I remember one night going on the Vidor in mid january with Brian, a mate at the time. there was a young lad about 10 yrs old coming off, and as he climbed under the handrail, we asked if he had caught owt (as you do) ,and he just muttered something and carried on walking.
Brian and myself got tackled up and cast out, he poured a cuppa and i rolled a couple of tabs, and we were having the craic. then our thoughts wondered back to the lad who went off. Had we frightened him off, was he just late for bed. it had started to snow so we thought he must have known,anyway we fished on and had a couple of decent cod by half tide up.
You know the feeling when you know someone is near, like when your on Marsden beach in the middle of a moonless night, and a crisp packet trundles by, or a can is rolling along the pebbles. It was a good job Brian was there, because when i turned round, there was the same lad sitting in about six inches of snow and his duffle coat was thick with snow,so much that he blended in with the rest of the stone jetty about 15 foot behind us.
I walked over and said are you ok, but he never answered. me and brian were off wondering again. . was he deaf , was he retarded, had his mam threw him out,and he knew we were down there and might help him.
We fished on, keeping an eye on the lad. he was facing the Groyne and all the time he sat there, his left hand was visible. then the snow came and his hand was burried. all this time the lad was motionless, it must have been an hour and a half. it got to high water, and we were just about to pack in when there was a shriek of delight from behind us.when we turned round , the lad was coming towards us with a huge Rat on his knife.
We asked again if he had caught anything earlier, and he replied yes, one about 2lb, but when i turned my back this fellow dragged him away, and i knew he would come out at high water
one determined young lad

I