Comments (0)

By Vic, 3 April, 2007 17:02

I haven’t posted much recently and as I haven’t fished much. In fact, I’ve only been once since the last entry and that was a dire trip to Seaford beach.Haven’t fished much due to:

a) Too old and can’t bear the cold as well as I used to
b) The cold makes me hurt

However, other things have been happening. We’ve had a new roof put on the house (I was in danger of being able to fish in my own bedroom if we hadn’t had it done) which was nice and expensive. We’ve also had some alterations done upstairs to make one of the rooms larger.

Good news is I’ve now stopped coughing up plaster and slate dust – bad news is I now have to redecorate upstairs.

I have spent some time doing a makeover to the site as I was bored with the orange and wanted something a bit different. Took a while experimenting with colours and stuff but I definitely prefer the new look.

I’m spending the rest of today preparing for a trip out tonight. Venue will either be Brighton Marina, one of the Brighton beaches or Seaford beach. Will write results tomorrow.

Comments (0)

By Vic, 3 February, 2007 23:59

Fished the East arm at Brighton Marina somewhere in the high teens/20’s.

Got there at about 8pm, bit of movement in the water, clear sky, bright moon, no wind but quite cold. On one rod, I used 2 hook flapper, one hook with large Sandeel fillet, the other with squid strip, lobbed out about 20yds or so.

First fish came quite quick, a whiting of about 12oz. which fell to the sandeel. Rebaited and cast again. Second rod set up with running ledger and large calamari bait, lobbed out a few feet from the base.

The next few fish were a mixture of small whiting and small rockling. It was an even split between the baits.

All went quiet until about an hour after high water, when a few more reasonable whiting came in, all around the 12oz to 1lb.

Packed up at 1.30 when all went quiet again.

Final tally was 9 whiting, 5 rockling. Not too shabby since I hadn’t managed to fish for the last couple of months. Now next time I will make sure I get some worm before setting out.

Comments (0)

By Vic, 2 November, 2006 01:03

Decided to fish the East arm at Brighton Marina last night, so headed off armed with a load of lugworm and for a change, some frozen sandeel.

Arrived at around 9.30pm with the water very low and set up in bay 58 near the rocks. Conditions were a flat calm with no wind at all. Very overcast and heavy cloud.

First rod was set up with a two hook scratching rig baited with nice juicy lugworm. A gentle lob placed the bait a short distance out from the wall. Put the rod in the rest and turned to set up the second rod. Bang!! The rod lurched over over with a violent take, I grabbed it and leant into what seemed a decent fish.

A few seconds later, a decent looking bass was rolling at the base of the wall, problem was, my drop net was still against the back wall along with the rest of my gear, the cord still coiled up nice and tight. I tried, but there was no way of getting to the net without letting go of the rod or letting the fish take a load of line. In the end I decided on trying to hand-line it up the wall – big mistake – twang! as the snood line parted and Mr. bass was off into the distance. (I swore that it turned and stuck two fins up at me). I reckon on it being around the four pound mark, maybe a bit bigger.

I was well pissed off, but nevertheless, attached a new snood, re baited and chucked it again – after uncoiling the drop net and putting it in a convenient spot.

Second rig was a flowing trace baited with sandeel fillet and lobbed a few feet out from the base.

The scratching rig brought in never ending double hits of Pout and a few smallish whiting.

Whilst having a ciggy, the sandeel rod lurched over suddenly. There was a definite tugging going on, but it only resulted in a whiting of around a pound.

Some twitching on the scratcher caught my attention. It failed to develop, so I brought it in, only to find one of the smallest thornbacks I have seen hanging onto the size 2 hook. After sending it back, I recast and then repeated the action again with an even smaller thorny. Try as I might, I couldn’t get any bigger than that.

At about midnight, the wind got up and became quite a brisk SW breeze that added some movement to the water.

In the next couple of hours, it was more Pout, more whiting, a couple of school bass and one crab.

As the tide fell away, so did the bites, as did my ciggy and coffee supply. Time to call it a night and head off home.

As an aside, all the Pout fell to lug, almost all the whiting fell to sandeel or lug/sandeel mix. bass fell to lug as did the Thornies.

Comments (0)

By Vic, 13 October, 2006 15:56

I decided on Brighton Marina East arm as the venue for last night.

Arrived at about 9pm. and made my way to bay 58, to find I was the only one fishing in this area – lovely peace and quiet!

Weather was fine, clear sky, no wind at all, smooth sea with just the hint of a swell. The only sound was the incoming tide against the rocks below.

One rod was set up with standard paternoster with size4 hooks and baited with lugworm in the search for sole. The other rod had single paternoster with size 2/0 hook pennel rig baited with whole calamari and lobbed a few yards from the base.

A couple of hours passed with just a handful of Pout to show for it. This could be bait wasting exercise I thought to myself.

At around midnight or so, the lug rod arched over savagely, I lifted into what seemed like a reasonable fish. Got it to net and a few seconds later, a lovely conditioned bass of around 2 1/2lbs.was lying on the deck. Normally this would have gone back, but it had taken the small hook down so deeply, it had caused serious injury. There was no way that it would have survived, and so was quickly dispatched.

At this point, the second rod lurched over and the ratchet screamed as line was pulled from the spool – another bass? No, a pollack of around 2lbs. had struck the pennel rig. This was brought to the net and landed. I couldn’t believe it when I saw that this too had taken the hooks right down and had to meet it’s maker. I hoped that this wasn’t going to be the theme for the night.

After re-baiting casting, I sat down for a coffee and fag. I sat and studied the glowing rod tips when I saw the worm rod nodding a couple of times. I left it for a few seconds before lifting into the fish. A palm sized sole was duly landed – not quite the size I was hoping for but a sole none the less. This was lip hooked and was returned unharmed. A short while later another small sole was landed nda returned.

A few casts later, I was retrieving the worm rig and had got to the base just before lifting it out of the water, when the rod was wrenched downward so quickly, I nearly lost my grip. Another pollack slightly larger than the first had followed the worm and struck almost at the surface. It was duly landed and returned.

That was about it for the rest of the session apart from the usual suspects. So with a bass in the bag for lunch and pollack for the cat (although I do like it fresh like this, so the cat might have to fight me for it), I headed for home with plans for a near future return.

Comments (0)

By Vic,

This is a bit of a ‘catch up’ type post. Due to lack of a PC recently, fishing exploit updates have been sadly neglected.

Since 23 September, I’ve only had a few sessions, mainly at Seaford. Not much to write home about when I think about it, mostly whiting and Pout.

…Was this post really needed? Possibly not.