BLANKETY BLANK

 Its been a long time since I last had a dangle partially due to the lockdown, starting a new job and quite frankly a 'can,t be arsed' attitude of late. Last weekend I finally thought 'bollix' I,m going to have a mornings fishing no matter what. The local reports have been dire really with very few fish showing in my local river let alone any fish of note, but sod it I thought I,m going regardless. I spent a couple hours saturday afternoon getting my sea gear ready and tying a few rigs ready for the off at first light the following day. I hadn't ordered any worms so bait was going to have to be any old fish I found in my freezer and fortunately I had a good supply sitting ready for me.

First light saw me in my van poodling along the country lanes to my chosen destination in thick fog, which wasn't expected. Ten minutes after setting off I had pulled into a lay-by and loaded myself up with  rucksack, rods and bait bucket and was setting off for the 1.75 mile walk along the sea wall to my chosen spot. Its handy living where I do as I have a multitude of saltwater I can fish as well as a good few freshwater venues too. A little while later and I was sitting on my bucket in my chosen spot huffing and puffing trying to get my breathe back before tackling up.


It didn't take long to have the rods sorted and cast out with different rigs and baits on each rod. I like to hedge my bets so will always fish with different baits to see if the fish favour one over the other. I also cast at different distances too, to try and locate the fish. The tide was a couple of hours up and I noticed that there was a wicked current running close in which was causing my leads to regular trip bottom. Heavier weights were added and that helped but now the current was bending my rods over at a silly curve. I checked the tide tables again and it was only meant to be a 5.4m here which shouldn't have caused any problems, but after a chat with a couple guys on bookface it turns out my tables hadn't taken into consideration the full moon the night before, and I hadn't really thought about either. This meant the tide could possibly hit 6m which is practically unfishable along the river. Oh well I,m here so I,ll persevere, thought I.

Well I,d like to say my perseverance paid off but unfortunately it didn't what so ever. I lasted 3 hours before packing up as the current was just getting stronger and stronger and was just making the fishing uncomfortable.  Also the wind had picked up and was causing more problems so I just gave it up as a bad job. It was still good to get out though and wet a line and hopefully I,ll be out again soon, just next time I,ll pay more attention to the tides.


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