Samphire Hoe

Samphire Hoe 28th Aug 2000

I had decided to come to Samphire Hoe for two reasons... a) in the hope of maybe catching up with people from the NG, as some sort of fish-in with Alan Yates had been posted a few weeks earlier..... and b) to satisfy my own curiosity as to the potential for bassing from both the Eastern and Western rocks......

Arrived around 3pm, having turned around at the roundabout at the end of the A20 at Dover and driven through the Shakespeare Tunnel, paid for the parking, and brought a ticket for fishing from the information kiosk in the main carpark..... You can only fish until Dusk and this is given on the notice boards next to the Kiosk.

The time I'd seen for potential meeting of others from the NG was 4.30pm ..... decided to go walk about and look the place over..... met a number of anglers ... mixed bag of fortunes..... odd mackerel here and there, with wrasse and pollack..... one decent bass of 5lb or so and a sea trout had been reported.......

What follows is my impressions gained from observation and talking to anglers....

Eastern End:
Guess the picture says it all ..... shallow with clear gullies visible in the chalk wave cut platform... I thought about trying the rocks, plugging for bass, but I was already tired having been up since 3am, the rocks looked quite slippy and covered in weed, and decided to leave it for another day, besides which I wanted to look around elsewhere......

Main Section:
Easy access even for the disabled..... two main problems as far as I could tell....
a) the mark is potentially very snaggy which means
i) finding the less snaggy pegs (which I understand tend to be towards the eastern end, probably best to ask the Angling Steward)
ii) being able to cast well in excess of 150yards with lead lifts etc. to bring the terminal tackle over the bolder base / platform that the Hoe is built upon,
iii) adopt tactics to suit the venue such as float fishing etc.....

b) Even when you have caught a fish, you have some major obstacles to landing it.....
i) the boulders at the base of the wall
ii) the projecting concrete and metal apron of the lower half of the wall
iii) the numerous metal pins / bolts sticking out at right angles to the wall.....

Western End:
Similar to the Eastern end, except that I'm told that it tends to be more snaggy... the boulders at its base may afford a platform to plug from, but I can't say it looked easy, and certainly not an option in the SW force 4/5 that seemed to be blowing on this occasion!!!!!

Anyway ... decided to try out some float fishing from the eastern end, which would afford me some protection from the wind, and I'd keep an eye open to see if anyone arrived that I recognised.....

Setup a float with about a 6ft run, coupled with 3/0 hook on a 3ft trace, to which I attached a succulent peeler crab.... cast out a little way (to avoid the boulders at the base), and allowed to wind and tide to carry the float in towards the gullies and boulders of the shore........

It wasn't very easy to start with, but after a short while I managed to work out what the tide etc. were doing and compensate for it.... unfortunately, the people I'd set up near (the few that had remained....) decided to pack-up ... along with their dropnet ...... so even if I had caught something of any size, there was no way I would have been able to land it!!!!

6.05pm.... The weather was starting to close in yet again..... I saw the float lurch and then dive down ..... struck, and brought up a 9" pouting ..... managed to negotiate the rocks, bits of metal and overhangs... took a picture and returned the fish....

6.10pm... next cast .... same thing... this time an 8.5" pouting ........ well if there were small pouting, there was always a chance of a lurking bass ... in my dreams......

6.25... another pouting, but lost it as I brought it up the wall.....

Next cast I managed get hooked up on one of the rocks .. lost the terminal tackle and the float .. felt that this was probably a sign, and decided to call it a day, and head off home....... and back to bed, it had been a long day....

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