St Leonards

Checking for lugworm holes The Flounder we caught

Early one morning Tim and I went out with the lugworm vacuum down the beach. You place the pump at an angle, pull the handle and the lugworm comes out of the hole. You know where the lugworm is because there is a little poo shape on top. You place the pump next to the hole, suck.and the worm is sucked into the tube of the pump.

When we got back we wrapped the lugworms in newspaper because when they wee they may drowned each other so the newspaper soaks it up.

The tide was coming in when we went back down the beach and set the long lines. To set the long line you have to put two pegs in the ground and tie a line on each one. On one line are about 15 hooks but there can be as many as you want depending on the weight of the line. Once we set the long line we put lugworms on each hook. Depending on where you place the long line on the beach determines how long you have to wait to for the sea to come in and cover it up, once it is covered you can leave.

It was late at night when we went to retrieve the lines. It took approximately 12 hours for the tide to come right in and go back out again to expose the line. We had caught one codling and one flounder. Codling is a smaller version of cod and they are sandy coloured with orange rings on their body. Flounder are flat fish a sand colour on top and white underneath.

It was very cold and windy and I couldn’t wait to go to bed.