Sunny Southwold

Last week we went to take our annual week's break to the lovely seaside town of Southwold. I've been going there since the kids were little, probably about 25 years.

Lately we've rented a lovely flat on the front which looks over the beach from the pier to virtually the end of the town.

The bay window allows Chris to luxuriate in a huge armchair while keeping an eye on me when I'm fishing from the beach.  This has a twofold advantage in that she can catch up on some novels as well as looking out for my hand signals requesting a mug of coffee!

Previously, I'd been beachcasting and had some success with both flatties and bass but as I'd bought a little 8' Savage Gear spinning rod I decided to cut down on the baggage and try for the bass with some lures. With a small stalking bag and the rod it felt like I was merely taking a stroll!

I'd bought some new Dexter Wedges (sounds painful) and some sandeel immitations and planned to do the surf from the beach and the harbour with the sandeels.  As it turned out the weather was so perfect I only fished 2 or 3 times and just went from the beach. As a very occasional sea angler, I believed that you should only fish High Tide when the bass were driving in just a few yards out. However, I was chatting to a local who said he caught at all states of the tide and in fact that very day he'd had 6 bass at Low Tide. That made the times of fishing much easier not being shackled to the actual High Tide.

Over the week I managed a few bass from the beach, 1 of which made a great evening meal.

It actually took the Dexter in the last wave, so about 6 feet from the shore.

The fact that Southwold is really quite a small town meant that after walking the length of the beach, on the way back to the flat I was able to stop off at the local to enjoy a pint of Adnams!

We enjoyed ourselves so much that we've booked for Christmas week.  Mmnnn, beachcasting for cod on Christmas morning!