Time!!! Something we all wish we had more of, there are never enough hours in the day and I for one know that my life is a frantic whirlwind at times. Trying to fit in work, family time and of course fishing means that when an opportunity to get on the beach comes up one must take it, but if its literally just for a short space of time then this time must be managed right to get maximum results from your session. This is where taking all factors into account can and will pay dividends by learning your local area and paying attention to what species come out and when you will catch you more fish, choice of venue, winds, tides, day/night and water clarity will all have a massive effect on which species will be viable targets when you get to go. For example it is not really worth fishing for flatfish with an onshore 40 mph wind the same as it’s not really worth targeting cod on a bright sunny day when the water clarity is crystal clear, it may pay off but in my experience I would not even think about it. On the Suffolk coast we have marks and venues for every occasion, we have little nooks and crannies we can tuck away in when we the wind is blowing her strongest from every direction, this is always a good thing to have stored away in the back of your mind. There is nothing worse than getting a session planned and having it scuppered by the winds, it’s always good to have a plan B, C, and maybe even D just in case.
One such example of this happened to me very recently, whilst waiting for my partner to come out of work I received a message on my phone from one of my mates asking if I was free the next day, after replying that I was but I couldn’t get away for a proper session he suggested going local. Now this was literally going to be a 3 and a half hour hit maximum, I had to drop the sprogs off at school for 8:45, then I was going to have to travel to said venue, set up etc, etc and after all this I had to be home for 14:40 at the very latest to get the terrors from school. Steve had the same dilemma as he had to do the school run in the morning and pick up his little un’s as well. After checking tides Steve replied that it was a 11:45 high tide, meaning that high and slack water would fall perfectly in the middle of the time restrictions we had. Right, so that was tides sorted, now what about winds, the wind was showing a strong off shore north westerly blowing up, meaning that any venue we could get to would have the wind coming off our backs making the sea flat. This could be the kiss of death if the water colour was clearing out but with onshore winds the night before we knew that most places would still be holding the colour in the water. With all these variables coming together like this there was only one thing for it, we had to try and find a Thornback or 2 as these conditions were spot on for them. The last few days reports had been quiet locally, it appeared most venues were swarming with whiting and finding the rays was being a bit of a hard task, people were putting fish baits out and within minutes the pins were engulfing them. All thoughts were pointing to one thing and that was to head to Shingle Street, being only 20 minutes from Steve’s house I could drive to Ste’s, jump in to his car and head straight there. It’s a fairly good ray venue for Suffolk, as the name would suggest it’s a shingle bay having a nice depth to it with patches of sand and clay dotted about here and there. It does hold the rays but as with everywhere its very hit and miss, one day they are there then they can disappear for days on end, nobody catching one then all of a sudden they will just turn up again.
Now with all this prepared I had to think of bait, with the tackle shops shut and me heading to the supermarket at 7pm it was going to be a case of suck it and see at the fish counter as to what they would have on offer. As luck would have it they had some packs of one of my favourite fish baits…Sardines… and the bonus was they were on a markdown price as well, 4 fish for 56p….BARGAIN!! You don’t hear many people using sardines for bait, but I love them, they are fairly soft so baiting up with them needs to be done with elastic and taking a bit of care but my word do they work, they are full of oils and fish attracting scent and of course they are fairly cheap as well which makes them a winner in my eyes. The next morning I woke up to the wind blowing a lot more than it was meant to be. but it was still holding the direction it was forecast though meaning it wouldn’t be too uncomfortable for us on the beach. After dropping the monsters off I loaded the car and was soon at Ste’s house transferring my tackle into his motor for the last leg of the journey, I also had the added pleasure that we were being joined by Ste’s 3-year-old son Harley on this trip. After a 25-minute trip from Ste’s we entered the car park at Shingle Street, this made the time now just past 10am and with this venue normally chucking rays out over high water we were bang on track to fish the best part of the tide, hopefully pick off a fish or 2, then get back home to carry out the other duties we had. We wandered up just past the Last bungalow and made the very short hike across to the sea. I wasn’t in the mood for faffing about today so all my effort was going to be focused on fishing one rod, tactics wise I was fishing an up and over rig with a 5-foot snood and I was going to be putting it out at my maximum distance. Bait wise it was going to be sardine fillets all the way for me with Steve fishing bluey and squid wraps. By 10:30am I had my rod in the water, the wind was blowing hard behind us but the sun was out in force meaning that as soon as I had tucked myself down low in front of one of the shingle ridges out of the wind it was actually a very pleasant day.
The water was full of colour but flat calm, it looked ripe for a fish and after half an hour of seeing no visible bite I wound the rod in to find a small pin whiting hanging off the 3/0 hook, he was quickly returned to his salty home and another bait was sent seawards. After a little while whilst standing with Steve I could have sworn I saw a slight slackening of my rod tip, I wandered over and stood watching the tip when it pulled down slightly and slackened off again, taking the rod in hand I tightened up and waited for another indication something was there, after a few seconds the rod slackened off again and I wound down into some weight. Straight away the unmistakeable thump of a ray was felt and it was fish on, after a brief tussle a nice little thorny was being slid up the shingle to be photographed and returned. Next cast was sent out and I wandered back over to see Steve, he was fishing well, his bait ups were good but all he kept finding were whiting and dogfish, fair enough some of the whiting were chunky but they were not what he wanted and he soon stepped up to 2 rods to try and increase his chances.

I was watching my rod tip when it thumped down once, for a couple of minutes after wards nothing happened so I sat on my hands for a little while longer, knowing that rays will sometimes sit on a bait and chew on it before moving off I waited for a couple more minutes when the tip slightly slackened off, then it slackened off a little bit more before the tip lifted right up signalling the lead had broken out on the sea bed. Catching up with the weight the rod was soon bent over into another ray, this one had a bit more spirit and was trying it hardest to stay down deep but she soon gave up and succumbed to the fact she was beaten. These 2 were caught just before and then on slack water and on next cast it became apparent the ebb tide had picked up and was starting to run like a train signalling the whiting to come back on the feed. Every cast after that 2nd ray produced a whiting, they were loving the fish baits and even if any rays were still about they were not going to get a look in with these hungry little bait robbers on the prowl. With the clock ticking just past 13:30pm it was time to pack up and retreat back to the car, Ste had to accept defeat today, it just wasn’t going to happen for him unfortunately. I on the other hand had managed to pinch a couple of the intended species in the short time span we had. Knowing our venues had proved dividends and we had pulled off a proper smash and grab session.