Hythe Beach Casting

Mixed Bag Of Suprises

Hythe, Kent. UK

Hythe at night

With Winter approaching the lure of getting out the heavy hitting rods and smashing big leads and baits into a stormy brown coloured sea for Cod is proving too alluring, well its not quiet time yet, but you have to have a line in the water to catch, and at the very least test the rigs and tackle and make sure its up too the job for when things get going. Well, early in the year as it may be, reports of a few Codling were already known, in anticipation, I had some pulley pennels and live bait rigs made up, also a freezer full of frozen lug, squid, blueys and a few crabs. Only work was getting in the way, I'd worked 13 days straight many of which were 24 hours shifts, but with a full day of strong SW winds dying off into the night, and a night time high tide at midnight, It didn't take me long well a nano second if I'm honest to decide that as tired as I was, this was a window that I wasn't gonna miss.

My Cod special

In my mind I had decided to go to Dungeness, because it fishes well after SW winds, but whilst talking to my friend Keith who at short notice was accompanying me on this late night venture had another plan, with some family camping at Hythe he had secured some fresh lugworm which we would pick up on the way, and rather than drive back along the coast to Dungeness, we decided to stay and fish at Hythe, We arrived at Princes Parade and parked randomly along the beach where we could see a gap big enough to fish comfortably without interfering with the fisherman either side. A little later than expected but we were set up and baits were in the water 30mins before high water. I wasn't messing about tonight, big baits and big hooks for Cod, 1 rod cast to the horizon with a live bait rig, a rig with 2 hooks, a small baited hook to catch a whiting (live bait) and a larger hook further up the snod designed to catch a Cod that takes the whiting. and on the second rod a more conventional 6/0 and 5/0 pulley pennal rig baited with lug and a squid head a successful combo I used last year.

Tub Gurnard, A New Species

It wasn't long before both rods were tapping away with the tell tale knocks of whiting, I left the live bait rod out confident the whiting was still on, and reeled in Whiting 2 at a time on the pennel rig, I was off the mark, and the tide had just started to recede, I decided to try a different bait and sent a bluey on a small hook pennel out as far as I could cast. At range the Whiting seemed more sparse, and the rod tip stayed still for a whole 4 minutes longer that at closer range, as the rod tip rattled away, I reeled in what I expected to be a Whiting, but to my surprise I had just landed my first ever Tub Gurnard, known as the butterfly of the sea, it was a beautiful fish, terracotta in colour with a massive head and extremely large pectoral fins, well I didn't expect that! that alone made this session for me, but things were going to get a bit more interesting. Having messed about a bit, I decided to change again whilst Keith was catching Whiting and Pouting on a size 2/0 flapper rig, I decided to have 2 live bait rigs out and use them plentiful Whiting as bait in the hope of a large Cod.

First Cod Of The Winter Season

Keith's First Ever Cod "SMILE!"

I had only just recast the 1st rod at range, and was still baiting up the second rod, when the rod tip made a quick rattle rattle like a Whiting bite but a lot bigger, then went slack line, by the time I had put my second rod down, the line was well down tide, I picked the rod up and lifted into a fish, I wasn't sure what it might be, as the bite wasn't a conventional Cod bite, I thought maybe Bass, but it was putting up quite a fight with a lot of knocking felt down the rod, I beached the fish and to my joy it was the target fish, a lovely 52cm 2lb 15oz Codling, The fish had taken the small lugworm intended for the Whiting but with its bucket sized mouth was hooked by the large 6/0 hook I was over the moon by now, and Keith wasn't going to be left behind and quickly landed himself 50cm 2lb 6 Codling himself on a size 2 hook, Unfortunately this was as many Cod as we were going to catch tonight, but the Whiting and Pouting kept us very busy.

Thorny Suprise

I was getting a bit tired of the Whiting, and whilst keeping a live bait rod out decided to fish the other with very small hooks close in and see if any Dover sole were around, they weren't just hundreds of micro Pouting and Whiting, by now I was just plain exhausted, to give me a rest I decided to try and advoid the Whiting, I decide to put a Bluey bait at far range, as earlier this seemed to avoid most the Whiting. It did, my rod stayed still for at least 5 minutes. as I watched the rod tips the bluey rod tip was slowly dipping and going straightening again, Keith also pointed out my rod tip was moving, not constantly but every 40 seconds or so, presumably I said that's a Ray, I'll wait for it to eat the bait and take off resulting in a big pull down or slack liner, it never happened, and I curiously wondered weather a plastic bag was just wrapped around my line and moving the rod tip or maybe a Dogfish was just sitting there doing nothing as they do, I lost patience after about 10 minutes, I reeled in the rod, something was heavy on the end, I kind of expected to see a Dogfish but when I dragged a small 2lb 8oz Thornback ray up the beach I was ecstatic!!

We had been fishing for 4 hours it was very early morning and now Keith was snoring away, I decided that it was time to call it a night before I felt the same with a long drive home I woke him up to pack up. This session had been full of surprises, normally you target a species and catch a few others, and if your lucky get your target fish, not only had we caught a target fish each, tonight left me never knowing what I was going to pull in next, considering Bass and Dover Sole were also on the cards and a good possibility of catching them, The decision to fish Hythe had payed off, between us we had caught over 60 fish and 9 species in 4 hours, we each had one keeper for the pot, Keith had caught his first Cod and I had caught my first Tub Gurnard. Tonight was a special trip that I will remember for while, not only was the fishing good, the company was also good, and even the rain stayed away. happy days!

6/0 Pennel Good For Two Whiting At A Time