Someone once said “There’s a fine line between fishing and just standing on a beach looking like an idiot”. Well after last night, I think I could fall into that latter category.

I went for a late session last night after work and fished at Seaford from about 9.30 pm through until around 2 am. Fished from low water up until before high. Conditions were calm and overcast with no wind, the water was flat and gin clear. It looked like I had the beach to myself as there didn’t seem  to be another soul there, none of the usual lights along the shore. After setting up, I cast out the first set which was a size 4, two hook flapper baited with lugworm to try and get a couple of live-baits and in the meantime, the other set was cast out – a long link running ledger with a 5/0 pennel and whole squid.

It was long before the obligatory whiting hit the worm bait and I had the first of many, many double-shots on the beach but too big for bait and too small for the table. Worms sent seaward again and before I could put the rod in the rest, it was off with another double-shot – wrong size. This was to be the theme for the night, along with the big squid bait constantly being shredded by the needle teeth of whiting. Long, short, middle distance casting – it mattered not, the whiting were again everywhere. Bait up, cast, retrieve, take whiting off hooks, bait up, cast, retrieve, etc etc, I think you get the picture. I must have looked like the village idiot, scuttling around, waving a large stick at the sea and swearing at fish.

Giving up on the idea of getting a bait sized fish and in an attempt at trying to get something a bit bigger, I swapped the flapper for a size 2/0 single hook paternoster with a big worm and squid bait tucked into a DVice. This however just gave the whiting more of a challenge and it wasn’t long before the rod was rattling away as another one hit the bait.

By around 2 am, I’d had enough and although I didn’t stay for high water, I’m pretty sure that all I would have had would been more whiting. No wonder there hadn’t been anyone else out there; they obviously knew something I didn’t!

4 Responses to “An Idiot on the Beach”

1. walker says:

   18 October, 2010 at 20:47

   Hi, just stumbled across your site – very nice. When I get some proper time I will have a good read, but what I have seen so far looks excellent

2. Vic says:

   22 October, 2010 at 20:24

   Cheers mate, much appreciated.

3. walker says:

   6 December, 2010 at 20:20

   Had a better read today. Excellent blog

4. Vic says:

   16 December, 2010 at 16:36

   Thanks for the kind words, much appreciated. Have had a browse of yours and found it also to be an entertaining and interesting read. I’ve added a link to yours in my links section under “anincorrigible”.