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By Vic, 17 April, 2010 22:03

My last couple of attempts at snagging squid at Brighton Marina have been dismal failures, with the last one being particularly annoying as I had one but lost it at the net. In an attempt to break my squid Duck for 2010, I was back at the marina early this morning, making sure I got a decent spot before the weekend hoards filled the spaces – although this time, the East rather than the West arm was the venue.

I was on location in bay 48 on the arm by 6.45 am on a lovely bright morning with just a slight Southerly breeze ruffling the surprisingly cloudy water; I was hopeful that the sea would clear later as the tide rose. I set up my gear and used the usual terminal tackle of a float fished Tronix jig – pink to start and green later and then back to pink. As high water wasn’t due until around 2pm (depending on which tide table you read), I wasn’t expecting too much in the way of action, so I just enjoyed the peacefulness of it all, having not been out too much this year. As the hours wore on, the breeze dropped and it got quite warm but the on the business side of things, I was still squidless.

After a few hours, Richard, one of the guys from WSF turned up with his mate Nick and started fishing a couple of bays along from me. Handily for me that they’d brought a drop net along (left mine at home again) because at about 1pm, I had a slow take and a squid was on. A minute or so later, after Richard guided the net-handling Nick, my first landed squid of 2010 was on the deck and what a relief it was too.

The rest of the day was dead, no further takes at all, not so much as a sniff. The only highlight was reuniting Fishyrob with his leather hat he’d lost the previous night and found by me while walking out on the arm today. I left the marina by about 4pm and once home, the days catch was cleaned sliced and fried for tea, there’s nothing quite like straight from the sea onto the plate freshness. Anna was going to do her squid casserole but we decided that today was going to be “Calamari” as Alex has been pestering me about squid since last year. The next one will definitely be going casseroled though. Here’s a few pictures of before during and after. Click on images for larger versions.

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By Vic, 16 April, 2010 16:45

Very brief report from another days fishing down at Brighton Marina yesterday, trying to catch my first squid of 2010. Having failed miserably on Wednesday, I started early, at about 6.30am and fished through until around 4pm. Fished the float bays at the far end of the West arm. End tackle was a 1½ oz rated float, suspending a pink Tronix jig.

Result? One squid which dropped just before being netted by the bloke just along from me about 2 hours into the flood. Apart from that, I was squidless and although disappointed, I didn’t kick myself too hard when I found that the squid were not present in large numbers and apparently only two were landed for the day.

I’ll be doing a visit again on Saturday but trying the East arm instead and see if I can’t lose my 2010 squid virginity!

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By Vic, 14 April, 2010 18:57

Had my first outing today since the ticker problems. Decided to go light and target the squid at Brighton Marina, having heard that the critters are around.

Got to the West arm at about 10am to find some of the guys from WSF forums in the first bays and having had a few squid out already. I set up in the next vacant bay and started fishing in earnest – a float fished pink Tronix jig cast out and left out to drag through in the current. Despite my best efforts and using identical jigs, floats etc., I could not get a take at all. The squid seemed to be concentrated in one particular area, which sadly was not the one I was fishing in!

I stuck it out until around 3pm with a quickly dropping tide before calling it a day. Disappointed to blank but it was great to be out again, no problems encountered, no pains –  I feel like I’m almost back to normal.

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By Vic, 21 February, 2010 18:57

Got out yesterday for the first time in ages, which was a much needed session,  albeit brief. Although fishing is a bit pants at this time of year, I decided to have a bash anyway for some herrings and maybe plaice down at Brighton Marina. After picking up some Raworm and lugworm from the Tackle Box,  I headed for the East arm and got there at about 2.30pm, wich was just after high water. The sea was pretty calm and clearish with just a hint of colour. Weather-wise, there was just a very light Westerly breeze with an overcast cast sky threatening rain which never materialised, apart from a few drops.

Once there, I settled in at bay 30 and setup one rod with some micro sized Sabiki lures and another rod with a 2 hook flapper baited with the worms. The bait rod was cast out and I then set about the business of cast and retrieve with the lures.

For the period I was there, the bait rod remained static, with no indications of interest apart from the one knock which resulted in an 8″ flounder, which had taken the bait after I changed over from a flapper to a running ledger with a beaded up trace. There was no interest whatsoever on the Sabikis.

With nothing showing and the tide dropping away, I gave up at about 6pm. The only upside is that no rockling showed up, which can only be a good thing!

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By Vic, 6 January, 2010 13:27

Had the first session for a couple of months and the first of 2010 on sunday out at Seaford beach. Loaded with some nice black lugworm and two boxes of squid, I arrived at around 6pm and started to unload the car. By the time I’d got all sorted and walked onto the beach, I couldn’t feel my fingers it was so bloody cold!

Undeterred, I trudged across the shingle and started to set up the rods. After the first was done, I had to have a short break to warm the hands and fingers up before doing the next one. Big baits were the order of the day to try and avoid any small whiting and rockling, so one rod sent out with ledgered DVice 3/0 hook crammed with lug and squid, second rod out with whole squid on 4/0 pennel rig. It was then a matter of keeping warm and waiting!

Although freezing to start with, later on, as cloud covercame over, it actually felt like it was warming a bit – so much so that I had to open the main zip on my ABU floaty suit as I was getting a bit too warm.

Fish wise, I ended up with a few whiting and the dreaded rockling ‘slugs’ which still manaed to get themselves hooked on the worm baited 3/0’s. Not a great start to 2010 but at least it wasn’t a blank. May leave the beach for a while now as the rockling seem to be in abundance and the cod having moved off before I could target them in earnest. Will now concentrate on the herring at Brighton Marina if the seas clear out.