Comments (3)

By Vic, 28 July, 2011 11:03

After the hectic and enjoyable morning at Seaford, I nipped over to Brighton Marina yesterday evening in the hope of bass that might fancy something from my bucket of treats, namely the heads and guts from the morning’s catch – yummo.

I arrived on the east arm at about 7.15 and walked out to the 40’s where I would meet up with Danny, Mike and Ant, who had got down there earlier. I was looking forward to seeing what festering crap Danny had brought with him this time for bait! as I got to the mark, our heroic trio were already hard at work with their – what seemed like – fifty rods between them. I was surprised (and disappointed) when I heard that they had fresh bait. My spirits were lifted later on in the night though when Danny cracked open a hermit crab and I heard that shout of “It’s minging”. Ah, normality resumed!

After the usual abusive pleasantries, I set up for the night – one rod with feathers for some fresh mackerel (by now my bucket of heads was smelling pretty awful and had liquefied), one scratcher with a size 4, two hook flapper, baited with lugworm and the bass rod using a long link running ledger, long trace and single 6/0.

First chuck with the feathers brought in a joey mackerel, so it was quick change and off came the single 5/0 on the bass rod and swapped with a sliding live bait rig; within seconds, the joey was back out. once the livey was expired, I started using mackerel head ‘n’ guts and fillet from fresh the mackerel I was catching on the feathers – I managed half a dozen before calling a halt. Despite my best efforts, the bass rig was ignored all night.

The scratching rod? Well, to cut things short, that stayed untouched all night! The only other thing to come aboard for me, was a lone scad (pictured), otherwise known as horse mackerel on feathers – not a very inspiring fish but at least it’s another one ticked off the species list.

As for the three musketeers, I think they had a mix of mackerel, small ray, small smooth hound, pout before finally bottling it and escaping by about 1am. I, of course, stayed the duration but even my normal optimism was well and truly dashed by about 3am, so decided on getting off home.

Not had a lot of luck at the marina this year really – but to be fair, I haven’t fished it nearly as much as I have in previous years, so maybe I should put a few more hours in and pay it more attention.

Comments (0)

By Vic, 27 July, 2011 16:44

Seeing as the weather has been settled for a while and conditions looked good for a mackerel or two off the beach, I decided to take our son Alex for a promised session for him to catch a fish.

Arrived at Seaford beach at around 8am and set up his small spinning rod with a single Dexter wedge and it wasn’t long before he was getting into the swing of things. With each cast, his distance was improving and he was managing to hoof it quite a way considering how light the rod was.

At about 8.30, I saw some activity not too far out, so guided Alex where to cast and he managed to hit the right spot straight away. Soon enough, the little rod was bending and bouncing away with the weight of a fighting mackerel. Within a short while, he got it in and beached the little scrapper.

He was soon away again and with the mackerel shoals now very close to the shoreline, he had no difficulty reaching them. It wasn’t long before I heard the cry “I’ve got another one” and I had to put the camera down and take the fish off the hook, dispatch it and bag it.

By now, the shoals were in a feeding frenzy and they were so close, they were right up to the waters edge, chasing small sprats which ended up beaching themselves in an attempt at evading their pursuers. I could see along the beach, people were just picking up handfuls of the small silver fish – much to the disgust of the many gulls circling for an easy meal. As not to waste such a fine little fish, we had a few ourselves!

This carried on for quite some time and I could see anglers along the shoreline having a bumper session. Meanwhile, Alex was continuing to have a right old time, bringing fish after fish. I couldn’t resist it, so asking if he needed a break, I kindly took the rod from him to give his arms a rest – see how kind I am! While I was having a chuck, the sprats kept leaping up onto the beach in their reckless escape attempts.

It wasn’t too long before I decided that we had enough mackerel for our needs (about a dozen), some for supper and some for bait, so packed up and went off to get Alex the ice-cream that he’d been after and had gone on about – again and again. To be honest I was ready for a cup of well earned coffee and a sit down!

And so we left after a very entertaining morning, with the bonus of a few fish. Alex enjoyed himself and seems to be getting the fishing bug from me – although I have a sneaking suspicion that it was the ice-cream offer that got him out of the house. Some of the the mackerel have now been put in the fridge and ready for an evening session down at Brighton Marina tonight. Hopefully there will be obliging bass hanging around ready for dad.

Comments (0)

By Vic, 20 July, 2011 13:42

Although the recent South Westerlies have subsided and the seas have calmed considerably, I thought I’d go anyway and have a bassing and scratching session last night. Armed with a couple of boxes of squid and some ragworm, I headed over to Seaford Beach. I arrived at about 8pm – an hour or so before low water and found a calm sea with a few gentle breaking waves to stir things up, virtually no wind, just a light breeze and a slightly overcast sky.

To start with, I set up the scratching rod with a size 4, two hook flapper baited with the worm and sent that out. I planned to start with the bass rod just after low water and into the dusk, so I set it up in readiness with a long link running ledger with a 5/0 pennel.

It wasn’t long before the scratcher showed signs of activity and the first retrieve brought in a double shot of a small dab and a micro smooth hound. I re-cast and within seconds, it was on the go again, only this time, it was small school bass of about a pound. In the following hour or so, I had another four similar sized bass and another dab.

At about 9.30, I deployed the bass rod, just lobbing the bait beyond what breaking waves there were. I kept the scratcher out as well, which brought in a few small pout to add to the tally.

Bang on the stroke of 11pm was when the squid was hit hard, hooping the rod over and after a spirited little fight, a plump bass was on the shingle. It went around 2½lbs and 46cm. A quick re-bait and cast and just in time to see the scratcher rod tip pull down which resulted in a small thornback ray hitting the beach. At this point, I decided to abandon the scratcher and concentrate on the bass rod. After packing the rod away, I saw that there was a huge slack line on the bass rod and after a frantic wind in, another bass of about a pound was on the beach.

Half an hour later, the bass rod trembled in my hand and then the tip slammed down hard and the fish shot off to the right, then out before spitting the bait, leaving the squid in tatters. Another good bite was missed, some twenty minutes later while distracted with my coffee.

1.15am and just over four hours into the flood tide there was a repeated tapping on the rod tip before a good pull down and it was another fish on. There wasn’t so much spirit in this one just some dogged tugging and dead weight – until it was on the shoreline, when it took off a bit before being gently slid up the shingle. A better fish this one at 54cm and 4lbs on the nose.

Re-bait, re-cast and re-coffee while awaiting the next one – hopefully. By now, it was actually quite warm and a really pleasant night to be out. The sea had flattened out even more and I wasn’t expecting much else to happen, when suddenly, bang! The rod tip went over and another fish was on but as quick as it came, it went, leaving another shredded squid.

With about half an hour to go before high water, thoughts of packing up were in my mind, when out of the blue I had another take and shortly after, a three pounder emerged out of the wavelets and onto the beach. The last squid was impaled on the hooks and lobbed out, where it remained untouched until it was time to go.

This turned out to be quite a night – especially when I hadn’t expected so much action. Just goes to show that sometimes, fish don’t always conform to the predictions on times, states of tide and weather. The next trips to this beach will be purely bass in an attempt to get that allusive ‘double’. It’s there and it’s waiting.

Comments (0)

By Vic,

Decided on a session at Seaford Beach on Saturday evening, seeing as there was a very brisk South Westerly blowing and there might have been a chance of a decent bass. I got there at about 8pm and saw that it was very rough and was going to be very tough going , I even contemplated just turning around and going home but thought, “why the hell not, let’s give it a go”.

I fished (if that’s the term for it) just one rod with a big squid bait. First cast was a nightmare – within seconds, my tackle was washed straight back up the beach I re-cast as near as I could beyond the big breakers. This time it held but not long after, I could see that my line was being dragged in the undertow and I found that when I tried to retrieve, the line had been buried in the shingle – result, one lost rig.

I re-tackled and had another attempt but this ended with the same result. Another rig lost. I decided to sit it out for a while, hoping that things might improve as the water deepened. so sat and worked my way through my flask of coffee. After an hour or so, I had another attempt but I could see that from the off, fishing in these conditions was going to be an impossibility, so, it was up sticks and sod off home.

Did a short video clip, which shows a little of what it was like and what a really brave little person I was to try and fish it.

Comments (0)

By Vic, 12 July, 2011 16:16

After the drenching I got the other night, last night was a complete contrast – in weather and in results. With the calm conditions looking promising, I felt like having a go for a bass down on the East arm of Brighton Marina, so got down there about 8pm with the intention of bagging some mackerel for bait over high water and then to do some scratching until the early hours and fish mackerel head and guts over the 3am low water period.

It was a warm, clear evening with no wind and a flat calm, clear sea; as said completely different to the other night. It was nice just wearing a t shirt and jeans instead of the clobber I had previously worn and positively thrilling to have dry hands.

Unlike last time I fished the marina, I had made provision this time and had taken some frozen joeys with me, in case the mackerel didn’t show. Just as well really, as the buggers were conspicuous by their absence and the only fish activity I could see on the surface were probably scad.

Anyway, I set up the scratching rod with a size 4 two hook flapper baited with lugworm and chucked it out and almost immediately had a knock which resulted in a small dab – blank saved. Re-baited and then set up the bass rod with the usual long link running ledger, size 5/0 hooked through the snout of a mackerel head and guts which I lobbed out and sat back.

By about midnight, a brisk easterly picked up and made it feel a bit chilly in comparison to earlier – certainly enough to put an extra top on. The good thing that came with it was a bit more in the way of cloud cover.

The only action coming my way was on the scratching rod, with a few small bream and then on low water, lots of school bass taking a shine to the worm. There was one half hearted attempt at a run on the bass rod about half an hour before low which had the tip buried down for a brief few seconds and then nothing.

I gave it until about an hour after low before tiredness set in and I had an overwhelming desire to have a good kip. Looks like Thursday and/or Saturday will be my next outing when I’m hoping for more promising results.