Dover Admiralty Pier 28th Dec.1997

Drove down to Hythe to try and collect the bait order that I'd given Mick a week before..... on the drive down, we listened to the Radio 4 weather..... inshore forecast was talking about force 3 to 4..... unfortunately the shipping forecast was talking about force 5 to 6, with 7 to 8 at times..... looked like a no go situation to the Wall (as it happens, as usual the shipping forecast got it wrong, and the inshore was right.... BUT... as the Motorboat company go by the Shipping forecast, we were to be denied access.....).

Arrived at Mick's..... along with the hoards wishing to fish the Cod Championships... not only was Mick supplying the majority with bait, they were also picking up their draw tickets as well...... things were looking bleaker than Mick had suggested to both Tony and myself over the coarse of the week.... bait was obviously in short supply, with the competitors being rationed with 1 score of black and 1.5 score of yellow tail.... eventually I got to be served..... my original order had been for 12 score of black or yellow.... well we'd spoken to Mick who said he couldn't meet it... been let down by some diggers.. but now even the 2 or 3 score that he said he hoped would be available to us ...was not... :-( ..... I couldn't even purchase any squid... did manage a couple of score of rag.......

Arrived at Dover, to find a large queue of people waiting at the Quay.... thought for one moment that common sense had prevailed over the Motor boat company... it was short lived.. after speaking to one or two, it became apparent that they had not phoned up to ask....... than someone who had phoned, turned up to deliver the bad news....... very frustrating when your standing there, with fishing boat parties pulling out to sea.. and your left standing in spitting distance of where you wish to go....  :-(

Waited for Tony to turn up....... he'd managed to get another 10 score of blow lug from Bills (ordered at the start of the week, when Mick had very kindly warned us of the difficulties he was facing.....), along with the yellow tails and black left over from the previous days fishing........ he also had with him, his mum and Dad, and Rolly (well I think that's his name.. better ask Ant....)..... Ant could hardly speak to me, he was furious with the decision not to go across in the light of the prevailing conditions, and the inshore forecast... took almost 3 hours for him to calm down enough to have a civil conversation, guess after the previous days fishing he was very disappointed......

Anyway, we decided to fish the Ad. Pier, as we were already in Dover... so off we went...

So we went to the end section... it was packed.... strange, 'cos the day before when we had gone across to the Wall, it had been almost deserted..... Anyway set up half way along and started fishing around 9.15am, using the same basic long flowing wishbones that had served us so well.....

The tidal run was very very strong, and I had extreme difficulty holding bottom.... if fact I just couldn't for some reason, no matter what I did.... think I may have upset a few people... oooopps....

Rolly took first blood around 9.40am ... codling around 16".....

Margaret than landed a codling around the 15" mark at about 10am, followed by Karen with an 8" pout...

By 11.30am I was not in a good mood, and really just wanted to pack up and go home or move off to Folkestone, but I continued against my better judgment......

Ant caught a 15" codling whilst Rolly took a double shot.....

Chaps next to us hooked into a large cod... had a devil of a time getting it into a drop net, with the very strong tidal flow... someone had a rectangular one which helped... chap didn't weigh it but I would estimate it to be between 4 to 5 lb.... They did OK, must have had about 10 fish between them by the time they left, later that afternoon.... think that they were using 10 oz fixed leads, that just held that much better than our 8oz fixed grip leads... it's the only thing I can think of, as they were using almost identical rigs and baits to us.....

12.25pm: Ant almost lands a 2lb'er.. but the top easy link of his trace seemed to have unclipped some how, so he lost both fish and trace.. not a happy bunny.. :-(

12.30pm: At last a fish, I land a 14" codling that I didn't even know I had until I tried to retrieve..... Ten minutes later and Pete who's fishing next to me gets a 17.1/2" codling of 1.3/4lb...... Rolly gets a small pout......

3.00pm and Ant gets a small whiting...... it's time to leave, enough is enough..... and then the heavens open, just to end a perfect day....... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I really should have stayed at home and watched paint dry!!!!!!! :-)

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