Fishing Report: 22nd November 08 - Clacton on sea, Essex

Initially this weekend I hadn't planned to fish but I'd been working my butt off on the online store and really needed a break. The strong winds had dropped off steadily during the day but were likely to have left a good bit of colour in the water which I reckoned would bring the Codling on the feed and so, although the weather front had turned round to come in from the north (bringing with it a sudden drop in the temperature) I decided on a spur of the moment trip to try a few hours at the Gunfleet Sailing Club yet again in the hope of adding a few more Codling to my tally.

I arrived at about 6pm with the tide almost finished with the flood expecting to see the seafront scattered with angler's lights but to my surprise things were relatively quiet (perhaps because of the weather forecaster's promise of snow) and yet again I managed to get into my favourite little corner, right by the Sailing Club slipway as I have done on so many winter sessions in the past. Further up the promenade there were other angler's lights but for some unknown reason the Gunfleet stretch was very quiet and so it was that I set up my single rod and flung my first Cod bait out over the large swells that were pushing into my little corner of the seafront and sat back to enjoy the solitude that as little as a decade ago would have been impossible on a winter Cod session.

The last hour of the flood was very uneventful and at the top of the tide I had only two average sized Whiting to show for my efforts with the large baits of Frozen Black and Squid. I took the opportunity for a break in concentrating on the rod for a drink and a bite to eat over the slack period at the top of the tide and then, as I watched a shooting star (or more likely a bit of space rubbish re-entering the atmosphere) flash down to the horizon a decent rattle on the rod followed by a slack line signalled that the ebb tide had started and that the Codling were, at last, on the feed. Although sizable the 42cm Codling that resulted from the take didn't take long to get in and a minute or so later I slid it up the slipway on a convenient swell and it was mine; a nice fit little Codling with an unusually pale colouration was destined for the frying pan.

Things then went quiet for a little while and apart from the odd bite which I presume were probably small Whiting the rod didn't move. As the tide started to fall away I began to think that was going to be it for the night then two Whiting turned up in quick succession, followed a couple of casts later by another Codling, just undersized. Half a dozen casts after the Codling I lifted the rod into what I thought would be another Whiting and was surprised to find myself attached to something that was tugging back and a couple of minutes later was pleasantly surprised to see the best fish of the night slide up the beach, a very clean, plump Codling of 55cm which had obviously just taken the bait and sat there in the now weakening current. It makes you wonder how many Codling we miss simply because we expect a furious bite from them every time.

I had another cast after I had sorted the Codling out but by now I was beginning to feel the cold a bit. I hadn't expected it to be quite as cold as it was and so hadn't put my thermals on under the waterproofs; now I was beginning to suffer for it! As usual towards the end of a session I got the digital camera out to take a quick few pictures of the fish and it soon became evident that the camera was feeling the cold as well; I managed four frames and then the screen went black (which turned out to be the CCD dying) and with that final bit of encouragement I decided it was time to pack up and head for home.

Fishing Report: 14th November 08 - Clacton on sea, Essex

After having a decent session last weekend at the Gunfleet Sailing Club at Clacton over the ebb I thought I would try the same spot again, but this time on the flood. The weather was reasonably calm and with the south westerly wind it was really mild for the time of the year. Although I generally prefer to fish this spot when its rough we'd had some high winds during the week and there was plenty of colour in the water and, along with a reasonable tide, I thought there was no reason why it would not produce some decent fishing again.

I arrived at about 7pm to a deserted beach, set up in my favourite spot with a single rod and Frozen Blacks and Cuttlefish as bait and then sat back to wait for the action to start. Although the water was still quite shallow there is a definite area of deeper water at this spot and it seems to act to hold fish at low tide. The Whiting were on the baits from the minute the first cast hit the water and the first cast resulted in an average sized Whiting with things continuing along the same lines for the next couple of hours, sometimes with the fish just hanging themselves without any indication whatsoever. A decent bite finally signalled a change in the shape of my first Codling of the night, a nice clean little fish just short of the line at about 33cm and then, for a while, it all went very quiet and even the Whiting seemed to disappear.

A chat with a WSF forum member (who was having a bike ride along the front) broke the monotony of the quiet spell in the fishing for a time and then, just as the Whiting started on the baits again, I was joined by two of the drunkest anglers I think I have ever seen, who decided to fish on the raised point by the Sailing Club much to my annoyance. It has to be said that I am not the most sociable angler known and the two of them made me feel a bit uneasy for a while but they eventually came across for a quick chat and seemed pleasant enough, despite being pretty much pickled and so I settled down and got back to concentrating on the fishing. After a short lull in the action the Codling turned up about two hours before the top of the 12:30 tide and a "steam train" bite signalled the first of what was to be a quick run of Codling which left me with three sizable fish on the beach, the biggest going about 1.75lbs.

I fished on till about an hour after the top of the tide but the fishing died, as it normally does, over the top of the tide and the only other takers on the short bit of the ebb tide I fished were a steady stream of Whiting with the final fish of the night turning out to be a very respectable specimen. I headed for home at about 1:45am reasonably happy and with fresh Codling in my bucket despite the added annoyance of a flat battery on my camera, hence the lower quality than usual phone camera picture of the Codling for this post.

On a final note large shoals of Sprats and herrings are being reported close inshore now so its likely that the fishing bubble may burst over the next few weeks unless we have some rough weather to break up the bait fish shoals.

Fishing Report: 07th November 08 - Clacton on sea, Essex

Although the Codling have been around for a number of weeks now it's only just lately that its actually felt much like the autumn really. The last of the trees are starting to lose their leaves and the changing of the clocks along with the drawing in of the nights have finally got me programmed in to giving up on the chance of Bass and succumbing totally to thoughts of chasing Codling from a windswept shore. It's true enough that it doesn't need to be rough to catch Codling but to me when I dream of Cod, I dream of big surf, strong winds and water with lots of colour in it and its that kind of weather that has generally brought with it better sport for me.

With reports of the fishing finally hotting up and a good weather forecast with a stiff onshore breeze on the cards I had been itching to get on the beach all week for a proper session after the Codling and after much deliberation I decided to try my luck at Clacton's Gunfleet Sailing Club. After skipping work early and quickly getting my gear together I arrived at the mark a little later than planned but just in time to fish the last hour of the flood on the 7pm tide and a few hours of the ebb at my favoured spot here, right by the Sailing Club slipway. Here both the Sailing Club's slip and the nearby land drain pipe way disrupt the tide, providing a patch of shore with slightly deeper water and with some rough ground which seems to attract the Codling and bring them in closer than other parts of the beach. It is however a difficult spot to fish and accurate casting is a necessity here if you want to avoid heavy tackle losses.

By the time I had got fishing the flood tide had eased and it was no surprise really that only a couple of average sized Whiting and a Pouting of about 12oz came to the rods. However, once the ebb started to move though it all changed and, pretty much as I expected, about 40 minutes into the ebb the Codling started to play, although they were being a bit finicky hitting the Frozen Black baits and then dropping them almost immediately. I missed about 3 or 4 of these finicky takes before finally I connected with a fish that had slack-lined the TT Sport and after it had tugged a bit in the surf I finally had a sizable Codling of about 45cm on the promenade.

The fish continued to play awkward for the rest of the ebb but despite this, by the time the water had dropped enough to allow me to get down off the promenade and onto the beach I had three sizable Codling in the bag and had lost another in the backwash on the concrete slipway. By now most of the other anglers on this stretch (most of whom were already fishing when I arrived) had disappeared but I stuck at it for another hour as past sessions at this mark have shown that a bonus fish or two can be had by fishing at range, late in the tide. My persistence paid off and by the time I packed up at around 10:30pm, having run out of bait, I had managed another couple of Whiting, A Pouting roughly the same size as the first, a Rockling and the best Codling of the night, which took a large bait of frozen Black Lugworm fished right by the end of the land drain pipe. All in all a thoroughly enjoyable few hours at a mark that has been a favourite of mine for 20 years or more and rarely disappoints when the Codling are around in force.

On a final note I should add a word of caution for anybody intending to fish this spot. During easterly and northerly blows this spot is an exceptionally safe mark to fish and offers good shelter from the wind, although you should watch out for sudden swells if you are casting or landing fish off the concrete slipway. The mark can however become very dangerous during southerly gales, particularly those from the south west, as the waves are forced by the wind into the corner of the promenade and up the slipway often washing along the promenade at some force. The recent addition of metal railings along this stretch have improved safety in rough weather (despite being a pain in the bum for casting) but in very heavy southerly winds you should stay off the slipway itself.