Couldn't make our first day out of lockdown (work keeps getting in the way) so plumped for the Tuesday instead, as the forecast for the rest of the week was shite
My mate (and one of the usual crew) was out on a charter on the Monday fishing up near Clevedon (my intended area on Tues)
After the picture of his 3rd codling, I rang him and spoke for all of 5 secs before he said "got to go, got a bite"
He rang me back after 10 mins or so just after his picture message pinged on my phone showing a plump 6.5 pounder, seems like it's carpeted with them says I
"Well", says he, "I've had 4 and there's one other on the boat"
I went back to my work wondering if I should take the big cooler box, instead of the smaller one for all the cod we were going to get Tuesday
And after receiving another 2 pics showing his total for the day (6 to around 7lb) I genuinely considered the larger one
Anyway, back to our report (can you tell I'm trying to pad it out a bit)
We took the 7.30 lock and headed straight up/over to Clevedon, on a steep bank/reef which is usually a good spot
Plenty of conger, couple of dogs and a few thornies were all we had for the first 2 hrs of the flood, so opted to move a bit closer in to Ladye Bay
We found a parking spot in between the flotilla and dropped anchor, much the same here with one small (8lb ish) ray doing a very good impression of a double figure cod and really got the blood pumping
A phone call from the charter skipper that my mate had been on the day before revealed he hadn't even had a bite on his boat (he opted to go further up channel)
Another move across the channel to just inside Newport deeps resulted in more of the same, so by about 2.45 I miserably pulled the pin and trundled off down the channel to get the 3.45 lock in........Codless
Speaking to the others in the lock, there were 2 codling between 20 odd anglers, although I did hear of a few doubles that had came out (including 2 from Clevedon the previous day) and the charter we spoke to ended up with 6
Shit weather for the foreseeable, but I will return
They can't hide forever
Can they?