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.