Saturday nigh night saw a change in venue as I headed for a small, unofficial competition organised by a young lad passionate about his fishing (well done Ryan for your efforts). Brighton beach, down by the Banjo Groyne was the mark chosen.
I arrived there at about 6pm and walking onto the beach , just West of the groyne, saw that there were already some of the guys down there. The plan was to fish the tide up and over the midnight high water. Conditions were slightly better than the previous night, with an overcast sky and a bit of movement in the clear sea.
Two rods used, one with a two hook flapper baited with lugworm, while the second rod was setup with a long link running ledger terminating in a pennel baited with launce, hoping for bass.
Nothing happened until darkness came and then it was as the previous trip – tiny whiting and slugs (rockling). After Ryan truned up, we wondered over for a chin wag with some of the other guys who are also members of WSF a fishing website that I frequent.
It was then back to the fishing which really was a just an excercise in bait up, cast, retrieve, unhook small whiting/slug, re-bait, cast out etc etc. The launce was being savaged by the small fishs, I ended up taking that rig off and putting a flapper on that rod too. It wasn’t long before Igot fed up with watching two twitching and rattling rod tips, so I packed up one rod and continued with just the one.
High water came and went along with my enthusiasm. It wasn’t long after this that I decided bed was better than beach and upped sticks and left.
I think that between us, we shifted a lot of whiting and a load of slugs. Ryan did have a small flounder and the other guys managed flounder and a schoolie bass.
This was the first time I had fished this beach for many years and I’d forgotten what a great place it is. There are always promising reports from this area of the coast and good fish are landed every year. This being the case, I’ve promised myself that I’ll make the effort to fish it more often this year.