Bloody wind. The Jolly Boys were all up for a boat trip with David Wright out of Southwold but these southerlies scuppered that. So instead of tussling with plenty of codling from the comfort of a boat, we were stuck with finding a beach venue that we could fit round the weather and give us the chance of a few fish.

I wish. Southwold in calmer times, with 30mph+ winds forecast, there was no chance of us getting out.

The possibilities for some shore fishing seemed a poor second to me, I was really looking forward to the boat trip, just my luck I guess. Its not often all the boys can get out together and with shift work it takes a lot of organising. Now we were left with trying to organise a shore trip at short notice while dodging the forecast for Thursday. I'd spoken to Karl and Paul and none of us fancied the weather, we were stuck with a shed load of bait, no enthusiasm and hardly a clue as to what to do and where to go. I mentioned a trip up here, maybe Trimingham, on the Wednesday night, it would give us the wind off our backs but not a very helpfull sea. One word (I can print) for the response I got from the boys - disdain. Karl suggested Aldeburgh. It would give us the wind off our shoulders and the chance of a fish or two according to recent reports. I'll be honest I didn't fancy the drive, bloody long haul from Bacton, still I'm daft enough to do it. I wouldn't be able to get away until 1700 earliest but we'd still get most of the flood.

A wise man once said "a bad plan is better than no plan at all", so we had a plan but it wouldn't suit us all. Smudge and Keith couldn't fish the Wednesday night. Keith was at work until 7pm and Smudge was under orders from the Fisheies Permissions Officer. So the plan was set; me, Karl, PK and Johnny would fish the flood at Aldeburgh. Due to my commitments at home I couldn't get away before 1700, that would get me to Karl's house for around 1745 then we'd have the city traffic to contend with on our way over to Aldeburgh. PK picked Johnny up, I was actually surprised PK was coming, he's not into fishing at night but its amazing what efect your mates enthusiasm can have on you. Basically we're all as daft as each other, I hope when I'm a 50's something (sorry mate) I still have the go he has.

The beach at Aldeburgh, we fished a little further back from where the picture was taken.

Me and Karl got to Aldeburgh just after PK and Johnny. We set up just past the houses and the Brudenell Hotel, we'd normally go up towards the Martello Tower but we could already see lights up there and it can be snaggy and we figured that we'd be fishing for the same fish as them. Johnny was closest to the town, then PK and me and Karl shared a brolly. Once the brolly was up and you were out of the wind it was quite comfortable. Not very cold and a lovely starlit night though the full moon was almost as bright as the sun. There wasn't as much sea on as I'd hoped, there was a bit of a roll probably due to the low pressure as much as the wind which by now had backed quite a bit and seemed to be easing as the tide flooded.


So with everything set up all we needed was the fish to play ball. From the off there wasn't much tide, we had a bit mid flood but it wasn't as strong as I'd hoped. Rod tips were rattling from the first chuck, tell tale whiting tugs and rattles. We had numerous double shots on pennel rigs and some nice ones too. Johnny had one that looked as big as a 2lb codling he'd managed to sneak out and all of us had plenty of fish from 12oz to 1lb, but we weren't there for whiting. PK had a codling around 1.5lb and Johnny managed another of a similar size to Paul's, they'd both missed good slackliners too. Me and Karl couldn't get through the whiting, we both managed a mini codling each but the whiting were voracious. I had one around 12oz that coughed up a bloody great squid, just shows you never know whats swimming in our sea at any given time. Squid in winter? I'd had them in push nets during the summer but would've thought they would've been off by December, you live and learn.


I think throughout the night, we fished from about 1930 to just after midnight, I only reeled in two or three times without the obligatory whiting. I shouldn't complain because we often go and struggle for a bite but they really were a pain in the arse. All of us had bites on the drop which in my experience is bad news, if theres so many of them that they're intercepting the bait on the way down, nothing else gets the chance at your bait. Another wise man said "a bad day fishing is better than a good day at work", true enough and with that in mind I'm going to try and get tonight to use my bait up, I wonder if I'll catch any whiting?