With the wintery weather pushing into the UK shores you would normally think of codling, codling and more codling… What is becoming a regular occurrence though, year after year is that the cod fishing is proving to be a non starter. With this in mind there is only one thing for it, drop hook sizes and line diameters and start scratching about for different species.

 

With the fishing being so poor recently I have had a couple of weeks away from the beach, whiting really do not do it for me and the tiny codling that have been caught by a handful of anglers really do not get the juices flowing either. With these couple of weeks of no beach fishing under my belt I just had to get out and blow the cobwebs away, the weather was looking awful though but still it had to be done.

The plan was to meet both Scott and Matty A at felixstowe for a dabble, the time was set for midday and as half 11 showed on my clock at home I left in my car seaward bound. Pulling into the car park at Manor end it was all too obvious the weather was worse than predicted, the wind was tanking through along with constant driving rain. The sea looked wild as well and after a very quick deliberation amongst ourselves we decided to head into the Deben estuary where we knew we would be sheltered from the elements.

Parking up at the Deben we were very surprised to find no other anglers fishing, with the weather the way it was this was the only spot in Felixstowe we would have even considered casting a line . We were soon on the beach, the wind and rain were storming through from right to left but the shelter of the rocks and wall kept the worse of it at bay. Out on the open beaches we could see a wall of whitewater but the river itself was calm and looked extremely fishable.

Tactics for this session were simple, light 2 hook flappers with 6lb snoods to size 6 Jinza Chinu hooks, loaded onto these were small pieces of fresh black lugworm tipped off with squid tentacles. The tide was just starting to flood which is perfect at this venue, baits need to be flicked out no further than the end of the groynes as the tide run is phenomenal here,  flicking inside the groynes means you are fishing just on the edge of the tide flow where the fish are sitting, waiting to pick off all the tasty food particles deposited out of the fast running water.

it did not take long for the fish to show up, Scotty was first into a fish with a little bass succumbing to he’s offerings. Next up it was my tip that rattled around and this time it was me with a little silver spiky bass on my hook which was returned back to the water. Next up was Matty who caught a chunky little whiting, this spot is great at this time of year because even though you may catch the odd whiting you will never get the numbers that are seen out on the front. My rod had been in the water around 5 minutes when the tip showed a slight pull, in a split second the tip whacked over followed by a rapidly slackening line, I soon caught up with the fish and felt some solid thumps through the rod. This was a better fish, the rod had a lovely bend in the tip and whatever was on the end was thumping nicely but then the tiny size 6 hook pulled free and the rod became light. Unfortunately that is the problem with such small hooks, if they don’t get a good hold they will easily pull out of better fish.

Then the rockling started on the feed, this is a great venue to catch these slimy little slugs, I know a lot of people dislike rockling but I am a lover of them. Me Scotty and Matty all had slugs, I was first into one, then Scotty was next on the rockling score board. Matty and Scotty then had some more each whilst I just managed a few more whiting. After 2 and a half hours at the mark we called it a day and made our way back to the cars, we were all windswept and wet but all happy with a few fish during a very quick hit.

It’s always nice to find a few different species and this mark is always a good one to fish when the weather kicks up a storm. We know if we had stayed here longer we would have seen a lot more rockling and on the way home talk turned to holding an A2A Rockling Cup somewhere near here before the winters out. Hopefully the dabs and flounders will turn up in numbers on the coming tides, these are my fave winter fish to target and a bit of dab bashing is always a bit of fun for the kids too.