Its been a long time since I have attempted to regale anyone with an in depth catch report, so bear with me!
Saturday morning and the alarm wakes me at the very sensible time of 6am, that leaves me one hour to get up, sort out my boat gear, make a flask and drive the 5 minutes it now takes me to reach Fair Chance. Gone are the hour long drives from Maidstone to Dungeness since moving to the coast a little under seven years ago!
The day dawned bright but with a stiff west/northwest breeze. Not ideal for fishing the ebb tide, but that's the cards we were dealt.
We had two options open to us, go and catch some live Mackerel then head West to drift the sand banks for spiky sea rats (thats Bass to the uninitiated) or head East and try for a Unicorn, (Also known as Cod!)
With me for the days fishing were Dave Robinson and Dave Knott.
I knew Dave R would want to go after spiky things, Dave K is just happy to fish and I needed to go and try for a Unicorn. Normally I am quite happy to go with the flow, but we have done the sand banks to death this year chasing spiky things, so I put my foot down and insisted we go after the bearded ones!
As a sort of compromise, we went and feathered up some Mackerel first, as the Cod grounds we would anchor on also hold Bass. That meant Dave R could fish for Bass and Dave K had both options.
So, after catching two dozen Mackerel we were anchored up in the East Bay on the Cod grounds.
Dave R went chasing Bass on live Mackerel.
Dave K opted to fish a live Mackerel downtide and a lug/cuttle combo uptide.
Me? Well, I went all out for a Unicorn. Lug uptide on one rod and Cuttle or lug/Cuttle combo on another uptide rod.
The lug only rod produced a few pout and dogs before eventually the tip pulled over , and kept going! Cod on! What else could it be? Some good solid head shakes confirmed my thoughts and I called for skipper Jerry Oiler (01797 363544) to ready the net. Very soon my first Cod of the 2020/21 season would be in the net. My first winter UK Cod in four years was nearly mine. I was ecstatic and on the point of giving a victory scream when horror of horrors, my Cod turned into a 10Lb strap conger! I could have cried!
I was firmly ribbed over my calling for the net and told I must try harder!
A few more pout and dogs were landed before the ebb tide slowly began to run. The wind, blowing stronger than the tide held us at an awkward angle, but with only three of us fishing we coped quite well.
We thought the start of the tide would bring the fish on the feed but the opposite happend. It went dead. No dogs, pout or even whiting!
We upped anchor and moved a little inshore to another mark.
More or less immediately Dave R was into a Bass on his live Mackerel set up, so he was happy.
I followed this up with a thornback ray, not to be out done, Dave K also landed a thornback.
Two hours later and we were on the move again.
I was fishing really hard, double patting the uptiders, fresh baits going out every twenty minutes but all to no avail. The Cod simply were not there (or on the feed?)
Dave R did manage another Bass but had struggled with Cuttlefish attacking his Mackerel baits.
Dave K went pretty much the same as me, a run of whiting pouts and dogs!
So, till next time, tight lines and may Cod be with you.
We did hear that Rye skipper Ant Hills did have one Unicorn aboard his boat the same day we were afloat, so there was at least one swimming the bay!
Dave R with his two Bass
Me with a spiky flappy thing
Rye's top skipper!
Saturday morning and the alarm wakes me at the very sensible time of 6am, that leaves me one hour to get up, sort out my boat gear, make a flask and drive the 5 minutes it now takes me to reach Fair Chance. Gone are the hour long drives from Maidstone to Dungeness since moving to the coast a little under seven years ago!
The day dawned bright but with a stiff west/northwest breeze. Not ideal for fishing the ebb tide, but that's the cards we were dealt.
We had two options open to us, go and catch some live Mackerel then head West to drift the sand banks for spiky sea rats (thats Bass to the uninitiated) or head East and try for a Unicorn, (Also known as Cod!)
With me for the days fishing were Dave Robinson and Dave Knott.
I knew Dave R would want to go after spiky things, Dave K is just happy to fish and I needed to go and try for a Unicorn. Normally I am quite happy to go with the flow, but we have done the sand banks to death this year chasing spiky things, so I put my foot down and insisted we go after the bearded ones!
As a sort of compromise, we went and feathered up some Mackerel first, as the Cod grounds we would anchor on also hold Bass. That meant Dave R could fish for Bass and Dave K had both options.
So, after catching two dozen Mackerel we were anchored up in the East Bay on the Cod grounds.
Dave R went chasing Bass on live Mackerel.
Dave K opted to fish a live Mackerel downtide and a lug/cuttle combo uptide.
Me? Well, I went all out for a Unicorn. Lug uptide on one rod and Cuttle or lug/Cuttle combo on another uptide rod.
The lug only rod produced a few pout and dogs before eventually the tip pulled over , and kept going! Cod on! What else could it be? Some good solid head shakes confirmed my thoughts and I called for skipper Jerry Oiler (01797 363544) to ready the net. Very soon my first Cod of the 2020/21 season would be in the net. My first winter UK Cod in four years was nearly mine. I was ecstatic and on the point of giving a victory scream when horror of horrors, my Cod turned into a 10Lb strap conger! I could have cried!
I was firmly ribbed over my calling for the net and told I must try harder!
A few more pout and dogs were landed before the ebb tide slowly began to run. The wind, blowing stronger than the tide held us at an awkward angle, but with only three of us fishing we coped quite well.
We thought the start of the tide would bring the fish on the feed but the opposite happend. It went dead. No dogs, pout or even whiting!
We upped anchor and moved a little inshore to another mark.
More or less immediately Dave R was into a Bass on his live Mackerel set up, so he was happy.
I followed this up with a thornback ray, not to be out done, Dave K also landed a thornback.
Two hours later and we were on the move again.
I was fishing really hard, double patting the uptiders, fresh baits going out every twenty minutes but all to no avail. The Cod simply were not there (or on the feed?)
Dave R did manage another Bass but had struggled with Cuttlefish attacking his Mackerel baits.
Dave K went pretty much the same as me, a run of whiting pouts and dogs!
So, till next time, tight lines and may Cod be with you.
We did hear that Rye skipper Ant Hills did have one Unicorn aboard his boat the same day we were afloat, so there was at least one swimming the bay!
Dave R with his two Bass
Me with a spiky flappy thing
Rye's top skipper!
??
