Its been a while since my last blog, and for that I apologise. There are a few reasons for this, the 1st being I have just got married to my beautiful Sarah, We married in the Old Lighthouse at our special place Dungeness, followed by fish and chips and a music festival with a fire circus, absolutely brilliant! And 2nd, I just haven't caught a fish for a long time, several blanks on the beach in the UK, followed by more blanking during a weeks inshore fishing in Croatia, followed by even more blanking during a week in France Carp fishing, seriously you couldn't make it up, but it is fishing!, and sometimes fate maybe playing games, which you just have to trust will workout.
What A View to Awake To
With the impending winter season, the UK sea angling community are waiting with anticipation of the impending Cod season, with sea temperatures dropping, big SW gales battering the south coast, stirring the sea thick with mud and food that feeds the hoards of Whiting that arrive for the winter which in turn brings the big Cod under the cover of darkness within casting distance of the beach, but wait!..... on your marks....get set.....NO!, not quite yet, we are in the midst of an Indian summer, the sea still warm and clear full of small fry and mackerel, the winds not even strong enough to stir a pot of Tea let alone a sea, and glorious sunshine with a night time temp of 16 degrees Celsius. Really? no good for Cod, but rather nice for October, This changed my plans slightly, actually, quite a lot, to be honest, but after some consideration it seemed realistic that there was a chance of Bass, Codling, and I was betting on a few late Dover Soles.
Wee Tiny Pouts
I decided to fish in front of the power station at Dungeness, mainly because I would be fishing over low water and this area would still be fishable and give me the widest opportunity to catch 1 of my 3 target species. We arrived at our mark about 10.00pm, an hour and some later than I planned mainly due to a road closure and the vast array of badly placed diversion route signs that had me driving in circles around Ashford, I think the work men were having a laugh when they put them out! We arrived undeterred we set up base camp on the high tide mark, but rather than start fishing, Myself and Sarah took our time, relaxing, cooked some beef burgers on a petrol cooker, sank a few beers and cheeky premixed cans of southern comfort and watched the stars whilst reminiscing what we had done 5 weeks earlier in the towering lighthouse which stood out above the high shingle wall which protects the power station. It was about midnight that I set the rods up, and made my way down to the surf which by now was about 40 meters in front of us.
Big Bait For A Big Fish
Using my Greys Centuar TSX paired with Shimano Ultegra for the distance rod, and a Shimano Biomaster 8000 for the near rod. I cast out the distance rod as far as I could, a pully rig with 1/0 pennel hooks baited with a small lugworm sausage tipped with half a squid head, a sized down Cod set up, and on the near rod I used a boon rig with 3 size 4 short shanked hooks baited with 1" sections of lug designed for Doversole. within seconds the near rod was rattling away, and small 5" Pouting and a little larger Whiting were constantly attaching themselves to my hooks in pairs, whilst the far rod was slower, still produced Whiting, I lost count of the number of fish I caught, but kept up the work rate in the hope that something else would eventually get to the bait quicker than the abundant Pouting and Whiting. They didn't ! and within 3 hours had devoured 40 black lugs, 10 salted old lug and a box of squid. With the shortage of bait, I had a plan, and the last two fish I pulled ashore, one being a Pouting and a Whiting, ended up being attached by the nose to a large 6/0 circle and cast back out as live bait on a running leger. The rods were quite for the next hour and the only excitement now was the occasional rattle on the rod tip from the live bait, and the shooting stars, which every time I saw one, I wished for a big Bass or Cod, as I had definitely lost the bet of catching a Doversole by now.
A Dream Come True, 5lb 9oz of Bass
With a few hours sleep, I awoke to almighty racket, the wind had picked up and a fairly large surf coming up to the high tide mark was hitting the single with a thunderous slap, as I looked out of the beach shelter, all I could see was lots of birds sitting on the water, whilst others were noisily squawking and diving around them only yards in front of our camp, as I looked closely, I saw shoals of tiny fish about 4" long, swimming out of the front of the waves like surfers fleeing for their lives. With only a single mackerel left for bait, and luckily for me me, just a gut feeling made me buy it the night before. I grabbed a rod with the live bait rig from the night before, And hooked a large chunk of mackerel to the circle hook and cast out about 10 meters into the feeding frenzy, and waited, the birds and small fry was slowly working its way along the beach, and just as I considered following the frenzy down the beach, the rod tip dived down hard, some line was taken, confirmed with the rapid clicking of the drag, then it slack lined, I grabbed the rod, reeled in to take up the slack, then lifted the rod firmly, but gently. I thought my lead had been buried at first, but with a constant pressure on the rod tip I watched as the line kited from left to right about 20 meters then the tell tale knock knock as the fish shock its head confirmed that I was in. The fight was quite short lived due to the range I was fishing, but several times the fish was left on the shingle by the surf but was able to to propel itself back to the surf in a few inches of water. I tightened the drag and the third time with the rod tip lowered to the side I pulled in time with the surf and slid the new PB onto the shingle above the high tide ridge.
Circle Hooked Perfectly
Sheer uncontrolled excitement took over me, this fish had been a long overdue, the amount of time, over many years that I have put into fishing for Bass with lures and big baits close in, up until now had all proved fruitless. But now it had come good within 10mins of awaking, during one of the most beautiful sunrises that I've seen in a very long time, and also a very big payback for the few months of blanking. Maybe it was the shooting star wishes, maybe it was wedding gift from the sea, or maybe it was just fate, either way I was in the right place just at the right time and this fish meant a lot more to me than any other I have ever caught. the uncontrollable passion and sheer excitement as I landed this fish would have put Robson Green to Shame. I have now doubled my PB Bass, willey Bass of this size have managed to outwit me and elude me for years and years and is such a very special capture for me, and it's picture will very deservedly take pride of place being centre stage on my wall of fish pictures.
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