Chatham (Sun Pier) 11/05/03
GR:
LW : 3.00pm(ish) Showers with a SW wind force 4-6

Drove over from Rochester where I’d been fishing during the morning, with nothing to show for my efforts, and having spoken with Leon, said I’d come over and participate in the fish-in he’d organised, although having got thoroughly chilled and despondent with the conditions at Rochester, I was in two minds about it at the time!!!
However as soon as I stepped out of the car, I was forced to agree with Leon’s words of wisdom, about the microclimate of Sun Pier…. It was almost as if it was a different day, and within a very short time, I was stripping off the water proofs and jumpers I’d been forced to don at Rochester……. What it didn’t remove however was the drained feeling, having been fishing since 5am…..

Walked down to the end pontoon, and set-up to fish the inside middle section under the culvert…… I had four kids fishing the front edge, with various styles of wayward beach casting, around my head…. JOY!!!!!
Made up a fresh breadbag and dropped it into the flowing water, and then decided to set up a self-hooking rig, as I couldn’t face looking at a float straight away, having done so all morning …. Guess I was fishing by 1.00pm or so, by the time I’d got myself sorted out…..

Leon popped over from work around 1.15pm ….. to say hello, and just to make sure I stayed put, and didn’t nip off, as I’d indicated I may in our earlier conversation on the phone….. he also agreed to bring down a bundle of new breadsacks, that I promptly paid him for, and with that, off he went back to work, but not before looking over some fresh lip-marks on the metal superstructure……. So they were about after all….. always nice to know……

Just after 2pm, Tony Brothers came down and introduced himself, and said he’d been fishing the pier in the morning, but with no joy…… we chatted for a while about tackle and tactics, venues, and what the local tackleshop had to offer, but the weather started to close in on us, and he went back to his car to sit out the showers and await Leon’s return……
I understood how he felt, and sat down on my tacklebox, drew the waterproofs (I was now again wearing) around me, with my back to the wind and rain, and shut my eyes ….. secretly hoping the rod bell would alert me to a monster mullet on the end of my rod … but it never came :-(

Around 3.15pm or so, a trio consisting of Andrew Boyd. Dave Harden, and their friend (who’s name I missed, but we’ll call “Bob” until I’m told otherwise) arrived, and asked if I was here for the mullet fish-in … to which I acknowledged that I was (although I’m not sure how friendly I came over as … sorry chaps …. I was cold, tired, and slightly despondent by that stage!!!!!)…… said they’d just been down to the Rochester steps, and looked around, but had also been unable to see any lip-marks, just as I had been unable to do, earlier that morning…..

Anyway they went off and returned a short time later (along with Tony from the car) with their gear, and started setting up on the end of the pontoon downstream from me…… asked about set-up, and I recounted Leon’s advice about having the float no more than say 20” or so away from the hook, as the undertow from beneath the pontoon would drag the tackle very quickly away from the groundbaited area and the pontoon side……..

Just before 4pm, Leon arrived having just bumped into another mullet man, out shopping with the family (or similar outing) …… came down and said hello to everyone, and gave some more advice about set-up and tactics, and proceeded to set-up himself in the corner with the gangway and the side pontoon…..

Went over to chat with Leon and Tony around 4.25pm …….
No sooner were we exchanging pleasantries, than a shout went up from the end pontoon ….. “ HE’S IN” ….. we turned in unison, to see Dave Harden standing on the first section of the gangway, struggling with his rod, as it arched downwards towards the water, at a slightly alarming angle …….
All he kept saying to one of the guys next to him was “ I told you I’d just had a bite” …… the fish now started to move off, but came up and hit the surface as it did so …… a very handsome specimen of a fish ….. but it didn’t stay up for long ……. It suddenly shot off like an express, and Dave had to yield line, then the fish turned in back towards him, still diving downwards …….

Leon shouted out a warning about submerged electric cables between the gangway and the pontoon, Dave thanked Leon for his scary advice, and asked if there was any more little bits of information like that, he should know about at a time like this!!!!! …… the result was he was forced to apply a lot of pressure to guild the fish away from the danger area, and the curve on the rod that developed, had me half expecting the hook to pop at any moment …….. suddenly the fish came up, and started to loll on the surface …….

The landing net was deployed by Bob, but the minute it hit the water, the fish dived back down into the murky depths …… this time however it started to seek refuge under the pontoon … first under the walkway , with the danger that it would continue in that direction, and make playing the fish extremely awkward , by having the line under the gangway …… another rod bending performance, and Dave brought the fish back out into open water …. From where it launched itself under the pontoon…… with a real danger of it dragging the line against the submerged edge, and cutting the line …..
Dave fought a desperate battle to gain the upper hand , and bring it out ….. then in a fit of madness, Bob holding the net, suddenly started smashing it on the surface of the water above where the line and fish where ……. A collective shout to make him stop, was met by the comment “ I was only trying to spook it so it would come out” …… to which everyone seemed to yell at once “NOOOOOO” ……….

Without further ado, Dave continued to play the fish, which came out from under the pontoon, only to go back under the catwalk….. however this time when Dave managed to persuade it to come out, it rose to the surface … and stayed there …… a couple of abortive attempts to net it at long range, before it could swim out into open water, or regain its strength, finally resulted in one bagged mullet … and what a mullet……

Leon already had the unhooking mat and scales at the ready … and after some deliberation, it was decided that the fish was a fine 6lb-7oz beast ……. Dave cradled the fish so people could take some pics, before very carefully having the fish gently returned to the water……….

Poor Dave was shaking, and stood around for the next ten minutes or so, thanking everyone for their advice and efforts ……… Tony joked that it was jolly lucky I’d been groundbaiting for Dave for the past 3 hours with the breadbag, to which I chuckled…… I think it probably had more to do with the handfuls of groundbait they'd been constantly been putting down......

5pm ….. I decided to call it a day .. I had promised Karen I’d not be late, and to be honest I was dog tired …… so I said good bye to them all, and crawled back to the car, to drive off to West Ewell…..

Subsequently I’ve spoken to Leon, who told me that they lucked-out for the rest of the time ….. still it was nice that someone had caught a mullet, and a specimen one at that, for all the time and effort that Leon had put in to setting the thing up……. glad I managed to stay after all :-).......

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