Things on the fishing front have been very quiet for me this year, there have been the usual suspects around in numbers (smoothounds, bass, mackerel and dogfish) but they seem in the main to have avoided my hooks.
One thing that has been noticeable is the amount of codling that have been caught all summer, lets hope this bodes well for the winter months.
Most of the damage done over last winter seems to have been repaired now and some new defences have been completed, some of these are large enough to alter the flow of an incoming tide and as such will alter the sea bed but guess only time will tell as to how this will affect the species on our coast, think the storms certainly altered the sea bed as we have noticed most places have become very snaggy whether from uncovering old sea bed or maybe new rocks ect that have been brought closer to our shores with the big powerful waves we experienced last winter.
Looking forward to the winter months.
Thursday 6 November 2014
Saturday 22 February 2014
Mundesley 21/02/2014
After trying a few venues lately and only catching small fish I decided to try the town centre beach at Mundesley (not an area I have fished before), arrived on high tide and was fishing by 10 am, first rod out at distance in the hope of something decent and whilst setting up second rod for close in noticed a tap then bend in rod on retrieval produced a small pin and a fair bit of bladderack so continued with the second rod and that went out 30 yards, within minutes 3 more pins were beached this continued until the weed eased then the distance rod started picking up decent but thin whiting 25 to 28 cm but the close in rod only produced small pins, bites slowed 2 hours into the ebb with just odd pins, 30 minutes later the close in rod was almost pulled over and was nice to feel a fish pull a bit, resulting fish was a nice 32 cm bass. finished at 2 pm. bait was fresh lug.
Few others fishing but from what I heard don't think they had much.
Few others fishing but from what I heard don't think they had much.
Saturday 18 January 2014
Weybourne 17/01/2014
On arrival I was greeted by quite a few anglers already on the beach and it became apparent whilst walking to a free spot to the right of the pipe that the small whiting and dabs were feeding and didn't fancy a session catching fish in the 15 to 20 cm bracket so decided to spend a few hours trying to winkle out a couple of decent fish and ignore the incessant nibbles, armed with whole sprats (top and tailed) on 2/0 hooks fished at distance on an ebbing tide, it was a case of sit and wait but I was happy to do that.
An hour later and a few decent dabs returned I had a really good bite which produced a whiting 36 cm and very fat (weighed at just over 14 oz), ten minutes later another really good bite and decent fish on (nice to feel a fish actually pulling after the weeks of tiddlers) then the line went solid on a snag which too me a while to free (turned out to be two full sets of gear) sadly by this time the fish had gone, only one other decent bite just before bottom of tide but missed.
End result 3 dabs and 3 whiting, all sizable and all to a single hook 2/0 clip down, the other rod armed with a 2/0 pulley rig did not hook anything in 4 hours despite same bait.
Enjoyable session although needed my beach buddy up as the cold southerly wind increased.
An hour later and a few decent dabs returned I had a really good bite which produced a whiting 36 cm and very fat (weighed at just over 14 oz), ten minutes later another really good bite and decent fish on (nice to feel a fish actually pulling after the weeks of tiddlers) then the line went solid on a snag which too me a while to free (turned out to be two full sets of gear) sadly by this time the fish had gone, only one other decent bite just before bottom of tide but missed.
End result 3 dabs and 3 whiting, all sizable and all to a single hook 2/0 clip down, the other rod armed with a 2/0 pulley rig did not hook anything in 4 hours despite same bait.
Enjoyable session although needed my beach buddy up as the cold southerly wind increased.
Tuesday 14 January 2014
Gorleston 13/01/2014
After talking to a friend decided that the beach at Gorleston would give me a fair chance of a few fish even the chance of the odd codling.
On arrival I had already chose to fish at the wreck end so parked up in the car park and walked down to the beach, nice looking sea but no other anglers fishing which didn't bode well, set up for 10 am, one rod with 2 hook clip down the other with 2 hook flapper both baited with fresh lug ,within a few minutes both rods were indicating bites so retrieved both to find 2 pins on flapper and a dab and pin on other rod.
Decided I didn't really want all the small fish that were evidently there so changed to 2/0 clip down on both rods but all this did was cause a lot of missed bites so it would appear there was only small fish about.
End of day 25 fish but only one dab sizable.
The wind changed throughout the session from sw 12 mph to s 16 which was a bit of a pain but the sun shone throughout and was even warm enough to remove my coat, plenty of small seals about too, two other anglers set up in front of the wreck for the flood but didn't notice them catching.
On arrival I had already chose to fish at the wreck end so parked up in the car park and walked down to the beach, nice looking sea but no other anglers fishing which didn't bode well, set up for 10 am, one rod with 2 hook clip down the other with 2 hook flapper both baited with fresh lug ,within a few minutes both rods were indicating bites so retrieved both to find 2 pins on flapper and a dab and pin on other rod.
Decided I didn't really want all the small fish that were evidently there so changed to 2/0 clip down on both rods but all this did was cause a lot of missed bites so it would appear there was only small fish about.
End of day 25 fish but only one dab sizable.
The wind changed throughout the session from sw 12 mph to s 16 which was a bit of a pain but the sun shone throughout and was even warm enough to remove my coat, plenty of small seals about too, two other anglers set up in front of the wreck for the flood but didn't notice them catching.
Friday 20 December 2013
Wild Weather
A couple of weeks ago we had the worst weather conditions possible with high spring tides, gale force northerly winds and low pressure, all these combined to produce the highest and roughest sea since the floods of 1953.
Fishing took a backseat with all the problems this caused, beaches were washed away and access to most of the places was either dangerous or unknown so have had to wait until things settled down again.
Finally did manage to get out though with trips to Gorleston, Weybourne and Great Yarmouth (North Beach), at times fishing was hard due to the amount of debris still in the sea (grass, roots, trees and even the odd beach hut) but when you were able to hold out the dabs and whiting are there in abundance and just three trips producing over 130 fish albeit mostly small.
Still not much sign of cod in numbers though although the odd ones are about just after high tide in darkness so maybe these will pick up as the seas settle.
May manage another trip before Christmas is here.
Fishing took a backseat with all the problems this caused, beaches were washed away and access to most of the places was either dangerous or unknown so have had to wait until things settled down again.
Finally did manage to get out though with trips to Gorleston, Weybourne and Great Yarmouth (North Beach), at times fishing was hard due to the amount of debris still in the sea (grass, roots, trees and even the odd beach hut) but when you were able to hold out the dabs and whiting are there in abundance and just three trips producing over 130 fish albeit mostly small.
Still not much sign of cod in numbers though although the odd ones are about just after high tide in darkness so maybe these will pick up as the seas settle.
May manage another trip before Christmas is here.
Monday 11 November 2013
Weybourne, Norfolk.
Went to Weybourne yesterday for a few hours fishing despite the weather conditions (heavy drizzle, rain and high winds).
Fished a pennel rig at distance and a two hook flapper at about 30 - 40 yards, it was the flapper rig that did the damage, loaded with salted worm it constantly caught Dabs and Flounders all day although that said bites were hard to tell in the strong southerly wind.
Was surprised to only see two other anglers on the beach although couldn't tell whether they were catching or not.
Crabs still a pain but the salted lug stayed on the hook longer than fresh.
My beach buddy (Ron Thompson) had a stern test today and constantly needed checking due to the high wind, think today was the strongest wind it had been up in.
Fished a pennel rig at distance and a two hook flapper at about 30 - 40 yards, it was the flapper rig that did the damage, loaded with salted worm it constantly caught Dabs and Flounders all day although that said bites were hard to tell in the strong southerly wind.
Was surprised to only see two other anglers on the beach although couldn't tell whether they were catching or not.
Crabs still a pain but the salted lug stayed on the hook longer than fresh.
My beach buddy (Ron Thompson) had a stern test today and constantly needed checking due to the high wind, think today was the strongest wind it had been up in.
Thursday 19 September 2013
Hunstanton
18/09/3013
With the wind turning round to WNW thought Hunstanton may fish so arrived early in order to get some bait prior to fishing the early flood (15:00 hrs, HT 18:35).
As it happened turned out to be a good choice with a missed bite first cast (could only have been fishing in about 18" of water) so re-baited and out again about 30 yards, 10 minutes later a 32 cm bass in good condition is returned to grow bigger, next cast a small flounder (always surprises me how a fish that size can get a 2/0 hook in it's mouth), by this time I have had to retreat just inside the groyne, a short while later a bass of 38 cm (1 lb 7 oz) was in the bag but also lost another in the surf, don't think it was very big though.
Bites dried up a bit until almost high tide when I had two more flounders 26 cm and 32 cm (both returned to the water to live another day).
Packed up at 19:00 hrs a little damp from the surf but a very enjoyable session and good looking sea, bit of weed at top of tide, one thing that does annoy me though is when bait diggers dig about twenty holes leaving very little beach left for others to get a few worms, I much prefer to dig two large holes back filling as I go along leaving the beach safe for others to enjoy.
With the wind turning round to WNW thought Hunstanton may fish so arrived early in order to get some bait prior to fishing the early flood (15:00 hrs, HT 18:35).
As it happened turned out to be a good choice with a missed bite first cast (could only have been fishing in about 18" of water) so re-baited and out again about 30 yards, 10 minutes later a 32 cm bass in good condition is returned to grow bigger, next cast a small flounder (always surprises me how a fish that size can get a 2/0 hook in it's mouth), by this time I have had to retreat just inside the groyne, a short while later a bass of 38 cm (1 lb 7 oz) was in the bag but also lost another in the surf, don't think it was very big though.
Bites dried up a bit until almost high tide when I had two more flounders 26 cm and 32 cm (both returned to the water to live another day).
Packed up at 19:00 hrs a little damp from the surf but a very enjoyable session and good looking sea, bit of weed at top of tide, one thing that does annoy me though is when bait diggers dig about twenty holes leaving very little beach left for others to get a few worms, I much prefer to dig two large holes back filling as I go along leaving the beach safe for others to enjoy.
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