Phantom of Hook House
Well-known member
Dungeness 24-02-08 report
We gave Dungeness a good go yesterday on the basis it was a reasonably big tide and the water had a good colour after Thursdays/Fridays southerlyish blow
Anyway!, I spent 8 hours there yesterday and it was pants! High tide 1pm, the point was packed so three of us fished the diamond (Dengemarch about 1 mile away) 11am until 4pm then moved to the point at Dungie. The diamond was very quiet. We all fished a big bait long and 3 hook scratching rig at various distances. We had 4 undersized codling and a load of pout with the odd whiting and dab thrown in. Everything was undersize except the rockling! At the point, most of the day anglers had gone and it was a lot more fish. A lot more dabs but no real keepers (where are the sprat dabs this year?), and as dusk approahed the pin whiting made dab fishing a waste of good smelly black lug! We switched to a livebait rig on one rod and big worm bait on the other. Alex had a 3lb codling about 1830 and we had a couple more undersize on the worm but nothing on the livebaits (why do I only catch cod on livebaits when I'm not fishing a livebait rig and a whiting impails on a 4/0-6/0 pennel rig intended for cod and gets chomped? If I leave a livebait rig out there' I reel in after an hour thinking nothing must have stuck on the small hooks, always to find a 8" whiting smiling at me).
The rain started about 7pm. We gave it another hour for the same results...lots of small stuff and called it a day about 8pm. Lots of fish and a beautiful afternoon/evening until the rain started. I think thats it for this winters cod fishing at Dungie unless we get a real big blow or a spring run, as conditions we're pretty right yesterday. Hmmmm, the bass should be in soon then!! Roll on clear water and calm seas, livebaits 10 yards out at midnight!
We gave Dungeness a good go yesterday on the basis it was a reasonably big tide and the water had a good colour after Thursdays/Fridays southerlyish blow
Anyway!, I spent 8 hours there yesterday and it was pants! High tide 1pm, the point was packed so three of us fished the diamond (Dengemarch about 1 mile away) 11am until 4pm then moved to the point at Dungie. The diamond was very quiet. We all fished a big bait long and 3 hook scratching rig at various distances. We had 4 undersized codling and a load of pout with the odd whiting and dab thrown in. Everything was undersize except the rockling! At the point, most of the day anglers had gone and it was a lot more fish. A lot more dabs but no real keepers (where are the sprat dabs this year?), and as dusk approahed the pin whiting made dab fishing a waste of good smelly black lug! We switched to a livebait rig on one rod and big worm bait on the other. Alex had a 3lb codling about 1830 and we had a couple more undersize on the worm but nothing on the livebaits (why do I only catch cod on livebaits when I'm not fishing a livebait rig and a whiting impails on a 4/0-6/0 pennel rig intended for cod and gets chomped? If I leave a livebait rig out there' I reel in after an hour thinking nothing must have stuck on the small hooks, always to find a 8" whiting smiling at me).
The rain started about 7pm. We gave it another hour for the same results...lots of small stuff and called it a day about 8pm. Lots of fish and a beautiful afternoon/evening until the rain started. I think thats it for this winters cod fishing at Dungie unless we get a real big blow or a spring run, as conditions we're pretty right yesterday. Hmmmm, the bass should be in soon then!! Roll on clear water and calm seas, livebaits 10 yards out at midnight!
