Fishing Report: 28th September 07 - Bateman's Tower, Brightlingsea

Every now and then we all have stupid ideas which, when they pop into our heads, seem perfectly sensible; the idea for this session was one of my most recent stupid ideas. It started with an email from Stuart during the week, "What you got planned for next weekend fishing-wise?". With hindsight he probably wishes he had never asked! The equinox tides were upon us and this meant big tides, strong currents and, if past seasons were anything to go by, the chance of a decent size Bass from the Tower. I suggested a night session over a 2:15am high tide and Stuart couldn't resist.

We arrived at the Tower at about 11:15pm just as the rain started but the winds were light and we were still confident of a good night. I set up one rod with Ragworm fished at range for Bass (though I wasn't confident of seeing one till the ebb) and the other with a three hook paternoster baited with Mackerel strip and Black Lugworm, hoping for maybe a Whiting or two. For the first two hours of the session the light rain came and went and I was kept busy with the odd Whiting to the Mackerel strip plus a Codling of about 30cm but, at the point the current really took off, the fish suddenly went off the feed and weed started to become a problem. Another half an hour and the tide was over the top of the Tower (much earlier than I had expected) and we were forced to retreat onto the grass and stop fishing; and to make matters worse Stuart had yet to catch.

By the time the tide reached it's highest point it was pretty clear that it was much higher than the forecast 5.3 meters, possibly due to the low pressure, and we were now cut off on a small grass island of about ten feet square. As if there wasn't enough water around the rain had now got much heavier and we were copping a proper soaking. About an hour on the ebb the water had finally dropped enough for us start fishing again. Stuart had discovered a leak in his wellies and the pair of us were like drowned rats but the thought of a decent Bass kept us going.

By about 4:00 in the morning it dawned on us that all hope of a decent Bass had gone. The rain was still tipping it down, the tide was fast disappearing and the only fish to show up during the ebb was a Codling 1cm short of the limit to Ragworm on one of my rods; poor old Stuart had the hex on him and hadn't managed a fish at all which is very unusual. My total for the night was two undersized Codling (the first I have caught from the river in some time) and five Whiting; no sign of any Bass at all.

Despite all this there were some plus points. My new Shakespeare Salt waterproofs had proved well worth the money I had paid out for them and kept the water out all night, and Stuart had been impressed with his new rod, a Zziplex 4500, which he was trying out for the first time. Stuart now has next choice of venue so I hope he picks a better night than I did!

Fishing Report: 23rd September 07 - Bateman's Tower, Brightlingsea

I met up with Stuart and an acquaintance of his, Sugar, at about 7:30pm for an evening on Bateman's Tower. The weather had a distinct autumnal feel to it (unlike last night at St Osyth) and there was a fairly stiff breeze coming in from the south as we spread out around the Tower and started to set up our gear with me, as usual, hoping for a Bass or two.

We hadn't been there long when, as I was about to make my first cast, the juvenile hordes descended and proceeded to destroy the peace. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for encouraging junior anglers but this crowd had to be seen to be believed. In actual fact, it soon transpired there was actually only three anglers amongst the crowd, the other dozen or so individuals were there as spectators, and to carry the seemingly endless array of lights, car batteries and assorted luggage that suddenly seemed to appear between myself and Sugar.

To cut a long story short, rather than splitting up to utilise the available space, the three with rods decided they would squash in between myself and Sugar (despite them already having to all get out of the way so I could cast) and at that point I decided enough was enough and pointed out the lack of space. After a short discussion amongst themselves the whole lot headed off to another spot, looking like a team of Sherpas setting off on an expedition to tackle Everest.

With peace and quiet restored we set about trying to catch some fish but it was hard going and they weren't exactly giving themselves up. Stuart managed a Schoolie early on to Ragworm at range but failed to connect with anything else for the remainder of the night. Sugar did a little better and managed two small Bass to the same bait fished at medium range to the right of the Tower. As for me, it was all getting a little embarrassing really. As we began to think about packing up at 12:30am I had yet to get a bite, let alone a fish and my excuses of "holding out for a decent one" were starting to raise a few chuckles amongst the other two.

My honour was saved on the last cast when a textbook slack liner resulted in the biggest fish of the night, a Schoolie of about 35cm; by no means memorable, but welcome all the same!

Fishing Report: 22nd September 07 - St Osyth, Essex

With a new Zziplex Bass Rod and 6500 Mag Elite to test out I was desperate to get on the beach this weekend. With the weather forecast to be nice I decided to fish a 9:20pm tide at St Osyth, as usual deciding to pack light and fish the bird reserve end of the beach. I arrived at about 5:30pm (just as the last of the nudists were leaving, thank god) and set up two rods with the intention of fishing one at range and one short for anything that should take a fancy to the bait. It was pretty obvious that the spot had been fished very recently by the angling litter left behind; there was a good selection of bait wrappers and Gemini rig packets (see photo) and quite frankly the muppets who left them should be ashamed of themselves.

As I was setting up, occasionally watching the Terns that work along the shore, I noticed something in the water about 200 yards off the beach and was encouraged to see a Seal was feeding right in front of me. I always find it strange that many anglers moan about the Seals; they might put fish off the feed for a while, but they generally don't linger and if they are feeding close in it is a sign that the fish are too. Personally, I have no problem sharing a swim with a Seal.

Despite the Seal the bites started as soon as the sun started to drop. Nothing frenetic, you understand, just a steady trickle of bites to one rod or another and the occasional fish. The pace continued over the tide, and by the time I packed up at 11pm I had four sizable Whiting to take home (nice when they're really fresh) and had returned another five undersized fish, two Whiting, two Pouting and a tiny Bass. The bulk of the fish were taken at short range on Mackerel, Lugworm or a combination of both, with only a pair of the Whiting (both at the same time on a Pennel rig, one on each hook) and the Bass being taken on the long range rod baited with Ragworm.

The new rod and reel behaved impeccably. The Zziplex, which I built myself, is light and really nicely balanced and with good weather will probably see a lot of Estuary and neep tide work over the winter. The Mag Elite (the 2007 Gun-Metal Grey model) also lived up to expectations, with a couple of minor criticisms. Firstly, ABU seem to have removed the numbered gauge on the mag settings which means you have to count the clicks as you set the brakes and, as with all ABU CTs these days, the handle is more suited to a cement mixer than a fishing reel; both niggles really but ABU do seem to have gone backwards slightly from the Green Mag Elite.

Fishing Report: 15th / 16th September 07 - River Colne, Essex

Conscious that the spinning season (and the Bass season for that matter) would soon be coming to an end for another year I decided to try the spinning rod out on a sunny but breezy Saturday afternoon. It was a mid-afternoon tide and as I've always found the early flood the most productive for spinning on the river I arrived about four hours before high tide, just as the water was advancing across the mudflats.

The northerly breeze had turned the water a bit "milky" but it was still clear enough to spin and so I set about trying to add to my tally of Bass with my normal 3 inch Eel fished behind a Dexter Wedge. To cut a long story short, despite there being plenty of bait fish working the water and an acceptable water clarity, I caught bugger all. The only action over the four hours I fished was when a Schoolie of about a pound tried to take the Wedge right under the rod top; as the Wedge has no hook for this method, obviously it failed to "hook up".

The following day I met up with Paul (AKA Bread on Seafishing.org) with the intention of fishing a mark on the sea defences at Brightlingsea. The wind had picked up a bit and there was a stiff North Westerly breeze. Paul had intended to use his normal beach gear and I don't think had fully comprehended the logistics of fishing these kind of marks; he took one look at the rocks and promptly headed off to fish Jaywick beach! Undeterred, I continued on my own ledgering Ragworm bait close in with the Carp rod as by now the water was way too coloured to make spinning a viable proposition.

The rough weather made things difficult with the Carp rod but I kept at it and after a few hours of catching crabs I had a strong take which, after a reasonably good scrap for a fish of it's size, resulted in a Bass of about 42cm coming to the landing net. Feeling slightly encouraged I fished on for another couple of hours in the hope of catching another but it was not to be and so I headed home for some tea, wondering if all the hard work had really been worth it.

Footnote: I spoke to Paul the next day, who had fished with his father-in-law at Jaywick. His quick change of plans had proved to be worthwhile and had resulted in a nice Sole plus some other small stuff.

Fishing Report: 8th September 07 - St Osyth, Essex

Having had a week of fishing in the river (not with resounding success I hasten to add) I decided that I needed a change from the spinning gear and with the tides coming back round to late evening I decided to try conventional tactics at a spot I used to regularly fish along towards the bird reserve at St Osyth.

I arrived at late afternoon and set up in glorious sunshine and light offshore winds, fishing the tide from the bottom up, as I generally prefer to do at this venue. As always I was, in the back of mind, hoping for a sizable Bass so I set up one rod with a 4/0 Pennel Rig, fished at range with Ragworm bait. The other rod I set up with a three hook clipped down rig and small hooks to fish close in, hoping to find maybe a Sole perhaps or more likely anything that happened along. I baited the second rod with Ragworm, Peeler Crab and Lugworm baits, the idea being to hedge my bets for any fish that might come along.

The daylight hours were very quiet fishing-wise and it was not until the light had begun to fade and the last of the nudists had disappeared that I started to get any bites. For the last few hours the fishing was fairly busy and the time flew by. Although none of the fish caught were of any size, there was a selection of species and the nice weather and peaceful surroundings made it a very enjoyable evening. I finally packed up at about midnight having managed a solitary Bass of about 20cm, six undersized Codling (biggest just 1cm under the size limit), one Pouting, 1 Whiting (sizable) and an Eel of about 8oz; all but the Bass and two undersized Codling came to the close in gear.

Fishing Report: 3rd to 7th September 07 - River Colne, Essex

Over recent days the water in the river had seriously cleared and with plenty of leave owing I decided to make the most of the good spinning prospects and the nice weather and take a week off work.

Having fished the previous day at St Osyth I decided to try a few hours on the afternoon tide with the beachcasting gear on the Monday, more to use up the leftover bait than anything else. Three hours on Bateman's Tower produced only one fish, a tiny Bass on a 4/0 hook which was cleanly lip-hooked and swam away at a rate of knots.

On Tuesday, with very calm weather. I tramped upriver using a variety of lures. There were fish working accross the other side of the river, judging by the activity of the gulls but on my side of the river it was harder going and it was a releif to finally manage one Bass of about 30cm which took a 3 inch white Eddystone Eel retreived behind a 32grm dexter Wedge.

Wednesday turned out to be pretty much the same, although I started well, managing an early strike with a Bass about 5cm longer than the one of the previous day which came to the Eel and Wedge again. Encouraged by the early catch (in about 2ft of water) I covered over a mile of the river....without so much as seeing another fish!

After a day off I headed up the river on Friday determined to keep trying. As the tide first pushed accross the mudflats I tried a baited spoon in the slightly coloured water, there were hundreds of immature Bass working the shallow water and groups of them hit the bait (and the spoon itself) repeatedly as it was being retreived. I eventually managed to hook one of about 2oz cleanly in the side of the mouth before I decided that I was getting nowhere and switched to ledgering Ragworm close in on the Carp rod. Eventually, after about three hours of catching crabs, the rod tip smashed round and after a quick tussle a sizable Bass of about 40cm was in the net.

Fishing Report: 2nd September 07 - St Osyth, Essex

Fished at the bird reserve end of St Osyth with Stuart, hoping yet again for a decent Bass or two. Although it was a nice day there were hardly any Jet Skis about and we fished from about 11:30am through to 7pm with so much as one passing us by. Unfortunately the sizable Bass were equally as thin on the ground and although we fished hard with Ragworm, Peeler Crab, frozen Sandeel and Calamari Squid over the top of the early-afternoon tide we didn't have much to show for it other than the odd Eel and a few undersized Bass; my biggest went about 25cm.

Quite frankly the only things out in force were the dune-muppet-nudists, who again were doing their best to outrage public decency and spread as much litter around as possible!

Fishing Report: 1st September 07 - River Colne, Essex

Ye gods, is it September already?

Having decided I really wasn't up to an all-nighter I fished a 3:30pm tide along the river over 3 hours of the flood and a couple of hours down. The recent rough weather had stirred up the water a bit but I decided to be optimistic and give spinning a go. I tried various spots with various lures on the flood but despite my efforts it got me bugger all except weed, of which there was a fair amount around and so I put a paternoster and a 2 oz weight on the Carp rod and ledgered close in near some snags for a couple of hours of the ebb.

I managed a good few crabs, all of which gave a damn good bite on the Carp rod and eventually a Schoolie of about 30 cm took pity on me and yaffled the Ragworm so at least it wasn't a blank and an undersized Bass is better than none at all.

The water is still pretty clear, despite the strong winds, but if they would drop for a week I think the spinning would come into its own. It would be nice to have a last thrash at the summer spinning, just to tide me through to next year.