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Got up around 5am, and went to the Met.Office web site for the shipping forecast .... NW force 5 to 7.. decided that in all probability we would have to fish the Ad. Pier, as the motorboats wouldn't be going across to the Breakwater ....
Drove down to Dover, and stopped off at the M25 service station for petrol and food for the day .. quite by chance Paul Davies (who I'd arranged to fish with), happened to have pulled in at the same time ... swapped tales of woe over the shipping forecast, and made our way down to Dover....
Arrived at Bills Bait and Tackle around 7.30am or so to collect our bait
... I had ordered 5 score of lug (with a neap tide, no yellow-tails) and
1 of rag, and Paul 4 score as he had a few packs of squid with him......
made a quip to Bill as he was serving us, about the futility of collecting
the lug, as we were unable to go to the 'Wall' .... then Bill spoke, what
can only be described as sweet music to our ears .."they are going out lads
.. should be a good day" ... yippie...... suddenly a cloud lifted from both
Paul and myself .. life was worth living after all !!!!!!
Just as we were leaving, and Bill was very kindly pointing to some suggested parking spaces, Clive turned up, looking somewhat tired .. been fishing a comp that night after digging, but it had not gone well for him.. he seemed to indicate that although his own performance that night had been below par, the general quality of fishing had not been that high either.... Paul and I looked at each other and hoped that it had just been one of those tides, although of course we were in a set of neaps!!!!
Parked the cars, and moved off to the DumpHead .. bumped into Tommy the Steward,
who told us that indeed the Breakwater would be open , but that he was fishing
in the Boat Comp .. arrived to find only two others waiting, one of which
was Alan Yates .. transpired that DSAA has the last of the Sunday series
Comps on, and although Pegs 1 to 80 would be barred to us as a result, I
decided not to fish the comp (lack of quality bait, prep, etc), but to use
the time to play, and get a feel for the venue again...
Very soon the Quay side was bristling with activity, as a lot of other anglers arrived .. most were in fact not fishing the comp, which worried me slightly in terms of potential overcrowding problems, with crossed lines, light weights being used etc .... sounded like many were here for a practice session before a comp spanning Monday and Tuesday took place...
Paul and myself were on the first boat across, and were dropped at the centre
of the Breakwater (for the convenience of the DSAA match people) ...
....this allowed us to stake a position close to them (around peg 90) and
furthest away from the western stairs, where I felt sure the majority would
alight. With the diffusion / car park principle at work, I felt we should
be OK in terms of space ..... and indeed this proved to be the case .. plus
we were reasonably close to the coffee and loos....... always a plus point
:-)
As a result we set-up around 8.50am, and almost at high water, with the tide
running strongly from left to right. I decided to use a long flowing wishbone
2/0 on the outside and another with 1/0's on the inside, baited either with
a double load of lug, or a lug / rag combo. Paul looked to be using wishbones
and a pennell and again fished both sides. He had also brought a third rod
and set a whole squid on a pennell down the Wall for that late illusive bass
or super Cod ...
He was also tipping a number of his worm baits with squid as well...
I had left my third rod behind, thinking we would be fishing the Ad. Pier, OTHERWISE I would have been using some of the rag on a Christmas tree with size 1 kamazans, straight down the wall, 4 or 5 turns off the bottom for pollack... oh well next time...
9.10am: Paul had a double shot of pout on the outside , but lost them when the knot on one of the hooks on his wishbone came undone!!!!!!!
9.25am: Managed to hook a small pout of 8" on the inside...
9.35am: Had a thump on the outside rod, and winched in a double shot of pouting, one of 12" the other 8.5"
9.40am: Paul landed his first fish... a 10" pout from the outside....
9.45am: Another pout to me all of 11".. also from the outside....
9.55am: Paul has a 12" pout from the outside.....
Looked like the match boys were having a good time of it, with a number of pouting and a couple of codling in the 3 to 5lb mark being landed.....
10.00am: Pulled up a small edible crab from the inside!!!!
10.15am: Dab of 9.5" from the outside .. seemed to like that rag tip!!
10.20am: Paul has another 8" pout from the outside....
10.35am: Pouting of 9" from the outside...
10.40am: Local shag was having a great time with all the undersize pouting
being thrown back!!!!
10.45am: Managed to get snagged on the inside .. my own fault, instead of staying short I cast out.... lost the trace and leader ... and had to restring as a result....
10.55am: Paul pulls in a 10" pout from the outside....
11.00am Paul has a double shot of 8" pouting from the inside this time....
11.05am I have a double shot, from the outside ... one pouting of 6.5" and
a whiting of 12.5".
11.20am: Paul has a 10" pouting from the outside....
11.30am: Land a small pout of 8.5" from the outside.... followed five minutes later by Paul ... ribbed Paul that it was the one I'd just thrown back!!!!! ;-)
11.50am: Have a 7" pout from the outside.....
12.15pm: Double shot of pout from the outside, 6.5" and 10.5".....
12.30am: Have another 6.5" pout, this time from the inside....
just as I'm landing it, a big gust of wind blows up some newspaper that I
manage to dodge as it flies past my face..... what I failed to realise at
the time, was that the newspaper concerned, was the very same that was keeping
my rag worm safe .. or was.... Paul very kindly managed to find some of the
worms that had been dropped about 30ft away ..... sort of a failed attempt
to carpet bomb the fish!!! :-)
Paul then managed to pull up a double shot from the outside.... well of starfish anyway!!!!
Things had slackened off with the loss of the tidal run, and looking around, most people had caught pouting with the odd codling here and there of between 3 to 5lb or so, with a few dab and whiting thrown in..... Some nice pollack had been taken over high water, and I regretted leaving my rod and booms behind!!
1.00pm: land a new species for the day ... well a poor cod of 7.5" to be
exact!!!
1.50pm: takes almost an hour.. but I manage another pout of 8.5".....
The tidal run starts again, and so does the fishing......
2.00pm: 11" pouting from the outside......
Paul looses what he thinks is a good fish .. again by the knots on his wishbone giving way .... someone will have to get him a book on knots :-)
2.10pm: Double shot of pouting, 8.5" and 10"....
I swap both rods to the outside......
2.20pm the long cast wishbone starts to bounce .. grab it ... reel-in .... 12" of whiting , at the same time Paul brings in an 8" pouting ......
2.25pm: just get the whiting in, and before I can unhook it, the rod with
the short cast wishbone, gives a huge thump, and bends double ... I dropped
the whiting, and grabbed the other rod ... instantly I knew that I had a
good fish and started to pull it in.... called to Paul to grab the drop net,
unfortunately, I'd tied the other end of the rope to the bucket, for water.....
so Paul comes running up with the net, only to run back again to untie the
rope from the bucket...... all very keystone cops ... anyway, managed to
bring the fish to the surface after a few desperate lunging dives .. up comes
a very nice looking cod, along with a pouting.... we manage to net both fish
at once ..... one pouting of 11", and a very nice cod of 27" ... we weighed
it on two separate balances ... both times 6.1/4lb ... YES.....
it's amazing how a single good fish can turn a poor pout bashing session
into a really great day... :-)
3.04: Pauls honour is saved when he manages a nice codling of 20" at 2.1/2lb
from the outside...
3.25pm: Paul has a 12" whiting from the outside....
3.30pm: Pull in an 8" pout from the outside, followed five minutes later by one of 11.5"..... Pack up the gear and go and catch the boat from the western stairs....
Still looks like early days to the cod session .. but my hopes are high.....
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