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By Vic, 16 April, 2009 15:02

Felt the urge for some fishing yesterday evening but being a last minute decision, the local tackle shops were shut, so no fresh bait. Had a dig around in the freezer and found a solid block of tiny squid – otherwise known as ‘Partysquid’. Hastily defrosted them in warm water and was away. As it was really only going to be a short session, I plumped for Seaford but at the deeper end of the bay opposite the Martello Tower and only took one rod.

Got there around8.30 pm, about an hour before low water, set up and used a ledgered Dvice with a 3/0 pennel rig baited with the now fully defrosted squid. Even though the wind was coming in from the East, there was at least some movement in the sea.

First fish was a Lesser Spotted Dogfish, the second was likewise. Another two followed soon after and from then on, it was like a grave – no fish at all. I wished I’d decided earlier on going and had obtained some fresh worm, so I could at least have a variety of baits.

A brief squall at around 10pm broke the monotony when the wind was gusting quite hard and it chucked down with rain. It only went on for about 15 minutes or so and then it was back to a mild night.

I stuck it out until around high water before calling it a night and heading home.

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By Vic, 14 April, 2009 20:41

As the weather had been settled for a while and the Easter Sunday looking like a reasonable day weather wise, another squid hunting session on Brighton Marina was called for. Not only did I want more of the creatures for culinary purposes but I wanted plenty of practice before the upcoming ‘All England Cephalopod Championship‘ organised by Fishyrob one of the members on WSF, for later in April. I know it’s only a friendly competition but I would dearly love to improve on my position from last year!

The alarm went off at 6am, I was out of the door by 6.30am and on my way on a very misty and windless morning. Got to the marina at about 7am and walked out onto the East arm and was disappointed to see that the area I was going to go for in the bays from about 30 or so were already taken by people who had obviously camped there overnight. Anyway, I settled for bay 25, sat down, and had a coffee before setting up my stuff. Tackle for the day was float fished  jigs for the squid and a ground set up using a DVice ledgered with worm baits for any flatfish about.

It was after about 5 hours of fishing and various thought going through my head such as:  would I have been better off going my in-laws for lunch, shouldn’t I be doing something more constructive, why the hell am I here – when suddenly the orange top of the float slid slowly under the surface. I wound down and felt the tugging and pulling familiar with a squid. Sure enough, it came to the top and was swiftly swung onto the deck, dispatched and put in the bag. It wasn’t long before the float was going again and another squid was safely in the bag. All the earlier thoughts of having wasted time evaporated and I didn’t care if nothing else was caught, I had landed some lovely meals.

The next capture was a surprise, as I reeled in a worm bait that had been out too long, a flounder followed and took the bait well off the bottom where it normally resides. This is not uncommon as they are a predatory fish but it always amuses me when it happens. It was just under size so went back.

Following this, there was precisely no action at all, almost like someone flipping a switch and turning the fish off. It was a welcome break when my wife Anna, along with son Alex and Mother-in-Law Pat turned up for a visit. Alex insisted on having his photo taken with the days captures and couldn’t resist poking the unfortunate (but dead) animals.

I perservered for as long as I could before having to call it a day. All in all, good day – not brilliant but good.

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By Vic, 9 April, 2009 13:57

Last night, I had an ‘old bait in the freezer clear out’ session, so decided to stay local and headed over to Seaford beach to use up some old squid strips and Slipper Limpet that had been in the freezer for way too long.

I got there at about 8pm and set up just West of Edinburgh Road with two rods – one with a 2 hook paternoster using the slippers and one rod close in using a 4/0 pennel with whole small squid.

It was quite a nice night to be out with clear sky, hardly a breeze and what there was came in from the South, there was little swell with largish wave dumps on the beach. There was slight colour to the water but not much.

At about 9.30pm and four hours into the flood tide , I had three Lesser Spotted Dogfish ‘doggies’ in quick succession on the squid. After that it went quiet with no action at all until I had a good take on the squid at about 1am which had the rod hooping over. It took me by surprise so much that I picked up the rod, briefly felt a heavy, ragged resistance and then nothing – arse!!

After that, there was no other indications, so with the rain coming in, the tide dropping and the last of the bait used, I headed for home.

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By Vic, 4 April, 2009 16:34

Well, I bagged my first squid of 2009 on the East arm at Brighton Marina on Friday afternoon; not a big one at around a pound and a bit in weight but a squid nonetheless. It was caught on a float fished, baited jig in bay somewhere in the 40’s (couldn’t be more precise as there were no painted numbers on the deck). The bait consisted of a small piece of mackerel tail fillet, lashed to the jig with bait elastic. I dropped another two trying to swing them in and lost another that let go of the jig at the surface.

All the action came after the first two hours of the flood on a neap tide. Not a lot else to say, except that it was supposed to warm and sunny down there for the afternoon whereas it was in fact cloudy, mist and bloody cold. Must remember not to trust the weather forecasts and pack appropriate clothing ‘Just in case’.

Hope to get down there again later in the week if conditions allow, so I can get in some practice before the 2nd ‘All England squid Championship‘, a friendly and unoffical bit of banter and competition between the guys on the WSF Forums.

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By Vic, 1 March, 2009 12:14

My previous session had gone reasonably well, so I decided on a day time session for Saturday on the East arm of Brighton Marina in the pursuit of herring and maybe a plaice.

As word has got out about the herring to be had on the marina, the usually quiet, wintery days have turned into a bit of a bunfight with multitudes of people fishing there. I hate to have to walk too far in search of a suitable spot to fish and I’m no great fan of crowded, shoulder to shoulder fishing, so I opted to set off early and get there in time to bag a decent spot.

I arrived in the marina and was at the door of The Tackle Box by just after 7am, just in time to see the owner, Dave arriving followed by the worm guy delivering some tasty fresh ragworm. After a quick chat and purchase of some odds and ends, I set off full of expectation.

Walking onto the arm, I noticed the lack of people there and the free reign I had to choose where I wanted to go. I walked around the bend and settled on bay 24 (or 25 depending on which painted number you take notice of) and started to unpack. With the tide rising I first had a shot at drifting a float through my section dragging the bait along the bottom to see if it brought any interest but this was impressively ignored by anything that might have been down there. I persisted for a while but as the tide picked up, it coincided with more and more people arriving, making it difficult to let the float drift through.

As time wore on, I began to work a set of 5 size 12 Sabikis and was immediately rewarded with a triple shot of small herrings, beautiful little bars of silver, dashed with a light mauve colour across the back and looking comletely unlike the grey dull offerings you normally see in a supermarket. Wanting to have some a bit larger, I continued to work the small lures, bouncing the lead across the seabed. Each time I had a hit, it was always the smaller herrings and nothing of a retainable size.

In an effort to try and bag something else, I swapped the float setup and went for a single size 2 hook ledgered DVice setup baited with ragworm. This was cast out at varying distances over the time I was there but each time I retrieved to rebait, the bait came back as good as it went out with nothing having given it a chew. The only exception was the capture of a small Masked Crab which had latched on to the worm and had refused to release it.

Had a few more goes for the herrings but only ended up with the little ones and these were very sporadic. As darkness fell, I felt there was little worth staying for, so decided to leave it for another day.

All in all it was a great day to be out and was another session of testing my back and showed that things are improving all the time.