13 & 14/09/14..Cumbria..Away Matches.

by **shacky** » 14 Sep 2014, 23:38

Day 1

We arranged to meet at McD's for breakfast at our first venue, Workington.
Me, JP, Sparky & Dave Kam had made the two hour trip from Blackpool. Having got fuelled up for the day, it was outside for a natter and make plans for the day..

We headed off to the beach car park and had a scout around, JP and Sparky settled for fishing the jetty at the lighthouse..

They could have fished at the end, though this was made up of large boulders..

While, Dave and I took to the beach, this had changed somewhat since the last time we fished here. A lot more boulders were showing and not much sand on the upper shore..

Soon enough we were fishing. It was a nightmare, the current running south to north was horrific, weed was a problem. Worst of all was the hungry crab population. Five minutes was long enough to wind in bare hooks. We persevered to no avail.
After three hours our mojo's had rapidly declined and were thinking of packing up. My phone rang....JP had caught a 36cm mackerel, on blackworm !!! (No photo, someone had left their camera in the car).
We had all agreed that we could use 2 rods each, being an Away venue. Though you had to nominate one rod for the match. My spare rod was loaded with a shrimp rig and cast out and jigged to see if I could catch any mackerel...Half an hour later my arms were killing me and I gave up ! Demoralised I carried on with my baited rod..

As high water approached things started to change. The current was easing, a lot less weed and the crab's going off the feed. I cast out a double peeler bait and went for a natter with dave. After a while went back to re-bait. I had hooked something and could not get it up in the water. It ended up jammed in the boulders, I went for the break and the hooklength parted

A new rig was attached loaded with peeler and launched. I went for another chat.
High tide was upon us, so I returned to change bait. Another fish on, this time I was giving no quarter, in came a flounder :shock:

The tide turned and it was back to the norm, we decided to cut the match short, as we were wasting time and bait.
This ship came out of the harbour and I could just imagine JP & Sparky winding in like mad, as the channel runs next to the wall :lol:

Giving it another 30 minutes and pack up. The two on the jetty looked happy enough..

We met in the car park, it turned out John had caught a second mackerel and won the match

We set off back to our base for the night and get some food. We stayed at the Premier Inn at Howgate, having been there before the food was excellent and the return was inevitable..

We got checked in had a shower, then off for some nosebag..

The food was tops, though I laid off the beer this time. John talked politics for ages and eventually went to catch up on our beauty sleep (yeah I know, we need a lot longer) :wink:

My head hit the pillow.....ZZzzzzZZZzzz!

Day 2

Maryport was our venue today. I awoke at 07.15, Dave got up, Sparky up at 4am :shock:

JP still in the land of nod. A text soon had him up. Three of us had pre-paid for breakfast, while john had the urge to visit Ronald McDonald, so we would meet him on the jetty later. Dave had the chef working overtime as brekky was all you could eat. With bellies full, we headed off to catch up with JP.
On arrival we basically had the jetty to ourselves, not a good sign, I felt my mojo sap, but knew we had to try. the tide had not come in very far, so we played the waiting game for water. A view back down the jetty..

And the three wise monkeys fishing at the end..

After a short while we decided to give it a try...Deja vu :evil:

Yes, the fishing gods had sent us the same problems as yesterday.
We were determined to beat them, our baits included fresh Peeler, Mackerel & Blackworm. Frozen, Blackworm, Sandeel, Squid and Mackerel. Plus John's smelly Black :shock:

After an hour, Dave gave us a glimmer of hope..

Was it a flash in the pan. John had lost his mojo, with his rig's getting tangled. He sorted them out, got his act together and landed a fish..

Then it was my turn, fishing on the opposite side, I caught a..

Then nothingness, an hour later sparky was still blanking and came up with this tale that, if you throw money in the sea, you will be rewarded with a fish. OK, this was desperate times and we watched the moths fly out of his wallet, when opened. Now this is the gospel truth!!!....He chucked some loose change in the sea, sat down and got a bite, picked his rod up and landed a..

We were gobsmacked :shock:

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I thought about doing the same, though I had spent enough money already and took my chances.
Kammy also hung on to his money and landed a second..

I think sparky had paid for us all

and decided to cash in..

High water came and the same again happened, the fish started biting, Dave lost a dog at the jetty and started on the weavers. I was getting bites lobbing the 20ft out into the channel. At last I had something other than flounder..

The fishing had been really slow, the ebb started and got a better bite. I expected to see a good fish surface. Though..

My other rod had a pulley-pennel on all day and had done nothing, the only bait left to try was a large blackworm, it was baited cast and left. Eventually I wound in, it was much heavier, though no fight. my biggest fish of the weekend, caught on the pleasure rod and did not count..

Dave was still not parting with his money and thought the fish would be happy with Gold being showered on them :wink:

That didn't work :lol:

The tide was bombing out and nothing was doin', we were getting bored..

So, we cut the match short by an hour, fished the last 15 mins and prepared to tackle down. My non-counting rod produced again..

We headed back to our cars said "Goodbye" and took the drive home.

It had been a good weekend, bar one thing....Lack of fish. A lad fishing further down the jetty landed a Plaice on ragworm. Another bait to bring next time

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by **grumpyppops1** » 15 Sep 2014, 07:50

Great story pal but what a nightmare.At least the brekkies were ok.I've decided I might nick lucies change pot for the amusements(in case I've got to sweeten up the fish down in wales.see you soon pal.