The lads had endured enough by now so we called it a day at 4pm and headed for home. to my surprise the next tide fished well too with a couple more codling coming aboard shortly followed by more rays. by high water we had exceeded my expectations but still hoped for more so had a move over slack tide. Condition deteriorated as the day progressed with sleet and snow flurries but the lads effort didn’t.

The obligatory dogfish and whiting soon followed along with more codling and one or two rays. Thankfully we dropped straight onto the fish and in the first couple of casts a couple of codling came aboard for Tony and Adam. The late start meant we didn’t get any baits in the water until 10am so we would have as long with the wind and tide together as I would have liked.

I wasn’t sure how far we would get as there were sizeable white horses rolling in the entrance to the moorings but the conditions suited Galloper well and it was far more comfortable than expected as we punched down to our chosen mark. So armed with over 900 lugworm and a cool box of squid we made our way out into a strong east to south-easterly wind. I was also relieved to hear that they had chosen not to have their usual match as they wanted to try for codling and these don’t score very well so it made sense. However the lads were keen as ever to get out on their first trip of the year. I must admit as I drove down to the boat through the rain I was questioning our sanity. Given the option of a very early or very late start the lads opted for the later. The lads from Suffolk police were faced with some unsavoury conditions for their trip last week. The weather has been all over the place of late but those codling seem to be drawing the lads out there despite this. Still plenty of nice codling and rays coming in at the moment along with whiting, dogfish and other species too.

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