Dover Breakwater 14 March 1998

Drove down to Dover with Paul Davies, and arrived around 7.20am or so. Stopped at Bills Bait and Tackle to collect our bait...... juicy yellow tails and rag where to be the order of the day, plus we picked up a few bits and bobs of terminal tackle. Clive told us about the fishing the weekend before, which had been very good... 20 something plus codling and dogfish to the top 6 weights of the DSAA Sunday match (felt a bit sick, considering I had strongly toyed with the idea of fishing it, and then rejected the idea, as I had too much work on..... just my luck!!!!!! ). I had to nip over to Channel Angling to grab some power gum, and a score of rag that I'd ordered....... would have preferred to have maddies but as I'd ordered late on Friday, I thought that was out...... only to see maddies were free to be bought that morning..... common sense prevailed, and I decided we had enough bait.........

Went to the DumpHead and dropped Paul and the tackle off, and went and parked the Car in the Hoverport area....... they have now erected fencing around it, so one can no longer take the short cut by foot, through the Harbour personal carparks, and you must now walk around it, past the entrance to the Prince of Wales.

As we were early, it meant that we could catch the first boat across at 8.30am..... walked down to peg 60 to 68. High water was due at mid-day at 6.4m (reasonably large tide) and with the wind from the North to North West at force 3 to 4. The reality was that we were sheltered from the wind for much of the day, by the cliffs behind us, and bathed in sunshine esp. during the morning... real T-shirt weather... felt like we should be fishing for Bass rather than codling!!!!!!!

Set up 2 rods, each with long flowing wishbones... the outer with 2/0's and the inner with 2's ....... baited with yellowtail or a combination with rag. I also set up a third rod with a Christmas tree of 4's baited with rag, and down the inner wall for Pollack......

8.5Oam: Started fishing.........

9.15am: First fish of the day.... 17" Codling of 1.3/4lb from the inside, on the hook with the lug/rag combo.....

9.25am: Another codling.... 19.1/2" and weighing in at 2.3/4lb..... again from the inside, and to the lug/rag combo.....

9.28am: Paul has a pouting of 9" from the inside.....

9.45am: Manage to have a 3 way tangle with Paul, and the chap next to him, and yet still manage to pull up a 15" Codling from the outside.......

9.50am: Paul gives a rye smile when he pulls up a starfish from the outside!!!!! Unfortunately five minutes later he then lost a trace on the inside :-(

10.05am: Decided we both needed a coffee, so I went down to get them , and see how others were doing..... much the same as us or worse from what I could see.....

10.20am: I'm a great believer of leaving things alone, and pulling up fish once I've drunk my coffee........ stops me from being to tip happy I guess, and lets the bite develop.... 20" Codling at 2.1/2lb from the inside, and on the lug/rag combo....

10.50am: Pouting of 9" from the inside........ you guessed it... lug/rag did the damage......

11.05am: Codling of 16.1/2" at 1.1/2lb from the outside......

11.25am: Double shot from the outside..... well not really.... 16.1/2" Codling and a starfish!!!!!!!!!

11.35am: 8.1/2" Pouting from the inside........

11.40am Paul lands a 16" Codling from the outside.........

12.00pm: Lost a fish from the outside of around 2lb... felt it fighting... and then a twang as the hook slipped out.. ;-(

12.15pm: Paul has a 14" Codling from the outside......

12.35pm: Paul again, this time a 16" Codling from the inside...... I was beginning to feel left out.....

12.50pm: at last... another codling, this one was 17" and 1.3/4lb, from the outside....

1.05pm: no sooner had I rebaited, cast out, and the lead set, than the rod tip was banging in a bite fashion, rather than the lead rolling on the bottom..... up comes a 16" Codling......

1.35pm: Catch an 8" pout on the Christmas tree... not really the Pollack I had in mind!!!!!!

1.40pm: Paul brings in a 16" Codling from the outside.....

2.05pm: Thought I'd hooked into something big...... but it turned out to be a plastic carrier bag, much to the amusement of the others around me!!!!!! :-(

2.25pm: Paul lands a 9" Rockling from the outside...

Things went very quite......

3.15pm: Paul hooks into a lobster on the inside, that we manage to bring to the steps, and I ran down them and grabbed it........ it was small but big enough to eat.. about a 1lb to 1.1/2lb..... Paul and his wife had it for supper that night..... very tasty by all accounts.....

3.20pm: Last fish of the day..... 16" Codling from the outside........

Packed up around 3.30pm, and caught the boat back.........

A good days fishing esp. for the Middle of March.......

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