English Cod Festival
5th and 6th November 2011
The Hotel laid on a fine meal for the traveling anglers, the weather look good for Saturday apart from the early rainfall, the 19 competitors were keen to wet their lines, the boats were moored and ready to go, rigs were tied, bait collected, but had the Cod read the script?
Day 1
Cars parked, bait handed out, now for the walk to the boats, the floating pontoon allows this landing stage to be used during any part of the tide, the morning high tide covered the ¼ mile of mud that extends into the estuary.
Boats loaded, draws made, rods assembled and off we go all hopeful that the Cod would show. The chosen marks were reached within 20-30 minutes anchors in lines down. The whiting and dogfish were soon boated but the Cod were slow.
I know some of you will be skeptical about this bit but here goes, as Ash Currier made a cast he managed to let his Conoflex sensor tip with his Penn 975 loaded with 300yrds of 30lb powerpro braid (£430 + worth of tackle) slip from his grasp, the whole lot went flying out to sea, the rod butt waved goodbye as it slipped beneath the surface. After several casts with another rod + large uptide lead attached, Ray Barron commented that the only way the rod would be retrieved was if a dogfish picked up Ashley’s bait then picked up another, I know this sounds like one of those far fetched stories but an hour or so later Ray reeled in a Dogfish with his hook one side of it’s mouth and Ash’s on the other side, the hook up was completed by a whiting that had managed to tangle both rigs together, they then retrieved the line complete with the rod & reel !!
Any way back to the fishing, a grand total of six Cod were boated, the same amount were caught as day 1 in Langstone, Jim Phillipson, Gary Galbraith plus new members Mark Owen & Graham Lewis had one each, day one winner was Pete (sorry) Bailey who managed two for a grand total of 79cm.
Day 2
The forecast today gave winds of 7-8 knots north/northeast, not ideal for the estuary as northeast blows straight up the river, kwels on hand today just incase!
The pontoon walk today resembled ferry passengers walking down the aisle in rough weather, the anglers swaying from one side to the other as the wind and waves rocked the pontoon.
To make the most of the tide the boats left slightly later than yesterday, two boats headed towards the area where 4 cod had surrendered on day 1, the other went closer to the Essex side.
On Dentex Perry Dack took an early lead with a 45cm Codling, the usual Dogfish and Whiting were on the baits so quickly any Cod would need to be quick to get a meal. Day 1 winner Pete, failed to repeat yesterday’s performance and returned a blank sheet, following on from his success in Langeland Barry Senior matched Pete’s two Cod with two slightly larger specimens and become possibly our last Cod champion.
Thanks to Ash currier for driving to Dover on both days to collect the worms & Clive at Bills bait for supplying those quality worms.
Individuals
1st Barry senior 84cm
2nd Pete Bailey 79cm
3rd mark Owen 47cm
4th Perry Dack/Graham Lewis 45cm
6th Gary Galbraith 37cm
7th Jim Phillipson 34cm
Two man team
Barry senior & Pete Bailey
Four man
Barry senior, Pete Bailey, Graham Lewis & Rob Quinn
Life Member
Perry Dack
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