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The competition now over we had a plan to go for quality fish. I woke up around six and joined John, Martin and Chicky up by the marquee, the last two standing from the night before and set to work barbecuing some pork burgers for my breakfast while drinking three strong mugs of Azeera that John handed me. Result! I had slept well and was raring to go but the rest were still sleeping and we couldn’t get parked up before eight. Having got released after a week of doing nothing on Jury service (straight after Runswick) at the cost of 1/3 or my months shifts (and pay) for minimal recompense from the court I was suddenly stuck. I had to go back to work but wouldn't finish until the Friday morning. This meant that I was now skinted and unable to pre-fish the bay. With the event planned as soon as it was announced I was gutted. well the summer is here at last up here in the north decided on a few hours at blyth , launching from the hole in the wall , nice sheltered launch from a northerly sea with the pier sheltering you from the breakers mackeral straight from the off around the pend of the pier fishing the current that runs past it into the river aftre getting half a dozen decided to go a few miles off shore to try for a pollock , tried jellyworms leadheads with twin tails ,shads and hokkies but they were just not feeding Well I had an early start Friday morning leaving the house at 5.20 am to get to Gary’s just before 6 o’clock. I arrived to see Gary loaded and ready so I parked the van and unloaded the kayak and gear as Gary was driving today, not long and we were off. Next stop was MacDonald’s for breakfast then Tesco’s for refreshments for the day. We arrived at sea palling around 8.40 to see that James had already arrived and was on the water. We were all keen and the weather was playing ball for once so we unloaded the kayaks and gear and made our way to the beach to launch. Conditions couldn’t be any better no swell and flat. After the success of the first Tope session Kieren wanted in on the action so headed off to the North Coast for another short evening session. It would be the first time Kieren, Elliot and myself would be fishing together on the kayaks so we were hoping for fish all round. Conditions were less than ideal with a fair chop being whipped up by a brisk onshore wind. We battled our way out to the mark and dropped the mackerel baits down.... I have often contemplated targeting Tope from the kayak but have never got round to trying for them. News was in of Tope showing on the North Cornwall coast so hatched a plan to dedicate a session targeting them. A bit of research online into rigs, gear and conditions and I was ready. I spent the evening before tying tope traces – 8/0 Mustad o'shaughnessy hook double crimped to 12” of 100lb Sakuma coated Wire biting trace attached via a swivel to 5ft of 80lb Fluorocarbon rubbing leader. If I hooked one I wanted to land it! There are 2 ways of beating the traffic on the M25, leave at the crack of dawn or wait until after 10:30…I chose option 'B' . So it was gone 3 by the time I rolled into Herston campsite, I was warmly welcomed by Rosa, Steve and Paul so I set up camp next to them. It was a bit late for launching so I had a beer and a sing along with Rosa and Paul, [ Rosa on guitar ] Alison Moyet, Ralph McTell, John Denver. We've got a gig at Piccadilly underground station next week..... It was such a still morning that I had no choice but to avoid going home to bed after work. It was necessary to fish. With the knowledge that further up north the water was clearing I decided to give another mark a try, my first launch from here, for a drift with feathers and sabikis, squid and sandeel traces and pirks. Nick was up for this as well after some persuasion and so we fixed on an 11am meeting near the ramp and tower. Hot sun, zero wind, zero swell and a spring tide.... i couldn't wait to get out on the kayak. A plan was forged to drift the sands with Ethan in the hope of flatfish and maybe a weever. We were on the beach and launching for 10am and started paddling out for the headland on the edge of the bay to start the drift. My exams are finally over. Over a month of spending 7 days a week in the library revising..... finished. I couldn't wait to get back on the water. My exam finished at 15:30 on the Thursday, by 4:15am Friday i was awake and ready to load the car with my gear. This would be my first solo kayaking session so planned to tuck myself away on the quiet creeks of a local tidal river and try for the elusive Gilthead Bream..... got up early today so decided to get the yak out and have a hour at the wreck of shields beach. Looked a bit lumpy, but i was there, so got the yak off the car and started the paddle out to the wreck. took a bit to set the drift right as the wind and tide were pushing me in a few directions first drop and a nice pan size cod........ After spending the week at flamborough and not managing to get out due to the bad weather I managed to get a few hours out at the boat house Whitley Bay. Met up with Davey, Barry and Brian and headed out into a decent swell of 4 to 5 foot. I decided as the summer is just around the corner, I would just be drifting the reefs looking for the cod, setting up with 6/0 hokeyes baited with lug. A day drifting the sands was planned from one of my favourite kayak fishing marks. The scenery is fantastic and the fish can be plentiful on the right day both in size and number of species. An early start saw me and kieren on the beach ready to launch at 10 after a long walk with the kayaks down a rocky track and a big sand dune - not too bad going down.... coming back up is a different story! The sun was shining with hardly a drop of swell, but a slight offshore wind was blowing, not too bad with the forecast predicting 8-10mph. We paddled out to a nearby headland and dropped our baits into a tidal run onto the sandy seabed 20m below us. The swell and wind has finally dropped enough for me to launch from one of my favourite fishing marks. The winter storms had destroyed most of the harbour wall protecting the slipway, with the boulders from the wall strewn across the once pristine sandy beach and slipway. This makes launching and landing tricky but possible in the calm and impossible with 2-3ft of swell. Kieren and Dwyer were keen for another trip after the successful mackereling trip the day before. A local came over to me whilst unloading the car and informed me that the beach and slipway would hopefully be restored soon, with diggers coming to move the rocky rubble, so that piece of news was promising. We negotiated the boulder field and made our way offshore to fish the deep water in the hope of catching whiting and haddock. |
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