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By Vic, 21 May, 2010 19:43

After managing some sole the other night, I thought I’d have another go last night, so with bait in a bucket, I headed off to Brighton Marina after work, arriving on the East arm at around 8.30pm. From the off, I wasn’t expecting much, seeing how the Mayrot (an algae bloom) had discoloured the water turning it cloudy and just plain nasty. Anyway, as I was there, I thought might as well carry on and see what was about, if anything, so I tackled up one rod with a two hook size 4 sole rig baited with lugworm and ragworm and sent that out. At one point, I did consider using the second rod for bass but as I only had a few manky sandeels, I thought I’d have a thrash with some feathers on the off-chance of mackerel but after a few casts, it became obvious that nothing was going to see the damn things through the murk in order to be tempted, so took them off and replaced them with another sole rig, similarly baited and sent that out too.

Weather-wise, it was warm, absolutely zero wind with a flat calm sea, a beautiful night to be out and found it odd that I was the only one out there, with no one else within sight.

Fishing itself was a bit sporadic with busy moments interspersed with no action at all, nothing of any size was landed but there was a bit of variety in species caught and landed my first bream of the year which was surprising considering the state of the water. I packed in at about 3.30am with the final tally being:  one bream, two schoolie bass, two slip soles, one small thornback, countless, rockling and Pout.

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By Vic, 19 May, 2010 11:53

One of my target species for 2010 is sole, a particular favourite of mine as they always provide a tasty meal for the following day. It is also the subject of humour in our household, as whenever I mention the fish, my FPO always retorts with “sole?… Ah, sole”. We find it amusing but then we always find childish toilet type humour funny.

High water was predicted for 3.30am today, so yesterday afternoon, I packed all my gear into the car and went off to work with the intention of going straight to Brighton Marina after I finished. I stopped off at The Tackle Box before work to pick up some bait and got some of the best wrapped lugworm I’ve seen for a while – all decent sized worms which would give at least two baits per worm.

With everything sorted, I went in to work, hoping for an easy ride and an early get away. Why is it always the case that when you have plans, things attempt to sabotage them, whether it be work, heavy traffic or some other inconvenience. Anyway, I eventually managed to get away and headed off for my session.

It was about 8.45pm by the time I got to my spot on a deserted east arm of the marina and 9pm baits were in the water. It was a very still and quite warmish evening with no wind, an oily flat sea and overcast sky, so signs were pretty good for what I wanted. To start with, one rod was set up with a sole rig using two size 4 fine wire hooks baited with the lugworm; I wasn’t really expecting any action until it got dark but you never know. While it was still light, I set up another rod with a string of ‘feathers’ and set about seeing if any mackerel were about that I could use as a bass bait or take home for lunch. I tried until after dark but there was nothing, zilch, zero, bugger all, so I packed that in and set up the rod with the same sole rig and sent that out.

First two fish were schoolie bass of around 35cm that came at about 10pm after a series of rattly twitches on the rod tip. These were followed by a string of rockling and Pout interspersed with a palm sized thornback ray. It wasn’t until just before midnight and mid flood tide that the first sole was hooked and landed, it may only have been a slip of about 25cm but it was a sole at least; the first of 2010 and target achieved. A second one followed about 20 minutes later which was identical in size and could have been  the first one’s twin. I was feeling optimistic about landing a table fish but after an hour or so passed, this feeling ebbed away and was gone after yet another hour passed.

I fished through the high water period with only one bite which turned out to be everyone’s favourite (not) rockling. It was at this point that the bait ran out as well as my optimism, so packed up, cleared my area of any crap and walked back to the car, happy that I’d got my target species but downhearted that they weren’t table size.

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By Vic, 16 May, 2010 16:43

After a few years of never getting around to it, I finally bought a Fladen fish and meat smoker so I could experiment with fish and other smokable stuff.

First to be tried was the humble mackerel that I went out and caught first thing this morning down at Brighton Marina. Now I’m new to this so wasn’t sure whether the fish needed proper brining or not, so I took the gamble and didn’t; I just gutted, cleaned and thoroughly dried the fish before applying a liberal sprinkling of salt.

I set up the smoker as per the instructions and within minutes, the fish were on and left to get on with it. After the allotted time, which in this case was about 30 minutes, I removed the ‘box’ from the burners and opened it up. The mackerel were a lovely golden colour and were cooked right through to the point of being overdone (will reduce cooking time by about 10 minutes next time). They tasted wonderful with that appealing smoky twang, although for my taste, they could have done with more salt, so perhaps brining would be a better option. This may also help to make the fish a bit drier, as I found these ones to be a bit wet, almost as if they had been smoked/steamed.

Anyway, for a first attempt, we were pretty pleased with the result and can’t wait to experiment with various wood chip and seasoning combinations to obtain different flavours. Next on the list will be smoked chicken, so watch this space.

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By Vic, 12 May, 2010 14:08

I’ve been going over the pages on this site after my dearly beloved FPO commented that “There are a few typos on your blog” shortly after she’d been reading through. Now of course, I have all the time in the world to go back and do all these corrections but that would prevent me from doing something really useful during my down time – fishing! However, I will get around it at some stage. Anyway I digress.

During my checking, I realised that all the photographs that I had laid out for the article on reel balancing were missing for some unknown reason. I have just found them and they are back in place to supplement the article and show what I am trying to say. So if you’re like me and prefer pictures to words or you like pictures and words, the article is now as it should be.

Multiplier Reel Balancing

Again, I thank Neil Mackellow for allowing the use of his photos in this article.

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By Vic, 10 May, 2010 12:33

The third ‘All England squid Fishing Championship‘  was held yesterday on the East arm of Brighton Marina with a good turnout of 48 competitors who raised £240 for the RNLI. In comparison with last year, when the competition was held in warm sunshine and I got sunburn, the start for this year was somewhat different – cold NNE breeze (very light) and light rain. Last year was ‘T’ shirts, this year was waterproofs and thermal wear. It has to be said though, that later on, the breeze was virtually zero and the slight  rain was patchy to zero, so not that horrendous.

Before going to the appointed meeting place, I popped into ‘The Tackle Box for a few bits ‘n’ pieces. Being someone with a limited memory, I had written ‘Bait Elastic’ on the back of my hand, it was unfortunate that I had omitted to write or add ‘Bait’ to the list, as that vital item was sitting forgotten at home in the fridge!

Everyone met up at the café on the East arm at 4pm where entrance money (towards RNLI charity) was handed over and in return, entrants were given a Tronix squid jig in the colour of their choice, I opted for a very fetching green. We drew numbered score cards that denoted the order in which contestants walked off for the start – I drew no.10 which wasn’t too bad. Soon we were off and walking to wherever we could get a space. Another WSF member, ‘mr codling’ and his cousin ‘Ant ‘ were just before me but we decided on fishing together so that witnessing and card signing would be easier. We eventually found some vacant space at bays 41-43 and started to set up. We were also joined by Mr and Mrs Wee Haggis and their usual large amount of kit.

Official kick off  was 5pm and at that time, many jigs were cast out in expectancy and 48 pairs of eyes stared at floats, waiting for them to slide under the surface. In our little merry band, Mrs Haggis was the first to strike within the first 10 minutes and after I wielded the net, her first ever squid was safely on the deck. It was quickly dispatched, measured at 37cm and put in the cool bag. Things were looking good and it promised to be fruitful session.

After this first bit of activity, I’m afraid I got  lost  in it all and couldn’t tell at what happened at what time but my turn was next when I had a reasonable sized Cuttlefish on the line which escaped during the attempts to net the thing – my first chance blown! It wasn’t until quite a way into the session that my next chance came when I hook a squid, which got to the surface and then let go. I immediately let the jig back down and luckily, the squid grabbed it again and this time was safely netted by wee haggis. After measuring the critter (37cm) and getting my card signed, it was back for attempts at more; in my case no more, as that was it for me – not even a sniff at another squid or cuttlefish.

For the rest of the time, we saw no more action apart from wee haggis getting a mackerel on his jig and Ant managing to bring in a black bream on his…. weird! I did get to enjoy some very nice coffee from Mrs Haggis’ ‘kitchen’ which was certainly better than what I had in my flask. Before long, it was 10pm – the finish of the competition and the walk back to the meeting point, totting up of points and the giving out of the awards and prizes. Sadly, I got nowt for my efforts apart from a tasty squid for dinner and a great time in good company – just hope next year is a bit warmer and drier.

Many thanks to Fishyrob and George ‘Tronix’ for organising the event, the sponsors and dealers who donated kit for prizes along with the Brighton restaurant FishyFishy

Competition results can be viewed here. Hopefully, I’ll have some photos to add soon.