Gilkicker Fort 26th April 2011

scottish_and_mental · #1 04-27-2011, 01:30 PM

Because the tide was small i decided to fish up by the fort at gilkicker as it's one of my favourite marks with deep water ( and because Milford doesn't seem to produce when its calm like it has been ) ..

I arrived with an hour or so of daylight left in the vain hope of catching a rogue bream or pollack but my lug and squid/razor bits remained unmolested ..
Low water was around 10.30 ? so i fished the tide all the way down , with the plan to see what the weed was like and perhaps fish it back up again

As darkness fell and after watching every cruise liner and passenger ferry know to man pass me by it was time to send out some sandeel and sandeel/mackerel wraps to hunt out a small eyed or spotty ..
with the last chuch on the worm rod i managed my first fish of the session in the way of a small pout . blank saved but to be honest if i'd have blanked at kicker i would have jumped in and wouldn't be writing this report now

Weed was gathering along the tide line in nice stripes and i knew it was going to be fun fishing through it but considering the amount i could see in the water AND on the beach it was fishable right untill slack water

Sandeels out - 30 seconds later my first woofer of the night - tried to rebait but the other rod decided to rattle too and within a few minutes dog number two was on the beach - nicely disguised under a ton of weed !
Well i couldn't bait up quick enough and double patting wasn't helping as it just went stupid for the last two hours of the ebb ..
6 dogs in a row - then a double shot on a pennel pulley

and i was beginning to not only get a sweat on but realise my chances of a Ray were getting slim

After carefully negotiating low water and reeling in copius amounts of weed i hit into a helluva weight and though i'd perhaps snagged the wightlink ferry

only to bring in 5lb of weed , my gear, someone elses pulley ( tied identical to mine

) plus his 6 ounce lead AND doggie number 9 !
The weather was great so i wasn't that bothered and watching the cruise liners arrive at 3.45 on route for Southampton kept me amused and oddly wide awake ..
with the last reel in to pack my kit up i managed dog number 10 on a double sandeel and proceeded to pack up under the watchfull eye of 2 foxes no more than 50 feet infront of me ..
A guy had been fishing to the right of the fort when i arrived but i have no idea how he got on , tho im pretty sure he was from another forum as i'd read comments about others heading up that way ..
No ray for me but the hunt continues - i'm now somewhat of a doggie expert although i did manage to lose half the skin on my thumb as one of the $%%% decided to sand me down while removing a deeply swallowed hook

. a first in 15 years and great fun as it fills with crab and mackerel juice

might have to try again Thursday if the pub doesn't shout too loud