12th -The elusive Flounder

Mike with Rockling

The final client session of 2009, and out with Mike, Ray and Alex. I had explained that the fishing was at best patchy, and offered to cancel the trip. But young Alex was keen to add to his species list, and wanted flounder this time. Seemed feasible. Not too hard to find a flounder normally............I decided on the Shoreham harbour complex, as trips up the river Adur were not proving too succesful. And with the very first of the flood we fished the main channel in the area of Soldiers point. But the only fish standing to attention there seemed to be rockling, with Mike taking the first one. Soldiers point seems to be the upriver boundary for a few species, and rocking are one of them, as a trip later proved just 100 yards upriver!!

Young Alex has discovered hiding behind his arm means I dont blind him.....

I'm pretty confident that had we stayed there we would have caught further rockling, but after having far too many, and wanting to see the tips moving a bit more regularly, we moved around the harbou to Kingston beach. Here the tips were moving straight away.

Mike in on the basslets......

Nothing of any size though, with plenty of school bass and more rockling. And none of the target fish, the elusive flounder. But plenty of rod shuddering action, important when you have a young lad along on a bitterly cold night.

Plenty of these chaps

Ray, the only one not affected by the cold in his Crossflow

Possibly the biggest of a night of small fish

We gave it a good try, and with light winds other than the cold it was quite an enjoyable trip, with plenty of action. Make the most of the down time lads, as next year will see some stunning results. And I can confirm your first trip will be free, as Mike's 8lb+ bass is, despite a near miss with a possible double a week or so ago, the biggest client bass for 2009. Happy christmas chaps!!!