Dover Breakwater 6th Sept.1997

Arrived at the Marina Southern Quay (DumpHead) before 8am. Karen and Tony went off to get some food, and left me to look after the tackle. Paid the Dover Sea Angling Association (Tel: 01304 204722) permit fee of 3.50 sobs per person, per day, and waited. Boat turned up at 8.30am, but no sign of Karen or Tony. Second boat turned up, loaded up (12 persons at a time max.).... K and T return..... catch the 3rd boat out to the Breakwater... further 3 sobs for the boat. The boats will only go out weather permitting.... Wind over force 5/6 NO GO.

Contact: Dover MotorBoat Co. Tel: 01304 206809

The Breakwater itself has toilets (both male and female), and a small tuck-shop at the eastern end. Fishing may occur both on the seaward side and the harbour side.

Both inner and outer walls have an open rail running along them, so you may not wish to bring rod rests, although at high tide a certain amount of splash and spray does occur on the seaward side. You may wish to attach / secure your rods with bungie straps, as the tidal run is very strong...... 210g long-grap weights or more needed!!!!!! Tidal run occurs counter to each wall.... ie inner wall flow maybe eastward, in which case outer will be flowing west. Tidal run less on the harbour side, but would seem to have more snags.

Set-up to fish between Pegs 25 to 35 or so at the eastern end, at around 9.15. It was a lovely day (although a very sad one!!), hot, sunny, and with very little wind.

Decided to try for codling, flat-fish, and bass (if we caught small pout) . 2 to 3 hook rigs with size 1 to 2/0 hooks for the codling, and long trace rigs with single or 2 hooks (size 4) for plaice.

Baits: Crab, rag, fresh black lug, and squid.... single and cocktails

Tony started by fishing for flat-fish on the inner wall, and codling on the outer, Karen with a three hook rig on the outer wall, and myself on the inner for flat-fish. For a time, I also knocked out a plug for bass down the wall (the water was lovely and clear, and very few pout down the wall... always a good sign..). After a while decided to try to catch small pout to free-line for bass.

Very little caught during low water (and certainly not by us) .... scad, one or two undersize codling, a plaice and a few pout (Karen walked the length of the BW to find out). Girl next to us had (and lost) a mackerel on floated sandeel).

Caught the first fish of the day..... 4 inch pouting.....  it then went straight down the wall on a free-lined pennell (4/0 hooks) for bass....

Caught a few more small pout down the wall, then Tony had his first fish of the day (having lost 3 sets of tackle on the harbour side) around 1.40pm.. a 12" codling on black lug., from the outer wall.

Pulled up a few more small pout for live-bait.... then something I was not expecting.... a 1lb Lobster... yum...yum...

Karen pulled her first fish of the day... a sizable pouting....

Things started to pick-up from high tide onwards (wind increased noticeably and the sky darkened ) with other people taking plaice, dogfish and pout on the inner side, with codling and pout on the outer. Pout started getting bigger for me on the innerside. Stopped pout fishing, used the pike rod with a 3oz lead and a long sliding trace (size 4 hook, baited with rag) for flat fish.... and used a wishbone rig on the outer wall for codling, all the while with the free-lined pout on the inner wall for bass.

Took a few sizable pout, as did the others.... almost a fish a cast..... then took a small but sizable sole from the inner wall around 3pm. Had to pack-up around 3.30 pm to be picked up by the boats (this applies to everyone fishing, around 40 individuals or so). We all took a few more sizable pout, and Tony had a nice codling around 15 / 16 inches or so.

Caught the boat back ( be warned.... you may get rather wet with the back spray!!!!!), took Tony back to Folkestone. Nipped down to the Folkestone Rotunda beach to see if I could spin / plug for bass with the water being so clear.... but the wind had picked up to about force 4 plus, and so I had to give up on the idea, and drive back to sunny Surbiton!!

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