We have all had those days, the ones where you are really buzzing for an upcoming session on the beach and then something comes along and puts a halt to what you have planned. With the Smooth-Hounds turning up in numbers on the Norfolk coast we had devised a plan to get up there on the Saturday night and target these hard fighting fish and the excitement was building. Messages were pinging around, peeler crab was sourced and a plan of action was in place but then it happened, TOOTHACHE, I was in agony and by midday Saturday I had to cancel the plans. There was no way I was going to risk being up in Norfolk and having to drive back in the pain I was feeling. I sent the message out saying it was off and sat down at home feeling a bit sorry for myself, luckily the pain started to subside by mid afternoon and I felt like fishing again so messages were sent back out. After a brief bit of chatter plan B was put into action, It’s always good to have a plan B in the back of your mind when planning a raid on the beaches just in case something like this happens.

Plan B in this case was our little spot at Bawdsey in Suffolk, with a 3am high tide it was going to be a late one, fishing 3 hours up and then 3 hours down the other side meaning an all-nighter was about to pulled. My tackle was loaded in the car ready to go and it was now a case of watching TV with my mrs until it was time to get on the road and go catch some fish. With the clock striking 11pm I was on my way, with no traffic the journey was quick, within half an hour I was pulling up to the parking spot and up in the distance I could see a head light already making its way up the track to the mark. I had nothing to worry about though it was only Matty Andrews who I had already arranged to meet down on the beach, he was a bit later than I expected and as I unpacked my gear  I could see he was waiting for me so I hurried myself along and quickly made my way up to meet him.

There was not a breath of wind when we got onto the shingle, the sea was like a mirror and the moon was coloured a beautiful shade of red, we both agreed it looked perfect, hopes were high that we may see a Smooth-Hound or Ray with an outside chance of a Bass showing up. The larger Bass have been a bit sparse round this way recently, lots of micro Bass hit the baits (which is brilliant for the future) but I have not accidentally caught a bigger one for a long time. Setting up I opted for a fixed paternoster type rig with a single 1/0 hook on the sharp end, bait wise it was all out peeler attack, I had a tub full of crab and they were going to be put to good use tonight. Spring into summer brings the shore crabs into moult, they have to shed their outer shells as they grow meaning that at some point the crab has to pop his old shell off and then hide up until his new shell toughens up. The fish know this and will come in to feast on these soft juicy crabs as they moult, this is of course the best time to use peeler, I’ve had times during the moult where I could not get crab but the angler next to me has it. I could not buy a bite but the angler with the crab was getting fish…. It really can be the difference between catching and not catching.

With a juicy crab bait loaded up I plonked my first cast out around 40 yards, settling the rod in the rest I made sure I loosened off the drag just in case and wandered over to see Matty. He was busy setting up his second rod, zzzzzzz I could hear a faint drag clicking but in my mind it was just Matty setting his rod up. ZZZZZZZZZZ I could still hear a drag clicking, I looked at Matty’s reel and it wasn’t moving, ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ I spun round to see my rod doubled over and the reel singing like a canary, my rod then decided to lift right up in the rest and try to escape. Grabbing it I was instantly into weight and I could tell it was a Hound, not the biggest by a long way but very spirited, putting up a nice little scrap before being beached. A quick photo and the Hound was soon back on its way. Not what I was expecting but a nice start to the night and confidence was boosted, normally where there is one Hound there will be more. With the bait back out and drag set again I sat back and relaxed, it was such a warm night but the hoodie had to stay on, the mozzies were on patrol and I really did not want to get eaten alive. What a beautiful night it was though and to top things off it appeared the Dogfish had all but vanished, recently they have been a nightmare devouring everything we cast out in minutes but tonight apart from the odd one or two they were nowhere to be seen.

High tide was getting closer and so far we had caught a few more smaller Hounds, a couple of Dogfish and I had had a Whiting, yay a whiting, they don’t ever seem to vanish anymore. I was chatting away to Matty and glanced over to my rod to see the tip banging over, this wasn’t a hound though and after a little scrap on the way in a lovely little Bass was slid up the shingle. With the Bass unhooked and returned I sent another juicy crab bait seawards and wandered over to Matty for a chat, after a while I heard that noise again, zzzzz, my rod was whacking over and then slammed bolt upright as the fish dislodged the lead. Pretty soon I had another nice little Bass on the shingle which was unhooked and released back into the water. Well I wasn’t expecting any Bass tonight so that was a nice surprise, accidentally catching them whilst fishing for other species is a pain but they are very welcome all the same

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We had reached high tide and as we did Tom turned up, he set up beside me and flicked out two rods both baited up with crab, it wasn’t long before he was into the fish with a small hound soon gracing the beach in front of him. Both me and Matty were still catching little Hounds with Matty somehow managing to find some little bootlace Eels too, the larger Hounds were not showing but the pups were still giving us sport. Tom then had a slack liner and upon reeling it in we could see a shape up on top of the water straight away, there was only one thing it could be and that was a Ray, and a good one it was too.

With the sun rising in the sky we knew it was nearing time to pack up, the tide was disappearing and the problem was that as nice as the sun was it may well kill the fishing in the shallow water. We had nothing to worry about though, out of nowhere a blanket of dense sea mist rolled in obscuring the sun and dulling the light right down again… Perfect. As if by magic the bites started up, I missed two good whacks and then my rod tip slammed over and kept banging, I could feel some weight and in the shallow water I was getting a nice little scrap. Initial thoughts were that it was a Hound but to my surprise a lovely silver Bass was soon on the beach and yet again after quickly being unhooked was sent back on its way.

It wasn’t long after this that we decided to call it a day, what a great night with brilliant company, we had caught Hounds, Bass, Pout, Dogfish, Whiting, Eels and a Ray between us. Not bad for a session that was never meant to be, it just goes to show that if you ensure you have a Plan B in place you can still have a great session even if the original plans don’t work out.