Having not been able to make it to the World Dab Championship at Dungeness, organised on WSF, I consoled myself with a session at Seaford beach on Sunday. I arrived there at about 4.30pm about an hour so after low water and found a spot opposite West View that was reasonably easy to access – considering all the work that shingle shifters have been up to recently. I was going to fish up to and over the 9 pm high water period and a couple of hours down. Conditions were not ideal – bright sun, no wind, calm and clear sea. I wasn’t expecting anything really until dark but it was nice to be out.
Two rods, both with size 4 two hook flappers baited with lugworm which had been left to fester a bit until it was nice and sticky with a distinct aroma. Both were cast out, one at distance and one mid-range. I then set about waiting for the first knocks. I had to wait a while, in fact they didn’t start until about an hour and a half later when it was dark.
First fish was a small dab (the only one of the night), followed by the inevitable whiting, occasionally interrupted by rockling. It got so hectic, that I brought one rod in and just fished with one as I got fed up with cast one, retrieve one and so on.
I fished over high water and finally left at about 11.30pm with a tally of very many whiting, a couple of which were keepers. Anna’s blog will detail how they were done for lunch today. A thoroughly enjoyable session; no great fish but enjoyable just the same.
I fished a ‘dab only’ small comp at Seaford beach yesterday with a few guys from WSF. Apparently there had been loads of dabs the previous day, so I was feeling lucky. We fished from 9.30am to 2.30pm opposite the Beachcomber.
Result?… feck all. Bloke to my right (Barry from DVice ) had a couple of dabs and a plaice and bloke to my left had dabs, flounders and whiting. It must have been like a bloody desert in front of me. I tried blinged traces, non-blinged, tried squid tipped lug and non-tipped. Varied ranges but nothing. As much as I stared at the rod tip, it remained motion-less for the duration.
Going to sulk now…………………………….
After nearly three weeks of no fishing, I had to get out no – matter if I caught anything or not – I just wanted to get on the beach. So after finishing work, I shot home, loaded the car and headed for Seaford Beach armed with some freshly acquired lugworm from The Tackle Box. I arrived on the beach at about 8.15pm – two hours after low water – to a still night, clear sky and calm sea with just a whiff off a breeze coming from the back of the beach. The plan was to fish up and over the mid-night high water and maybe a couple of hours down.
First task was to pick an access spot that I could get down to get to the water. Environment Agency ‘Shingle shifters’ have been re-profiling the beach recently, overhauling the sea defences (old news item). The beach is virtually flat on the top at street level, suddenly dropping (almost vertical in places) around 8′ down on to the tidal part of the shingle. A word of advice here: If you’re planning on fishing the beach at night, either check your chosen spot out in daylight first and make sure you have adequate lighting and take care when wondering off towards the sea. It wouldn’t be too difficult to plunge down this abyss if you’re not careful. The other thing to bear in mind is an escape route for when the tide gets up, this steep bank is very loose and could be bloody difficult to climb up if it’s one of the steeper parts.
Once on the beach, I set up two rods, both with size 4 two hook flappers which I baited with lug tipped off with this strips of squid. Both chucked out and I settled down to a coffee. It wasn’t long before the rod tips were rattling to the familiar whiting and sure enough whiting were the first fish to come ashore – really small ‘pins’. They weren’t in the frenzied amounts we had late last year but it was enough to keep busy. Had the first of the nights dabs at about 9.15 pm or so, not a huge size but at least it wasn’t a rockling (slug)! I had been thinking about the lack of slugs when – to put the mockers on it, the first one was landed within minutes.
There was a steady stream of small fish through the night, consisting of whiting, dabs and slugs. Just before mid-night I had a half decent 37cm whiting and then about an hour later, I had the first dogfish of the year. Things started to tail off after this and by 2.30, it had dried up completely which is just a s well as bait had run out.
Tally for the night was half a dozen dabs (two keepers by the fact they were gut hooked), dozens of ‘pin’ whiting one decent whiting, one lesser spotted dogfish and numerous slugs. Lovely night to be out and a few fish too, so I was well pleased. Still can’t wait for spring to come in and fishing in earnest can start.
While doing some photo upload work today, I mistakenly deleted a whole load of photos from the blog library. This has meant that some of the articles I’ve done on rigs and reel maintenance no longer have photos with them, or the wrong picture is attached to the wrong article.
Once I have finished rolling around on the floor, crying and kicking the living crap out of myself, I’ll get to work and get the problem sorted out.
I won’t normally include political issues on this blog, as it is generally just a journal for my fishing activities. However, on this is issue, I feel it right that I post it here. I’m not and don’t pretend to be an expert on commercial fishing, in fact, I have very little knowledge on the subject but to any normal ‘Joe Bloggs’ like myself, the insanity of fish discards as dictated by the European Union (EU) Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) has to stop and the CFP itself must be radically over-hauled.
For the un-initiated and in the simplest of terms, the issue revolves around the present quota system and ‘discards’. The quota system set by the CFP, is intended to protect fish stocks by setting limits on how many fish of a certain species should be caught. All boats have this quota and once that quota for a species (cod for example) is reached on a boat, no more may be landed. In this example, if the boat skipper catches his cod quota and then goes to another area to fish for say, sole, he will inevitably catch more cod as they inhabit similar grounds. As he is over quota for cod, any he catches must now be discarded over the side, as by law he cannot land it in any port – even though it is already dead. This means that millions of tons of prime fish is going to waste and cannot by any stretch of the imagination be considered as ‘protecting stocks’.
There no exact figures but the EU estimates that in the North Sea alone, discards run at between 40% and 60% of the total catch. This waste has to stop and the only way to do it is for the EU to completely re-think the CFP.
There is now a new campaign against this massive, criminal waste being run by TV chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. Details can be found here and at the campaign website Fish Fight. You can do your bit by going to the site, signing up and showing your support.
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Fishing
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dab, sea angling, sea fishing, seaford, sussex, whiting | 
