After a really good spring on the beaches it’s been harder of late and for the last few weeks I’ve been scratching around to get a fish or two. Either side of the trip out west, August has been hard work, when I’ve had time to fish the conditions and tide times have often been against me, yes we can always find a way to blame the things we can’t control. Probably the biggest problem is not getting my hands on fresh wriggling worms often enough and I really should make more of an effort. This long dry summer has sucked the green out of the countryside and with just a trickle going through the rivers there are only a couple of stretches with enough flow to interest me and there’s only so many times I can fish them and remain interested. My local River Gipping is in a right state, literally miles are choked with duckweed and on one of the courses there wasn’t enough water to go over the weir last week. But still I can't resist heading towards the waterside...
Isaac hadn’t been fishing for a while so it was high time we
put that right. A late tide with an off
shore breeze should make everything perfect for a Ray at the shallow
beach? Famous last words, when we got to
the car park it was obvious the wind would be right in our faces and the sea
would be lumpy. On my own I would
probably have been daft enough to sit it out but instead we changed plans and
headed to a spot on the estuary that looks the part but I’d never fished before. We had plenty of squid which accounts for
most species but no ragworm which wasn’t ideal as Bass would be our main
target. I did have some frozen black lug
so I whipped a couple of these onto our 1/0 hooks and we swung them out. The other rod was the regular squid on a
pulley and it was this that had the first bite after about twenty minutes, I
wound in a nice plump perfect Bass of about a pound or so. Where there’s one…
We spent a nice evening, sheltered from the gusting wind,
chatting away with the usual daft stuff.
And we got bites on the black lug.
Fast raps on the tip that stopped before we had a chance to strike, but
we tried! Isaac hooked a fish and it
looked like a nice Bass was on its way but the line went slack. We fished the tide most of the way up and
into darkness and were on the verge of packing up when Isaac had a banging
bite, it was a mystery as to how it didn’t hook up? But that’s fishing and that was the lot for
the night.
My next trip was two weeks later, once again the tide was
right for fishing the shallow beach but I knew the wind would be fresh and from
the north east. This would make things a
bit iffy, would the cliffs give me enough shelter and more importantly, keep
the sea from getting too lumpy? In short
the answer was no, but it was a pleasant evening on a quiet, beautiful
beach. Catching a ray never looked
likely on this occasion but I did get fast rattles throughout the flood and a
couple of small Bass hung themselves on whole squid. I got a few bites on frozen Lug again but
couldn’t hook whatever was responsible.
I fished into darkness but this didn’t switch the fish on and all things
considered I’d done well to catch a couple of fish. But to be honest, if I had half a brain I’d
have turned around and headed elsewhere.
I had a few hours free after work so bunged some chips in the oven and while this cooked I filled a flask and got some bits and pieces together; rod, bankstick, net and handle, bag, chair, bait. That’ll do. By 1800 I was walking the river bank carefully and I found Chub exactly where I expected them to be, a slightly deeper pool between two thick bushes. Last time I was here the fish had been really spooky so I set up away from the swim then crept into position. I wanted to keep disturbance to a minimum so no feeder tonight, instead I clipped on a ½ oz lead, baited up with a couple of grains of corn and plopped the rig out. The Chub were still there, milling around so I threw a few grains of corn upstream and watched them eagerly as they drifted down towards the fish… which were no longer there!
I had no plan B tonight so I would just have to sit tight,
keep my head down and hope the Chub came back.
And this they did, at least four good sized fish would appear in the
swim from downstream, circle a time or two then disappear downstream
again. These fish didn’t appear agitated
but they didn’t seem comfortable either and they certainly showed no interest
in my grains of corn. After an hour or
so, with the coast clear on the fishy front I wound in and replaced the corn
for a hair rigged pellet. By the time I
was ready there were a couple of Chub milling about again and they seemed more
confident, maybe because there was no line in the swim? After a few minutes I couldn’t stand waiting
any more and flicked the rig out close in and did so without alerting the Chub. The fish circled a couple more times then
vanished downstream again. I saw this as
an opportunity to get the bait a
bit further into the stream but in my haste I managed to snag a branch that had
been hindering me all night. I was well
and truly stuck so had no option but to pull and managed to snap the branch
with a loud crack. A load of debris
splashed into the river making a mighty racket and I was pretty sure my chances
of a fish were all over for the evening.
I sat patiently soaking the pellet for about forty five
minutes by which time the light was fading.
I hadn’t seen any sigh of the Chub and nothing had shown an interest in
the pellet so I decided to change tactics completely. I switched back to a couple of grains on a
size 10, cast this three quarters the way across the pool then chucked a big
handful of corn just upstream. With no
Chub around to spook this surely couldn’t hurt and maybe the smell would draw
fish upstream? I didn’t expect anything
to happen but in the fading light I saw a flash then a couple of dark shapes
moving, the Chub were back. Whether the
bait had drawn them or the lower light levels had given them confidence I’ll
never know but as the minutes ticked by without any action, I wished I still
had a pellet on as bait. Then I had a
sharp bang on the tip, too fast for me to react and nothing developed. I wound in a few minutes later to find the
hook stripped of bait and bedraggled with weed.
I recast with a pellet and sat for another twenty minutes or so then
gave it up and packed up by torchlight.
All coarse fish love corn but these are tricky Chub who
seemed spooked by the stuff in daylight but maybe they’d eat it when the light
fades? Perhaps I’d do better by leaving
the corn at home and trying to tempt them with hemp and pellets? Whatever, I’d got it wrong tonight but next time…
As my day off approached once again conditions seemed to be
against me; high tide was due in the early afternoon which is not my favoured
time to fish but sometimes needs must.
Also there was a fresh south south west wind to contend with. This would make my preferred beaches
uncomfortable to sit on and the sea would be lumpy, theoretically diminishing
my chances of catching Rays. Add to that
a hit and miss ragworm supply this summer and the odds on a Bass are going the
wrong way too. But bugger all that, I
had time to fish and didn’t fancy the river so I did a bit of staring at google
maps and a bit of thinking and came up with a plan.
At 1150 the following day I was sitting behind my tripod on Fukushima beach. On the way eastward I’d called in at the tackle shop in Saxmundham (which would have been worth a longer browse if I’d had more time) and picked up half a pound of rag. The day was mostly bright but the wind was as formidable as predicted meaning the shelter was up providing a small place of tranquillity. As usual I whacked out a squid on the heavy rod and fished the worms closer on the light one. This beach runs pretty much north to south so here I’d get more respite from the wind and also a recent report indicated a lot of interesting fish had been about. With high tide two hours away all I had to do now was sit back, drink tea and play the waiting game.
My first casts saw the tips wobbling in the wind and
skipping with the waves a bit but not so much it would make proper bites
difficult to see, should I get any. Or
so I thought, despite seeing no fishy movements something was going on as my
squid was being attacked and the worms were disappearing, I suspected crabs
were the culprits. Ninety minutes passed
in a flash as I was on the go a lot, rebaiting and recasting to keep ahead of
the crabs. As the high tide approached I
thought I could see subtle plucks and knocks on the lighter tip. I tried holding the rod and feeling for bites
and managed to convince myself something was happening but struck thin
air. Two hours in, once again things
were not going to plan and high tide was nearly upon me. Behind me was a filthy dark cloud that was
travelling northward and dropping rain on some poor soul but luckily it mostly
missed me and I just got a few minutes of drizzle. In the bowels of my memory I thought I could
dredge out a memory that this beach fished better on the ebb when I’d been here
before, or was this clutching at straws?
Half an hour into the ebb things started to happen, this was in the shape of subtle but definite bites and at long last I winched a small Bass up the Beach. I was so pleased to see it I made it a photo star which is just as well as I haven’t had much to point a lens out lately. That was the beginning of a little spell - a couple of hours or so – where I was getting knocks on every cast with the light rod. Some of these I missed but I hooked a few too, all were Bass but all were small fish around six to ten inches long. I switched the heavy rod to a python sized ragworm and whacked that out but this just caught me another similar sized bass. This afternoon was a marked improvement on my recent efforts on the beach, ragworm makes the difference and I was enjoying actually catching a few fish but all the time I was hoping the squid would be taken and the heavy rod would fold over. By 1800 this hadn’t happened and I’d had enough so it was time to tidy up. The march back to the car was a grueller as the first part was on soft sand with the wind stinging straight into my chops. Eventually I made the sanctuary of the car, turned the stereo up and pointed it towards home.
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