Folkestone

Folkestone Warren 29th April 2000

Decided the time had come to get the spinning gear out, and try for some early bass.... two venues sprang to mind, either Shoreham Harbour, or the Warren ... with high tide being at 8am at the Warren, decided that was the one to go for, although I’d not really heard of much in the way of bass being caught from the Kent shores......

Doesn’t matter how often one does it, getting up at 2am, is always a shock to the system!!!! Had a large cup of coffee, and grabbed my gear, and drove off down to Kent.... the forecast was for a variable force 2 wind, and fair conditions.....
Arrived down at the Warren just before 4.30am..... walked past the camp site, and noticed the flags waving strongly in the south-westerly wind .... so much for force 2, more like 3 getting on towards 4 at times......
Walked down to the first apron, to find the tide was higher than I’d expected, having already reached it’s base, which put pay to my first intention of using the chest waders for the first hour of so... should really have guessed this would have been the case with the series of neap tides.....
Decided to walk in the half light, to the end of the second high apron, and fish from the eastern end, across the slipway area...... as I did so, became some what despondent at the water surface, which could be best described as lumpy, with a fair degree of splash and spray as the wind drove the waves into the concrete of the aprons....

By the time I’d got to the east end, and set-up, the tide had advanced well towards the buttresses of the High Wall.....
Decided to try using one of the rounded bass bullets, but had difficulties again with a lack of resistance from the lure in the water, helping the braid to settle on the spool during the retrieve.... after the second time of unpicking tangled braid, due to looping on the cast, I decided to try something different..... I had a J13, with I’d previously managed to smash the diving lip..... which meant that it could be used in a shallow draft, only about 0.5 M, ideal for the current conditions, and could be cast a lot further than say a J9, along the length of the surf waves. The loss of down force on the retrieve, did however seem to reduce the degree of vibration that the lure was putting out..... so I swapped around between using a J9 and the cutdown J13 as the mood took me....
By about 5.15am, the half-light of dawn, had noticeably changed, and one could clearly see the conditions of the water..... darkish green/brown, with a small amount of floating weed .... despite the water colour, I could still make out the lure towards the end of the retrieve.... the edge of the apron was providing some shelter from the SW wind and conditions were a little calmer in it’s lee...
Around 5.20am, had a snatch at the lure, some distance out, but failed to connect.... well at least it felt like a take, rather than hitting an obstacle, but having been away from the lures for the past 6 months it’s always hard to tell....
5.40am .... had my spirits lifted, when a small fish of about 6” jumped out about 30 feet in front of me, my initial reaction was that it was my lure breaking surface, only to realise that my lure was in fact some distance away ..... what had made the little fish jump, I cannot say, but one can always dream!!!!!
By 6.40am, the tide had risen to the point were it was starting to lap and splash over the depressed end of the apron, and having seen nor felt anything since the little jumping fish, I decided to move back towards the Nags Head (western end of the second high apron), and brave out the uncomfortable cross wind......

With the tide having risen to a point were a normal J13 could be used, that’s what I selected....
7am, and the wind noticeable dropped..... and soon after I had what I believe was another snatch at the lure, but yet again failed to connect..... all very frustrating..... and within 20 minutes or so, the wind had picked up...... however on the horizon the cloud cover was gone and by 7.30am the morning developed into a gloriously sunny day.....
Not having been plugging for 6 months my arms started to ache, and my left shoulder started to give me real problems.... and meant I had to keep taking longer and longer breaks to give it a rest.... by 9.30am, I’d had enough,... no fish, aching all over, and a falling tide, and of course by the time I was walking back to the car, the wind had dropped to about force 2, and the Warren was bathed in sunshine......
Could really do with a couple of weeks of calm sunny weather to get the mackerel and garfish in, and with luck the bass......

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