Dover Breakwater 31st Jan.1999

Weather forecast was for light variable winds around force 2, and then becoming NE force 3 to 4, with sunshine at times......

Knowing from the previous day that pegs 20 thought to 150 would be booked out to people fishing one of the comps, and that Tommy had told us just as we were packing the gear into the car, that many enquires had been made to find out about people being able to fish the breakwater that Sunday, I decided the only course of action was to drive down really early to Dover pick-up the bait from Bills Bait and Tackle, and Channel Angling, and get to the front of the queue at the DumpHead ..... and that's exactly what did..... and was waiting there from 6.55am onwards, even though the boats would not collect us until around 8.15am......

After about 7.30am the first people started to arrive, but very quickly there were 50 odd angler behind me .... and all I was thinking was going for the knuckle, or the lighthouse, and how many on the first boat would not be fishing the match pegged positions...

The boats turned up early .. 7.55am, before Tom had been able to issue tickets / collect moneys.... so I went down and asked the boatman to wait, but as it happened it worked out fine, as he had to go and collect a night party off the Wall anyway, which gave Tom the breathing space of about 15 minutes that he needed to get people organised......

Caught the first boat across, that dropped us off in the mid section .. I got off quickly and briskly walked to peg 1, and started setting up a.s.a.p.... decided to fish only 2 rods, both with 4/0 wishbones loaded with yellow-tail, or yellow-tail/rag combos .. in the hope of that decent sized codling/cod.......

High-water was due around 11am, but a strong tidal run was already present from right to left, making the job of holding bottom difficult, and at times almost impossible .... in fact it was one of those shifting tides were the direction seemed to change every 60 minutes or so......

8.40am ..... have a series of sharp tugs and pulls .... bring up, one 12" bass....

Watch as boat after boat of anglers are dropped off.. something like 7 in all ...... things were crowded to say the least!!!!! ...

9.07am: 8" pouting....

10.40am.... pull up an 8" pouting and a 2lb rock!!!!!

10.50am .... manage to get tangled up with one of the lads to the right of me.. but still have an 8" pout to show for it....

11.00am My right handside rod starts to nod violently .. pick it up and instantly know I've go a fish... it was hard work..... moved slowly towards my right to go under my neighbours tackle ... as things progress, so my neighbour gives a shout, and indicates that my other rod is also now bouncing up and down ...... eventually I brought the cod to the surface, looked to be 4lb plus, hard to tell with the fish still in the water ... I then realised to my horror why the other rod is nodding, not because I had a second fish, but because this one has managed to become tangled with the other ....... the second line was pulled very taught by the strong tidal flow, and acted like a cheese wire, and cut straight through the snood with the fish on it, and all I saw was my prize fish, the one that I got up so early for, the one that made me rush to the end of the Breakwater to fish for, the one that I've used big baits and hooks, at the exclusion of all else ... float silently on the surface, carried rapidly by the current, and then disappear away, back into the murky depths of the channel..... aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh ... followed by a lot of very blue language .. one of the advantages of working in a biology lab, is that one's vocab, is rather extensive in the rude word department!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I reel in the other rod.. and yes, I have a consolation prize .. an 8" poor-cod ...... I almost picked up my tackle box and threw it into the drink...... sometimes you have to really wonder what it's all about!!!!!!!

11.35am: Double shot ... well not really .. an 8" pout and an edible crab........

11.45am: 9" pout......

12.10pm: Double shot ..9" dab and a 9" pouting.....

12.25pm: 9" bass

12.45pm: 12" codling.. not really the double figure monster I was after....

1.00pm 9" pout.....

1.15pm: 8" pouting..... Tommy came over and pointed out the activity of a flock of gulls in the Harbour... they were wheeling and diving, at what I first thought was some form of discharge from the ferries .. huge flocks normally follow behind them, so it was nothing unusual to see, except on this occasion there was no ferry, and in fact the birds were diving at jumping sprats, driven to the surface one presumes by predatory fish .. we decided that bass had to be the favourites...... Tommy also said that a four eyed flounder had been landed in the Duke of Wellington comp and that it also had failed to take on the white colouration of the underside of normal flounders..... I should have gone and asked to take a photo, but I don't really like to disturb match anglers too much, let alone mess with their fish to take a photo!!!

1.35pm: 9" pouting......

Not long after this a wreath floats by on the inside wall!!!!!

1.38pm: 8" pouting .... God how I love pouting :-)

1.55pm: a 12" codling......

2.15pm: 9" pout, followed fifteen minutes later by an 8" specimen!!!!

2.40pm: ..starfish.......

3.00pm: double shot of a 10" Bass and a 9" pouting.......

3.20pm: wind-in to pack-up, and have an 8" poor-cod to show for it .....

Looked like most had been catching pout and dabs, with a few small codling, with only one good sized fish around 5lb or so in one of the comps, although I didn't see it myself ....... caught the boat , and drove home, and had plenty of time to mull over the one that got away!!!!!! ............ oh well we'll just have to see if there is a reasonable spring codling run at the end of Feb/March, otherwise it's going to be Oct/Nov until get another crack at the cod.......

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