As we are about to complete on our new bungalow on Monday I decided it was time for a last fishing session on Bateman's Tower as a Brightlingsea resident - I was hoping for better results than my last few sessions which have, quite frankly, been crap.In an adventurous mood, I dug a couple of pounds of Ragworm in the
evening and then, after a bite to eat and a couple of hours sit-down headed off with the gear, arriving eagerly at the Tower at about 12.15am; not surprisingly I had the place to myself. It was a fairly big tide (3am ish) and an absolutely flat calm night and the first cast opened my innings with small Bass falling to a big Ragworm bait at range. I thought it might turn into one of those nights when the rods don't stop nodding after the second chuck produced an Eel of about half a pound but then it all went quiet.
About an hour from the top of the tide a good bite resulted in a big Eel thrashing just out in front of me as I cleared a weed jam in the tip ring. I got rid of the weed just in time to see the fish climb up the line and shake free of the hook as they quite often do ... but the next cast my luck improved and an Eel (a very green one as you can see from the picture) of about a pound duly surrendered and was returned after a quick picture.Encouraged by a few fish on the flood I was hopeful of a Bass or two on the ebb (by far your best
chance here) and sure enough, the best fish of the night came about 2 hours on the turn, just as the run started to ease. At 45cm it wasn't the biggest Bass in the world but nice to see given how scarce sizable Bass have been from the river this year. Within an hour the tide had completely died and I decided it was time to head home, not least because I was bloody knackered. Although not the best ever session I've had on the river it did at least turn up a couple of fish that put a bend in the rod and ended my recent fish drought .... a pleasant way to say goodbye to the town really. Mind you, having used a pound and a half of Ragworm up on one rod some might say I deserved a couple of fish! 
1 Comment:
Takes me back a bit...I used to fish at Batemans tower when I lived in Brightlingsea in the 60s&70s (22-24 New Street if you're interested. Used to sell the eels in the Railway tavern, and my favourite trick was to float-fish a flounder spoon for the flatties. I can just remember the last train , in 1964, and used to regularly see Ian Gillespie and fishmonger John Sait landing a dinghy at the hard, after a 4am start fishing the bar for the bass.
Happy memories,
Philtherod
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