Gold’nOldie
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2020
- Messages
- 101
- Reaction score
- 474
- Points
- 63
- Location
- Surrey
- Favourite Fishing
- Shore
As the sun had decided to put in an appearance yesterday, thought it was time to dust off the beach gear and head to the coast. Gave my son Steve a call and decided on Brighton for a chance of a plaice or two. No fresh lug available anywhere local, so had to carry out an excavation in the freezer in the hope of finding some mummified black lug and some ancient squid. Bait (of sorts) sorted.
Arrived about 9:00am to a fairly empty beach, with just a a few anglers in the distance clustered around what is popularly considered ‘the hotspot’. A Calm but murky sea greeted us, with a bit of a swell, but generally looking ok, if not ideal for plaice. Fished two rods each with small lug and squid wraps on a variety of rigs using plain leads allowing the rigs to move around in the tide. Not much showed in the first hour or two apart from a small plaice to Steve and intermittently the odd rocking. As the tide picked up, the rocking and odd pin whiting showed, but it was painfully slow. Good job the weatherman got it right with his prediction of blue skies and wall to wall sunshine, probably wouldn’t have stuck it out otherwise.
Picked up a plaice/dab double shot (both nearly see through) about an hour before high, so decided to crack on. Steve had another plaice and a slightly bigger dab and the rocking/whiting also increased in numbers, if not in size. Both agreed we’d have a last cast so picked up my rod to reel in for a rebait and realised I’d picked up my other line. Felt pretty heavy on reeling in, so Steve grabbed my other rod to take up the slack, when over the shingle bank appeared...... a beautiful February Dover sole. Nobody was more surprised than we two, must be the earliest I’ve ever caught. Good size too, 2lbs on the nose, best I’ve had for a number of years.
Well one more last, last cast for both of us resulted in another plaice for me, slightly larger and in size, but still well below my minimum take size. All in all a good day, fairly typical early season (apart from the sole) and it certainly fired my enthusiasm for another trip on the next set of springs - weather permitting of course. Cheers for now, Bob.
Arrived about 9:00am to a fairly empty beach, with just a a few anglers in the distance clustered around what is popularly considered ‘the hotspot’. A Calm but murky sea greeted us, with a bit of a swell, but generally looking ok, if not ideal for plaice. Fished two rods each with small lug and squid wraps on a variety of rigs using plain leads allowing the rigs to move around in the tide. Not much showed in the first hour or two apart from a small plaice to Steve and intermittently the odd rocking. As the tide picked up, the rocking and odd pin whiting showed, but it was painfully slow. Good job the weatherman got it right with his prediction of blue skies and wall to wall sunshine, probably wouldn’t have stuck it out otherwise.
Picked up a plaice/dab double shot (both nearly see through) about an hour before high, so decided to crack on. Steve had another plaice and a slightly bigger dab and the rocking/whiting also increased in numbers, if not in size. Both agreed we’d have a last cast so picked up my rod to reel in for a rebait and realised I’d picked up my other line. Felt pretty heavy on reeling in, so Steve grabbed my other rod to take up the slack, when over the shingle bank appeared...... a beautiful February Dover sole. Nobody was more surprised than we two, must be the earliest I’ve ever caught. Good size too, 2lbs on the nose, best I’ve had for a number of years.
Well one more last, last cast for both of us resulted in another plaice for me, slightly larger and in size, but still well below my minimum take size. All in all a good day, fairly typical early season (apart from the sole) and it certainly fired my enthusiasm for another trip on the next set of springs - weather permitting of course. Cheers for now, Bob.
