Late summer flew by, busy busy. I helped my daughter move house which was tiring, we had a family wedding in London which was emotional and a few days camping in Dorset which was lovely. It was forty nine years since I was last in this part of the world which is memorable because on that family holiday I caught my first ever, totally unassisted fish. I repeatedly cast a string of dayglo feathers as far as I could with nine year old arms then on one occasion the retrieve felt heavy and I wound in a Mackerel. My Dad caught plenty, sometimes in twos and let me wind a few in but they didn’t really count. I’m pretty sure we ate them all, my Mum fried them in a pan fresh from the sea, delicious! On this trip I revisited the scene near West Bay and enjoyed a fantastic grilled plaice in the Bridport Arms, the beer was top class too, can’t remember the brewery but it might have been Palmers? I took the rods down south but didn’t get round to actually fishing this time but I like the area and I’ll be back.
What fishing I did in late summer was mostly focused on
Bass, in previous years the cauldron had fished well so it made sense to spend
a bit of time here. It’s a good bet for
a Bass but with the occasional bonus fish as shown by my last visit here, apart
from Hounds there’s always a chance of a Ray and if one turns up it’s usually a
big one. ‘Focused on Bass…’ Who am I kidding? I really want to catch these ‘bonus fish’ but
if they don’t show up, I’ll be content with Bass.
My first visit was in mid August on the day the drought finally broke, although by the afternoon it was a cloudy but warm day with a moderate westerly blowing off shore. High tide was due just before 1600, after setting off late then the hike through the marsh it was 1500 before I was fishing, once again fishing three rods trying to cover all bases. I had a Bass rod baited with ragworm dropped in close and two bigger baits fished at various distances on pulley rigs. My first bite came after forty five minutes and produced a small Bass, no surprise there. As the minutes ticked by and high tide approached I was able to cast the big baits a bit further. It was bang on high tide when one of the heavier rods literally started rattling in the tripod, what the fuck? After a second or two I realised the line was now pointing in a different direction, something was dragging a squid plus a six ounce lead and it wasn’t tide. I wound into a good weight but it wasn’t doing much, just the occasional thump as I pumped it back so I was thinking ‘Ray’. Then when it got in close it certainly woke up, running along the edge from left to right, either a Bass or… Yes! A Hound, looking awesome, dorsal out of the water as it tried to get away! In truth it wasn’t big enough to stand a chance against the tackle and I soon had it up the stones. This time I did get a photo and on the scales, my second best. I may have mentioned it before but I love these little sharks!
I hoped for more bites on the big baits but it didn’t happen and as the ebbing tide picked up again so these rods had to be fished closer in. About an hour into the ebb I had a flurry of bites on the ragworm fished close and wound in two more Bass. Another hour another spell a couple more Bass, it’s very often like this at this spot, the fish come and go but as more time passed it seemed like they’d just gone, just the odd rattle every now and then. By 2100 I was tired and decided I’d had enough so started to tidy things up. I looked up to see one of the heavy rods pulling over, a proper banging bite. I pulled into a decent weight and a thumping rod tip, maybe another hound? The thing I hauled onto the beach was the right colour but the wrong shape, is that a big Eel or a baby Conger? I sent the picture to a couple of friends and we agreed it was the latter, another first and I think the seventeenth species caught from Suffolk beaches since 2020.
My next fishing opportunity came a couple of weeks later, after our south coast trip, the drought now a fading memory. I couldn’t see past fishing the cauldron with the same three rod set up and the same tactics. The distances I cast would depend on the pull of the tide but to begin with all three had to be fished fairly close as the tide was ripping through. I’d arrived around 1315, two hours before high tide. The forecast had threatened rain so I’d brought the shelter and although it was dry I was glad to have some respite from the fresh south west wind. After an hour the tide had eased enough for me to put the pulley rigs out a bit further but it made no difference, ninety minutes in I still hadn’t had a bite. This changed a few minutes before high tide with a good rattle on the Bass rod saw me winding in the first Bass of the night. A brief spell of bites followed and I managed another Bass, slightly larger than the first. All bar one of the Bass I’ve had this year have been between eight and twelve inches and this was another one of those.
While dealing with this fish I’d noticed a large bank of dark clouds to the south of me, somebody was getting wet so I reorganised the shelter and got well under but thankfully, bar a few minutes of drizzle, most of the wet stuff passed me by. I stayed dry but the wind was gradually getting stronger and with wind against tide big waves rolled up the channel. I’m told Bass like it bouncy but that wasn’t the case tonight, bites dried up on the ragworm and the bigger baits remained untouched.
Ninety minutes into the ebb the Bass rod started rattling
again. I had another small one and
missed a couple more before the fish moved off again. As I hadn’t had anything on the bigger baits,
I tried something different. A large and
rancid mackerel fillet was mounted, tube shaped onto a Pennell and lobbed
out. I just left it there to soak,
hoping something exceptional would be attracted but it didn’t happen. I’d planned to fish into twilight but it
wasn’t happening and I was knackered so called it a day around 1900.
The long dry summer has seen me mostly stay away from the
low, lifeless rivers but I’m ready for a change now, before Pike time kicks in,
so that will probably be my lot for beach fishing until the spring. It’s been a very mixed season, a lot of it
didn’t go at all to plan but when it was good, it was very good.
