I don’t know about you but when half term arrives in my house it’s a case of 9 times out of 10 all that the little ones want to do is play on the computer console. This October half term was no exception and at the minute their game of choice is a title called Minecraft, for those of you that don’t know what it is Minecraft is a game where the player builds a landscape from scratch. From what I can make out the game is infinite, meaning it never ends and from what I have seen with my 2 it can be pretty addictive. Now this is all well and good but when we are having unseasonably warm weather in the middle of October and schools out then I would rather be doing something constructive with them than letting them sit indoors staring at a television screen all week. With the winds off the land and no rain forecast it really was another perfect opportunity to get them out on the beach chasing a few fish, with reports of a few rays about we could have tried for those but I like to keep them interested and busy whilst fishing so it was going to be a scratching session instead to keep those rod tips twitching away. Now not only was I going to be a session on the beach but we were going to dig our bait beforehand as well, this is nothing new for my 2, Thomas who is 9 and Willow who is 7, there are lots of occasions where they have come digging with me and to be honest they both love it and the thought of playing in the mud looked like music to their ears when I suggested it.

What bait were we going to dig for this trip though would it be Lugworm, Ragworm, Whites?? I Knew what we needed to keep the bites coming and that was Maddies!! These small ragworm type species come under many guises including wigglers, Harbour Ragworm and creepers, you can sometimes find these worms for sale in tackle shops but it is a lot more rewarding to dig and catch on your own collected bait.
Unfortunately one thing I keep secret within my fishing is my digging spots, I am happy to reveal where I fish to anybody but as with many bait diggers out there I have my little spots where I get certain baits, I like to keep them backfilled after I dig and I know I will only take what I need. I have seen it too many times where an area gets absolutely battered because people don’t really care about what they are doing, soon it looks like a lunar landscape and the digging becomes very poor to say the least. What I will do is give the low down on areas to look for that might hold Maddies and then you can go and try and find them yourselves, the area I dig mine was found purely by me going for a long wander with a fork, looking for likely areas that would hold them and turning over a fork load every now and then until you find the worms. The first thing you have to do is find where the likely areas are with estuaries and harbours are being the best bets, looking for sandy/muddy areas is the first thing to do but make sure the mud is not going to bog you down, this can be very dangerous so make sure you tell somebody exactly where you are going. Walk these areas and look for little holes in the surface, this is the Maddies burrow entrance, tapping your foot near these areas should show water squirting out of the hole as you apply pressure to the surrounding sediment and this is a dead giveaway the worms are there. Once you find a likely area take your fork (a shovel can be used but this may well chop the worms in half) and turn over the first load, you don’t have to go deep as these worms live in the upper layers. Once the ground has been turned over then the fun begins, now you have to get down and dirty, breaking open all the lumps in the bit you have dug and picking the worms out one by one. If you find a good spot then you can get over ten worms per turn and you will soon have enough for a session, I can dig enough for myself in under an hour normally but fishing with the children requires more so its normally around 2 hours, remember these are small worms so if fishing by themselves you will need around 4-5 on a hook to make a nice bunch. I take 2 tubs with me when digging these and I put water in one, placing the worms in this as I dig, once dug I will put water in the other one, transferring the worms between each tub, washing them off as I move them. I repeat this around 4-5 times until the worms are fairly clean and most of the mud has gone, then once home I strain them off and wrap them in newspaper if being used the next day or I will store them in sea water if I am keeping them a couple of days. One last thing about your digging, please remember to backfill any areas you dig as this will keep this area rich with worms meaning that you should be able to come back time and time again when you require them.
Well that was our worms dug and wrapped and after double checking the weather the next day looked perfect for a day on the beach with the terrors and after making a packed lunch for them it was soon time to get some shut eye ready for a trip to the shore. Waking up the next morning I was greeted with beautiful sunshine and a non-existent westerly, after a bit of toast for me and cereal for the sprogs we were on our way to our chosen venue which today was going to be Thorpeness.

Just up the coast from Aldeburgh this venue can be a cracker on its day, you can fish the area near the sluice which in the summer is a renowned bass spot, further up you can fish the cottages which holds a good variety of fish, the country house which in the winter is a favoured spot by many for codling and then you have Tinkers end which is another good bass spot in the summer. On this day though I decide to take the kids to the country house area, free all-day parking and a walk to the beach of under a minute is always a winner in my eyes and after pulling up and parking near the steps we were soon wandering left for about 100 yards to our chosen spot. The sea was flat calm and the sun was beaming, this was no way a hoody or jumper type of day this was t-shirt weather in the middle of October, blooming lovely if I do say so myself!! The water was holding colour though which is always a bonus on a sunny day so I was sure we would see a few fish, the best way to ensure this was to scale the tackle right down and fish for what was hopefully going to be there like the smaller species. Size 6 hooks and fluorocarbon snoods were the order of the day and of course the bait was going to be bunches of Maddies being fished on plain and simple 2 hook flappers all round. I had set my target for the day of a Flounder, these flatfish love Maddies and they are one of my favourite species which unfortunately are not as common as they used to be round the Suffolk coast, the monsters on the other hand both just wanted to catch whatever they could. My rod for the day was going to be the Grauvell Teklon Comp 2 but it was being fished with the superlight beach ledgering tip on it, this meant I could use a 65g lead and actually get some sport out of the smaller species and the kids were taking it in turns on the Grauvell Vertix Jack rod. It wasn’t long after first casts were out that we started to see interest with a few bites being registered but nothing definite, with the tide flooding nicely I knew it wouldn’t be long before the fish turned up and with it being Willows turn on the rod her tip smashed round and kept going, she grabbed it all excited and with me supporting the rod with one hand she started reeling it in. A nice bend was showing on the rod and with her exclaiming it was “very heavy daddy, it’s a very big fish” I could tell she was excited, after a great little tussle a nice schoolie bass emerged from the surf and the beaming smile on Willows face said it all. She soon had it picked up and after a few photos I stood by her at the water’s edge as she safely released it and we all watched as it disappeared into the gloomy chocolate water.

The rest of the flood was pretty constant with both Thomas and Willow catching Whiting, Pouting and more schoolie bass, Thomas also managed to get a super tiny Whiting which I think he was more chuffed with than any of the other fish he caught funnily enough. They were both enjoying themselves in the Autumnal sun which was great to see and in between the action on the rods they were building sand forts below the high tide line which even after I told them they would be washed away as the tide rose I was apparently wrong and the sea wouldn’t touch them… How wrong they were. With the sprogs completely out fishing me I had caught a couple of whiting when a lovely bite out of the blue saw me reel in my target species, “waheey” I exclaimed as a small Flounder came flapping up the beach and both Thomas and Willow were amazed by this weird alien looking flatfish both laughing at its “googly eyes and weird looks”. As the water became closer to high the bites became a lot more vicious, the larger whiting had turned up and Thomas was soon getting stuck into them one after another and watching his attention to the bites and the fact he now waits a little while before striking until he thinks the fish is hooked shows he is learning well and he is becoming a proper little angler, he knows how to hold the fish and always wants to get them back healthily!! The only thing I have to do for him is unhook as a small size 6 hook and a crazy 9-year-old boy in my eyes is a recipe for disaster. As the afternoon unfolded we ran out of food (they ate most of it within the first hour) and we decided to call it a day, lots of fish on the beach for all of us with the tips rattling away and keeping us all busy, I caught my target species and the little ones were both smiling from ear to ear which within a few minutes of leaving quickly became snoozes as they both fell asleep tired from their day on the beach. Once home I told them to have a wash and as I was sorting out my stuff from the day they both appeared asking if they could play on the computer, what game you may ask, yep you’ve guessed it… Minecraft!!!!!