Dover Breakwater 9th Jan.1999

Drove down to Dover with Paul .. the forecast was for N to NW winds force 4/5 and showers, so we knew we had a good chance of getting out onto the Wall ... something we'd been waiting for since mid Dec, but due to the foul weather over the feastive season, not something we or anyone else had managed to do.......

Arrived in Dover around 7.30am and went straight to Bills Bait and Tackle to collect our bait ... blow lug and rag, as it turned out, they had exess yellowtails, and so we converted some of our order to those and paid the extra...

Parked the car just before the turning to the dumphead and paid the meter £4 .. only to have the police turn up and tell us there would be a demo, right in front of where we had parked and advised us to move the car ..... did so to the carpark just to the right of the bridge, and although it was a Hoverspeed carpark again, the ticket was invalid, so I had to spend a further £5 ... fun, fun fun .... although Paul to his credit, did stomp up half of it....

By 8.30am when the boats arrived ton take us across, there were only about a dozen or so anglers..... we decided to fish around the steps at peg 60 or so, and take it from there...... things didn't look to great as we'd be fishing low water most of the day .. HW not until around 4.30pm.... and only 5.6m at that!!!!

Set-up 3 rods; first two with long flowing 2/0 wishbones, one set on the outside the other inside baited with lug or lug/rag combos, and the third rod with a chrismas tree with size1 hooks baited with rag down the inside wall, in hope of a small coalfish that I could photograph.... Paul did much the same with his 3 rods...

Started fishing around 9am, and both had a series of small missed bites on the inside for the first 40 minutes....

9.41am: double shot of whiting from the inside .. both 12"... had a chat with Tom, the pier marshal...

9.45am: Paul pulls up a 9" whiting from the inside..... five minutes later and he's got a small 6" pout from the outside as well...

9.55am I have another 12" whiting from the inside... no sooner have I rebaited than a series of tugs results, followed by a 6" pout!!!!

10.15am: pull in a 10" dab along with a hermit crab from the outside...... not the big fat juicy cod that I was hoping for!!!

10.18am: Paul has a 9"dab from the outside....

10.30am: double shot from the inside .. one 12" whiting along with an 8" bass!!!!

10.37am .. Paul has a double shot from the outside... first codling of the day .. all 12" of it, along with a 10" dab....

10.45am: I have a double shot of whiting from the inside.. 11" and 8"..... five minutes later Paul brings in a double, with a 12" pout and a nice 14" whiting .. again from the inside...

10.55am .. almost landed a double from the outside .. exept I dropped a good loking whiting and was left with a 10" codling....

11.10am: landed an 11" whiting from the inside... followed rapidly by Paul having a double shot with a 10" codling and an 8" pouting....

11.23am: 12" whiting from the inside....

11.36am: Paul has a 7" pout from the outside...

11.40am: I have another 12" whiting from the inside, and at the same time Paul hauls up a 14" whiting along with an 8" pout.....

11.55am: pull up a double shot of 13" whiting .. from the inside....

Decided we needed another cup of coffee .. allowed me to see what other had caught .. all whiting and pout with an odd dogfish , exept in the knuckle where a chap had landed a codling in the 4.5lb range...

12.10pm: Paul has another 13" whiting from the inside.....

12.22pm: 8" pouting from the inside.... followed rapidly after rebaiting and casting by a codling and pout....

12.30pm: get a yank on the christmas tree ... one 12" whiting results....

12.35pm: Paul has a double shot with a 12" whiting and a 7" pout...

12.42pm: pull up a 12" pout from the inside

12.45pm: Paul has a 10" codling along with a small pout from the outside....

1.15pm: Paul has a 15" whiting and an 11.5" pouting from the outside...

1.23pm: Paul has a whiting and a pout from the inside....

We decide that enough is enough, and we'll just fish the outside in the hope of a decent codling....

1.30pm .... manage to hook and land 3 pouting on a 2 hook wishbone!!!!! two of 8" and the third 12"..... hook had passed through the mouth of one of the smaller fish and the larger had managed to thus hook itself... Paul managed a 6" pout as well....

1.40am.. small taps, and an 8" pout results...

1.48pm: Paul has two pout .. 7" & 8".....and ten minutes later he has a 10" whiting.....

2.05pm: big tug, and up comes a 24" dogfish....

2.10pm: Paul again has a pair of pouting .. 7" & 10"....

2.23pm: Paul with yet another pout .. 10"....

2.34pm: I have a double shot of pout .. 12" & 13".... followed five minutes by a pair of 8" pouts

2.50pm: Pouting of 6"...

2.55pm: Paul with an 8" codling and a similar sized pouting....

3.10pm: get a good tug ... and pull in a nice codling of 20" .. 2.5lb.... Paul brings in an 11" dab....

3.18pm; have a good bite .. I can feel a good fish .... bring it in about half way, felt a lunge, and the line went slack .. felt it was just lip hooked with the 2/0 hook.....

3.25pm: we're just starting to pack up, when Pauls rod shows a really good bite.... he's in to a nice fish .. needed the drop net.... but it took us a while to get it in, as it kept diving .. eventually we landed it ... 22" and 4.5lb ... really good way to end the day, before we caught the boat ....

The chaps in the Knuckle had also done well in that last hour as well with 5 or 6 decent cod / codling between them .... up to 8.5lb or so ..... the largest in fact had hooked itself, whilst attacking a poor cod that was already hooked!!!!!!

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