Dover Prince of Wales Pier 7th Feb.1998

Having arranged a small fish-in for people in the SE IAC area, things did not start well... looked at the Met.Office web site for the Shipping Forecast at 5.30am ....... winds E Force 5 to 6 occasionally 7 to start, then N to NE force 5 ...... the Motorboats would probably not be going out to the Breakwater......

Drove down with Paul Davies to Dover, and stopped off at Bills Bait and Tackle first to collect our orders of Lug...... I had decided to get 5 score of yellowtail for myself... the plan being that I would have a reasonable number left over, that would go a bit "stinky" for the next days Match fish, and I could use it, to tempt a Dab or two... we both made comment at the time to Bill about having good quality bait, and being denied access to the Wall to use it properly.... we also grabbed a few French booms, and one of the railing arm rod rests that allow the rod to hang over the piers side... great for Pollack (in this case), and for Bass in the Summer...... I then went to Channel Angling to grab the Maddies and large rag that I had on order, along with a number of other small items......

Went to the Dump Head and waited for people to arrive..... I was really only expecting a handful to show, if that, as the forecast though the week had been less than favourable..... the Harbour Board turned up, and confirmed that the "Wall" would be out of bounds...... shortly after, around 8.10am as arranged Paul Seccombe turned up, followed a little later by Mark Stinton .... We ummed and arred about the pro's and Con's of fishing the Admiralty or the PoW.... as Mark had already bought his ticket for the PoW, that's where we went.....

Paid our 3 UKP at the ticket dispenser near the entrance barrier, and made our way towards the end....... the end fishable section was already occupied by a few disgruntled anglers, less than happy at their abortive intentions towards the Breakwater, esp now that it was obvious to all that the front had passed on, the wind had backed to the North, and was no more than force 4 to 5...... by noon and for the rest of the afternoon more like 2 or less!!!!!!!

Set the first rod up with a size 2 wishbone on a long flowing trace, baited with combinations or individually with lug, rag or maddies.... Second rod, set up with a Christmas Tree of three French booms down the wall... size 4 hooks baited with maddies for Pollack, or laid down on the seabed for flatties... esp. flounders.....

Mark and Paul Seccombe both elected to use one rod, and vary the distance as the day progressed, with Paul Davies setting up two rods next to me........

9.00am: Start

9.20am: Paul Sec. lands the first fish of the day.....10" whiting.......

9.30am: Paul Davies get stuck into a another monster whiting..... all 8" of it!!!!!! ;-)

9.45am: Mark joins the action with an astounding 6" pout!!!!

9.52am: Paul Sec. manages to get a smaller pout.... 5" this time!!!!

10.40am: Well it's been the best part of almost 2 hours, but finally I land a fish..... 8" Pollack from down the Wall......

11.01am: Mark has the first decent fish of the day.... 29cm Flounder, interestingly enough coloured on the underside as well.......

11.18am: Mark again, this time with a small dab of 23cm..... Long Rough variety by the looks of it.... or at least by the time Mark had pointed out it's features....

11.57am: Paul Sec. brings a nice flounder home... this time 33cm.......

Things then went very, very quite..... casting at different ranges, using different baits, changing rigs...... nothing......

12.50pm: oh some action... well all 8" of Whiting to me..... :-(

1.00pm: Mark grabs a 9"whiting.......

Ten minutes of action, followed by another hour of nothing.... :-(

2.00pm..... notice, the slightest of twitches on the wishbone...... I manage to hold back...... getting tip happy, and it's hard to tell if it's the wind, my eyes playing tricks, or if it's a genuine bite...... the way the maddies have been nibbled, and the few positive, yet missed bites that we've had, all point to flounder, picking up the bait and spitting it out, whilst just nibbling the tails of the maddies off........ enoughs enough... twitch, I grab the rod, and strike, in the hope that the hook may sink home...... it's the right play.... I can feel a reasonable fish on the end....... up she comes..... a nice flounder...... about 15" and weighing in at 1.1/2lb...

2.05pm: Paul Davies lands his second fish of the day... another whiting, this time 9".....

Again all went quite for about another hour.....
On reflection we lost a number of sets of tackle.... Paul Sec. lost three sets, due to snags, snap-offs, and having his line cut by Marks...... mind you Mark lost two sets as well, although these seemed due to tackle snags.....

3.00pm: Land my last fish of the day... 8" dab.......

Packed up around 4pm..... waited for Mark to return from putting more money in the meter for the car... Madness had struck him down... he was going to stay!!!!!!!!..... anyway.. he returned and promptly pulled out a 7" Whiting......

Despite the poor turn-out, and the distinct lack of decent fishing, I had a good time.. and again it's always nice to be able to faces to names........

Mark as I've said fished on after us, at the far end, which was clear of other anglers by that time...... he lost one decent fish, codling by the sounds of it, and caught nothing else!!!!!

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