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Deal (Royal Cinque Ports Golf Links) 6th Nov.98
Met up with Steve Burling and Paul Davies around 9.45pm in the carpark just north of Deal Pier. Steve had very kindly got the lugworm bait for us all, although he realised that he'd forgotten the squid from his freezer ...... but to be honest, with the reports of whiting about, lug only baits were probably in order, if we stood a chance of catching any codling....
Drove up to the Cinque Port Golf Links, just south of the Chequers Pub.
Walked over the links to set-up, and found space for the three of us between the many anglers already set-up, esp towards the pub side of the beach!!!!
High water was due around 12.40am and just past the spring. Forecast was for clear skies and force 2/3 winds from the W to SW, with local calms. Tidal run was from right to left. Steve warned us that there maybe some weed about
10.30pm: Started setting-up .. decided upon a pennell 2/0 and 4/0 rig at range, with a flowing wishbone (2/0's) set closer in shore.....
10.40pm: Steve came over looking none too happy .. he'd just landed 2 whiting on one of the bomber rigs he was using .... asked him what the problem was.... he replied that he'd put a bit of shoulder into the other rod to get the bait out as far as possible .... only problem was the 200 yrds of braid he had on the reel was not enough, and to compound matters had not tied it ..... first and last thing he knew of it, was the reel scream and the braid go flying off towards France!!!!!
Offered the use of my spare 7000, but he declined, and said he was happy to use just the one rod.......
10.50pm: missed bites on the wishbone rig, followed ten minutes later by ones on the pennell.......
11.05pm: saw Paul landing what looked to be yet another whiting ..... looked
like he was having a good time......
11.22pm: at last .. a solid bite on the wishbone produces the goods .... well all 12.5" of whiting at any rate.... just as I've landed it the other rod with the pennell rig, starts to bounce... another whiting, this time of 13".
Bait up, cast out, and wait .... few false alarms/missed bites ...... can live with a few missed whiting of that size, especially if it gives the cod a chance....
11.40pm: not a cod... but an even smaller whiting on the 4/0 of the pennell .. all of 10".... !!!!!
11.45pm: Drag a 14" whiting in on the wishbone .......
11.50pm: just kick the pennell rig out, when the rod tip starts bouncing.....
I can instantly tell that this is no 10" whiting, and I retrieve with just
a little more care, in fact I'm forced to walk towards the oblique angle
of the lead to aid me ..... soon I see a nice codling come out of the breaking
surf, and give the others a shout.... honour saved....... 21" of Codling
at just a shade under 3lb .... great stuff .. now if only I could find that
20+lb'er!!! :-)
Around midnight I gut the fish, something I like to do as quickly as possible after landing, especially with whiting .. anything over an hour and the flesh becomes too tainted.....
12.30am: The rod with the pennel, starts to twitch, and then bend .. grabbing the rod, it feels like a lot of dead weight ...... I'm hoping it's a codling playing dead ... the reality is a huge clump of Fucus serrates ....... hiding under which is a rather miserable looking three bearded rockling .. tried to take a photo, but it's very had to focus using an LCD it the darkness, on a small object ....... all the pic's were out of focus so I gave up, and popped it back into the sea...
12.40am: another whiting this time on the wishbone, and measuring in at a staggering 13"!!! :-)
12.45am Paul was having a good time, made even better by the landing of a
nice 3.1/4lb codling on his pennell rig......
1.15am: whoopee ...... 11.5" Whiting on the wishbone .. things start to go very quiet except for the weed on the line..very tiresome....
1.50am .. we're just discussing packing up, when Pauls rod starts twitching violently ..... then he's got a really silly smile on, as he lands a nice 16" sole........
2.00am: bring the wishbone in to pack away ...... and I have another 12" whiting.....
Paul reckoned that he'd caught over 10 whiting, whilst Steve was philosophical with his four.....
Pack-up and walk back to the cars .... as we were putting things away, the chap that was fishing next to us came along .. he'd had three codling in all, from 3lb to what looked like 4lb+, although one of these, he had taken before we had arrived at low water.
I decided that as there was so little wind, that there was a good chance to fish Dover Breakwater that morning ... I'd looked in on the tackleshops in Dover on my way to Deal, and from the sign boards outside, looked like bait would not be an issue).. I slept in the car (having brought my sleeping bag for just such an eventuality)..... woke-up for the shipping forecast at 5am ..... outside there is not a breath of wind ... however the Met Office shipping forecast was talking of force 3 to 4 winds, rising to force 7 and 8 at times!!!!! .... decided there was no chance that the motorboat company would be going across with a forecast like that, despite the actual conditions locally. Pulled up outside Bills Bait and Tackle in Dover, and thought about what to do .. either get fresh bait and fish the Admiralty Pier, or go for the easy (but probably less productive) option of Folkestone Pier, using the old bait I had ....... easy option won ...... you'll have to go to the Folkestone section to find out what happened (Hint: not a lot except pouting and a dab......).
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