Sunday 22 March 2009

Fishing Report: 21st March 09 - St Osyth

Although I'd had an hours spinning on the Colne the day before (tempted by the illusion of a bit of sunshine and a longing for the Bass season to return) I really was in the mood for another spell on the beach. As I had a bit of bait left from the last session and the weather forecast seemed so good I thought I would finish it off by throwing it at a few hours of the ebb tide at my favourite spot at St Osyth again.

With the tide at about 8pm I arrived in time to be set up and fishing for the last hour of the flood on what was a really nice, calm night, passing only one other lone angler (fishing by what is left of the turn of the old beach road onto the dunes) on the way up to the far end of the beach. I settling back to watch the rod tip in the beam of the headlamp with only the occasional visitation from a patrolling Fox behind me in the dunes and the calls of the waders flying overhead for company and waited patiently for the first bite to come. To some it may seem like a very lonely way to spend a Saturday night but in truth this is the fishing I tend to prefer with nothing to distract me from my purpose and nobody to break the peace and quiet, away from the weekend revellers and the telly.

My previous session here a few days before had seen me manage a brace of Codling but tonight was a very different night. There was absolutely no tide run to speak of and the seabed in front of me seemed to be crawling with bait robbing crabs; to be blunt the fishing was crap. Apart from the odd tiddler bite, the only thing to save me from a blank was probably the best Whiting I have had for a few years, which slack lined a large Lugworm bait fished at range and went a good 14 inches. This time of the year I generally don't take Whiting home and such a nice specimen would have gone back had it not have taken the hook about 10 inches down!

Hopeful that the Whiting was a prelude to a Codling or two I fished on but by 11pm the water had all but disappeared and the air was getting decidedly chilly and so at 11.30pm after finishing off the last of the Lugworm on one last ditch bait I left the dunes to the birds and the leftover bits and bobs of bait to the Fox and headed home.

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