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Folkestone
With the weather forecast being less than favorable, Paul and myself decided that we would opt for a change of scene other than the "Wall", which probably would be No go anyway, and thus decided upon Folkestone Pier, which I felt may offer us some protection from the impending inclement weather.....
Drove down to Folkestone with Paul, and arrived just before 8.30am..... parked in the Harbour carpark (3 quid for 12 hours), and walked over to Phil Tanners "Harbour Tackle", to collect the 4 score of lug and score and half of rag that I had ordered at very short notice two days before...... also picked up some squid and a few odds and ends, such as some 6oz breakaways for Paul, and two adult pier tickets etc .... The pier tickets are 2 quid each, if your interested.. they can also be bought from Gary's, and I think from the Pub (Brewery Tap) if you want to night fish on the Sat./Sun.night........
Anyway, got the equipment sorted out, and found our way onto the pier around 9.30am or so...... not a soul to be seen, had the pick of spots....... going by what Tony Swain had told me about fishing during the week, we opted to try our luck in the teen pegs, rather than fish the elbow.......
We initially set-up two rods each.... Paul using 2/0 wishbones, and myself with one 4/0 long flowing traced wishbone, and on the other a clip-down pulley 2/0 : 4/0 pennell..... We both had lug (I also had a score or so, of frozen yellow-tails, after Jaybee's "Runny Down" recipe...), rag and squid... so we played with different combinations of these through-out the day......
Later, I set-up a third "Play" rod with the 11ft Christmas tree rig with 3 French booms with a 1/0 hook on each, all baited with wriggley rag, in the hope of hooking Mr. Pollack, down the wall ..... easier said than done, due to the lower parapet running on the outside of the middle section of the pier... a remnant of the old outer landing stage area....
The weather forecast was as I have already said less than welcoming..... force 5 to 6 from the E to NE, occasionally 7, with wintry showers...... Lets just say, that the force 7 bit seemed to dominate a large portion of the day, with light but lashing showers of rain and sleet, with occasional sunshine thrown in...... felt a bit silly wearing sunglasses, but there were times when we were being soaked, lovely rainbow behind us, and blinding golden sun in front...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anyway we started fishing just after 9.45am..... an hour or so after high tide......
10.15am: Paul draws first blood with a nice 15" codling..... at the same time, I managed to get the pulley rig snagged up..... lost it, and strung up another wishbone to replace it.....
10.30am: no sooner had I cast-out this second wishbone, than the rod tip gave a discernible bite.... something that for most of the day really was in the lap of the Gods with the strength of the wind..... landed a 17.1/2" codling, just touching 2lb...... just as I land this fish, Paul brings in a somewhat smaller poor cod of 7.1/2"..... he was happy, yet another fish to his species caught list......
10.50am: Paul lands a 16" codling.......
11.00am: We are no longer fishing alone..... Couple of young anglers turn up and start fishing the Elbow.......
11.15am: Paul lands a 10.1/2" dab, and I'm starting to feel a little left out, especially as Paul, not five minutes earlier is ribbing me about were all the flat fish that I'd predicted would be about, are........
11.20am: Manage to pull up a small Pollack of 9.1/2" from down the wall...
11.50am: a 9" dab duly obliges on one of the wishbones....
12.05pm: Paul land a nice dab of 13.1/2" and weighs in at 14oz......
12.10pm: Hook a small pout of 8" down the wall... not really the killer Pollack I was after!!!!!!
12.20pm: Paul gets a double shot of dab.. both 10".......
12.30pm: I get a double shot down the wall..... 9" Pollack and an 8" pout :-(
12.40pm: Paul gets a 9" dab... think the rather smelly rag that he brought with him from the abortive outing of his the previous weekend, is doing the trick..... in fact over the next hour, Paul was the only one to catch anything........ :-(
12.50pm: Paul lands an 11' dab......
1.05pm: Paul manages to land a 12" Pollack..... not down the wall, but from 70yrds out!!!!!!!! Must have been from the small reef, that we were hoping to get the large cod from...... well that was the theory anyway.. trouble is the fish can't read!!!!!! :-(
1.30pm: Paul has a codling of 13"... not really the 4 to 6lb codling that we had been told were being landed during the week from this section...... probably a combination of wrong tide, baits, end tackle, and the fact that really we would have improved our chances greatly if we'd been able to fish late afternoon / early evening with a little darkness to help bring the fish in.....
1.40pm: Just telling Paul that he's been the only one catching anything for a while, when I then bring in a nice conditioned 15" codling.....
2.00pm: Paul has a killer pout of 8"........
2.20pm: 11" dab to me..... followed five minutes later with a less than impressive 8" pout....
2.30pm: Paul lands another 8" pout, followed 15 minutes later with another....
2.50pm: I manage the smallest pout of the day... all 5" of it!!!!!!!! Five minutes after this I land 8" of poor cod....... and I'm really not a happy bunny..... lack of codling both in the number and size departments, coupled with the hostile weather......
3.00pm... Three other anglers arrived, and set-up to fish the Elbow.... spoke with one of the youngsters, who said they caught very little.....
3.15pm... showing Paul the flattie set up using the Christmas tree rig and a plain weight at each end, when we both get snagged up independently .....(my fault, as I'd opened my big mouth at the time and joked to Paul as I was setting it up, that I'd probably loss it first time out!!!!! why do we never learn, and have to tempt fate.......???!!!!!!)..... Paul managed to pull himself out of his snag..... me.... na, lost the lot.... :-(
Paul rebaits up, casts out... only to see his weight fly, and his baited rig drop at his feet..... the action of freeing the rig had weakened the knot to the lead link, and he'd failed to notice.... not really surprising considering the appalling weather....
3.40pm: Paul's out of bait, and we are both completely knackered from the days battering from the elements, so we decide to call it a day..... but I still manage to reel in a final codling of 15"...
As we walked past the Elbow on our way back, one of the three new arrivals, had just landed a codling of what I would estimate to be 15" or so......
In the carpark, a group of anglers from a club from Essex (I forget the name) were preparing for a nights fishing on the pier... hope they faired better than the pair of us... and wouldn't you know it... as we left so the wind dropped and the sun came out.......
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