Fishing the River Humber at Paull
Saturday 26th November 2005
The weather played havoc with our planed charter boat trip out of Whitby, again. 5 times this year we have been blown off, the charter skippers must be pulling their hair out.Friday 7.10pm the confirmation I’d been dreading, your trips off, adverse weather conditions. Well it is November what else can you expect. Good news is the skipper has given us the alternative for next Saturday 3rd December.The phone calls from the rest of the lads start coming and the news is past on. Disappointment all round but an alternative is given, fishing at Paull, Hull in the Humber. Not a chance was the answer from most, as the weather conditions for most of the country looked atrocious. Only Cliff was to give a positive answer, then his question, what time do you want me to pick you up? 4am and I’ll be ready. I set the alarm for 2am, suspecting Cliff would turn up early, and then I went to bed. Rising at 2am I soon had everything ready, and sure enough at 3am Cliff’s car was backing up the drive. I couldn’t sleep thinking of all those Cod we’re going to catch and with smiling faces we loaded the car. Soon we were on our way with a two n a half hours trip in front of us. Arriving at Hull we’re soon into the Bacon Banjo Café for my treat of the week, a likkle fry up. Then it was round the corner to A&D Tackle for our bait + some bit’s n bobs.Back onto the road we were soon entering the car park at Paull, expecting to find a few anglers already at it. No, not a sole in site, we had the place to ourselves. It weren’t long before we set up base camp to the right of the car park, just past the third bench. Lines were into the water well before 8am. Sitting back and the buzz of catching a good Humber Cod was filling the air as others were turning up. The car park was soon to fill and thankfully we were well out of the way of most that massed along the rivers edge, at the back of the park, making line tackles just about impossible.
Time went slow as we watched the river start to flood, high tide being at 2pm. Not a big tide, but not having a choice today we were more than pleased with the tide times.Well it looked like we maybe were going to be the last to catch as others were pulling in the fish, not big, but they were catching. The nod, yes the nod, excitement got high as my rod gave a likkle rattle. Was this that monster cod I’d been dreaming of? Wish lads had your gobs a’ll tell you a’ll a story. The take, slight tension with the rod on line and bang, got the bugger. A slow retrieve, it’s head was knocking, yes yes out of the water, up the wall. There it was a likkle baby Codling. Quickly unhooked then he was soon back into the river. Twice I’ve fished Paull and never blanked there, it must be a PB or a record for me.The day went by with Whiting, Codling n Flatties coming ashore all along Paull rivers edge, I’m sure there wasn’t a blanker in site. The weather for the day was rain, hail and sun, we couldn’t complain fish were caught and by sitting under Cliff’s umbrella we were sheltered from the elements.
4pm the Gods decided to turn the light down so we cleared up and reloaded the car, ready for that two and a half hour journey back home. Bait for the day was Rag, Lug n Squid. Nothing was caught on the Lug, but the Rag n Squid done the trick for us. Not being a big tide the river flow was gentle and using wired leads of 4oz was suffice. I’d like to try the same venue on a bigger tide, maybe this time of the year with a greater flow; Cod would be there for the taking.
When the going gets Tuff, we go fishing.