3 HOUR FAMILY SPECIAL TRIPS AVAILABLE THROUGHOUT THE SUMMER HOLIDAYS

£160. all tackle provided. TEXT OR CALL 07970 112774 FOR DATES.

Tariq and Macca, plus son and nephew Ilyas and Danny (aged ten), had booked BIF for a 3 hour family trip. Rob called me for the job as I am always taking my kids and their mates fishing and, reading between the lines, I think Rob thinks I am a scratcher at heart, always looking for lots of bites and rather than sitting it out all day for the chance of a monster. Kids too need quick results and I have a few tricks up my sleeve to get the rods nodding. I really needed this one to work as we had tried to get out at 1pm but been blown quickly back in when the sea became very uncomfortable before we'd even got a cast in.

The lads repaired to the east wall and we thought we'd lost the whole day. But two hours later the sea was much nicer and we decided to have another go. In the meantime though the kids had already a long hard day, been rained on and poor Danny had been strung by a wasp. So the pressure was on to get a bit of action quick.

My plan was to try and get 4 species on the boat for the lads and a bass or two for the gown ups. So I opted to fish very close inshore on the start of the sand, just off the swim buoys dragging for Plaice and bits on the two kids rods and giving the bass rods fairly good oods of picking up fish that had moved off the reef over low water chasing bait west towards the banjo pier.

The kids were already showing signs of losing heart before the first cast was in the water, so I broke out the patient 'Place Hoover Rig', so called because it suchs reluctant fish off the sea bed like a flatfish vacuum cleaner. It's not particularly sporting but gets the job done. Its based on Rob's 'flat out' sole rig. So you take a string of sabikiks, cut it down to three hooks, and add a 30 Gramm silver jig on the bottom. Remove the hook so it doesn't snag and acts as both a weight and attractor. Critically, to keep the whole thing on the bottom, add a small weight to the top of the rig. I like to use something small enough to naturally lift periodically from the sea bed like an anchor chain, thus adding even more movement and fizz on the sea bed. Plaice love any disturbance on the sand and this rig is designed to create maximum interest. I bait the sabkis with Isomes or tiny bits of rag. Its important to simply nick the bait in the head so as not to bury the tiny hook and live the isomer training in the tide and flapping about. Best isomes by far are the white ones....

So over the next few hours we managed 5 species : 6 plaice with three keepers, gurnards, mackerel, smooth hound and a couple of schoolie bass. We had varied fishing

and spent an hour looking for a bigger bass and did some sight seeing, popping over to look at the sunset round the palace pier, heading in at 8pm on the dot. Danny and Ilyas had a really great time and went home with a bag of plaice and mackerel too. I think they'll still remember that trip when they are as old as me.....