Fishing Report: 25th October 08 - St Osyth, Essex

I'd had such a busy night on my last session at St Osyth I was itching to get back at the place and see if the whispers of a few bigger Codling showing were for real. If I'm being honest I really had too much to do at home but there are times when you just have to satisfy the need for a few hours on the beach and so in the end I decided on the compromise of one rod and a short session amongst the rock groynes just over the wall from the car park.

I arrived at about 7pm and was surprised to find that I wasn't the only angler with the same plan and that my favourite spot was already taken so in the end, after a short walk towards the Martello Tower, I had to settle for the last available bay where I quickly got myself sorted behind the brolly and got a 150 gram DVice, loaded with two good sized baits, out in search of some fish. In sharp contrast to my previous session here, the weather was definitely a bit more like Cod fishing weather and I was glad of the shelter of the brolly to escape what could best be described as "a bit of a blow"!

It was pretty obvious from the start that the recent rough weather had broken up the Whiting shoals that had been here previously so it was never going to be a repeat of my last session, where Whiting were on the baits as they settled on the bottom, but I consoled myself that the lack of Whiting and the rough water might provide a better chance of Codling and stuck to it, chucking out decent sized Black Lugworm baits as far as I could manage into the wind every twenty minutes or so.

The flood was uneventful except for one missed slack-line bite (it always happens when you pour a coffee!) and a couple of smallish Whiting, but I soldiered on in the now strengthening wind, and as soon as the tide turned at about 10:30pm a bit of current appeared and at last I started to get a few bites. A couple of sizable Whiting showed up and eventually a good bite about an hour on the ebb finally produced the sizable Codling I'd come looking for, which came in with a pair of reasonable Whiting attached as well, one hooked on the top trace and the other connected to the top hook of the same Pennel trace as the Codling.

By now I'd had enough of being sandblasted and after a couple more unsuccessful casts in the hope of turning my solitary Codling into a brace I finally decided discretion was the better part of valour and headed back past the now pretty much empty beach towards the car park to meet my lift home, with a final tally of six Whiting (four sizable) and one Codling of about 45cm.

Fishing Report: 11th October 08 - St Osyth, Essex

I've spent a lot of time fishing on my own this year so it was quite a welcome change to join a couple of friends for a reunion trek up towards the Bird Reserve end of Hutley's Beach at St Osyth. I met Stuart and Paul (aka Stuartdv and Bread in fishing forum world) at Hutley's car park at about 6pm on Saturday night and after a brief chat and gathering together of the gear we headed up towards the bird reserve end of the beach on what turned out to be an absolutely cracking night both in terms of the fishing and the weather.

We were set up in time to enjoy what is probably the best sunset I've seen all year and, as usual at this spot, got the baits out and waited for the light to fade in hope that the fish would show us the usual courtesy of "switching on" as it got dark. We didn't have too long to wait and the first few small fish started to show up as the sun dropped, the odd Whiting, a couple of undersized Bass, a Pouting and then, as darkness fell, the Whiting arrived in force and what was to be a busy night started in earnest.

Throughout the flood tide the Whiting were on the baits almost as soon as they hit the water with regular doubles coming out (and a good few trebles to Stu and Paul) and at one point I was even getting double shots in on a Pennel rig fished with a DVice. As well as the Whiting there was the occasional undersize Bass and Pouting putting in an appearance just to make life a little more interesting and, as the tide neared the high mark with the resultant increase in the current the small Codling decided it was their turn. Ultimately that was what we had come for but although they did tug noticably better than the Whiting the bulk were too small and by about midnight (when we decided we were too knackered to fish any more) the only taker Codling had come to Paul, a fish of about 45cm, which he kindly donated to me.

The general size of the Whiting seemed to be a bit bigger than of late and my tally by the end of the night was 2 Codling (approximately 32 and 34 cm), about 20 Whiting and 2 small Bass. To be honest it was a struggle keeping tabs on my own tally so I really couldn't say what Paul and Stuart’s totals were for the night but I would lay money that they both did at least as well as me and Stuart seemed to be scoring regular treble shots in true matchman style. The fish may not be particularly large at the moment but I'm loath to complain as they are at least plentiful and it was a thoroughly enjoyable night of non-stop bites spent with very good company; there's not that many times over the year that you get a night where you don't get time to eat a sandwich.