With a lovely weather window, a phone call from Stuart to see if I fancied Dungeness, was very quickly an impromptu trip. We paused at a spot that I had some success with previously for some black lug, and it pumped fantastically, myself with 150 prime freshouts, and Stuart with at least 70 (not bad as ts the first time he has pumped for a year)
We arrived at Dungeness to find that an awful lot of anglers had learnt to appreciate weather windows. With the previous days gusts to 100 mph frustrating most peoples attempts to get out, the beach was suddenly packed, and we didnt have a hope of getting on to our first choice spot. We headed around to the point, and found a spot where we could fit in. As well as Stuart, we had recent converts to sea fishing Naomi and Ada along with us. We got to the serious task of fishing. Naomi and Ada were into quality whiting every cast, on two hook paternosters. Stuart and myself, fishing big baits on pennels, suffered the same fate.
Watching the rod twitching away to another whiting, all of a sudden the rod lurched savagely three times, and broke out. I knew what had happened straight away. A cod had seized the tethered whiting. But, after pumping in a good weight thirty or so yards, it all went light. Reeling in, it was apparent that the cod had been lucky, and not been hooked but simply holding the whiting in its jaw. The toothed up, half dead whiting telling the story. Apart from that, Stuart missed a possible good take on the high tide, but with work waiting for the other three, it was time to be away, to wonder about what might have been. Got to gget that double before xmas.....!!