Saltwater Boat Angling — December 2017

Saltwater Boat Angling 29

Bilge pump

As ‘Lucky G’ has no boat cover, one

of the most important items we

need to be working while the boat

is unattended is of course the

automatic bilge pump. The old one

has not been working properly so

we have had to have it replaced.

Just a small item but it ensures we

step into a dry boat and not slosh

about in several inches of water

each time we went aboard, as had

been the case recently.

Weather window

At last, a spell of settled weather at

the end of October and Tim and I

have planned a trip in ‘Lucky G’. It’s

a short tide so we can anchor the

Beachy Head ledge I mentioned at

the start of the column and see for

ourselves if the cod have returned.

Armed with some boxes of squid

and 50 black lug we set off

westwards to the famous suicide

spot that is the 500 feet high, chalk

cliffs of Beachy Head. The ledge

runs out from the shore near the

lighthouse for about three

quarters of a mile and when we

arrived there were already three

boats fishing it at anchor. One of

them was Steve Bradshaw’s ‘Deep

Blue’ which gave me great

encouragement as Steve would

not be fishing this mark if there

were no cod here. The tide was

Beachy Head ledge

10lb cod took a squid and lugworm

cocktail

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