Gimme Shelter…03/02/2014
These southerlies and south-easterlies are really causing cabin fever for me. Strong winds forecast once again, big chop from the easterly bit and frankly it wasn’t going to be fishable off Corton today. bad enough, hat made it worse as Brian’s news that the day before had yielded 32 keeper codling between five of them on Cleveland Princess and he’d personally had ten or so spit the hooks at the surface. That’s all day of course rather than the 3-4 hour trips I do which, with two rods, might have seen four or five decent fish in that time. So, what to do, where to go? North Norfolk was one option but too far to go with no reports of fish; north east could be doable, if I headed to Sea Palling he wind would be cross-shore and inside the reefs we wouldn’t need to battle the swell or chop much and, if fishing light, could have decent sport and perhaps a few oddities in regards to species. Sea Palling it was then, Shaun back from Holland and keen to go as well.
I left the house at school run time and made it there in an hour, Shaun arriving soon after with some fresh lug I couldn’t pay him for as I had no cash on me…cheeky! I don’t use fresh as a rule, it’s not been necessary for my codding and the versatility of frozen blacks going in and out of the freezer is a great bonus for me. There’s a good stock in there next to the case of unwashed squid split into smaller bags…I brought a wrap as spare though and plenty of squid to tip the baits with, giving Shaun a bag as he’d left his. We were sort of even now…
Down to the beach and ready to launch, trolley in the hatch, rods leashed, rigs tied, bait and eights to hand, cameras switched on and a quick look at what’s been washed up; razor shells and the first dogfish egg case of the year – empty.
I was only using the one Warbird 220 today, I had been sitting on the Maxximus 11+1 for over a month and decided, with the freshwater being so poor right now, to give it a work out on the sea. It’s such a lovely reel, smooth as silk and really good looking so it deserved some use at last! Loaded up with 40lb braid it’s principally going to be used for spinning for pike and bass but why not stick some lead on it and hurl things to the horizon? It may only be a light reel but it looked up to the job, paired with the right rod.
We head out. Even inshore it’s rough, plenty of water funnelling through the gaps between the artificial reefs. The wind was really strong and I was paddling one-sided, the MidWay weather-cocking downwind; I wish it had a skeg. I started off close to the rocks in the hope that some coalfish might be lurking, or other fish that prefer the rough ground but having to pull out of snags each cast soon had me changing, heading inwards and to the end of the reef to get to the deeper water though it was still only around twenty feet deep. I cast in my bated feathers, three on one and two on the other, with a small fresh lugworm tipped with a sliver of squid and waited…
Shaun as in first with a huge whiting to start his species hunt for the year! Without a camera as evidence though it was down to me to record his trophy shot:
I had to wait a bit longer for my first bite and then in came the greenest dab I’ve ever seen. It fought like it was healthy though, clearly it was a British Racing Green Dab! It was a bit more difficult to identify than normal though as it was slimy and smooth rather than rough and the curved lateral line was difficult to see but yeah, it as a dab alright. It went back and swam away. At least my reel was christened.
A more healthy looking one next, on the 220 this time. 18cm.
Next up, a whiting at 24cm.
Then Shaun, after a few more pin whiting, gets what I’m hoping for, another rockling (five-bearded).
…followed by a dab putting him on three points!
I get another rattle on the Warbird, wind it in and the two hooks on this rig are both filled with a double shot, dab and whiting. Good variety but still no rockling?
The wind as really cutting through us and with Shaun out of worms and me down to my last few I rebaited, using them all up and cast in, dumping the unused scraps of squid left over and we agreed to get one more fish each then go. Shaun had another dab shortly after but apart from some big bites that didn’t result in fish – perhaps the hooks were too small – I had to wait a good ten minutes before a proper knock and a hook-up…what would it be? Success! Another five-beard slug!
Ugly beautiful…slimy…golden brown and quite stunning; a great fish for the aquarium I wish I had! Five protrusions, four above the mouth and one below.
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That’s it then, baits stripped and into the water as freebies and we pull up, turn to go and see that the tide has dropped right down and we now have only a hundred yards at best behind us. Shaun, who has just christened his new kayak that I last saw paddled down south by my mate Richi, decides he would rather paddle in the rough stuff than drag it over the sand all that way so we head out through the reefs to paddle the very rough, quite large water beyond.
And it is rough. Blowing a hoolie and with 3ft waves all over the place, close together, confused and rebounding we put the MidWay and Scupper through their paces; some waves rear up larger, fives, and we ride up and over them before they curl over fortunately, grinning at the fun we’re having.
Then into the more sheltered water by the slipway and we surf in.
Shaun hops out and into my MidWay, takes it out and stays on, he looks quite comfortable and paddles for a while before surfing in again.
That’s it, time to drive the 25 miles home and get dinner on; we’re not eating fish this time!
So it was windy. Everywhere else. Except here in the eye of the storm where a brief window of a few hours of light westerlies gave hope for some great cod action after the whipped up frenzy of sea that I’d been watching – and occasionally playing in – over the last few days. The fish were feeding and we wanted cod. We hatched our plans, Shaun, James and I. I turned down a night shift beforehand, James failed to book his off and Shaun, well, he doesn’t do nights, he just works offshore. But we were going. Dag MIdWay off the roof and loaded up – the Warbird 220 as mentioned, the Maxximus KM christened on a cod last week and the Maximus 11+1 christened on a species hunt the week before. Fun stuff, none of it really suitable for winter codding with 8oz leads.
The tides didn’t look too bad and so we elected to go an hour earlier than normal just to make the best of it. Down to Corton, one of the roads a man must walk down (!). It looked flat.
With James remarking how clean and shiny I was in the new suit I had to pose, with my grimy (twice washed the other day) Symbiant Tour PFD to show the difference. I think the PFD was what kept the sailors at bay.
Off we went, launching straight off the beach in line with the ramp, straight out and slightly north. Others had the same idea – Katie Louise was out, Newcombe was out, another eight boats were out including a commercial or two. And us three. ‘They’re a rum old lot, those kayak boys’ being overheard on the radio, fondly. We didn’t stray too far in case we drifted and ended up on top of the boats or started catching anchor warps.
Six and a half minutes of paddling and I dropped down the anchor.
Seven minutes later the first bait went down.
Two and a half minutes later the second bait hit the water. Five and a half minutes later and a cod was on it.
That’s a record, a minute quicker than last week which was a record! Only a young’un at 39cm – in size but not normally my choice of keeper but with a 4/0 right down in the gills I had no choice. It tasted nice but I’d rather have released it to be honest.
Bait three had only gone down a minute before that rod had knocked; this bait lasted just over eight minutes before a better cod at 45cm was banging away on it. A lovely scrap on the miniscule Warbird 220 and Ice Pike rod. Keeper.
Oh, the rod I had the first fish on…remember that? Eight and a half minutes, bang bang. Cod aboard, 45cm again.
Three cod on baits – frozen – in under 22 minutes! This was going to be the day of days…and two were on the MaXXimus KM30which is only a small reel designed for, well, as Matt Hayes says: "float, light general feeder, or light spinning/jigging work. The clutch is very precise and the 8 ball bearings makes it very smooth. An absolute winning product that is suitable for all abilities from match angler to pleasure fisherman." But...reeling in 3lb codling from 3 knot tides and 40ft depths with 8oz lead and braid in the sea tests many things and it was fine. I'd forgotten how fixed spools transmit so much feel through the braid to the rod and I keep thinking they're larger fish than what I've become used to through years of multipliers, ie winches! I'm loving it. But it’s hard work.
Then it went quiet. For me. Half an hour later and James, after a baby codlet and two dropped fish, was in.
I phoned Marty instead. I’d tried Brian to see how he was doing – he was out with his son Paul and skipper Rob and his brother on Katie Louise just up from us but his phone was stuffed. Mine was driving me mad and I kept phoning everyone else, texting Greek and playing scrabble with all and sundry because of the aquapack and damp fingers. Never mind. I missed a fish because of it.
James caught some more though. And some more. Fifty yards inshore from me though Shaun was struggling and managed one small bite…he gave up and headed in knowing his luck had been lost somewhere.
We didn’t give it much longer ourselves, half an hour or so? Then with James nodding off and cold we up-anchored. The wind had picked up and so had the sea by now too. He set course for home, I ran downtide to say hi to the Katie Louise bunch. That is one BIG boat from the water! Beautiful it is too.
I thought about boarding and using the restroom for a quick bath but with lines everywhere and swirling water (I was being a pain I’m sure) I just drifted, chatted, paddled, drifted and snapped and generally took the micky out of some of the things heard of late, not least some abuse a commercial who was netting there got from someone unknown an hour before – Brian even had the cheek to ask if it was us lot! Like we’re big enough to give abuse over the radio. So it’s a mystery who it was, even if the feeling was shared amongst a lot of the craft out there. Brian had dinner sorted anyway:
I headed back uptide and in, landed and had a lift up the steps by James before we headed to the car park where a few pics were taken to show the unbelievers at work…seven keepers (one he would have returned but also deep hooked, he'd sent another one that size back), he was over the moon.
Can’t say I blame him.
