It's blowing a gale from that rarest of quarters, seldom seen on the Norfolk coast. A warm southerly that bowls us along the mile or so of banks and board walks that thread across the salt marsh from the harbour. When we reach the dunes, the marram's dancing wildly and the sea's in full retreat, tide receding as the wind quickens the ebb.
As soon as I unleash the dog, he's off like a furry rocket down the beach. Turning to drink in our windswept surroundings, I'm engulfed by powdery dry sand lifted up from above the high tide mark, carried towards us in knee-high dust clouds.
The beach might look featureless, but it shelves quite steeply. The picture above was snapped from a spot that would be five or six feet under at high tide, within easy casting range.
But look at the narrow gully at the bottom of the beach, beyond which a sandbank stretches away into the distance.It still holds a couple of feet of water, at the very bottom of the ebb. Imagine things the other way around, with a fast-flooding tide running from right to left.
As the waves creep higher up the beach, there's a seriously-interesting feature there after all, amid the saharan wilderness. A deeper channel 30 or 40 yds from the high tide mark, which might be the bass's back door.
I wonder whether schools move in to hunt along it, fanning out as this otherwise barren beach floods. I have no idea whether this will turn out to be right, but amid the shifting sands an idea's already forming when it comes to how to fish it. Worth a go..? Why not.
Hello.
ReplyDeleteIn the first place congratulations for your blogue, it's very pleasant to read and informative for those new to pike fishing.
I'm sending you this mensage via the comments because I was unable to find the email a address of your blog.
Anyhow, my name is Pedro Baião and I've been living in Norfolk for the last 2 months.
I fish exclusivly on lures for the past 7 years and I have had decent sucess in bass fishing back in Portugal, with some nice fish in the way.
I'm used to fish with different techiques, from topwater lures to softbait swimbaits, minnows, etc..
Unfortunatly, in pike fishing I'm a completely novice and I would like to try because it seems a good alternative to bass fishing.
I'm at Gorleston and I find the conditions very different to the places were I used to fish in Portugal, specially the water temperature.
Still I'm hoping that maybe in late Spring and in the Summer some bass may appear at the mouth of the River Yare.
If possible can you please point me to some easy acess spots were I might try some pikes? I still don't have a car unfortunatly so I'm bound to bus or train.
Besides I would also would enjoy to trade some points of view with somone who is used to do lure fishing for bass in this part of the World.
Feel free to check my blogue (bass fishing with lures, vertical jigging, etc, only lure fishing).
Thanks a lot for your attention and keep this nice blogue up.
Regards,
Pedro Russo Baião