World Information Sea Fishing Maps Blog

I fished the British Sea Angling Championships at Deal in Kent recently and for a change drew a peg with a shout. Peg 16 at Sandwich Bay was in the coloured water whilst much of the venues would be hard going in the clear water and bright conditions. In the event I blew it big time and an angler down tide of me casting short cut my line twice costing me fish. At twenty minutes a cast, two casts lots add up to 40 minutes and that’s a lot to give other matchman. In the event I ended seventh and second in the zone a matter of grams behind those in front of me. It was so close that the top ten were separated by a single fish – if only? The winner of the event was Brian Smith of Deal who made the most of the pout in front of him to snatch out 22 for 2.800 kg and the £1000 first prize plus pools.

The following weekend I fished the Sheerness Steel Kent Classic in which 400 plus hopefuls lined up along the Isle of Sheppey’s front beaches and with an onshore gale the day before hopes were high. My smile lasted as long as the draw bag but there were some amused faces when I announced the number I had drawn, 57. A best mate who shall be nameless said, “That’s a go home peg Alan” whilst another resident of the island agreed and added “That’s the moat, a shallow fishless desert, a waste of bait” Now I am a confident angler at the worst times and although I was a bit set back by such comments and I knew enough about the Isle of Sheppey to know that they were right, I was determined to fish, you can’t give up!. The situation was made worse when my fishing buddy, John Wells drew the same area. Well to cut a long story short I fished very well for one 33cm whiting to show for my efforts. Undersized pout and bass kept the rod tip nodding, but I stuck it out to the final whistle despite having lots of mobile calls from my mates in the other sections that were catching codling and whiting galore and indeed the eventual winner, Lewis Clark from Southend landed 36 fish. No glory for me at all and an early shower, but just to prove I was right to fish the peg despite the dismal prospects, John Wells on peg 40 scratched out a 38cm flounder and it won the heaviest flatfish prize of £500!

I took a mate trout fishing, he is a total novice and I chose Lakedown in Sussex for the day – It’s a truly magnificent fishery with lovely views, fin perfect trout and a good range of prices. I would have loved to give the new specimen lake a try, but at £60 for four fish its stocked with specimens up to 18lb, but I thought it a bit much for a first timer so stuck with the three other lakes.

As I strolled down to Lake Four a guy on a mountain bike was peddling towards me red faced “morning” I said as he passed “Morning” he replied. I was stunned WHO was it but Roger Daltrey who owns the fishery. Now I would have loved to have stopped him for a chat but I guess he gets fed up with people wanting to talk. I ended the day with three beautiful rainbow trout all landed on a Viva and Paul my beginner pal also managed a limit. For details of the fishery log on to: www.lakedowntroutfishery.co.uk

The switch to night fishing as the clocks went back brought a rush for efficient lighting and fortunately sea anglers are well catered for nowadays, especially with the many multi LED headlamps. I currently use a Speleo that has no less than 14 LEDs plus a halogen bulb for a power beam. The big plus with the LEDs is that unlike bulbs they don’t “blow” and their light output is less draining on batteries. However occasionally your headlamp may let you down and my answer to that problem is to carry a small carp headlamp type as a reserve back up. The Fox Halo HT 85 at £24.99 is the perfect small headlamp giving up to 70 hours continuous use.