Dover Breakwater 13th Dec.1997

Went to Bill's to collect my bait, but no yellowtails..... Clive said he'd try and make sure that he had some for Sunday... so I had to settle for normal blow lug and a couple of packs of squid......

Decided to fish both sides, so that I could determine a reasonable strategy for the Christmas Competition, to be held on the Breakwater the next day..... With this in mind, I had two identical rigs set (clip-up / clip-down), with size 1/0 hooks... whilst I wouldn't normally fish for codling with less than 2/0, I was interested in maximizing my catch potential.. not just codling.......

The wind was blowing from the SW around force 3 or less, with a mixture of sunshine and cloud. High water was due around 10.30am....

By the time we had crossed and I had walked to were I wished to fish..... around peg 50.. I started fishing at approx. 9am.....

9.15: 11" Pout from the outside on the lower hook......

9.20: 13" Codling from the inside on the lower hook....

9.25: 13" Codling from the inside on the lower hook.....

9.35: Small pout from the outside on the lower hook

9.45: 15" Codling (1&1/4lb) from the inside on the lower hook......

9.55: 17" Codling (1&1/2lb) from the outside on the lower hook.....

10.00: 14" Codling from the outside on the lower hook......

10.05: 14.5" Codling from the inside on the lower hook.....

10.15: 10.5" pout from the outside on the lower hook.....

10.20: Missed bite from the inner wall..... think probably due to hook being too small!!!

10.25: Coffee Break ..... normally Karen very kindly does the honors, but as she was unable to come fishing due to work commitments, I had to get my own..... I took the opportunity to chat with others and see how they had got on...... by and large the same.. with one or two larger fish being pulled up (esp. around pegs 30 to 35) with fish in the range of 4 to 6lb cropping up..... one chap down the other end (western) had a cod of almost 9lb

10.40: 14" Codling from the outside, again on the bottom hook......

After this things went slack... really coinciding with high water.....

11.30: I decided to modify the rigs based upon what had gone before..... the most striking feature was that all the fish were coming from the bottom..... so I set up a clip-up wishbone with a long flowing snood on both inner and outer rods.....

12.10: 8" Pout from the inside.......

12.30: Decided to try at range from the inside....

12.45 8" Pout from the inside......

12.50: Bite from the inside... snagged..... lost tackle..... dropped back to short range on the inside!!!

12.55: 10" Pout from the outside......

1.05: 16" Codling from the outside.....

1.35: 6" Pout from the inner....

1.50: 11" Pout from the outer....

2.10: 15" Codling from the inner....

2.20: 10" Dab from the outside....

2.50: 12" Pout from the outside.....

3.10: Bizarre experience..... 3 codling on 2 hooks!!!!! 16", 15" and 14"...... 16" lower lip, 14" upperlip, same 1/0 hook!!!!!!! never had that before... who says wishbones aren't magic!!! :-) Felt slightly cheated... thought I'd got 1 reasonable size fish when I was reeling them in!!!! :-(

3.25: Small pout from the inside.....

3.30: Super thumping bite on the outside.... connect with a good size fish.... but after a few minutes, I felt it dive, and it must have pulled out the hook.... second decent fish lost, probably due to the hooks being too small, or just nicking into the flesh rather than substantially penetrating..... oh well always next time......

Packed up and caught the boat back...... Tom the steward told us that one of the boats (Growler, I think he said) had radioed in to ask what the specimen size for whiting was.... told around the 3lb mark... back comes the reply... OH, think this fish is more than that.. more like 6lb!!!!!!!!....... Winters almost here!!!!! :-)

Either
Return to Dover index Page
OR
Return to HomePage of UK Sea Fishing Diary