You all know those sessions, the ones where in the back of your mind nothing can go wrong, where even before you step out of the house to make your way to the beach you are secretly thinking you are going to get some good fish?? Well this was one of those nights, in my head we had a great venue, good tide and perfect weather…. What could possibly go wrong.

During the week leading up to this session our little social media message group had been alive with messages about where our Saturday night session was going to be, after checking the weather and tides there was on one place to go in my mind, that place was the Dirty Wall in Aldeburgh. With Westerlies predicted (which would flatten the sea right off) and a good tide in my eyes it should fish well, should being the word of the day here.

Arriving at Ste Chambers house we were soon loaded up with tackle in the party bus and with Derek Wilson in tow we were soon on our way, Tom was already up there and his reports from the beach were that it was blowing a hard South Westerly which isn’t what we wanted as it was chopping the water right up. Stepping out of the car the wind smacked me hard in the face, the sea was roughed up and for this time of year all it said to me was bass, only problem is that they are very on and off at the minute so things were not looking good for the night ahead. We loaded ourselves up like pack horses and started our hike to the chosen spot, well Ste and Derek loaded up, I was travelling light, 1 rod a sand spike and a rucksack I have done this walk enough times to know the best way to travel up there and that way is as light as you can.

Walking up the low tide line I was starting to get a bit worried, this was my choice of venue tonight and even though on paper it all looked perfect now I was here it just looked and felt wrong. Everything was against fishing at this venue at this time of year and I had dragged the lads up there, they had all bought bait, travelled to Aldeburgh and made the long, long walk to the aerials… It was on my head and before we had even wet a line I could just tell it was going to be a tough nights fishing. After an hours walk up the beach we finally made it to Tom who had set up camp already and was fishing away, he told us he had caught a dogfish and a small bass within his first couple of casts so at least we knew the fish were there it was just a case of whether they would stick around into the night. First casts went out and we all settled in for what lay ahead, I was fishing squid wraps on up and over rigs hoping for rays and hounds but conditions were still not looking good for these and with the bites drying up already it was only getting worse.

Now we all know the tide can run on the wall, it can run very hard too but nothing was going to prepare us for the next 4 hours of the night, from what had started as a good run on the tide developed into a monster from hell, I could tell the tide was really picking up but my tip started to really bend with the flow. A lot more than normal and with our leads being ripped out (bearing in mind I was on 7oz) it soon became apparent this heavy tide was thick with weed and plastic. Not just the stringy type of weed but in this  evil soup like cocktail we had lots of the horrid sticky mayweed too which was clogging everything up, it hadn’t been this bad for a couple of weeks so where it had all come from we had no idea all we could see was that this was verging on unfishable. Tom was managing a doggie here and there but I had not caught a thing yet and with the weed and run not easing off until just before high tide it was an absolute nightmare, the worst thing was that as soon as the run slowed, the weed dropped out of the water and we started catching, only doggies but its still a fish and to be honest even a doggie was a welcome sight to me.

 

High tide came and went and the wind swung Westerly meaning the sea now flattened right off, the dawn was slowly breaking and everything looked perfect, such a beautiful sunrise it was the highlight of the night for me, well something good had to come of the effort we had put in. Ste had a few crabs left so he walked over and handed me 4 fresh peelers to which I changed baits straight away and flicked one out around 40 yards, the tide was starting to pick up and we knew if the weed returned it was game over so we were now trying to snatch a bite whilst we could. My first cast on the crab absolutely slammed over but nothing came of it and from that moment on the session was on a road to nowhere, the tide revved right up again and the weed showed its ugly face once more meaning it was time to pack up and make the walk back to the cars.

What a night, nothing at all went to plan and I think the word I used sum it all up was shambolic, but that’s fishing we can plan it out in our heads as much as we like but we cannot control the elements, if something is going to go against us we have to try to adapt and overcome but sometimes you just have to hold your hands up and say this time the sea won.