Fishing Report: 17th April 08 - St Osyth, Essex

It had been a good while (over five months!) since I last fished and having just finished building myself a new Tip Tornado Sport, I was itching to get back in the swing of things fishing-wise and give the new pole a try-out. With the tide at 11pm and work the next morning it was never going to be the most adventurous session of my fishing career, so rather than travel any distance to fish I opted to minimise travelling time and make the best of the extra time on the beach by heading for nearby St Osyth, hoping that the reports of Codling still showing along this part of the coast were not just another fisherman's tale.

I arrived at 6.30pm to find that I had the beach to myself (excellent!) which meant I could fish in the third bay from the ramp, my favoured spot at this end of the beach and with the forecast 3-4 cold easterly wind putting plenty of colour in the water, I tackled up quite confident that I might just be in with a chance of a spring Codling or two. After a few practice casts with the rod (just to remind myself how to cast) I set up a bomber rig, piled on some big Lugworm baits and sent the whole lot out as best I could given that I have not cast a rod since last November (Note to self: I must practice my casting more often). Now anyone who fishes this beach regularly will no doubt tell you that it is one of those venues that 'switches on' after dark and my experience of the place is no different. Normally I find myself effectively killing time while it is light, waiting for darkness to fall and the action to start but this session was to be the complete opposite and so it was that shortly after the arrival of fishing pal Stuart (who had popped down for a chat) at 7pm I got my first decent bite which turned out to be a small Codling of about 25cm.

Despite this early fish I was still convinced that things would only liven up after dark so it was a complete surprise when about forty minutes later (while I was still putting the world to rights with Stu and not concentrating) the rod 'knocked' and then sat back with a classic 'slack-liner'. The fish continued to swim right into the beach and only really started to fight about 20 yards out and after a brief tussle in the surf a nice plump spring Codling of about two pounds sat on the beach. Granted it was nothing tremendous but it wasn't even dark yet and after five months off anything sizable will raise a smile; if the beach was up to its usual standards I was in for a very good night once it got dark I thought. As the light started to fade another rattle provided fish number three, not the second Codling I was hoping for but a good sized Pouting all the same of about three-quarters of a pound. At that point Stu decided he was heading off home and seemingly took my luck with him. As darkness set in the expected run of bites that usually come never appeared and I fished on till about 10pm taking only one other fish, an undersized Whiting, which hung itself on a huge Lugworm bait on a 3/0 hook.

Despite it not being the most exciting session I've ever had (or the warmest - that easterly was damned cold) I can think of a lot worse ways to kill a Thursday night. The new rod lived up to expectations and behaved impeccably, providing good bite indication in the wind. Despite being a powerful rod it also cast very smoothly and didn't feel at all top heavy as a lot of 13ft rods do. Add to that the bonus of a nice bit of fresh Cod for my tea and it was, when all is said and done, a very nice way to get myself back into practice ready for the forthcoming Bass season.

A Time Away From Fishing

Assuming that I have any regular readers they will, no doubt, be wondering where I've been since November when I last posted. Perhaps some thought I had got bored with posting or maybe some were of the opinion that I was too much of a girl to brave the winter weather but in actual fact my absence was for much more dire reasons than either of these. A serious family crisis hit me in November, just after my last post, and I was forced to forget the fishing for a while and concentrate on other things much more important. That crisis, compounded with about five years of what was probably excessive work stress, took its toll on me and although things began to get back to normal in the new year it was too late to save me from a fall and I found myself in what I can only describe as a very dark and lonely place, accompanied only by a box of anti-depressants and a sick note, somewhere I never want to go again.

So why am I posting now? Well its not a fishing report because although some time off work has brought me slowly and steadily back into the light, to put it bluntly I haven't been fishing. But while I may have been in no state to fish, part of my therapy has still been fishing or rather thinking, planning and writing about fishing. Having taken the opportunity of three months off work to sort all my gear, fix rods and tie new rigs I then decided that this site needed a twin. Enter 'A Sea Angler's Reference Book', designed to provide a host of information that anglers from this part of the country will find useful. I eventually intend to provide step-by-step instructions in everything from rod building to reading tides but currently I only have the Galleries and the Minimum Fish Sizes up and running. Keep an eye on it though as I'm keeping up a steady pace and I have an awful lot of material for the site - another 6 to 9 months should have it finished!

At the same time I was asked to look into setting up a Sea Fishing forum for a number of my old friends from the Seafishing.org website as they had been the victims of a round of banning by the administrator. After a little work 'The Sea Angler's Clubroom' went live on February 3rd and has been busy ever since. Anybody that fancies a chat can register for free and currently myself and my pal Stuartdv (who helps with the moderation) haven't needed to pass more than an occasional eye over it due to the fact that it seems to have nurtured a friendly atmosphere. Long may it stay that way.

One final part of my therapy was to do something I have been doing since I was a lad and have never grown out of; go tackle recovering at a local mark. As lads myself and my schoolmates would trudge about in the mud around a local mark to recover leads and tackle that we simply couldn't afford to buy but these days I really just do it for the fun of getting something for free. A couple of hours of slipping about in the mud gained me a good pile of leads (I have never paid money for a sea fishing lead in my life) and did the environment and the reputation of our pastime a favour by removing hundreds of yards of lost line. If you look at the picture to the left you can see the complete haul.

So that's it really, probably not what anyone was expecting. I suppose what I am trying to get across is that actually fishing is not by any means the be all and end all of this pastime, there is so much enjoyment to be had from the activities surrounding it and those activities in themselves can almost become pastimes in their own right. Roll on the Bass Season ...... the dog is back!