Fishing Report: 18th September 09 - St Osyth, Essex

The beach was calling again and with a good tide and an excellent weather forecast for the Friday night I headed, yet again, for the Bird Reserve end of St Osyth, a favourite spot of mine. I decided to be a bit adventurous and walk from home in Jaywick but in hindsight it was probably a tad too adventurous as my feet were just not up to that sort of distance at the moment (I'm showing my age) and I suffered for it terribly the next morning; actually if I'm truthful none of me was up to going that sort of distance with 2 rods and associated kit and it is a lesson very much learnt!

Anyway I arrived at my favourite spot about 4 hours before the tide and sent both rods out with a variety of baits. Within 5 minutes both sets of gear had returned to the beach with a fish on every hook and so it pretty much continued throughout the flood. Frozen Blacks, Fresh Lugworm and Frozen Sandeel all accounted for Whiting and in truth it didn't seem to matter what bait you put on the hook or where you cast it. About two hours before the top of the tide I had a flurry of small Bass in amongst the Whiting, all to Ragworm and an Eel of about 8oz (again falling to Ragworm) joined the party just at the top of the tide, as the Whiting action died off a little.

I was hoping that the ebb would maybe bring perhaps a better Bass or maybe a Codling but it wasn't to be. Fishing at range was virtually impossible with a huge upsurge in the amount of weed about and within minutes the gear had to be brought back in with 2 foot or so of that horrible thin weed adorning the mainline by the leader knot - mind you I was still pretty much getting a Whiting a chuck even then. To keep the fishing a little more refined I decided to try for a Bass at close range (away from the dreaded weed) but even here the water was full of Whiting, albeit that the fish here were a much better size than most I had already taken on the flood.

I eventually tired of the Whiting at about 3.30am and headed home. It makes a nice change to be able to say that I really was too busy to count the Whiting. I know I had 5 Bass and the Eel and a conservative estimate (based on some (very) rough calculations) of about 50 Whiting, although most were only about 5 - 7 inches long. The walk home became a bit of a slog and at the end of it I was glad that the streets were deserted and there was nobody around to see me hobble up my driveway like an old man, though I have a theory that it was the extra weight of the 10 million sand hoppers which stowed away in my rucksack for the journey home (the beach was alive with them) and which duly took over the kitchen as i gave my reels a rinse when I got back.

I was not popular with Mrs Blakdog in the morning, she is not a fan of wildlife in her kitchen!!!!!!!!

Fishing Report: 8th August 09 - Bateman's Tower, Brightlingsea

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!