A Weekend Without Fishing

Last weekend was my worst nightmare really; good tides forecast for the weekend and no chance to actually go! Unfortunately one of my bikes needed some urgent repair work and I finally had to deliver on the promise of tiling my Mother-in-law's kitchen (well she has been waiting six months) so getting to the beach was a non-starter. However, it did give me some time to get some other little fishing-type jobs out of the way.

My rig wallet got a spring clean and a sort out, which was well overdue, and it gave me a chance to tie some replacement rigs for the various worn out ones that I had been stockpiling for the last few months. The break also gave me the chance to replace a dodgy whipping on the beloved Tip Tornado with time enough to take step-by-step photographs of the exercise which should enable me (when I get a bit more time) to put together a simple tutorial on how to do the job; a lot of people are needlessly shy of this kind of job.

Much to my wife's disgust, I have at last also had a chance to get round to ordering the blank and components for a new beach rod as well; I'm pretty sure the endless list of jobs and the frequent fishing passes were part of a cunning plan on her part to deprive me of the time to buy "another rod", as she put it. If that was her intention she failed miserably as the credit card has again been well and truly "flexed" and in a few weeks I will hopefully be diving into building myself a Tip Tornado Sport. As with the whipping repair previously mentioned, I'm intending to put together a tutorial which I'd like to think will encourage a few people to have a go at rod building as it's really not that difficult and you can get a huge amount of satisfaction out of catching a few fish on a rod you've built yourself.

As for actual fishing, operations resume as normal next weekend and a cunning plan is already hatched which involves a two mile walk, bait digging on arrival and then hopefully pulling out a few Flounder before they head out to sea to spawn as they do every year; fingers crossed it doesn't rain!

Fishing Report: 22nd October 07 - Bateman's Tower, Brightlingsea

With 90 Lugworm left over from last Saturday nights session sitting in the bait fridge I decided to have a short evening session at Bateman's Tower. High tide was at 10pm and with work the next morning it was only ever going to be a quick few hours, but it did at least get me out from in front of the telly and give me a good excuse to knock off work early.

It had been raining during the day but just as the beeb had forecast the cloud had started to break and the moon was showing it's face as I arrived at about 6:30pm. Although it was a bit early to fish because of the risk of snagging on the wooden breakwater at the base of the tower, I was keen not to waste any time and got my baits in the water within 15 minutes as I was hoping that there would be a fair few Whiting in the river shoaling up early on in the tide keen to get after the shrimp that gather in the light around the Tower. Normally I don't waste Lugworm on this type of session and would simply have bought along some Mackerel to cash in on the Whiting's normal autumn pre-occupation with fish baits but as I wanted to use up the Lugworm and I had limited time there seemed little point.

I was hopeful that there would be plenty of Whiting around and to be fair there was; unfortunately they all seemed to be about 4 inches long! As soon as my baits hit the water the rod tops were knocking to the attentions of very small fish or crabs. The first cast on each rod resulted in a Micro-Whiting on each rig and that is pretty much how it carried on for the rest of the night with only an undersized Bass and a small Rockling to break the monotony. The only strong bite of the night came about two hours before high tide and resulted in a seriously slimed rig so clearly the Eels have not yet completely disappeared. Luckily the 2/0 hook I was using prevented me having to deal with the slippery little bugger.

I eventually ran out of bait at about 10:30pm and packed up. Although the fishing was not a patch on the previous session at St Osyth I had been kept busy all through the flood and had lost count of the tiny Whiting I had caught. What was also nice is that not a one had been deep-hooked and so all had swam off strongly when put back; all too often, this kind of session turns into one of watching dead fish drifting away on the tide, which is not my cup of tea at all.

One final point to note is that the summer weed has yet to disappear completely and the leads came back coated in slimy tufts of weed on every retrieve. In fact, I would say that it doesn't seem to have dispersed at all since my last session on the Tower on 28th September which may cause problems on the next set of big tides or immediately after a good southerly blow; definitely one to miss as it will make fishing in the river a complete nightmare!

Fishing Report: 20th October 07 - St Osyth, Essex

Having persuaded mate Stuart to join me for a disastrous nights fishing in the rain recently at Brightlingsea it was his turn for choice of venue and, after a few emails back and forth during the week, we finally decided to see if the good fishing I'd had at St Osyth a couple of weeks back was continuing. As it turned out, it wasn't a bad choice of marks at all. The weather forecast was for bright sunshine which didn't bode well for fishing prospects during the daylight hours (St Osyth is notorious for "switching on" as the light fades) so we arranged to meet at 2:30pm in Hutley's car park and take a walk towards the bird reserve end. As high tide was at about 7pm, the intention was to fish a few hours of the flood in the daylight, with the hope that the fishing would pick up as the light began to fade towards the top of the tide and on the ebb.

By the time we had met, walked to our chosen spot and got baits in the water it was way past 3pm. As usual the beach was pretty much deserted except for the odd walker and one other angler (who we assumed was fishing with light gear for Bass) and we sat back to watch the rod tops for a couple of hours, waiting for the action to start. As we expected, it wasn't until the sun began to drop in the sky (by which time the other angler had disappeared) that the fish began to make their presence felt, however, once the bites had started they came steadily throughout the rest of the flood and the ebb, with only a slight break in the action over the top of the tide.

My night was completely overwhelmed by the Whiting and it seemed no matter what distance I cast I always seemed to end up catching one. In the end I managed about 15 of them to Black Lugworm, Blow Lug or Mackerel strip, with only one or two undersized; the rest ranged in size, I would say, from 8 to 12oz. Stuart's night was just as busy with him managing a steady stream of the ever-present Whiting plus a couple of undersized Pouting and one Codling. Not surprisingly, with some Ragworm in his bait-bucket, he also managed a few Bass, the biggest of which went about 1.5lb and came on the ebb.

While the catch may not seem astounding we were kept busy with fish and bites throughout the evening and ended up calling time at 9:30pm with both of us completely knackered. The only mishap of the night was when a loud ripping noise echoed across the beach. I looked round to see Stuart killing himself laughing as he inspected his trousers which had turned themselves into a skirt as he bent down to bait up; I suppose you have to expect these kind of things if your favourite food is kebab. All in all it was a very enjoyable session. Although the walking involved to reach this venue is a bit of a pain, especially when you start to have to take the warm gear with you in the autumn, it does at least guarantee that you won't suffer from crowding problems and crossed lines as you do at some venues and we couldn't knock the weather or the fishing.

Fishing Report: 13th October 07 - East Mersea, Essex

I'd originally been invited to fish at Frinton by mates Stuart and Paul but pressing commitments at home had conspired against me, not least my Daughter's first birthday, and in the end I decided to decline the invitation and grab a few hours at a relatively new mark for me across the river, by way of an experiment. With the tide at about 2:30am there was no way I was going to get away with fishing over the tide so instead I chose to fish over the bottom of the tide and the first few hours of the flood to see if this deep water mark would produce a few fish while the shoreline on my side of the river was normally high and dry. The theory was sound enough but as is often the case, it turned out not to be such a good idea in practice.

After a lot of rushing about I finally found myself with the mark all to myself and was fishing by 7pm, one rod out at range with Lugworm baits, the other fished at medium range with a mixture of Mackerel and small Lugworm baits in the hope of discovering if anything was actually about. Things were very quiet over the bottom of the tide except for the crab activity which was unbelievable but as the tide started to flood back into the river at about 9pm things started to look up with the odd bite missed and a small Whiting of about 3oz. Unfortunately at about the same time as the bites started to appear so did the weed; tons of it!

Although I fished on till midnight I really should have saved myself the bother and in the end I was forced to fish both rods at short range simply to avoid the worst of the weed. The only other catch of the night was a number of sea anemone, what the old-timers affectionately call "Fisherman's Arseholes", which always seemed to take the Mackerel strip; I may have caught a lot more of them but a Fox stole the Mackerel from right behind me at about 10pm.

Despite this session being a bit of a bummer I'm encouraged, I think, to return when the weed dies down a bit. We used to get a lot of fish from the main channel of the Colne in the dinghy at one time and an 80 yard cast will get your bait into extremely deep water. There are also a number of boils here when the tide begins to move which look extremely "fishy" so I think further investigation is required.

Fishing Report: 6th October 07 - St Osyth, Essex

With high tide at St Osyth of about 9:30pm it was an ideal night to fish over the tide at my usual spot up towards the nudist beach. Although generally fairly happy this time of the year with Frozen Blacks and Mackerel as bait (which I keep stocked up in my freezer), as I had time, I also dug some Lugworm from an upriver bed on the Colne around mid afternoon, then packed my Rucksack light and rushed my dinner down before heading off to arrive at Hutley's Caravan Park at about 6pm. On the way there in the car I had wondered if perhaps I might save myself the walk and fish amongst the groynes to the left of the car park, but by the time I got there the decision had already been made for me; every bay was being fished already and so my usual hike towards the nudist beach was the order of the evening if I wanted any space or solitude.

By the time I had walked the mile or so to my spot and got my gear set up it was about 7pm and the light had started to drop, the time when the fishing normally "switches on" at this spot. The first rod went out with three hooks baited with Mackerel strip and almost immediately I got my first bite, before I'd even had a chance to get the second rod baited up. Having baited up the second rod with Black Lugworm and Fresh Lugworm on a Bomber Rig and cast out I then reeled in my first fish of the night on the Mackerel Strip, a nice little Whiting of about 12oz. As a bonus when I reeled in the fish I discovered that I also had a lost set of gear attached which turned out to be one that I had lost on my Bass Rod some weeks back; one of the benefits of fishing the same venues regularly I suppose.

Sport with one species of fish or another continued pretty much constantly through the remainder of the flood with either Whiting or Pouting falling to the Mackerel Strip and both types of Lugworm but it was at the top of the tide that the fishing really took off. The Tip Tornado was very nearly dragged down the beach but on reeling in everything felt very light and it seemed as though I had missed the fish. It was only when it reached the surf line that I realised the fish was still on and after a short tussle at very close range I was very pleased with the result; a Bass of 2lb 2oz which had taken a Frozen Black Lugworm. Not big by any standards but much better than a Whiting. The next cast was almost like a repeat performance but this time the Bass was smaller (about 1lb 8oz) and seemed a bit of a strange shape, almost as if it had the head of a bigger fish.

The ebb tide saw the sport tail off a bit. The fishing slowed down, although there was the odd bite to keep me busy, but the weed became an awful pain with the leader knot totally coated in huge amounts of thin, tightly bound weed on every retrieve. Finally at midnight with the tide starting to disappear I decided enough was enough, packed up and headed for home. Final score for the night was ten Whiting (between 6-12oz), two undersized Pouting and three Bass, only one of which was undersized. Currently this spot seems to be producing some reasonable fishing for me and has the added advantage of plenty of room (most anglers can't be bothered with the walk) and less snags than the rock-groin end of the beach. It will be interesting to see if perhaps a bigger tide later in the season will produce any sizable Codling.

Fishing Report: 4th October 07 - Halfpenny Pier, Harwich

I managed to con the wife into combining an evening trip to Harwich to get chips and watch the harbour with an hours feathering off Halfpenny Pier. It was far from a serious session and was really just an experiment to see if I could catch some of the Herring I have seen swimming around the Pier on feathers. We got chips (very nice!) and then, having finished mine, I left wife and daughter to admire the lights of the harbour and headed onto the pier with my Whychwood 4lb Spod and a set of Owner Gold Rainbow Skin Sabiki feathers on size 12 hooks, hoping that the Herring I had seen on a previous trip were still there.

It was a flat calm evening and sure enough, the Herring were feeding near the surface under one of the pier lights. As I dropped the feathers down near the shoal and began working them I was getting bites almost immediately, though I seemed to continually fail to connect; judging by the general size of the fish on the surface they were just too small, mostly about 2 to 3 inches long.

After a bit of perseverance I did eventually manage to connect with one of the "tiddlers" and then promptly lost it to a small Bass of about 1lb as I lifted it to the surface. The next drop down resulted in a small Bass of about 2oz but then everything went completely quiet so I assume the Bass had spooked the Herring. After another fifteen minutes of fruitlessly trying various spots around the pier I was unceremoniously summoned back to the car for the return journey home; my time was up. Last time I was here the Herring were much bigger and though this particular session was (except for the chips) a bit of a waste of time I will be back at some point to try again.