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.
After a bit of a break over the Christmas and new year period, it was good to get out again, even if it wasn’t the best session ever. I’d decided on Seaford beach as the first venue of the year, so headed off and arrived at a spot near the Beachcomber at about half and hour after low water. There was no wind and the sea was mill pond calm with a bit of colour and quite a bit of foamy scum stuff on the surface. The plan was to fish the tide up to the 10pm high water to see what was about and get the first fish of the year.
I set up two rods, both with size 2 two hook flappers baited with lugworm tipped with squid. One was cast out at distance and the other mid-range. It wasn’t until 6pm that I had the first knock on the mid-range rod and on retrieval, it turned out to be a double shot of dab and whiting – they weren’t the biggest fish but they were the first of 2011, so was glad to start off the year by not blanking.
This year, I’ve joined in on a species hunt competition being run on one of the fishing forums that I haunt, so was happy to get a kick start on that one. It’s not a serious competition but does give an idea of what is caught in the various parts of the region and is a light hearted bit of rivalry between members, although there is a prize at the end of the year.
At about 6.30pm the mid-range rod trembled and quivered giving an indication of a bite that couldn’t be anything else other than ‘the fish whose name shall not be mentioned’ aka the rockling or ‘slug’. On retrieval, sure enough it was. Now I had to go through the embarrassing procedure of getting a picture for the species hunt. A quick check to make sure nobody was watching, then flash – picture done and fish returned and hopefully before being seen.
After that, it was a few more slugs, another dab and a couple of whiting. It really was quiet and without the frenetic whiting fests that were happening before the break. I think my next trips will probably be during daylight into early evening to target flatties further West along the beach. I might even have a crack down at the marina, as I hear that some herring are still about. This time of year is never really up to much, so it is a matter of scratching around for what you can get.
I haven’t done many reports recently, mainly due to lack of sessions and those the three I have had, have been pretty dire. Reports of increased whiting activity are not an interesting read and are even less interesting to write about. The weather of late hasn’t really done much to stimulate fishy action and hasn’t stimulated me enough to stride out onto the beach.
However, I have suffered from withdrawal symptoms, so in a moment of madness and against my better judgement, I decided to hit Seaford beach on Sunday night armed with some lugworm and squid to see if anything was alive out there. I wasn’t expecting much to be honest, no wind to speak of and what there was came from the back of the beach and so there was no movement in the crystal clear water. The predicted temperature had been given as 4°C but it felt a lot, lot colder than that and I was glad of the floatie suit to keep me warm.
I arrived at a spot at the deep and between the Martello and Splash Point about an hour before the 9pm or so low water and set up two rods. One used a live bait rig baited with the worm in the hope of hooking a whiting to act as the bait for anything bigger that might be lurking (hoping for a lucky cod). This was cast out at distance and left to do its work. The second rod had a size 1/0 two hook flapper baited with a worm/squid cocktail. Unlike previous trips, where the baits were hit straight away, things started slowly with no bites coming until the start of the flood tide whereupon, the live bait rig was hit with a typical whiting bite. The continuing rattling rod tip assured me that the bait was well hung on the small hook under the main 4/0.
The second rod was hit a few times by whiting but no keepers. It was also hit by the universally disliked rockling which were annoying in their persistence at robbing baits. It kept on like this for most of the night until about two hours before high water, I got a good pull down on the flapper which sprang back and carried on bouncing away. I struck and on the retrieve it felt like a half reasonable fish, not huge but maybe a keeper. Once on the beach I saw the usual whiting on the top hook but was surprised to see a coalfish on the lower hook. It wasn’t big at around the pound mark but is a first for me in Sussex and my first ever from a beach like Seaford – also a new for my 2010 species list. I have heard reports of them being caught at the marina but not the beaches.
I changed the live baits a few times but nothing seemed even remotely interested throughout the session. A few more whiting plus a couple of pout and rockling on the other rod saw me up to high water before the thought of a warmth of home and bed got the better of me and I jacked it in for the night. Until the conditions change and we get a bit of a blow to stir things up a bit, I can’t see me hitting the beach for a while.
Comments (0) 
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.
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.
