal. He soon pitched up and powered himself through the heavy ripple.



Just over a mile out with my Navionics chip showing spot depths that weren’t in agreement with the soundings (probably user error) we caught up with the others. Some of them had already had some small fish but not long after anchoring Shaun started upping the ante as his rod went nearly full circle



Steve, who like I was blanking, tried to ignore hime



but he wouldn’t go away



so he valiantly went to assist with the landing of this whopper as Shaun had his hands full and the trace was remaining just out of reach.



Bloody good rock it was too :D



It was hellishly slow and I was still blanking an hour later. I decided to head back in a few hundred yards where the water was deeper. It didn’t take too long before the first rattle – missed – and then the second which brought me species two of the summer tournament – a Pout, clearly starvin'.



It was curious how the fishing could be so poor after all those reports of the past few months had shown it to be an excellent venue. I carefully studied the water conditions



A mystery – the water looked fine to me.

The next time the rod tip went it was a clonking bite on peeler -and a Whiting of about a pound came up before dropping off as I was about to swing it in. No bother as another came aboard soon after – species 3!



I managed one more Pout and missed a load of bites…something was up here – was there a seal about?



Nope. A hippo :D

I was buggered if I was staying around then…it was time to come in and head back to a party near Norwich.



I made a power run in the Trident to see what speed I could get up to (using Steve’s Werner Coryvecken paddle) and managed to push it up to 5mph for a few hundred yards. We swapped yaks (I used my Carlisle Enchantment) on his Elite and got to 5.8mph (though 5.6 was my average). A faster yak for sure but it seemed to lose energy in tilting and swinging with the big strokes. It wasn’t a true comparison of course as our paddles are different lengths and different styles and I am used to one and not the other too.

Back on the beach we all got sorted and departed in various directions. A cracking day with good weather, a friendly sea and while not producing the best of fishing none of us blanked. Big thanks go to Shaun for lining up the session and for getting the bait in, personal thanks to Steve and Shaun for getting my yak down, to Pete and Shaun for getting it back up after, to Pete for something we won’t go into, to Steve again for sorting my shoulder and accompanying me and Danny and Andy for being there and being good company. Cheers chaps, I enjoyed the day immensely.