With the sustained spell of great summer weather the UK has been having recently 99% of people are loving spending time out enjoying the bright sunshine and long summer nights. The only downside with this is though that it is making the fishing on our coastlines slightly difficult to say the least, for the best chance of some sport there was only one thing for it…. Head for the Estuaries.

As we drew closer to the weekend  thoughts changed to where we were going to fish, lots of little ideas pinged about between us ranging from getting on the sole again to taking a little road trip, all well and good but I fancied something different, something that we had not done for a little while. We soon agreed to hitting the river behind Orford Ness, it was a decent tide so we knew there would be a fair bit of run but we also knew a little spot that would place us out of that main run meaning we could go super light and hopefully get some sport out of the residents that were swimming about in there.

Bang on 6:30pm I was outside Ste’s house and after giving him a quick hand putting his pool cover on we were off, we met Scotty and he’s partner Jo further down the road then we were destination bound. After a  20 minute magical mystery tour of the local countryside we pulled down onto a dusty farm track and found a spot to park up. This is one spot where I like to travel light, for many reasons but the main one being I have previously ended up going head first in some super sloppy mud in the past because I was seriously overloaded…. Not good when you then have to drive home covered in it from head to toe…. And even worse when I have a certain Ste Chambers who wont ever let me forget it.

We were soon making our way over the fields, the sun was beaming down and with a slight breeze coming off the sea it was certainly a beautiful evening to be out. Wandering over to our spot we were met with a very low tide, uncovering some banks that jutted out into the river, yes there was a bit of sloppy mud about but nothing to worry about as when we walked out onto these banks they were firm and perfect to fish off. So far everything was looking good, hopefully the final ingredient we needed to finish it off would turn up, the water looked perfect for it with just a slight ripple on the surface breaking what would otherwise have been mirror like water.

Finding my spot I set up my weapon for the night, I was going to use the Surf Comp 2 with the heavier of the 2 superlight beach ledgering tips, rig wise there was only one thing for it, we weren’t on a specific species hunt so out came the 2 hook flappers with 6lb snoods and size 4 Chinu hooks. I prefer flappers in these sort of situations, they are one of the most simplest of rigs but when you don’t know what fish may be in front of you these will normally always help you find out what lurks beneath. This river can run very very hard at times but where we were setting up puts you out of the flow so to start with I clipped on a plain 85g lead, loaded the hooks with rag worm and flicked out the first cast. It soon became apparent that the fishing was going to be tough, Scotty had caught a boot lace eel and the rest of us had only seen rattles, not the most exciting fishing  but with the banter flowing and the sun shining it was a great night to be out with good mates enjoying our time together.  Low tide came and went and as darkness fell the water came alive, the mini bass had moved in with both Scotty and Jo taking a couple of chunky little specimens and me and Ste making do with the smaller inhabitants of this bass kindergarten.

As the night wore on and the water pushed us back up to the bank the weed arrived, lots and lots and lots of weed, this killed the fishing unfortunately with now only the occasional rattle and bootlace eel to keep us company. The mozzies moved in as well, hordes of the annoying blood sucking evil things, Scotty left early as he was being eaten alive leaving only me and Ste on the bank. We were sitting in the darkness, the voices of the drunken group of lads on the other side of the river filling the air, they certainly sounded like they were having a right laugh, my tip hadn’t moved for a while and literally just as I muttered to Ste that I hadn’t seen a bite for ages the tip smacked round. I was instantly into the weight of a small fish but with braid mainline I could feel every little jag of his head as he tried to shake the hook free.  Pretty soon we could hear the splashing on the surface as this little schoolie made his way  to the bank and within seconds a beautiful little silver torpedo lay on the grass. No matter how small these bass are I always give them an admiring glance before returning them, such handsome little fish they are like the Gucci of the fish world, super classy, great looking and if they cost money they would certainly be designer wear price.

With the weed increasing both me and Ste decided to call it a night, with a few fish between us it had not been a disaster but the weed had killed it off, hopefully a weather front will push through soon and give the coastline a little stir up we certainly need it over here. Whatever happens it’s looking like its going to be light tactics for a while round here if we are going to keep finding sport.