Addicted2Anglings Steve Chambers took his dad over to Orford Ness for a days fishing, they knew the fish were there but would the dreaded mayweed put pay to their days fishing!! Here he writes about his day over the Ness with hounds, rays and lots and lots of weed.

I hit Orford Island today with my dad as a birthday treat for him as we do every year, we arrived at the quay and loaded our tackle onto the boat for a 7am cast off heading for a mark called the Narrows. The wind was blowing a light Northerly and the water was relatively coloured and calm with high water having just passed… hounds and rays were the target for me today with a light rod also being fished at 15 yards max to see what may have been lurking under my feet. The plan was to fish one rod on straight peeler for the hounds and possibly a ray whilst the the other was to be fished with squid and fish bait combo’s.

I very eagerly sent the first two baits out and although it was a very small tide it was absolutely ripping through so I was very optimistic about what today would bring. The third rod was loaded with rag and crab combinations and plopped out in front of me using a simple running ledger with a long 15ft trace to get some big movement going on.

It soon became apparent however that there was another entity that was going to do its best to ruin the trip… MAY WEED! And it was out in force! After spending nearly half an hour picking it off the line after my first casts I had no choice but to resort to gentle 40 yard flicks to avoid the stuff. It wasn’t long before fish number 1 presented itself, on my way back to the rod rest I felt a shuddering lunge into the rod.. quickly turning round my first instinct was that I had caught up on something but this theory was quickly diminished after a second lunge on the rod nearly pulled it free from my grip… Fish on?? Err yeah!! Regaining control of what I was actually doing I played the fish into the surf and after a couple of hairy moments she was on the beach.. a stunningly marked starry smooth hound! A few pics with a quick weigh and I slipped her back to fight another day.. not a monster by any stretch but at a fraction shy of 6lb I was buzzing!

The weed continued to be a ridiculous pain in the backside and although a steady stream of dogfish and smooth hound pups kept us entertained for the next hour, I was really frustrated that the weed was stopping me fishing how I really wanted to today.
Around 3 hours into the ebb and a huge drop back bite signalled that a fish had picked up the bait and pulled the weight free, I waited in anticipation for the slack to tighten up and the reel to start screaming but this didn’t happen which instantly made me think ray, and I wasn’t wrong as soon after my first ray of the day made its way up the beach! A lovely little fish coming in around 3lb. Boom!! Both target species acquired, now to find a bigger one.

That was all the rays or hounds I would see until an hour before low,  the tide pull stopped and the weed disappeared, a window of opportunity had presented itself and I was going to take full advantage. Over the next two hours I caught a further 3 Rays, several million dogfish and a couple of good whiting with the biggest ray going 5lb 8oz so I was happy to be fair. Dad was quite happily smashing the dogs, pout and whiting on ragworm baits and could see he was enjoying himself so all three ticks were placed in the boxes

Unfortunately the weed returned an hour into the flood and we were back at reduced range catching dogs, whiting and pout every other cast until it was time to trundle back to the boat.  I can’t resist telling you this, so sorry Matt Buggs, he made the fatal mistake of launching his unwanted bait into the sea before winding his last casts in. The seagulls come swarming and Matts final catch of the day was a rather angry bird messily entwined in his lines! I felt sorry for the bird but it really was hilariously funny watching him try and deal with it!! School boy error my friend, you won’t be doing that again in a hurry. What a days fishing at a very special place, I really can’t wait to get my dad along for another trip over there so we can make some more amazing memories on the beach.