Snotty May weed..

A combination of work and May weed won’t see me fishing for a while, the local beaches have been full of the stinking, horrible mess. My old mate Tony “Bracket” Allen sent me an e-mail with a couple of pictures of some striped bass from North Beach New Jersey rather than North Beach Great Yarmouth, whilst all this crap’s in the water it’s about how far you’ll have to go to catch proper fish.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel though; there is a big temperature drop and some northerly airflow forecast for the bank holiday weekend and into the middle of next week, no fun for the holidaymakers or kids on half term hols but with a bit of luck it’ll see off the shitty brown mess.
IF (that’s a big if) it does clear and the sea settles for the spring tides at the end of the week, I reckon we’ll see a return of a few better bass and possibly the start of the run of smoothounds. Even then I doubt I’ll get out, I’m at work on days Wednesday through to Sunday, but I may have to burn the candle at both ends for a session if a few fish turn up or any of my so called mates persuade me to go.

Whilst on the subject of so called mates, I spoke to Karl the other day reminding him we haven’t fished together since the 11th May. It’s not that I’m bitter or anything, I have lots of friends, it’s not like I have to go with him. Besides he gave me a proper towelling on an Internet forum for forgetting my money and rigs when I went with Mark to Lowestoft, merciless he was, reckoned I cost too much to fish with. Like me, he’s got little enthusiasm in these conditions so he’s been spending his time on the casting court. He’s been doing really well this year, he’s built a step into his cast and it’s going nicely. Last weekend he had a 224.29m on the 125g lead and a measly 218.90m on the 150g, top bombing by any stretch.

He’s got all the attributes to lay down some top distances over the next couple of years, he’s driven, young, big, strong and butt ugly, pre requisites for tournament casting! I’m only jealous; he’s half a footie pitch longer than me on the field. I can’t remember if I mentioned in earlier posts, him and Johnny even got the leg end back out on the field. He managed to beat the old duffer but Karl reckoned if PK cast with anything other than a tooth pick and put a bit of practise in, he’d be hard to beat despite his advancing years.

Steve picked some bait up from Pete and went locally today (26/05/07). Despite having rubbish conditions the top bait probably made the difference and in a relatively short session of 21/2 hours he managed a couple of schoolies the best around 2lb, nice one mate. Thinking about it if Steve had 2 in that time it must have been fecking heaving! Mark and co. had better luck with the soles as well. Him, a couple of his lads and Daz managed a few off Lowestoft’s North Beach yesterday, proving he can catch them as long as I don’t go with him. It’s not that I’m a Jonah or anything; or maybe I am it could be why none of my “mates” want to fish with me anymore. I’ll get down that way again soon, I enjoy the craic with the lads and I love fishing for sole.

Mark's boy with a nice sole, is it me or does he look like Ashley from Coronation St?

I’ve seen some cracking t’interweb reports from the Holderness coast. Chris Mack and his mates have been bagging up there with big catches of ray, smoothound and schoolies. No mention of the dreaded May weed either, lucky buggers. It still bothers me about the rays and their apparent dislike of Norfolk beaches. They used to be regular catches (at least that’s the impression you get) from off our local beaches but now they seem to miss us out, from the beach at least. They are caught regularly off the Kent coast, into the Thames and Essex/Suffolk estuaries before disappearing then turning up again off the east Yorks coast.

Macky with a cracking ray, why they seem to miss us out is beyond me.

And Macky's mate Graham with a nice Smut, thankfully they don't miss us out!

When I was a kid in Grimsby I used to go long lining with a local guy called Dennis Cooling, god bless him. We used to line for codling in the Humber during the winter then skate off the Lincs coast (Skeggy) during late spring. I haven’t heard of any turning up off the beach around the Lincs coast this year, though it’s changed a lot since I last fished there. Just seems odd to me if they miss Norfolk and Lincolnshire out, the beaches look right for them, especially Lincolnshire, and I regularly find purses on the beach when I’m walking the dog. I’ll have another go with fish and crab baits once the crap in the water clears.