Dover (Langdown Bay) / Folkestone Warren  9th May 1998

4.30am:  Arrived at Bills Bait and Tackle, and had only a short wait until Paul Davies turned-up ...... drove up to the Langdown Car Park, that is situated between Dover Castle and the Eastern Coastguard station. From here we walked over the tops of the Cliffs to the Langdown Steps ......

5.00am:  Langdown Stairs offers a view that takes away my breath every time I see it ........ it was however rapidly apparent that the venue was probably not going to suit the type of Bass fishing that we had elected for... i.e. plugging. The base of the cliff forms a long shallow wave cut platform, covered in Fucus, and terminated by a thick belt of Kelp. I was hoping to find a few deep gullies cut into the platform, that we could cast into, and work the lures.... however none were evident from our vantage point.

5.30am:  We decided, that having walked all this way, that we'd go down and give it a whorl anyway... if only to say that we had done so....... it's a long climb down, as the chalk steps are badly eroded, and care needs to be taken with ones footing ...... at the bottom, there is a 25 to 30 foot drop, with the old Gun emplacements to ones right ....... a ladder has been erected to aid in the last part of the decent. However, it has suffered from storm damage, and is twisted and buckled, and great care should be taken....... mind you, the last time I was here, some 10 years ago, the only access was through the 3rd gun port, and to climb down onto the fallen boulders ........ this is no longer an option, as the boulders are all but gone, and the Gun Port cemented over.

We elected to try in front of the second gun port, which seemed to be almost clear of Kelp.

Low tide was just past, and the wind was very light... say force 2 or less from the S or SW. The Dawn was here, along with the Sun ....... a lovely day........ Unfortunately the fish did not show, or didn't like our Rapalas (J13 Blue and J11 Black) ...... we had difficulties and many of the casts resulted in snagging the weed, or bringing weed in with the lure.

6.30am:  Give-up with the advancing tide, lack of fish, continued snagging, and the fact that a small boat had just put Gill nets out about 120yds straight in front of us...... we saw the funnyside!!!!!!

This venue looks like a prime bass spot, but one for rotten bottoms, and crab baits ...... not for lure work, unless maybe at high water if access to the beach is possible.........

7.00am:  We climbed back up the White Cliffs of Dover, and back at cars, and decided to see what the Warren had on offer........

7.30am:  Arrived at the Warren, and started to fish the Low Apron ... first with Rapalas, and then with Toby lures ..... we saw, on a number of occasions diving sea birds straight ahead of us, but out of our casting range ..... found a few snags, but managed to pull free each time without loss....

8.30am:  Paul had to leave , so I went to the Nags Head ... I lost a Blue J13, as I cast it out, I think it was due to the line being weakened from the earlier snags, but failed to notice anything at the time. No fish......

9.30am:  Went to the 1st High Apron / Low Apron, on my way back, and tried a number of different lures ... no joy........

10.30am:  Left for home, and bumped into a couple of Chaps, who looked as if they were about to fish (saw a telescopic rod in the back of a small rucksack), who asked me what I'd caught...... when I told them that I / we had blanked, they said with a smile; "you must have been doing it wrong"....... my thoughts entirely... ;-)

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