Went to Seaford beach yesterday evening for a bass hunting session. Got the the Edinburgh Road area at about 7pm for a 9.30pm high water. I was met with a brisk SW breeze and lumpy water and to my dismay, rafts of floating weed close in.
I joined up with a few other guys – Dannyc and Ant and after having a chat, I picked a spot just East of them. One rod was set up with a size 4, two hook sole rig baited with lugworm and the bass rod rigged with a running ledger ending with a 4/0 pennel pointy bit baited with launce.
It wasn’t too long before I had a hit on the bass rod, it was a bass but not a large one, just a schoolie of about a pound. Sadly that was the one and only hit for the rest of the session for me on the bass rod, even after a change over to a squid bait. The other rod however was constantly being hit by whiting with numerous double shots.
Danny had a good result with a bass of 3lbs that took a whole squid; at last he had broken his Seaford jinx after many fishless sessions there on the past.
The weed on the night proved to be a real bloody pain in the ‘arris clogging up end rigs which were being fished close in. It was the horrible stringy ‘spaghetti’ weed which takes ages to remove from rigs. Further out, it wasn’t too bad and was more easily tackled.
The lads left at about midnight and I wasn’t far behind, packing up at about 12.45. I’m out there again tonight and hope that the weed has moved on a bit, although I reckon the SW winds will keep it pinned inshore for a while.
Had a session at Brighton Marina last night, on the East arm along with some fishing pals, dannyc, Mr codling and antonfish. We set up in the high 50’s on a still evening with the tide dropping to a 10pm low water. The idea was to fish low water up in the hope of some bass action.
I set up one rod with a size 4 two hook sole rig baited with lugworm and chucked that out about 50 yards or so. I tried for some fresh mackerel using small sabiki feathers but only succeeded in hitting three scad and a few small pollack and pout that went into the live-bait bucket.
Once darkness fell, I set up the bass rod with a live-bait slider rig and sat back and waited… and waited…
In the meantime, I had some limited action on the sole rig, landing an under-sized sole, more pout and a ‘snotty’ eel. Once the live bait had expired, I switched to ‘joey’ mackerel heads on a long link running ledger and once those had gone, went on to use small calamari sized squid. This all proved to be a fruitless exercise, with nothing showing any interest in my offerings.
By about midnight, the other guys decided to pack in and head for home, while I, in my ever growing optimism, opted to stick it out for a couple more hours. This turned into a session of drowning worms and star gazing as nothing happened apart from some more pout and another slip sole. Feeling a bit deflated, I left at about 2am.
I was originally going to hit Seaford beach but had changed my mind in favour of the marina. I wish I’d stuck with the first option because at least there, I’ve had some success on the bass front and there’s always the chance of some decent whiting amongst all the bait robbing ‘pins’.
Ah well… Seaford will be the next session later in the week.
I haven’t managed to get out for a while, so took when the opportunity came up to go out for a session last night, I took it and decided to fish a regular spot at Seaford beach. I got there at about 8pm and set up just West of Edinburgh Road. The weather was calm with very little breeze and what there was came from NW. The sky was clear but cloudy over to the West and could have been heading my way (but didn’t). The water was clear and calm with just a bit of wave action as the tide started to flood. High water was predicted to be a biggie at over 7 metres and due at around 2am.
One scratching rod rigged with a size 4 two hook sole rig baited with black lugworm. The bass rod was rigged with a long link running ledger and using a long 8′ fluorocarbon hook length ending in a 4/0 pennel baited with large launce. The scratcher was cast out about 50 yards or so, while I kept the bass rod back until the light faded.
The first bites didn’t come until after sunset, at which point, someone flipped the whiting switch – the bloody things virtually hitting the bait as soon as it settled on the bottom. I wouldn’t mind so much if they were a decent table size but they weren’t, just little pins of about 15cm. There was one small schoolie bass of about 20cm in amongst the pins but it was the only one.
I think it was at about 9pm or so when I was joined by Graham (good to meet you by the way) – another guy who uses a couple of forums I’m a member of – WSF and Fishing Forum. We had a good old chin wag over various topics while I hauled in a few more whiting and then miss a lovely take on the bass rod which resulted in the fish dropping the bait after its initial run. Shortly after this, I had another run, shorter this time and less frantic but at least I got a fish onto the beach this time – a lovely conditioned 2½ pounder (pictured) of 46cm. If I remember correctly, this was at about 10.15pm about 3½ hours before high water. As for the whiting? I abandoned the scratching rod as it would just have been whiting all night and just concentrated on the bass rod.
I had another bass at about an hour before high water which was a small one at about a pound or so. Missed another take about half an hour later and then that was it for the rest of the night – distinctly quiet and fishless.
While I was standing there, frantically not catching fish, at least there was Perseid meteor shower to watch and keep me occupied. There were some real stunners, leaving trails that were visible for a few seconds afterwards. I was lucky really, as the day had been quite cloudy at times but this was a fantastically clear night, so had good views as they streaked across the sky.
Just before I left, I cleaned the bass and found a whole small squid in the gut along with two very small hard back crab, this got me wondering – is now the time to switch from launce to squid? I don’t know but the next trip will be a comparison, squid on one rod, launce on the other.
Have just spent a bit of time while not being able to fish, doing some diagrams and writing a few words on some of the rigs I use. I’m hoping to add to them at some stage and include some of the more obscure ones out there. This isn’t and wasn’t meant to be a definitive guide to rigs and rig building and I realise that there are many variants of these rigs – but the ones shown here are just the ones that I use.
Click and be taken to the wonderful world of rigs.
Just finished doing an article on stripping and cleaning my old ABU 6500C3 CT Mag. Hope it helps.with photos.
Click here
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Fishing
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bass, launce, sea angling, sea fishing, seaford, sussex, whiting | 
