Bass And Sole Fishing

The Great Escape

Jurys Gap, Rye TN31, UK and Rock-A-Nore, Hastings TN34 3DW, UK

Jurys Gap is some awesome beach!!!!

Its started off a very funny year for myself this year, I've been plenty of times and caught lots of fish, I think the best fish has been a 6lb odd Thornback Ray, but nothing else really of note, and I found it hard to get excited and write a blog. I've said it before that if I only wrote blogs about those special captures that I would only be writing about twice a year if I was lucky! So I guess my point is really what is a good session worthy of a blog? well if it numbers of fish caught then that's what I have done, and if its catching a target fish, then I've caught my target fish, and if it is catching a new species, then I have done that. So why have I not written many blogs this year?, I don't know, maybe I've just been to busy, Preoccupied with my 1 year old son, Life is a complete rush at the moment, or I just need to find the inspiration and motivation, and that is only coming from being out there fishing, so I decided that I would be blogging about this session regardless, and as it happens it wasn't a bad one either.

short snod wessex rig, size 4 hooks

It's Sole season, and with 2 score of Black Lugworm and 1/2KG of live Ragworm, 6 x Wessex rigs with size 4 hooks, and my Penn Fierce 2 reels loaded with 12LB mono with 12lb - 30lb tapered leaders, I was 110% ready to go Sole hunting! Only thing was they just hadn't quite showed yet, I had fished about 4 venues unsuccessfully, and even other anglers only reported the odd one caught hear and there, this session was going to be more about finding where they are. Because I already knew where they wasn't really showing, I even changed plans with a friend who I was was supposed to be fishing with, on one of these venues in north Kent venue, which left me going solo! and the adventure began then, I was confident the fish were going to be on the South Coast. one venue had always been on my radar, but I never had the chance to fish was Jurys Gap, a shallow sandy bottom filled with deep gullys and holes, with a narrow shingle storm beach with a close range gutter, the perfect Sole territory!

nice fighting schoolie Bass

I arrived at 7pm on a hot Friday evening to hoards of kite surfers, picnickers and everything thing else imbetween, I was not fishing close, I looked right and it got busier, I looked left and it got very dead, I couldn't see anyone! so I walked along the beach for around 15 minutes found this very quiet bit of beach, I realise that I was going to get cut off by the tide hear and trapped in what I think was a military firing range, but more on this later!. it was quiet I had the whole beach as far as the eye could see to myself, no dogs, boats, no people in the water, this is where I would be fishing!, and I picked an area where I could cast each rod into a deep hole in the sandy bottom, hopefully where the Sole would come and wait for food to congregate in. It looked perfect! the tide crept over the sand as the sun was setting, one rod baited with Lugworm, the other baited with Ragworm, my traps were set! Well, I keep this short, I caught 10 Bass, from 8cm to 41cm, lovely fish of coarse, and enjoyable fishing made better by the complete lack of perceived nuisance fish, but I will move this along as this was only the first half, and things only get more commando from now on.

Bass selfies

The tide was fully in now, and as I sat there, I had lost confidence of catching a Sole, the tide would retreat leaving me fighting to keep up with the retreating water and navigating in the dark around the permanently water filled gullys and holes.  probably would have gone home at this point, but I still had half my prime bait, and with dawn only 3 hours away, I had time to relocate and fish for Sole on a less demanding beach, I decided to go Hastings, and fish my favourite spot. Well I climbed up the steep man made shingle wall onto a path and walked towards the car, very soon I was enclosed in barbed wire and a locked gate and guard tower, my fears were right, I was trapped, or at least until the tide went out, this was no good I had Sole to catch!! Barbed wire, locked gates, the sea, a giant boulder wall, and even a concrete wall were never gonna stop me!!! climbing around in the dark with a head torch breaking out of a military compound with 2 rods, a tripod, a tackle box and a cool box, ie no free hands, I think this proved my dedication some what, or I'm just crazy!!!

First Sole of the year

Having made my great escape, I drove to hasting pulled up in the car park Dam!!! people were camped out and fishing my obviously not so secret spot, it's actually a well know spot, but I like to think otherwise. I set up on the beach about 40 meters from them, very disappointed that I wasn't getting where I wanted to be. I walked over to them to see if they had caught much, but I saw rods and a bivey but no one standing, as I got closer it became clear they were not presently fishing and fast asleep in the bivey, I made a quiet retreat hoping not to get caught, I mean, what would you think if you woke up to someone creeping around your fishing rods in the middle of the night? As I returned, I decided, that I was gonna take advantage of the situation, hell I had broke out a military establishment to get here!! I turned my torch off and enter stealth mode, I crept quietly along the shore line with all my gear, until I reached the groin, with the still sleeping anglers up on the high tide ridge, I was around 40 yards in front of them, I set up and cast both rods out, with high expectations.

a small slip

It didn't take long, 5 mins, and the first bite was a cracking bite!, I struck and played a hard fighting 2lb plus Eel, dam the rig was twisted to hell, covered in slime and ruined, I cut the Eel loose, he wasn't even hooked, he then speedily made his way across 10 meters of beach to put himself back in the water! It took another 10 minutes for the next bite, a shy and gentle bite, definitely a bite but more like a crab pulling the bait off the hook. I struck and it felt like I was stuck to the bottom like a crab, it pinged free, and I reeled in a weight, it was fish or crab on I wasn't sure until I  beached it,it was a Sole!!! yes get in !!! a lovely perfect keeper Sole of 30cm! it didn't stop there! the next bite was a bigger Sole of 34cm, and after a few missed bites, I landed a third of 26cm, the sun by now had fully risen, and with it, the bites soon dried up and the expectation of catching another disappeared. 

The best of the trio at 34cm, daddys dinner!

It was time to pack up! the sleeping anglers camping behind me were still fast asleep as I left, and to my knowledge they will never even know that I had been there, as I walked back to the car, I could see they were serious about saving the spot, I counted another 5 rods, along the beach and sea wall that I didn't see in the dark! If they had woke of coarse I would of just moved, luckily for me they didn't. This had been a adventure I think most wouldn't of encountered, I had escaped one camp and broke into someone else's in my attempt to find the Sole, and I'd caught 3 keepers!, strangely enough, one at 34cm for daddy, one for 29cm mummy and one at 26cm for baby. That's the whole family catered for. Dover Sole are some of the best tasting fish I know, and I'm very much looking forward to this meal!! I asked at the begining of this blog what makes a session worthy of writing about, and I refound my reason, it's the adventure, that's what I've been missing for a bit, and that's whats gonna keep me going!