Kayak Fishing for Plaice

Despite it still being still somewhat early as far as the plaice season goes, plaice have been caught, unfortunately not by me. The weather forecast was looking great so I put in a days holiday, not wanting to miss a rare break in what has been a blustery couple of weeks.

Eastney is the local plaice grounds though I've yet to catch a plaice there, though in all fairness I've only fished it two times, both times in early February. It was an early start, getting up at 5am, loading up in the dark before taking a drive along the coast.

Arriving at Eastney the sea was flat with barely a breath of wind being present. It was pretty misty though I expected this to clear up fairly quickly.

I choice to fish along the 'blocks', a set of old WWII defences. Most of them sit below the water, though the strong tide run causes quite some turbulence above the blocks. It fishes well for bass during the summer months, though I was hoping it'd produce some plaice or school bass for me today.

It proved rather disappointing, so I raised anchor and headed of to a small area of deep water about a mile offshore. I only lasted about an hour in that location, again it proved fruitless and I'd still yet to have so much as a bite!.

Using the last of the ebb I paddled into the main bay locating myself close to a couple local fishing boats. Baits for the day were wishbones filled with rag and tipped off with squid. As the target species was plaice it was the rig to fish, anything else would be a bonus.

It was becoming a wee bit frustrating after four hours of fishing, with not so much as a bite to show for it. However, the weather was cracking and the conditions was just perfect so I lay back and tried not to complain too much!

The quiet session continued, though earlier I'd spotted a yak fisherman in the distance so I paddled over to say hello. Turned out to Ian, someone I'd chatted to via this blog. Well done on catching that plaice!, that really didn't do my moral any good...

After Ian had packed up and gone I moved to what was my final mark of the session, and it continued as the day had started, not so much as a bite. It was around mid-afternoon and I was literally nodding off and contemplating calling it a day.

Well blow me!, a decent bite which continued for a couple of minutes. On tightening up there was a weight of a fish, deep joy!!, however is came off halfway up, not so good. The bites then came hard and fast, though that didn't stop me dropping the next three fish as well!!!, one literally inches from my fingertips. My sense of humour had failed completely at this point, and I was desperately short on bait, though a further hook-up proved much luckier. The result?, a nice fat plaice just over 2lb.

I'd barely baited up and cast out when the other rod started nodding away, left for a while before tightening up, another plaice came to the surface. Smaller than the previous fish but a keeper.

No sooner than the plaice had come onto the feed they'd gone quiet once more. The remainder of the day finished as it had started, deadly quiet with no further bites. The weather held throughout the day making is a cracking session lasting over seven hours.

Roll on the next trip, hopefully the plaice fishing will continue to improve over the next three to four weeks.

 

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