Dover Breakwater 13/3/99

Paul came over to my place for 5.30am, so that we could drive down to Kent and collect our bait..... with a low neap tide of 5.0 m the previous day, the chances of getting yellow-tails were slim, and so when I phoned Dave Hughes of Marsh Tackle, down at Dymchurch, and he offered us the prospect of wrapped gutted yellows, and fresh live Devon Peeler Crab, we obviously ordered them there and then ..... cod and codling were to be our intended target, and these were just the baits to tempt them....

The detour off the M20 down to Dymchurch was a lot easier than I had imagined, although I didn't really have to worry as Paul had been there before to buy a Beach Buddy .. indeed as we pulled into Dymchurch High Street, Dave was standing in the doorway ready to greet us ... he even offered us a cupper, although we had to decline his very kind offer, so that we could get to Dover in time for the Boat / a reasonable place in the queue

We selected the crabs that we wanted, I choose to take 15, with a mix of prime peelers and a number of "popper's" ... Paul took his time, which allowed me to have a look around the shop, which had a good selection of equipment, both for fresh and sea fishing..... although Dave had taken our order for gutted yellow-tail on the basis that would probably be all that was on offer, he had infact procured a number of trays of live worms ....to which we said "YES PLEASE" .. which then threw up the question of transporting them ... Paul had already filled his bucket with crabs ... I had a bucket in the car for my worms, and Dave then very kindly found a nice square bucket for Paul ....

Dave then showed us a couple of rods that he'd just taken stock of ... I could see Paul's eyes light-up, esp when Dave put the rod in Paul's hands, and allowed him to apply pressure to see the action .... I also noticed that Dave was stocking a wide range of reels, that included Mitchell's, so I was able to ask him about the possibilities of getting hold of the smaller capacity spools for the spinning 300's (you can tell I'm already dreaming of the summer and Bass!!!!).

Anyway, having chatted with Dave for the best part of half an hour, we set off for Dover, and found ourselves at the DumpHead just before 8am , so I dropped Paul off with the other 8 anglers ahead of us, and parked the car, in the Hoverspeed Carpark ....

Once I'd parked, paid £4 for the eight hour stay, and walked back, the number of Anglers had doubled, and Paul had got my ticket....

Tom told us that a few codling had been taken on Wednesday, both from the mid section and the knuckle .... I told Paul we'd see how we got off the boat , and fish either, with a preference towards the Knuckle if it presented itself .... and it did, and so that's where we went.... to be joined shortly after by 3 chaps from Eastbourne...

The first thing to strike one was that the water was a clear green, rather than the stirred up brown of late ... something Tom was later to comment upon, and said that when he was over at the Ad. Pier the day before it was almost like the Med it was so clear..... NOT really the sort of conditions to be catching codling, let alone cod, for the shore in daylight!!!!

We started fishing just before 9am .... I elected to use both a 4/0 wishbone, and a 2/0 : 4/0 pennel loaded with yellow-tail or crab, or a combo of both as the mood took me .. and a 2/0 wishbone on the inside.... Paul seemed to be doing much the same...

Well over the first hour, my grand total was one starfish and a rock!!! .. the lads down from us had a small pin whiting and an undersize codling ...

10.00am Paul has an 8" dab from the inside....

10.05am ... I had yet another starfish .. this time from the inside....

10.50am .... went to cast .. managed to slip , and got an over-run, that birdnested :-( .. managed to get the end tackle back, but had to strip out the damaged line, and replace the shock-leader ... as I was winding it on, I realised, that I'd very stupidly placed the spool on top on my tackle box .. and so I went to place it in the box, and continue to spool-on from there..... only trouble was, that as I moved towards it, I lifted the rod tip, that bounced the spool .. that in slow motion fell off the tackle box, and made contact with my advancing foot .... well if I'd wanted to play for England, I'd have been signed-up there and then .. spool of 60lb gantel, goes straight over the side, and into the drink ..... claw back the line, but of course the spool is spinning in the water just letting it off ... very luckily the end of the line was taped to the spool, so I could retrieve it, and rewind the line back on to it .... I felt, and must have looked very silly .... Paul missed all of this, as he had been along the Breakwater to see how others had been getting on ... most had blanked, and none had anything of note ... something like 3 whiting in total!!!!!! :-(

11.15am ... starfish from the outside....

The weather was improving all the time... almost like a May day with loads of sun and a light wind from the W / SW, with the odd mist / fog bank rolling in.. all very nice .. but I really would have swapped it for force 5, and rain, if it meant fish!!!!

12.30pm .. missed a bite on the inside, whilst talking to Tom and Paul..... but I then pull up a rock from the outside .. fun!!!!

1.00pm ... another starfish!!!

1.25pm .. as I'm baiting a rig with crab.. I spot a series of sharp tugs on the inside rod ... at last a fish ... all 10" of flounder .. but at least honor is saved... take a photo and put it back....

3.00pm ... another bite on the inside .. this time I pulled up a colourful male common dragonet .. take a few snaps and put it back...

Mark Stinton (Capt. Kebab) phoned to see how things were going (he was due to fish a comp later that night off the Ad Pier) .. told him how bad things had been, many blanked, no one with more than a couple of fish, and nothing of note, and only undersized codling, and few at that.. ... and agreed that fishing for pout maybe his only hope under the hours of darkness, and to forget about codling (unless he was very lucky)... and that's just about how it worked out for him ....

Packed up at 3.30pm to be collected .. although this took some time as one of the boats broke down..... all in all, a very frustrating and difficult days fishing....

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