St Osyth Beach, Essex - 18th September 09

I've been gunning to get on the beach again and with a good tide and an excellent weather forecast for Friday night headed for the Bird Reserve end of St Osyth. I decided to be a bit adventurous and walk from home in Jaywick but in hindsight it was probably a tad too adventurous as I've now killed my feet for a good few days, which is a shame as I received an invite to join Krakov at the Rock Groins and would probably have had a few hours fishing with him on Saturday night as well had I been able to walk properly!

Anyway I arrived at my favourite spot about 4 hours before the tide and sent both rods out with a variety of baits. Within 5 minutes both sets of gear had returned to the beach with a fish on every hook and so it pretty much continued throughout the flood. Frozen Blacks, Fresh Lugworm and Frozen Sandeel all accounted for Whiting and in truth it didn't seem to matter what bait you put on the hook or where you cast it. About two hours before the top of the tide I had a flurry of small Bass in amongst the Whiting, all to Ragworm and an Eel of about 8oz (again falling to Ragworm) joined the party just at the top of the tide, as the Whiting action died off a little.

I was hoping that the ebb would maybe bring perhaps a better Bass or maybe a Codling but it wasn't to be. Fishing at range was virtually impossible with a huge upsurge in the amount of weed about and within minutes the gear had to be brought back in with 2 foot or so of that horrible thin weed adorning the mainline by the leader knot - mind you I was still pretty much getting a Whiting a chuck even then. To keep the fishing a little more refined I decided to try for a Bass at close range (away from the dreaded weed) but even here the water was full of Whiting, albiet that the fish here were a much better size than most I had already taken on the flood.

I eventually tired of the Whiting at about 3.30am and headed home. It makes a nice change to be able to say that I really was too busy to count the Whiting. I know I had 5 Bass and the Eel and a conservative estimate (based on some (very) rough calculations) of about 50 Whiting, although most were only about 5 - 7 inches long. The walk home is eventually what killed my poor old feet, though I have a theory that it was the extra weight of the 10 million sandhoppers which stowed away in the rucksack and which duly took over the kitchen as i gave my reels a rinse when I got back.

I was not popular with Mrs BD this morning, she is not a fan of wildlife in her kitchen

Hi Russ cracking report mate well done very intresting read sounds like you had your hands full mate, and great pictures too. I know what you mean with the weed pain, fished anchorehome once on a night tide and the weed was unreal at one point thought I had a biggy on but just turned out to be weed, put up a good fight though
Great report keep em coming mate

Regards
Clive

always love reading your reports bd thanks for sharing

Hi blakdog, new member here, just read your report on st osyth beach and it brought back memories, i used to live in Clacton and enjoyed some of the best fishing in my life. Only fished St Osyth once though and blanked but had some great sessions along that coast the best being just after the storm in 87 when I bagged the biggest cod I've ever caught in uk waters about 20lb! was an exceptional night with big cod and whiting all night long, storm must have brought them in. look forward to reading more of your reports. Mike

great as always good reading your stuff bd