South East Disappointing Dungie and dealing with North Kent weed

[Jimmyfloydreturns]

Afternoon all,

Had a week off work and managed a few sessions. I’ve been wanting to stay local but there’s so much weed in the Medway it’s almost impossible to fish especially after the strong wind.

So after digging a few score of fresh blow lug I headed over to Dungeness…. 7 hours of fishing two rods hard resulted in:

- A small schoolie
- A very strong contender for my personal worst whiting
- A ‘orrible weaver





So yeah, not the best session and a bit disappointing considering the three hour round trip. I think fishing at night this time of year is a better idea but I can’t just choose the best times / tides as life and work gets in the way!

Next day I couldn’t face the drive to Dungie again so tried local. Once again the weed was a problem so decided to try float fishing close in amongst the bladder wrack.

It was brilliant! No weed problems as it drifted at the same speed and it was easy to manoeuvre the bait into fishy looking spots.

End result yesterday was a steady stream of basslets, nothing big at all but great fun seeing the float dive under.



Now amongst all the mullet cruising about I’m sure there are decent bass amongst them… so today with a handful of left over worms I had another crack.

On the flood there were a few more basslets and the odd bigger one that might just be classified as a small schoolie , but on the ebb a few yards from the shore the float zoomed off down tide and then up tide… this was no basslet!

A short spirited fight and this lovely bass was landed:



At 43cm I took this one back for the table (first of the year) - very much looking forward to this, bass fillet slowly fried in butter is a lovely thing



Interestingly it was absolutely stuffed with crab including quite a large one that must have been eaten just a few hours earlier! Fairly sure a small crab float fished would work in clear water. Also live prawns jumping around could be deadly so might try and catch some and give them a go!

Cheers,

Robert

 

[Had1]

Good stuff the float fishing sounds fun.

 

[Jimmyfloydreturns]

Good stuff the float fishing sounds fun.

Yeah it was, never done it before in the sea but will be a staple during the summer from now on!

 

[dsw]

Afternoon all,

Had a week off work and managed a few sessions. I’ve been wanting to stay local but there’s so much weed in the Medway it’s almost impossible to fish especially after the strong wind.

So after digging a few score of fresh blow lug I headed over to Dungeness…. 7 hours of fishing two rods hard resulted in:

- A small schoolie
- A very strong contender for my personal worst whiting
- A ‘orrible weaver

View attachment 49984

View attachment 49985

So yeah, not the best session and a bit disappointing considering the three hour round trip. I think fishing at night this time of year is a better idea but I can’t just choose the best times / tides as life and work gets in the way!

Next day I couldn’t face the drive to Dungie again so tried local. Once again the weed was a problem so decided to try float fishing close in amongst the bladder wrack.

It was brilliant! No weed problems as it drifted at the same speed and it was easy to manoeuvre the bait into fishy looking spots.

End result yesterday was a steady stream of basslets, nothing big at all but great fun seeing the float dive under.

View attachment 49986

Now amongst all the mullet cruising about I’m sure there are decent bass amongst them… so today with a handful of left over worms I had another crack.

On the flood there were a few more basslets and the odd bigger one that might just be classified as a small schoolie , but on the ebb a few yards from the shore the float zoomed off down tide and then up tide… this was no basslet!

A short spirited fight and this lovely bass was landed:

View attachment 49989

At 43cm I took this one back for the table (first of the year) - very much looking forward to this, bass fillet slowly fried in butter is a lovely thing

View attachment 49990

Interestingly it was absolutely stuffed with crab including quite a large one that must have been eaten just a few hours earlier! Fairly sure a small crab float fished would work in clear water. Also live prawns jumping around could be deadly so might try and catch some and give them a go!

Cheers,

Robert

live shrimps work well when float fishing.

 

[Jimmyfloydreturns]

live shrimps work well when float fishing.

I’ll give it a go. Any tips on catching, or is it as simple as a shrimp trap near the weeds with a lump of oily fish?

 

[wingnut55]

Great report mate, nice mixed bag as well. The bloody weed is a nightmare at the moment, takes all the pleasure away...

Ian.

 

[Trampster]

Great report & photos Rob!

If you get a decent sized Weaver, try cooking it up - they are supposed to be excellent eating.

We were down on a local Pier last year, and a couple of guys were dropping Prawn traps down. They had a bucket near full of Live Prawn, and I was amazed to see most of them were around 100mm long. Keep meaning to get a Prawn trap & have a go.

 

[Shirleycodlin]

Well done for braving Dungeness.
It's dogs dogs and more dogs down there as usual

 

[Mr Fish]

Nice one, well done on thinking outside the box a bit and doing something different.
I do like float fishing and very underrated at times.
Ref prawn, it’s an excellent time of year for them.
The traps work well but you need to stay with them and check every 20-30 minutes otherwise they’ll fill up with crabs, plus also a good chance fish will go in and eat your prawns.
After dark tends to be better. Here, I’d put one over the side while fishing a rock mark with a bit of depth but don’t know if you have anywhere like that?
Otherwise a push net/shrimping net worked around the margins in shallow water but that always looks such a faff to me!

 

[Trampster]

Otherwise a push net/shrimping net worked around the margins in shallow water but that always looks such a faff to me!

Not been out with a shrimping net since I were knee high, but the ones I remember catching were about 1/4 the size of the ones I saw caught by the guys here with the Prawn traps!

 

[Mr Fish]

Not been out with a shrimping net since I were knee high, but the ones I remember catching were about 1/4 the size of the ones I saw caught by the guys here with the Prawn traps!

Yep the traps work very well! Usually better at night though.

We get some big ones in the pools here at night that could be targeted with a net easy enough. I just never seem to find the time to do it tbh