Team Keens Does Dungeness

Posted by Simon on September 9, 2011 under Sea Fishing | Be the First to Comment

Wed 24th Nov – Fishing 0 hrs – Pub 7hrs
It was time for our annual Dungeness pilgrimage. Steve had done all the ground work as usual. Digs, vans, bait and tides all sorted. So eight of us departed for Dungie at 08:00 Wed morning. First stop was 10 miles up the M4 in the opposite direction to get breakfast at Pyle. After a lovely breakfast we headed on our way for the 4 1/2 hr trip to New Romney. We arrived at our digs at about 13:00 we had made good progress. The plan was to fish Thur – Sat from 06:00 to 19:00 and then have a pint get some grub. Eat the grub at the digs then shower and crash out for the following morning. Leaving Sat night for the piss up. Things didn’t go quite to plan. As we arrived early the boys decided it was a good opportunity to sample the local beer early. We would then walk up to the Plough at the other end of New Romney for food. It was then back to bed.

Thur 25th Nov: Fishing 8hrs – Pub 7hrs
The alarm went off a 05:00 and we where down on the beach by 06:00. It was a tad chilly to say the least. A gentle breeze from the north. IT was beach buddy up first thing then sort out the rods. We where in the water by 06:30 about two hours before low water. We fished to the left of the board walk. It was quite rough ground as there is a ledge out at about 50 yards. The drop off is considerable and the line gets trapped under the shingle on the lip of the ledge. You can reel in untill the led hits the lip. Then you will be very lucky id you can get it back. Best bet was to only leave the bait out for 20 minutes or less.  Low water came and went and all we had was Whiting. About two hours of the flood Sid was the first to make contact. A nice double figure cod 11.2lb a new PB for Sid. Sid was using a pully pennel rig with size 5/0 hooks. Bait was local lug and squid cocktail.

Not to be out done I saw Glyn hauling what looked like a very nice cod up the beach!

A superb Cod weighing 19.3lb. This was a new PB for Glyn.  It fell to a pulley dropper rig using 5/0 hooks. It has taken a livebait Whiting.

Carl then landed a nice 4lb Cod again on local lug. . Then that was it. The usual whiting and not a lot else. The boys didn’t quite make it to the 6 pm go home time so we left the beach at 3pm so they could hit the pub again.

Fri 26 Nov: Fishing 7hrs – Pub 8hrs

Bizzy had left home at 01:00 in the morning and we waited for him to turn up so we could load his gear in the van. So we hit the beach a bit later than expected. Bizzy has more jam than Hartleys. His third cast produced a nice 10.2lb Cod. It fell to another livebait Whiting.

The team where getting bored again so we packed up early and you guessed it! Went to the pub. I crashed out at 20:30 so I was prepared for the following days session. But half team turned back up at the digs well gone 23:00 with tales of 12 pints of beer! So I wasn’t expecting much for Saturday.

Sat 27th Nov: Fishing 3hrs – Pub (we went home)

The plan this morning was to get up at 04:00 and get down to the beach by 05:00. But there where a few lazy heads after the piss up the night before. In fact some didn’t make it. Some stayed asleep in the van. We got to the beach by 6am. Just after we arrived it started to snow so the rest of the team bar Sid, Jeff and I packed up and went back to the digs in Tony’s van. Needless to say they where back on the beach by 10am asking us to pack up so they could go home. Snow had been forecast. So the three remaining packed up and headed for the digs. We didn’t even have chance to fish the flooding tide.

We where on the way home by midday. Shame really as I failed to get a Cod. Never mind there always next year.

Notes

There where very few small cod caught this year. The method that worked was waiting for a whiting rattle and then leaving it out hopefully getting a large cod to take it as livebait. I did pull in two Whiting and a flag pole at one stage. But alas no double figure Cod.

Si

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