Action Man
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 3, 2020
- Messages
- 136
- Reaction score
- 969
- Points
- 94
Evening all,
Firstly an apology. It’s been a while since my last report, probably about a month or so. Truth is, I’ve been really busy slinging rubber sex toys in and out of the sea (aka lure fishing)! It’s been great to be fair, a much needed break from 8 months of beach fishing, especially now the weed is in force on our north Kent coastline. Results have also been positive with some good bass to be had, just a shame that southern water decided to open its bowels directly onto our hallowed ground, followed by a week of utter gash northerlies!
The bad conditions made me look back at my beach gear hanging from the shed roof and the thoughts of drowning some worm directly into some surf came to the forefront of my mind. I’ve had my eye on a new (local) venue, and after a few days of messaging (well persuading), I soon had Stormtrooper in joining me for the ride. It’s another ‘die hard or get rich trying’ kinda venue - which is a polite way of saying ‘don’t blame me if we blank’ lol.
The venue has a lot going for it. A nice estuary in earshot, shelter from the prevailing wind, and tons of natural bait (appart’s also the kind of venue that the majority of anglers would snub and claim ‘you can’t fish there’. But this only pushes me to follow instinct and give it a try. It always annoys me how much coastline we have in Kent but it’s always the same venues that people visit.
Anyway, bringing this back on track, let’s talk about the fishing. High tide was at 10:20pm, and we met up just after 8pm and made our shwalk down to our mark. The tide was only 2 hours out but still on the horizon. We leisurely set up our gear, but by the time we were ready the tide had rushed in and at our toes so we quickly slung our bait out. We both decided to fish 3 rods, knowing we would have a short session at this shallow venue, all with a mixture of rigs, distances and bait being rag, whole squid and frozen blacks.
There was some nice surf rolling in, and we both had bass in our sights but it didn’t take long before the weed started to show on our lines. This just added to my woes about the agenda I had pushed to try this venue, and what we were letting ourselves in for. Anyway, it took all of about 15 minutes for deadlock to be broken - and yes Stormtrooper was into his first fish, a nice 39 cm bass caught at distance on whole squid. Phew - We have fish, now I can relax knowing they are there! Shortly after that Stormtroper noticed a bite develop, and promptly wound in a ball of weed with a snotty little eel buried within it. 2 fish in within 20 minutes and all looked promising.
Whilst faffing about in my tackle box, my third rod positioned on its own mini tripod slammed over and hit the deck. I quickly picked the mess up from the floor and witnessed a bass break the surface when I tightened up the line. It was on my close in rod with whole squid, and became obvious I had a decent fish on. Now this is when I one to regret fishing with 3 rods, especially with a budget beach caster with an ancient fixed spool reel where the drag was knackered (you know where this is going). Anyway, I got the bass to the shore and it looked a promising size, before arting about and then eventually throwing the hook when I gave it an inch of slack. Furious was an understatement!
Huffing and puffing I went back to my rod rest to re-bait up only to see rod number one take a good thump, and sure enough I had a nice 38cm bass to show.
Stormtrooper then also had another one, but I cannot remember the size? Fishing with 3 rods is a bit chaotic, and doubt I will be doing it again, we had piles of weed, rigs and line everywhere. I then got another great thump on the close in squid rod and this time I wasn’t going to give it any slack, I heaved, winched and ran up the beach dragging the fish into safety. Over the moon I was to find a nice solid 50cm bass. At this point I knew my gamble had paid off.
We continued to fish towards high water, and I had a tiddler of a bass to top things off. High water arrived and the weed got even worse, even more for Stormtrooper who’s night ended prematurely with quite frankly the worst knitting of lines I’ve ever seen. I fished for another 45 mins into the ebb whilst He dealt with his mess, but nothing more to report apart from tons and tons of weed.
So what have we learnt?
If you have a hunch for trying a new venue - just go for it! What you got to lose? (But Don’t fish with 3 rods lol)
Until next time
Alan
Firstly an apology. It’s been a while since my last report, probably about a month or so. Truth is, I’ve been really busy slinging rubber sex toys in and out of the sea (aka lure fishing)! It’s been great to be fair, a much needed break from 8 months of beach fishing, especially now the weed is in force on our north Kent coastline. Results have also been positive with some good bass to be had, just a shame that southern water decided to open its bowels directly onto our hallowed ground, followed by a week of utter gash northerlies!
The bad conditions made me look back at my beach gear hanging from the shed roof and the thoughts of drowning some worm directly into some surf came to the forefront of my mind. I’ve had my eye on a new (local) venue, and after a few days of messaging (well persuading), I soon had Stormtrooper in joining me for the ride. It’s another ‘die hard or get rich trying’ kinda venue - which is a polite way of saying ‘don’t blame me if we blank’ lol.
The venue has a lot going for it. A nice estuary in earshot, shelter from the prevailing wind, and tons of natural bait (appart’s also the kind of venue that the majority of anglers would snub and claim ‘you can’t fish there’. But this only pushes me to follow instinct and give it a try. It always annoys me how much coastline we have in Kent but it’s always the same venues that people visit.
Anyway, bringing this back on track, let’s talk about the fishing. High tide was at 10:20pm, and we met up just after 8pm and made our shwalk down to our mark. The tide was only 2 hours out but still on the horizon. We leisurely set up our gear, but by the time we were ready the tide had rushed in and at our toes so we quickly slung our bait out. We both decided to fish 3 rods, knowing we would have a short session at this shallow venue, all with a mixture of rigs, distances and bait being rag, whole squid and frozen blacks.
There was some nice surf rolling in, and we both had bass in our sights but it didn’t take long before the weed started to show on our lines. This just added to my woes about the agenda I had pushed to try this venue, and what we were letting ourselves in for. Anyway, it took all of about 15 minutes for deadlock to be broken - and yes Stormtrooper was into his first fish, a nice 39 cm bass caught at distance on whole squid. Phew - We have fish, now I can relax knowing they are there! Shortly after that Stormtroper noticed a bite develop, and promptly wound in a ball of weed with a snotty little eel buried within it. 2 fish in within 20 minutes and all looked promising.
Whilst faffing about in my tackle box, my third rod positioned on its own mini tripod slammed over and hit the deck. I quickly picked the mess up from the floor and witnessed a bass break the surface when I tightened up the line. It was on my close in rod with whole squid, and became obvious I had a decent fish on. Now this is when I one to regret fishing with 3 rods, especially with a budget beach caster with an ancient fixed spool reel where the drag was knackered (you know where this is going). Anyway, I got the bass to the shore and it looked a promising size, before arting about and then eventually throwing the hook when I gave it an inch of slack. Furious was an understatement!
Huffing and puffing I went back to my rod rest to re-bait up only to see rod number one take a good thump, and sure enough I had a nice 38cm bass to show.
Stormtrooper then also had another one, but I cannot remember the size? Fishing with 3 rods is a bit chaotic, and doubt I will be doing it again, we had piles of weed, rigs and line everywhere. I then got another great thump on the close in squid rod and this time I wasn’t going to give it any slack, I heaved, winched and ran up the beach dragging the fish into safety. Over the moon I was to find a nice solid 50cm bass. At this point I knew my gamble had paid off.
We continued to fish towards high water, and I had a tiddler of a bass to top things off. High water arrived and the weed got even worse, even more for Stormtrooper who’s night ended prematurely with quite frankly the worst knitting of lines I’ve ever seen. I fished for another 45 mins into the ebb whilst He dealt with his mess, but nothing more to report apart from tons and tons of weed.
So what have we learnt?
If you have a hunch for trying a new venue - just go for it! What you got to lose? (But Don’t fish with 3 rods lol)
Until next time
Alan
