Albert Pier 6th Aug 2006

Map Ref: 647,477
Tide: LW 9.50am (3.8m) :
Weather Forecast: Foggy - Sunny 23^oC. Wind WNW 7mph with gusts to 16mph

This was going to be a rest day, but having realised the previous day that I still had a bucket of soaking bread, I decided to try and put it to good use.
Chris was already committed to cooking and serving the family lunch, so it was to be a solo trip and with the neap tides and the timing of them, I went for the easy option - the Albert Pier once again!!!

Arrived around 5.15am to find a number of anglers on the pier head - to be expected as this was Sunday morning … general response to my question of “anything about?”, was “Pollack”….

The steps were clear, and so I walked down and set up just above the second landing that was still covered by the falling tide… ground baited the area, and kept the large numbers of little bait fish happy and settled down for some mullet action….

And that was it for almost the next two hours ….. nothing, not a bite, it was dead as far as my hook was concerned - and I was starting to worry, as normally I'd expect some sort of action around the first couple of hours of dawn --- even if it was just the sand smelt driving me made, but nothing at all, just didn't seem right… after the first hour I deepened the depth to around 12ft that I was fishing, rather then the 4 to 6ft or so I'd started with….

7.15am …. Suddenly just as I was trotting my float down parallel to the steps (about 10ft out), it started to bounce up and down, and then shot under the water… but I was ready an struck home, the rod arched over, and battle commenced….
It was only a small mullet, but it gave a good account of itself… not helped when it rolled a couple of times, and getting caught up in the line, so it was almost like it was tail hooked…. After a couple of minutes I managed to bring it to the net…

measured 13.1/2 inches, so I guess around a pond and a quarter in weight, took a picture, and slipped the fish back…. I also realised I'd been joined by another chap, who obviously was also here for the mullet judging by the bag of bread he was carrying…. Said out hellos and he tackled up above me with a three hook suspended rig fished just off the bottom, dangle down style…. Turned out the chap was from Gosport working over here in the construction trade, and had had mullet from here a couple of weeks before….

Things went rather quiet for the next 45 minutes with only the odd bite here and there… dangle down chap managed to get snagged up on the submerged steps and lost his rig…. I did offer to let him fish from the lower landing which would be snag free, but he declined my offer, re-rigged up and made sure his rod was far enough out, so as to avoid the snags below him…

From around 8am onwards I started to get a series of missed bites, although obviously I couldn't tell what was causing them, my heart was praying for mullet…
The wind died, and the water became a mirror pond up to about 40ft out, with only the wash from the passing boats causing an intermittent disturbance….

9.40am… suddenly out of the depths a reasonable sized mullet rose up and almost bumped my float, before leisurely sinking back down below…. My heart rate was anything but leisurely…

10.00am…. three mullet, one of which must have been over 5lb started swimming under my feet and around my baiting area….

Shortly after the other chap had to leave….. and missed out…

More and more mullet started to appear, coming racing out from the ruffle of the main channel, and hoovering up the cascades of groundbait, every time I flicked some out… I was getting not takes from my hook offerings…. So I drastically reduced my fishing depth to about 3ft….. seemed to work in so far as the fish started to take an interest but turned away at the last moment…..

I kept flicking small spoonfuls of ground bait out in a semi-circle just out and up to the ruffle margin…. I guess there were around a dozen or so fish by this time, with three odd fish in the 4 to 6lb class, a number of 2 to 4lb'ers and 3 or 4 one to two pound fish…. Who all suddenly really switched on, and even started to attack my hook offerings….
For about 40 minutes I had bite after bite… but could I connect, could I hell… I tried to strike fast, slow, hard, soft, up, sideways… nothing seemed to work, and indeed with one over exuberant strike I managed to pop the float out of the float holder, and off it sailed never to be seen again!!!!

I think in future I'm going to try with smaller hooks and baits, and slightly larger floats, as it could be the fish are sucking at the bread without taking it in, and with the light 3BB floats the result is a false bite...

11.00am…. struck for the umpteenth time… but this time I hit home…. Only problem was that it was a small fish of around a pound to a pound and a half, that because of the shallow depth at which I was fishing, proceeded to thrash around on the surface, and after 30 seconds or so, promptly got off…. All the commotion that this little fellow caused was enough to spook the other fish, and the swim died. A couple of fish sporadically turned up, but their visits became less and less frequent, until around midday, when I decided that enough was enough and packed up for the day….

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