I should point out straight away that we wouldn't normally choose to be out in below freezing weather, especially in the Thames Estuary where we would feel the extreme conditions of the North Sea, but having booked our trip several weeks earlier on John Rawle's boat which is moored in Bradwell-on-Sea, none of us wanted to appear whimpish by complaining that it was too cold to fish!
So we met up on a bitterly cold morning at 7.30 a.m. at Bradwell Marina, armed with a variety of tackle in our quest for cod. Having had a red letter day two days earlier, I thought the gods of angling were smiling upon me and we would have a good day, after all, there was minimal wind from the north.
We went around the coast to fish off Frinton and were immediately getting knocks on our squid bait which were struggling to thaw on the boat. There were lugworms to kept in the cold box to stop them freezing!!!
As the day progressed, the sport was poor and we all caught whiting, but most seemed too small to eat all the squid and the "bites" resulted in a half eaten bait being retrieved. Phil, our skipper for the day took pity on us and supplied us with hot cups of tea throughout the day to try and keep the circulation in our fingers and other extremities, but these trips are as much about camaraderie as they are about fishing and the level of joking was unaffected by the big chill and poor sport. Multiple hook rigs were tried and multiple rods too, all with little effect.
As we stopped for lunch to chat ,we realised what was wrong; Nick had brought BANANAS!!! In some parts of the world, they are regarded as being a worse jinx than having women on board (allegedly!) and we believed the offending object was definitely the cause of our lower than normal catch rate. The only solution was to throw the tropical-fruit-lover overboard, but we took pity on him as he wouldn't have lasted 30 seconds in those conditions. We decided not to mutineer, and soldiered on to try and prove that our run of bad luck was not being caused by a fruity presence on board.
As the tide turned, we did manage a few codling among the whiting, and Keith Elliott (Editor of Classic Angling) stumbled across a brace of "prime" pouting. but the sport remained slow and when the shout went up to wind in and return to harbour, nobody was too upset.
We all enjoyed the day out despite the weather. It was a great chance to meet friends and have a good laugh, but next time Nick, several large hairy blokes will definitely check out your lunchbox before they leave harbour, and that's a promise!!!
After catching the pouting, the exertion and excitement proved too much for Keith Elliott!
Picture courtesy of Roger Still.