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.

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.

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.

River Great Ouse, King's Lynn

With the usual poor summer results from the Norfolk coast (with the odd exception of course) I have been concentrating on my local estuary.

Over the last two to three weeks I have at least caught something each day albeit mostly Eels with the odd flounder thrown in, it has given me the chance to fish some different areas on the river that I have not fished before (ie Tail Gate Sluice and the west bank north of the A47).

There have been the odd report of bass being caught too around these areas and whilst sat fishing have witnessed a lot of very large fish either breaking the surface or chasing the masses of small fry in the edge but sadly not managed to hook any yet.

Will be glad when the winter species arrive back on the coast as most of my recent visits have been very poor and at least the catch rate increases during the cold months.

Have another week booked at Pakefield in a few weeks so looking forward to that.

Pakefield, Suffolk

Finally managed to have a holiday at a very nice Caravan Park in Pakefield, Suffolk  (Pakefield Caravan Park).

The site is only 200 yards from the beach which was ideal for us but the weather the whole holiday was terrible with high winds and rain most of the week coupled with cold nights.

The beach is great for fishing as the tide doesn't recede too far so setting up a shelter at the high water mark means you don't have to move during your session.

People had told us that the area I wanted to fish (in front of the caravan park) was not fishing well but I was determined to give it a good go, first day I was able to fish was Sunday (Day 1) and only for a couple of hours, fishing any distance over 50 yards found snags which I later found out was peat ridges (steady pressure usually freed your tackle) but most of the fish seemed to be between 20 to 50 yards.Set up one rod to fish distance with a pulley rig baited with peeler crab whilst the other was set up with a 2 hook flapper for close distance work around 20 yards baited with lugworm, had 2 what I would call bass bites on close rod within 30 minutes, both missed then a little quiet until top of tide when I connected with a small pouting which was a first for me, only 23 cm but at least no blank.

Day 2.

Fished again today but moved 100 yards south. Fished 10:00 to 13:30 (HT 12:15), managed 2 dogfish to 54 cm, a smoothound pup 36 cm and 7 dabs, most of the fish coming within 30 yards to either herring or squid, just the odd dab to lugworm.

My better half managed the biggest fish of the day a nice dogfish.

Plenty of bites today many of them missed, crabs very active with baits lasting no more than 10 minutes on the hook, a few lost fish too.

Day 3.

Managed another couple of hours this morning, sea could not have been more different, southerly wind increasing until it became unfishable, had a few missed bites a couple of which were slack liners whilst fishing large fillets of herring but did manage a small smoothound pup before packing up.

One thing I did notice was that most of the bites have come between top of the tide and 2 hours before top.

The bungalow area seems a little less snaggy as this is the area I fished today also using 6 oz leads without grip wires produced more bites (providing the wind isn't 50 mph), noticed there seems to be a gully at about 30 yards here and this is what is producing the bites.

Day 4.

Managed another session with Pat, bites from the off on ragworm, squid and bluey. Caught 6 dabs, 4 decent whiting and 3 pouting, missed quite a few bites too so an enjoyable session even if it was cold and windy with rain towards the end of the session, all fish caught on flood.

Few others fishing today, saw a few doggies, bass and dabs being returned.

Last day of holiday tomorrow and forecast is lousy with wind and rain but will be going anyhow.

Final Day.

As forecast the weather wasn't too kind, windy, overcast and cold but on the plus side the sea looked good, nice colour and decent waves so thoughts were turned to bass.

Started fishing an hour after low tide and a double shot of dabs in good condition first cast, bites continued for an hour with a couple of whiting (30 cm and 28 cm) and a pouting (22 cm) then quiet for an hour and after loosing a heavy fish in the surf (first time I have had to pump the rod to gain ground on a fish before).

An hour before top and the bass arrived, managed 3 (largest 37 cm) all caught from behind the breakers, packed up when the rain arrived just after high tide.

This was the first and smallest of the three.

All in all a very enjoyable holiday and will be back later in the year.

Six different species thoughout the week and a couple of new species for me in pouting and lesser spotted dogfish. The bait was bought from Angling Mad, Pakefield and were excellent easily lasting most of the holiday, thanks.

Weather

Well, getting a bit fed up with all the poor weather at the moment, strong easterly winds and freezing temperatures are not very good for fishing shallow beaches in Norfolk and very little is currently being caught by the hardy souls that do make the effort.

Maybe April will see a change in the weather, the average temperature should be around 8 degrees but instead it is around 2 degrees.

Weybourne - 10 February 2013

Date: 10 February 2013
Venue Fished: Weybourne
Start Time: 09:30
Finish Time: 13:00
Species: Dab, Whiting
Fish Caught: 40 +
Best Fish: 33 cm Whiting
Bait: Lug, Squid
Sea State: Calm
Weather Conditions: Rain then Overcast, SE wind 12 mph odd gust to 24 mph
Sizeable: 3/4 of fish caught
Undersize: Rest
Tide State: LW 13:02

Turned up to an empty car park which seemed a bit unusual and walked left about half way towards the wreck.

Setup was 2/0 clipdown on one rod and 1/0 pulley on other, both baited with worm tipped with squid.

Within minutes of setting the rods both rods were showing signs of activity on retrieve a sizeable dab on one rod and a sizeable whiting on the other, then every cast I had at least a bite within minutes sometimes as I was walking back up the beach after casting.
The session was very busy hardly had time to drink my coffee which isn't something I have experienced to date.

Had to pack up at low water due to lack of bait and an aching back lol

Excellent day didn't even notice the rain  and no weed, strange that all fish caught after the first dab were whiting, the sea must have been thick with them.


I actually learnt a lot yesterday ie

If fishing worm and bite was missed more often than not the worm was masking the hook point when brought back in, adding a small piece of squid cured this problem and hook up rate increased.

Initially I lost a few fish when bringing them in this was cured by slowing the retrieval rate helped with this also, so still learning lol.

So all in all not only a good session but should help me in the future too  I mention these couple of things as they may help some of the other anglers new to beach fishing.

Weybourne 24/01/2013

After what seemed like ages since I managed to get out on a beach due to the low temperatures and heavy snow managed a few hours at Weybourne fishing with Silversonic and Jonah.

Sea looked good for a few fish with 3ft breakers building on the flood tide.

Setups were pulley rigs with 2/0 and 1/0 hooks, baited one with mussel and raw prawn fishing at 60 yds the other with worm and squid tip, didn't have to wait long for the first bite a real good rattle on the 2/0 but no fish on retrieve, this continued on both rods for 3 hours but all fish missed (bites were that good they could be seen from 20 yards away).

After 8 good missed bites had a chat with Jonah who mentioned he had a day like that a couple of years ago again using pulley rigs but a change to pat rigs paid dividends so of I toddle to change one of the setups to a single hook clip down with a whole raw prawn as bait and within minutes a whiting was on the beach just undersize.

So lesson learned stick with what I know works ....

Looking forward to another session although weather supposed to be bad next couple of days so not sure when that will be.

Walcott 7 January 2013

Date: 7 January 2013
Venue Fished: Walcott
Start Time: 11:00
Finish Time: 15:15
Species: Whiting, Dab
Fish Caught: 14
Best Fish: 28 cm Dab
Bait: Lug, Mackerel, Raw Prawn
Sea State: Calm
Weather Conditions: Overcast, Wind SW 12 mph
Sizeable: 2
Undersize: 12
Tide State: HT 14:05

Your Report

After struggling on the shingle of late decided on a visit to the sand of Walcott.

Bites from the off on fresh lug most being missed then a change of tactics produced the goods, was fishing size 1 and 2 hooks but changed to 2/0 on long snoods and tipped the worm with either raw prawn or mackerel and within minutes started to make contact with the fish which turned out to be very small dabs (some only 15 cm) and two of the smallest whiting I have caught only 18 cm but at least I was kept busy all through the session.

With the exception of 2 small green dabs all the rest were in good condition (all returned to fight another day and for a change non washed back up).

No weed either although plenty on beach when I arrived, sea clear until ebb then coloured slightly.