Beach Fishing, Dungeness

Whiting, Whiting and Whiting With Whiting

The Boardwalk, Dungeness, TN29. UK

Dungeness At Night,.......... Or Is It?

Its been a while since I last got my lines wet due to a stint of flu and work commitments, but I was really looking forward to this session because I was being accompanied by my Dad and Brother. It was a quite a mad plan from the off and was surprised that they even agreed to come. my plan was to finish work at 9pm, have dinner, grab the tackle and be fishing by midnight, with 1 1/2 hours to fish till low water, then fish 4 hours of the flooding tide, and be back at home by 8am. After meeting at my Dads we were all packed and we were on our way, we discussed what may be about to catch, I was sure Whiting and Dabs would be around, with a small chance of a early Codling, but my money was on a Bass.

No Rest For The Wicked

We arrived at the boardwalk, on the west side of the point, and made our way to the beach. It was eerily quite for Dungeness, then I realised there wasn't a breath of wind, well the weather forecast does get it wrong from time to time, I was expecting westerly gust of 25mph. The lack of wind reduced the chance of bringing the Cod if any, into the shore and defiantly no surf for the Bass to play in, but I always say you never know unless you have a line in the water. I opted to fish one rod my Greys 12' 6" TSX Centaur rod with a Shimano Ultegra XS-C 10000 spooled with 20lb PowerPro braid, and a 18lb to 70lb tappered shock leaded, technically my winter Cod set up, a little bit overkill considering the weather. I decided to start with a 2 hook flapper with size 1/0 Aberdeen hooks decorated with glow beads, baited with Lugworm tipped with squid, and a 6oz breakaway lead, just to see what was out there.

Dads Know How To Be Different

My first cast had only been out 30 seconds before the tip violently rattled away, I waited for the second rattle before reeling a Whiting which was large enough for the bucket. I caught 5 in less than 10 minutes, before deciding that this would be too much hard work for me, well I had just worked a 12 hour shift, I still had a eye for a Bass or Cod and changed to a live bait rig, a clipped down with a baited size 1 hook tied with 1" of line onto the bend of a size 6/0 circle hook, with the idea a Whiting hooks itself on the smaller baited hook, then with the circle hook just in front of its mouth which hooks any fish large enough to make the Whiting its dinner. Without the wind I decided to fish this as far as I could, believing that the bigger Bigger wouldn't be as close in.  I've had these rods over a year now I now I'm really just starting to get the best out of them casting wise,  and without the wind I was fishing probably the furthest I have ever been able to.

 Noah, They Came In Two By Two

My Brother opted to fish the glowing beads 2 hook flapper all night long, he was double patting which made me chuckle, because whilst he was baiting his second rig without him being aware his rod tip was continuously shaking violently with bites, and when he sat down to relax and looked at his rod still rattling away causing him to get straight back up, reeling in Whiting, then starting the whole process again, I don' think he got to sit down all night. He really worked hard and was constantly pulling them in 2 at a time, we lost count of how many he caught, by right, he should of hit something else other than a Whiting but he didn't. He defiantly got the makings of a match angler though. My Dad was doing well too, opting to fish Sprat and Lug combos, he was constantly catching Whiting but the Sprat bait also bought him a bonus 4 Dogfish and a bite at close range which was defiantly a Bass slamming into the bait and pulling the rod tip right over, unfortunately he never connected with the fish, but it did give me the incentive to try close in, I had been fishing at long range for 3 hours over low water and even though I had hooked Whiting on my live bait rig it stayed put for a hour each time with only the occasional tremble on my rod tip to let me know he was still on. Time was up and I had a tally of 10 Whiting, half of which I caught on the live bait rig, but I tried, and have to say I got beat by both my Dad and Brother this time, I went all out for that big fish but they didn't seem to be any about for me. I will be fishing like this a lot from now till Xmas as there will be plenty of big Bass and Cod in the stormy seas to be caught, one of the best times for Surf fishing in the UK for sure! I know a lot of anglers out there absolutely hate the prolific Whiting, capable of taking large baits designed for other species, but at least they keep you busy, fill your bucket up, make great Cod bait, and remember they're not half as useless as Rockling!

The Dreaded Sea Pest AKA "The Yting" Or Bait