Second trip out, and this time a couple of the jigsaw pieces slotted into place. Firstly, the absolute need to arrive at low tide - instead of a featureless surface, here were the features all laid out clearly; the river channel, the shingle ridges, the humps and depressions...and here were the fish! Most, I'm sure, were mullet, but just to stand amongst the ghosting dark shapes and swirls was incentive enough - and a couple of times, the fish that swirled or jumped had spots.

It was easy enough to let the line swing round in the clearly-defined flow in the channel, but nothing was forthcoming save a couple of tweaks that could have been weed. A different story for a fellow angler, though - a hearty German chap called Hans who was very helpful indeed. A muffled voice to my left had me looking up to see Hans with a deeply bowed rod, a sea trout cartwheeling on the end of his line before taking off at an insane pace and eventually snapping him after running straight past me and out to sea. Impressive stuff.

Out again this evening for low tide, swinging little shrimp patterns for whatever might come along and hopefully staying away from the kite surfers. If anyone else fishes Hillhead on a regular basis, it would be good to meet up (but not for the next three weeks - I'm on leave and will largely be after barbel in the Colne Valley!). Tight lines.

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Navybloke

Navy bloke, when you described the fish jumping wiht spots i was going to suggest the sea trout. Very much a case of trying things out, defo record the tides and features,actions etc helps you build up a good picture of when to go and possibly not bother. I do tyhe same for salt water fly as i do surfing. let us know how you get on