Dover Breakwater 11th Jan.1998

Drove down to Hythe to collect the bait, only to find that the Tackle shop was already open, and camped out with people, preparing for a competition..... my heart sank, was I going to be allowed to pick-up the bait I had ordered........

Went in, and was greeted with questions about the state of the Wall, and how the fishing had been..... had one small quip about Mr. Brown, who had also ordered 10 score of bait, and was I fishing with him......... anyway, the long and the short of it was, I picked up the Bait, with no trouble.....

Drove over to Dover and waited for Steve Burling to show..... originally I had intended to fish with Karen and Ant, but both had to drop out at short notice, and Steve said that he was interested..... the only problem, was that he had already arranged an evening fish that Saturday, but thought he'd be OK for the Sunday......

Anyway, waited and waited, no sign of Steve..... got to 8.25am, and decided to go and park the car, take my stuff to the Quay, and wait until the last boat across..... I'd forgotten to take his Tel. number with me, so I had no way of finding out if he was or was not coming....... got to the Quay to find that only one boat was doing the shuttle run, and it was only just leaving with the first group..... paid my money to the Steward and said I'd be back..... ran back to the rendezvous point.... no sign of Steve.... waited until 8.45am, and ran back.... more people had arrived, so I decided to wait for the third and final boat, just in case Steve made a show...... gave up and jumped on the last boat at 9.10am.......

Obviously the prime spots were taken by the time I got on the Wall, although I'm really not sure that the difference is that great, more to do with tactics and bait..... fish the hottest spot going , but do it wrong, and you may as well stay at home...... anyway I decided to head for the 50's / 60's pegs.... plenty of room, got the steeps to return the fish.... all fine by me.....

The wind was a little stronger than the Saturday, say around force 4 to 5........ High Tide due at 10am, with 6.3m.....

Started fishing around 9.30 or so...... Had two rods with identical set-ups, 4/0 wishbones on 6 long flowing bottom traces, each hook baited with 3 yellow tails...... one for each side of the Wall..... I set-up a third rod to fish down the inside wall for Pollack... this consisted of a Christmas Tree arrangement...... 11' main trace with 3 French booms along it's length, with 3' traces coming off with 1/0 hooks, with a bunch of wriggling small rag on each, about 12 turns off the bottom, and a 6 oz plain weight. The Multiplier was put into free spool, with the ratchet on, and the rod secured....

9.50am: Double shot, with a 16.1/2" codling, and a 10" dab, from the outside....

10.30am: The ratchet on the Christmas tree rod, screamed away...... pulled up another 16.1/2" codling...... although with a little difficulty due to the length of the trace body....

10.45am: Another double shot from the outside........ 17" codling and a 12" pout......

11.20am: The Christmas tree reel sang once more.... this time bringing a nice Coalfish of 15"..........

11.30am: Land a 13" Codling from the outside......

11.45am: Christmas tree, gives me a small Pollack of 8"........

11.55am: Catch a 15.1/2" codling from the inside...... I thought I would have had more by this time, from the way things went the day before... just goes to show how things can change from tide to tide!!!!!!!

12.05pm: Another double from the outside, although this one was rather disappointing with a 7" poor cod, and a 10" dab........

12.10pm: Another small Pollack, this time 10", from the Christmas tree.......

12.20pm: 14.1/2" codling from the inside....

12.35pm: Take a 17" codling from the outside.....

12.40pm: Christmas Tree starts bobbing again, but it's an 11" whiting this time........ :-(

12.45pm: The outside rod produces a 14" codling........

Things go a little slack, and whilst I'm munching on a sandwich, I decide to ask the Chap just up from me how it's going...... get a reply that it's crap...... I look at him rather quizzically, and ask what he's using....... Well what can I say.... his rigs were about 12" in length, 3 snoods all about 3" long, with 1/0 hooks on the outside, and size 6's on the inside!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Somehow I managed to keep myself under control...... so I suggest using a long flowing trace with maybe a wishbone...... whoosh, straight over his head.... back comes the reply... " I'm not using Wishbones"..... I calmly tell him that I know that he's not using wishbones, but I am, and that I'm catching the codling that he wants........ go over the rig set-up with him, get a nod of thanks, and he then continues on with the midget rigs....... can only lead a horse to water!!!!!!!!

Anyway, went and got a coffee, and looked over what others had caught.... few fish of between 2 to 2.1/2lb had been landed around the lighthouse, with one chap in the spot where Ant, Paul, and myself had fished the previous day, with a nice fish... asked what it weighed, and the guy estimated 4lb, I thought around the 3lb mark..... so we weighed it..... only 2.3/4lb..... the fish was long but thin..... but still the best fish I saw that day........

1.25pm: 15.1/2" Codling from the inside, followed 15 minutes later by one of 13", again from the inside.........

2.20pm: 16" Codling from the inside.......

2.25pm: 8" poor cod on the Christmas tree.......

2.35pm: 12" codling from the inside.....

things then went rather dead for me....... :-(

3.20pm: 10" pout from the inside......

3.30pm: Last fish of the day, as I'm packing up to catch the boat back.... 16" codling from the inside..........

Crawled back into the car, and drove back to London.......

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