Chatham (Rochester Civic Centre Esplanade) 01/09/02
GR:
HW : 7.30am Sunny spells with SE wind backing NE force 2/3

Set off from West Ewell around 4.30am … bit of a shock to the system, getting up at 3.45am!!!! .. but at least I’d been sensible enough to make sandwiches, get all my gear together, and pre-soak the groundbait the previous evening…… just had to remember to get it in the car…….
Arrived down at the slipway around 5.30am, unpacked the car, and set up the breadbags followed by the tackle, and was fishing by 5.45am on the already advancing tide…..

6.30am….. had what looked like a nice bite until I pulled up a common shore crab….. the water was very murky with no chance of actually seeing any fish until they took the bait…… with luck!!!!!

7.30am…… still nothing, and I decided to set up the second rod as a self-hooking rig into the corner …. I really should have done this from the outset, but in the excitement of getting here, and wanting to fish straight away, I’d sort of sacrificed it, by immersing myself in the float fishing……

8.10am…. and I was starting to wonder if I was going to have any joy on the mullet front at all …. made so much harder having spent the previous month fishing on Jersey, where at least one had a reasonable chance of seeing if the fish were about …… the Medway is certainly only for those who have confidence in themselves, their tactics, and the faith and conviction to withstand the endless unknowing hours …… for me, I guess it just boils down to there being BIG mullet here, that are caught on a regular basis…………

Anyway, suddenly the float that I’d been trotting down the wall of the 3rd and 2nd bays, shot under the water, almost under my rod tip…… and something large and heavy met my strike … and then proceeded to move off taking line as it did so …… I never saw the fish, managed to bring the float up, which was only 20” or so from the hook, but the colour of the water obscured any sight of my adversary….. but it sure felt like a fish of 4lb+ but who can tell until you land it …… anyway it surged off, and dived down towards the submerged wall ….. managed to bring it back, only to have it lunge into the tidal flow running on the front edge of the slipway ….. but came back into the slack water ….. I started to think things were going to be OK….. but I was wrong….. suddenly, and without warning the fish dived, and started doing the head shaking thing that mullet do …… and sure enough it popped the hook, the line went slack, and I was gutted …… mullet 1 : whiting 0 …… ;-(

9.24am …. Things had been quiet since I lost the previous fish, but the day was becoming more pleasant and the slipway was bathed in sunshine ….. all of a sudden the float shot under the water, again as it trotted up against the wooden wall of the 3rd bay….. thump….. defiantly a fish on the end, that soon showed its displeasure at being hooked …. Certainly felt lighter than the previous fish, but a fighter none the less, that again made a series of dives and runs towards the submerged wall, and then into the channel flow to my right… the danger is that the fish can then be taken past the retaining wall, into the main river, which would make landing it extremely difficult….. thankfully for what ever reason, just as the other fish had done, it pulled into the slack eddy water between the retaining and sunken walls in font of the slipway …… the fish also started to tire, and just for a moment came up to the surface ……. I’d estimate the fish was between 3.5 to 4lb or something in that order …. I suddenly had that feeling of deus avows , as the fish suddenly got its second wind, powered off into a surging dive, and started doing the head shaking thing …… my heart was in my mouth, I uttered a prayer to whom ever was listing, but all to no avail….. the line want slack as the hook popped out…. Aaaaaaarrrrrrrr ….. I can’t say I have any way of countering this tactic by the mullet, except in hoping that the hook has bitten deep enough, which one would have thought after 5 minutes of hard play … but obviously not!!!!! I felt physically sick …. To loose one fish was bad enough, but two in the same manner, and having played both for a reasonable period of time, really had dented my ego and spirit …..

In a half sort of daze I rebaited and just popped the float and bread down by the side of the slipway steps, and watched it bob up and down in the eddying current, whilst I tried to regain my composure, and stop myself from shaking through a combination of rage and disbelief…
I never really got the time to do the Zen thing …. Almost immediately the float went down …. I struck ….. and was into another fish …….. a short dash for freedom….. but this was no mullet ….. my first thought was maybe a roach or similar fish that Leon had mentioned something about, the last time I’d been down here with him …. But no …. Up pops a 12” flounder … uuumm so now you know…. Bread flake for flounders!!!!! …. Took a couple of pix and popped it back …. I have to say it did sort of bring a smile back to my face, if only for a fleeting moment before darker thoughts of lost fish came creeping back to haunt me…..

10.30am ….. things had gone very quiet for the previous hour and the water was rapidly ebbing away, exposing the wrack on the sunken wall…… managed to get myself snagged on it, but pulled the tackle clear after a couple of abortive attempts ….. but decided to take the hint and stop fishing until I could get onto the outer section of the sunken wall, and fish the main channel….. looking around, there were plenty of fresh lip marks around the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd bays and also in the bay at the foot of the slipway steps…..

11.15am …. Managed to wade out to the lower wall, set up the bread bags, and the self hooking rig on the end section, and float fished down against the wall about 100ft along….

All I can say is that it was very, very quiet for the next couple of hours with the wind picking up around 12.30pm or so, making things a little more awkward, but certainly not unfishable
Around 1pm, I found that the self-hooking rig was snagged….. managed to pull it free, but it looked like the hook length had been cut by crabs… :-(

By 2.30pm the tide had risen sufficiently to warrant my exit off of the front wall, and move back to the slipway area…… I decided to wait until the tide rose further before continuing to fish, and to use the intervening time to work out the best drop lengths for the self-hooking rig, if I was to use it in the 1st bay section, and secure it to the top railings ….. simple answer was the length of the rod ….. 11’ from tip to butt, would suspend the weighted feeder approximately 2ft off the mud/shingle just where the maximum lip-marks were to be found…….
Started fishing again around 3pm off the slipway itself Wading into the flow, and letting the float trot as it wished, although I didn’t really have the correct floats to do this very successfully …… so it was with little surprise that I had nothing to show for my continued efforts…..

3.30pm… Leon came down and joined me ….. set up his gear, and started by fishing off the slipway itself…. As I had been doing earlier….
As the tide rose Leon decided to try his luck on the ledge in front of the pumping station (I think that’s what it is), but although we’d both seen numerous lip marks in the bays below that position, the wind direction, and overhang made life a little too awkward, and so he elected to join me and fish the bays by the sunken wall / slipway……. All we managed however was a couple of small shore crabs!!!!!

By 7.30pm we’d had enough and decided to call it a day ….. we could have perhaps fished on until dusk, I’m not sure that our hearts were really in it by that time…… and besides which I still had to drive home, and the thought of an early dinner and bed was more than I could resist…best part of 14 hours fishing was enough for me… .. the mullet would have to wait for another day……

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