Having just come back from some time away with work I really was due a session back on the shores near where I live. After a few messages were pinged about the venue was chosen, we were going to head to Aldeburgh to see if we could winkle out some sole. The wind had other ideas though and the perfect sole conditions we hoped for soon vanished down the pan.

 

Saturday was soon upon us and the thoughts of the night ahead played through my mind, I love Sole fishing and July/August are normally the best months, high pressure and long sticky nights make for perfect conditions to target these amazing fish. Unfortunately the weather this  night had other ideas, the wind swung north easterly which we all knew would put a right chill on the air and could knock the Sole fishing a bit. This was not going to put us off though and at 5:30pm I was outside Scott’s house parked up and we were then on our way, talk turned to putting the world to rights and in no time at all we were pulling up at our spot for the evening. Fishing with us tonight was Scott’s partner Jo and the bum bag king Tom who was not there yet, we unloaded and wandered down the beach and picked our spots. Setting up my weapons of choice for the night were the Vertix Majestic rod coupled with the Vertix Zenet reel loaded with 8lb line, on the sharp end I was using 2 hook flappers with 6lb fluorocarbon snoods to size 6 Aberdeens which would be baited with super freshly dug Ragworm.

I clipped a 2oz plain lead to the rig and flicked out the first cast, the lead splashed down around 30 yards out and i flicked the bail arm over, the line would not tighten though and as I put the rod in the rest the tip started slamming round, was I using too lighter lead for the tide or was this a fish, picking the rod up I lifted into the weight and instantly could feeling something pulling back. Winding in I could soon see a fish and a lovely little bertie bass was laying on the shingle, that must have been the quickest fish I have ever caught. He hit the bait on the way down it must have dropped right in front of his nose and he could not resist, not a bad start to be honest but that was not what I was after tonight so the hooks were re baited with juicy rag and cast back out.

High tide was due at 9pm and as we moved closer to this time it was very slow, and cold, this was meant to be a warm July evening but instead it felt like a blustery November in the teeth of the wind that was blowing. Tom was doing his duties and clearing the dogfish on squid baits but the rest of us were not really seeing much else, Jo had caught a little bass too but the rod tips were largely motionless. High tide came and went, with the sun setting hopes were still high, this is predominantly an ebb venue and with the ebb matching with darkness falling it should have been perfect, and it would have been too if it was’t for that wind. As darkness fell the whiting came on the feed, Scotty was picking some nice sized fish out at 30cm plus but the fact the whiting were here in July is never a great thing, Tom soon had a whiting livebait out though in the hope that the shoals were being followed by something larger.

Around an hour after high my rod tip gave a solid slow pull round, typical signs of a sole playing with the bait, for the next 10 minutes I sat on my hands watching the tip give indications something was playing with the worm and then with the rod slackening off it was time to reel it in. Sliding up the shingle came a nice little slip, target achieved but nowhere near the size that I was looking for tonight so he was released and the rod was sent back out to the same spot onto the sticky clay bottom I was fishing over in the hope for another. Jo was next into the sole with a chunky 33cm fish caught on fresh blow lug, it was really frustrating the wind was blowing how it was as I am certain if it had gone westerly and stayed warm the sole would have been caught more in numbers but we had to work with what we had so we kept plugging away. Tom was still clearing the dogfish for us which I must say was nice of him and Scotty was getting into more eels and whiting but with the time to leave catching up to us the only other sole caught was Tom who had winkled out a small slip.

Not the greatest July nights fishing but we caught the targets just not in any of the numbers we had wished for, hopefully the long sticky nights will return soon and the hunt for a doormat will really begin for us.