Late Season Paddle under Bempton

With Small tides and light winds forecast, it looked good for a short trip on Sunday. Fi and Rod have never paddled the Bempton to Speeton section of coastline. With an ebbing tide in the afternoon it was decided we would launch from Hunmanby Gap and paddle south over slack and then use the tide to get a little assistance on the return trip.

It was an overcast and misty day but The cliffs still looked pretty amazing albeit with the absence of the birds.



















A quick rest stop on the way back, Rod gets himself comfortable on a rock...



A lovely day, slightly more distance covered than we anticipated and with a northerly wind building the return trip to the Gap was quite demanding.

The Broads

This time every year a close group of friends arrange to meet at Oulton Broad, Lowerstoft. We usually  book several lovely, warm holiday chalets on the waters edge, certainly my favourite 'get together' of the paddling and kayak fishing calendar. This year I took the lad, our craft to paddle was the open boat. I took the Nordcapp too as a couple of friends had shown interest in paddling it.

Our accomodation...







Saturday mornings launch



And on to the fishing...







No pike this day but we did manage to bag many nice roach, small chub and perch. It was busy on the water today as the sea was too rough for most to launch.









Theres a definate theme to this years meet....





Saturday afternoon had me in the water delivering a little coaching, Dave cetainly liked the Valley boat.



Sunday saw us back out on the Broads







This time we started to get a little bit of interest in our plugs, the pike were playing ball... It took several lure changes but eventually we conected with a lovely little fish of about 7lb. Job done...

Filey to North Landing and Back..

Had a bit of a marathon paddle today, put in at Country Park Filey and paddled on down to Speeton and then under Bempton to Thornwick and North Landing. Then back of course.







A quick rest stop under Reighton...





Then on again under Bempton. Some of the northern Bempton (Speeton) cliffs are amazing, my personal feelings are that the cliffs north of Staple Nook are much more dramatic and featured then those at the southern end, it takes a bit more effort to visit this area but it is so worth it.



Back up to Filey before it got dark and another wonderful days worth of paddling.

Simply Bempton

Got a flyer from work last monday and shot up to North Landing, Flamborough for a quick launch out and north under Bempton. Spawney Dave and Ian were already out there albiet Ian being on a much bigger launch than his kayak.



Dave was on the Dorado and in full 'bass' mode, I had gone for a piss about in the Nordcapp.



I had a paddle down to Staple Nook, sea state was most definately just 'slight' ....





But I wanted to have a mess about putting a video together so headed for any white water I could find. First attempt so hope you enjoy......



While I was out messing about Dave was catching prime bass, well done mate, knew i should have brought a fishing rod....

Ants First Fish

With another day of strong winds predicted it was decided on a safe launch at Kelsey Gardens, Burstwick. Accompanied by son Ant, we were in search of the lakes predators.







We thrashed the water all day with just about every lure in the box but no pike could be tempted, we are assured pike are in the lake.

This being our third attempt for these big fish on this particular water it started to turn us nuts.



It was decided to scale down our gear and try for the smaller species, almost instantly we started to catch small perch and Ant had his first true catch.

Fi Gets to Grips With the New P&H Delphin

Had the pleasure of paddling with Fi recently as she tried out the new Delphin from P&H. With a force 5 to 6 forecast it was decided to launch and paddle the lower Esk, from harbour mouth to Ruswarp and back.



Salmon were leaping along most of the upper reaches and as the tide flooded the river bed started to fizz releasing the pockets of air trapped within.



A quick play around the viaduct and then back down to the town. Get the feeling Fi liked the boat, it did seem to be affected by side winds but most definately a great alternative to a longer kayak for those shorter play sessions, not sure it will take the place of her Scorpio LV though.



As the seas settled it was then onto Robin Hoods Bay, this time Fi launched in her Scorpio...



A quick paddle under Ravenscar cliffs and on dropping a firetail lure Fi was into her first ever fish off a kayak, a nice pollock of about 4lbs. Second drop had us hooked to a right monster which would have easily gone 9lb but unfortunately it managed to spit the hook at the side of the kayaks.

Back into the bay, the northerly wind had blown up making conditions a little uncomfortable.



Once well into the shelter of the bay conditions got much more pleasant, last of the summer sunshine..



A quick landing onto Robin Hoods Bay beach and you would have been excused in thinking it was a mid summers day. The chip shop was a welcome sight...