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.