Back At Last

After almost three months without fishing, due to a combination of poor....no, absolutely abysmal weather and correspondingly dire fishing, me and The Mighty Turdster were back on the road, after the first of the spring roker and maybe an early bass.

At the end of April we tried an evening session on a local beach and disappointingly had only small codling and whiting, plus a big dogfish.

Last Saturday however, after a week of good weather, we set out in the direction of Skatesville, north Essex. Reaching the heaving car park at about four in the afternoon, the whole area was full of chip eaters of all shapes and sizes (mostly on the large side though). One family had set up "camp"on a dusty car track adjacent to the beach, right next to the aptly named "Biffa" refuse bins. Saves walking twenty yards to the beach and wasting badly needed calories I suppose.

Anyway, after the customary long walk we set up in what was a very strong south westerly wind, conditions more suited to cod than roker. Two rods each were cast out with herring and whole squid and we sat back and watched the wind drop right off to a very gentle westerly.....much more to my liking.



After an hour and a half with no action the uptide rod gently but firmly pulled over. I resisted the temptation to pull into it straight away and left it until it looked like the fish had firmly taken the bait. When I tightened down there was no doubt that this was the first roker of the season. No great fight, but solid resistance and a few minutes later a fish of about 7lb hit the shingle.

TMT took the obligatory photo, in which I turned out to look even more of a plonker than usual. I imagine myself looking like a cool white rasta in this hat, not like a camp character from a 1970s sitcom ! Take a look while I feel the shame.

Next cast and the same thing happens, this time one about 4 or 5lb. I rebaited and cast out again and five minutes later the same rod is off again, with a fish of similar size. Three in three casts, can't be bad.

All at the top half hour of the tide. Just as the the tide started to to turn, TMT was in with his first ever shore caught roker, a nice fish of around 7lb. Well done Turdous.

 

A few minutes later I was in again, another decent one around 7lb. We continued to fish the tide three hours down but surprisingly had no more. 

A great start to the season though, with five between us. Weather turned out great too, mild and very light winds.

Easy this roker fishing, so we went back for another go on Monday evening in even better conditions. And didn't get a touch !

Palma Violets at Norwich UEA

The title should really have read "NME Tour at Norwich UEA", but.......

I ordered a couple of tickets a while ago for this NME Tour thingy, featuring Peace, Palma Violets, Miles Kane and Django Django.

Anyway, me and eldest son left the Thorrington badlands about 6.15, thinking we'd be at the gig about 7.45. Which we were. I assumed that first band would be on about quarter past eight. No chance. By the time we arrived Peace had already played. Blimey Charlie, not very rock and roll.

Palma Violets came on to the rather good Sid Vicious cover of Eddie Cochran's "Somethin' Else" and from the start showed why they're tipped to be 2013's Next Big Thing.

Christ, I'm lapsing into cliched gig speak. I'll keep it short and sweet. They were fantastic and from the off had the (mostly young student) audience wigging out in a way that reminded me of "The Good Ol' Days" of the late 70s and early 80s at Essex Uni ( I could bore you for hours. Maybe one day I will, if you're really unlucky ). The only thing that I thought strange was the set seemed to peak in the middle with storming renditions of "Best of Friends" and "Step Up For The Cool Cats", which I would have thought they'd leave to the end. Pogotastic mate !


Next up, Miles Kane. Now, I have to admit that I've never knowingly heard anything by him. The Manc Midget, Andy Window, was briefing against him last time we spoke.

Me - "Whats Miles Kane like ?"
Manc Midgit - "Arrogant Scouse Twat"

Oh, so that's that then ?

On came Miles, to a huge cheer, made up for the most part by swooning girls, with his leather trousers and rock star looks ( I was beginning to hate him already ) and was straight into straightforward, well played indie tunes that left me totally cold. Having said this, the crowd loved him and I'm sure he won't be too devastated that a grey haired middle aged tosser, albeit with great musical taste, thought he was a bit shite.

After what seemed about three lifetimes, Miles said that he felt that this had already been a great gig and although we were only halfway through his set.........No! No way, we've seen enough ! The Manc Midgit was right. Get off, you Arrogant Scouse Twat ! Eldest boy looked at me and said "Shall we go?"
"Yes son, Yes" said grey haired Dad. And off we went, missing Django Django because we couldn't bear to listen to another half hour of Miles Smegging Kane.

What the.....?!!!!?

Spotted last week on the Colne estuary between Alresford and Wivenhoe......

If you thought that was strange, how about this one today on the Stour at Wrabness.....

No, I don't know either !

First Session of the Year

Fished Toosey beach yesterday with Conan The Whittler and The Turdster. They got down there well before me, arriving about 2 ish. Tide approx 5 pm. Very calm and murky day, a bit of colour in the water.

Nothing on the flood, except a micro bass for Conan and things were not looking too good.

The Turdster was his usual positive self ,"We're gonna blank" he says. Then the tide turned and it went mad, with double and treble shots of whiting and dabs every cast. This went on for a couple of hours and slowed down slightly until we packed up at about three hours after HT. Conan had two rods out for cod, but none showed.

We kept about 10-12 sizable whiting/dabs each. Also managed to pull in a rig I'd lost about two months ago. Usual baits, lug,squid, herring all worked. A good number of dabs amongst the whiting, about a dozen between us plus a flounder. Turdster had the two decent whiting, both over the pound mark and reckons he lost one bigger as he tried to swing it in.

Considering it's early January, a time not noted for good fishing round these parts, it was a busy session with a good number of fish taken for the pot. Enjoyable session again.

Dunwich Dabfest

Early Sunday morning five of us set out for Dunwich for another crack at the dabs that have started to show along the Suffolk shingle. Krakov picked me and Goozgog up in the Land Rover and shortly after dawn broke we arrived in the car park and met up with Conan The Whittler and The Turdster.

Considering all the wet weather we've been having we again managed to hit it right, with clear blue skies and a strong south westerly wind, blowing right to left along the beach and slight off our backs. We started fishing at about 8.30, with high tide being about 11.30.

A no-rules competition for the biggest dab ensured, with Krakov making the most of  the non-rules with a five hook paternoster, which he thankfully lost after an hour or so.

Krakov Longlining

 
The Mighty Turdster was first to catch with a small dab and soon everyone was catching regularly, with two and three shots of dabs and whiting commonplace. Most were just undersized, but plenty of decent whiting and a few dabs were kept for the pot.

At high tide Goozgog donned the chef hat and prepared sausage and bacon baps for everyone, which were greedily consumed at the Krakov shelter (apart from the grumpy Turdster, who elected to eat his by himself).

Conan The Whittler, blasting one rod out at maximum range, managed to catch a nice codling around the 3lb which was the biggest fish of the day.

As the tide turned the fish seemed to feed even harder and again double and treble shots were the norm. Last week, most fish were caught at close range and today proved to be no different, with a 50-60 yard lob being ample. All baits worked, but I probably had most dabs on a small black lug/ herring cocktail.

Fishing tailed off about three hours after the top of the tide and as a bank of rain approached in the distance we called it a day. A dispute between myself and The Turdster as to who had caught the biggest dab  was resolved when Krakov produced some dodgy scales and announced that I had narrowly beaten Turdy.

I had a total of 20 dabs, 20 whiting and a pout and the rest of the lads had similar catches, unusual on the east coast to catch that many fish in daylight.

Another really enjoyable day. Sunshine, good company, hot food and plenty of fish. It doesn't get much better than that.

Wattsy Dog Victorious At Dunwich

With the forecast of a rare dry day, I set off to fish Dunwich with Turdster and Wattsy Dog, the legendary Wrabness based wildfowler. Due to his propensity for travel sickness, he kicked me out the drivers seat and insisted on driving. After picking up Turdster we were soon hurtling down the tiny lanes leading to Dunwich, with Wattsy taking the paint off both sides of my car as he ignored the usual protocol of slowing down and pulling over when meeting oncoming traffic.

 From left - Turdster, me and Wattsy (modelling his wife's culottes)

It was a very mild, sunny day with a brisk offshore wind, making for a calm sea. It started very slowly, with nothing for the first half hour over low water. Turdster started his usual "it's crap, we're going blank" moaning, but as soon as the tide started to run the bites started. Many were missed, but we started to catch whiting and dabs regularly.

Most of the fish were caught fairly close in, maybe 50-70 yards out, just the other side of a sand bar that was partially exposed at low water.

First blood to The Watts Dog

Turdster in extremely unusual sitting pose (and what's he got in his hand )?

We continued to catch regularly, all the way up to the top of the tide. Somehow, we were missing the majority of the bites, despite many of them being real rod rattlers. Wattsy Dog's tactics of pretty much ignoring the bites and winding in every quarter of hour seemed work the best and he ended up winner with over a dozen fish to his single rod.

As an aside, Turdster passed on a beaten and battered, but still functioning, Daiwa 9000C fixed spool reel to Wattsy today.

This reel was originally my Dad's in the late 70's. He passed it to me, I gave it to Big Shane, who gave it to his son Elliott. Then it was given back to me when they emigrated to Canada. The Turdster then used it for a couple of years and now Wattsy Dog is the proud owner.

Not bad, over thirty years service and still going.

After dropping the lads off, I caught the end of a Joe Strummer tribute show on 6Music and ended up singing along to "White Man In Hammersmith Palais" with car radio volume cranked up to 11. A fitting way to end an enjoyable day

Huge Tide at Wivenhoe

A beautiful sunny, calm day last Sunday, so I took a walk down to the quay at Wivenhoe. When I got there, about half hour before high tide the water was already well over the road and still rising, which was surprising as although the tide tables indicated a large tide, they did not predict one of this size.

Half Hour Before High Tide at Wivenhoe

I could understand it if there was a big northerly wind blowing and an area of  low pressure, but Sunday was the opposite of this. I spoke to a local fisherman and asked him what was going on and all he said was "I'm buggered if I know". Anyway, it was a good chance to get a few unusual photos.

 Top of the Tide

Up to the door at the Rose and Crown