Folkestone

Folkestone Warren 18th July.2002

Folkestone Warren 18th July 18, 2002

Woke-up to find Karen crashing around the bedroom … who needs an alarm clock when your wife’s got jet lag from flying in from Canada 12 hours before … bless!!!!

Looked at the clock …. 1.55am …. Time to get up if I was to make the Warren for the Dawn Patrol!!
Got down stairs to make coffee and Breakfast / Lunch, only to find that Karen had already made me sandwiches … must send her overseas more often, I could live with this jet lag thing!!!! ;-)

By the time I’d got myself together, stopped off to get petrol etc, didn’t actually arrive at the Warren until 4am … the time I’d intended to start ….. the sky with its patchwork of broken cloud, was just starting to brighten from the east, and so I walked briskly down to the Nags Head ….

The tide had already risen sufficiently to the apron to be fishable, but not too great to feel I’d missed huge amounts of opportunity …. High water was due around 6am (5.8m). Walking down I could feel the wind almost blowing across the Warren from Dover side… so the forecast was right for a NE wind of around F3 …. And roughing up the water a little when it gusted.. a pattern that persisted all morning, with a little chop interspersed with short calms…..

Set up the Conoflex bass rod that Dave Hughes from Marsh Tackle had given me, and sat the ABU cardinal loaded with new 20lb dynabraid in place, and topped it off with a blue and white J13 Rapala ……. Managed to start fishing by 4.25am…….

The water was it’s normal greyish green , but relatively clear of weed, and with a good degree of visibility due to the low turbidity … indeed later on, once the sun had risen, I could even make out the top of the third step to be covered by water….. however, there was also a distinct lack of baitfish, although the wind roughing the surface didn’t help their detection, as well as obscuring any other surface activity that one would like to have been able to see, to give some indication of predatory fish!!!!

As time wore on, I started to wonder if there were any bass, or any fish at all about … the large plant machinery parked up at the end of the Apron showed that coastal defence work was being done on the back wall stretch, and I couldn’t help but wonder if this was having an effect, but decided it probably wouldn’t be, and so elected to change lures ….

Started off by using a black and grey Rapala Slither ….. got nowhere with that, and as the morning rapidly developed, decided to give one of the Bass Bandit lures that Steve Burling had very kindly sent me some weeks previously a tryout ….. unfortunately the combination of new braid coupled with limited resistance from the lure during retrieve started giving me problem in the knotted braid department …. And so I eventually gave up and swapped back to the original J13, with the intention of trying the bass bandit when I remembered to pack a reel loaded with mono……

By 6am I was starting to feel somewhat dispirited ….. then the Sun topped over the Eastern Cliffs and bathed the Warren in Sunshine ….. almost at the same time a mass of baitfish appeared in the waters in front of me, a rod length out …… things were looking up … now all that was missing was that rather vital ingredient …… BASS!!!!!!!

I don’t really know why, but I decided to move up to the next groin in front of water conduit No8 around 6.40am…… don’t normally fish here much as the apron slightly dips, and is very prone to flooding and large volumes of spray straight in the face at High water .. all of which has resulted in large areas of very slippy and treacherous green algae …… BUT with the large reef right in front, coupled by the fresh water outflow, and the not so high tide, I decided to give it a whorl ……. Well actually a very careful tip-toe, maybe a more accurate description….

First good sign ….. schools of small baitfish … second the backwash was giving a degree of foaming / white water, something that may just give any would be predators, the confidence of concealment, and thus a greater chance for attack…….

6.45am ….. as this is all going through my slightly sleepy head ….. BANG …. Something hits the lure .. something big ….. but aaaaarrrr, it fails to connect :-(
Certainly woke me up ….. I often find I laps into a sort of dream state when nothings doing at that time of the morning .. but now my heart was racing with startlement and disappointment of what could have been, and in anticipation of what could yet be…….

6.47am …… this time as the J13 draws closer to the end of the run, I can clearly see a bass not 12” behind, I’d guess something in the 2 to 3lb range ….. school bass, but bass none the less!!! ….. unfortunately as the J13 rose at my feet , despite trying to turn it in a semi-circle away, the fish veered off towards deeper water :-(

7.10am …… another 2 to 3lb bass comes after the lure, but again veeres off at the last moment …… wonderful to see, but also disappointing!!!

7.15am .. decide to swap the J13 for a blue and white slither, the thought being that the slightly more needlefish look, could just induce a strike from the chasing fish ……

7.20am.... the front treble on the slither caught up on the braid during the cast, and consequently failed to dive on the retrieve ... insteed it came back on the surface, in a looping role ... about 50 ft out, a large garfish suddenly came out of nowhere and followed the lure in, but darted off without striking..... untangled the slither and continued on.....

The reduced action and vibration of the slither just didn’t instil me with confidence …. And this game is all about confidence, so I swapped back to the J13 by 7.30am… Yes I know it’s a self fulfilling prophesy …… I catch fish on this lure, so I fish with this lure, thus this lure catches fish, so I’ll fish with this lure .. and so on and so forth ….. sad but true!!!!!

7.40am… Prophesy comes true …… thump more than a bang, with a series of diving lunges ….. I already know it’s a small fish even before it reaches the surface … land it very swiftly …… measure it, take a photo, and return it ……. All 12.5” of it!!!! But it’s still a Bass .. my first of the year … indeed the first fish for almost a whole year, not having been fishing since last September due to work and moving house!!!!

8.00am ….. Tide is starting to drop, and the weed is increasing, so I decide to move back to the Nags Head, and fish the rest of the time there……

8.10am …….. Bang ….. I’m daydreaming again, and just as the lure is coming out of the water at my feet, a bass of around 3lb hits home …… however, at that angle and with no power in the retrieve at that stage, the fish is only nicked …. Two driving dives straight down, and the fish is off … and the air turns blue ….. wonderful thing about being a biologist … I have an extensive anatomical vocabulary!!!!!!

Next cast, and a second bass comes chasing behind .. but again, like previous times before fails to press home the attack!! :-(

8.40am ….. water depth is now shallow enough to be able to see the wave baffles at the base of the apron …… Halfway out during the retrieve… bang…. But I fail to connect … I’m starting to think it may have been the reef ….. lure comes past the baffles … BANG….. another school bass of 2,5lb to 3lb hits home right at the end of the run…… again the lack of retrieve power, coupled with the attack and subsequent dive angle, favours the bass, and is again very shortly off and away ……… !!!!!!!!!********!!!!!!

By 9.am, the shallow water, weed, and general tiredness make me think that enough is enough …… I’m left with the thought of what a wonderful time I’ve just had, and also the deep and troubling question of how to tell Karen that I lost dinner ….. TWICE!!!!!

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