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By Vic, 30 May, 2009 18:40

After yesterday afternoons dismal failure at trying to get some fresh mackerel at Seaford beach, I decided to return during the evening and have a go at trying to get something for the table. Only trouble was, the forecast gave Force 4 gusting Easterly winds and low water was at 10pm which would mean fishing into the early hours to make high water . Not ideal conditions but I did have some peeler crab that needed using up along with some lugworm that was getting a bit high. I had toyed with the idea of maybe going somewhere different but in the end, convenience won, which means my heart wasn’t really in it. Sometimes I’m so eager to get out and get stuck in, sometimes I’m a bit indifferent – last night was the latter.

8pm saw me set up on the beach near the Beachcomber pub in not too unpleasant conditions, with just a slight breeze and not the predicted F4. Usual tactics – one rod with two a hook flapper and baited with the fragrant lugworm. The other rod had a running ledger ending in a 3/0 baited with the peeler crab. Once both rods were out, I sat and had a coffee and watched as the sun began to set. Considering the weather, there wasn’t that many people on the beach, although there was obviously some sort of ‘bash’ going on up near the Martello as the thudding music drifted down towards me.

It wasn’t long before the flapper was doing it’s business and the rod tip was rattling to the in the familiar bite of the often too numerous Pout. Soon, the routine became cast, rattle, retrieve, unhook Pout, re-cast, rattle and so on; the only break in the procession being the retrieval of one small dab. At least it was something to do. Then the other rod joined in, only this time with a small knock which resulted in a palm sized thornback ray. It wasn’t long though, before the crab succumbed to the Pout as well.

As darkness fell, the bites increased, the crab ran out and I started using whole small squid on a 4/0 pennel rig cast out only a short distance. I hoped that this would entice any bass that may be lurking just off the beach scooping up prey as the tide rose. Alas, it appeared that nobody had told the spikey one that there was free food on offer and the only action on that rod for the rest of night was the rattling as tiny Pout mouths did their best to scoff the offering.

By 4am, I’d had enough, my back was screaming, the fish weren’t feeding, my coffee had gone, the sun was coming up and bed beckoned.

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By Vic,

For his birthday, our son Alex, was given a new rod and reel, paid for by my mother and obtained by me from The Tackle Box at Brighton Marina. As his birthday was in February, when fishing is generally pants, we waited until now to give to him so that there was a fair chance he would catch something on his first outing with it. So yesterday was the day, we thought that mackerel would be the obvious species to target and Seaford beach is a safe and accessible venue and there have been reports of mackerel there.

After parking near Claremont Road, we eventually found some beach space down towards the Buckle and settled ourselves there. We hit our first snag, he was torn between learning how to set up and pebble shifting and conquering the steep shingle bank. We managed it without any mishaps and after setting up the kit and attaching a small Dexter, we set about the dark art of casting. Now my style of casting resembles a cross between a Morris dancer and a drunk hammer thrower, so perhaps I am not the best one to try and teach him. Anyway, he soon got to grips with the priciple of it and before long he was managing to get it in the water (as well as his feet) and retrieving. Pity the water quality was crap, with it being brown stained (snort) with May rot (an algae bloom present at this time of year). Unless the water cleared or the fish had x-ray specs, it was going to be hard going.

As predicted, we left with nothing but a great afternoon out. Alex is quite philosophical about it and it doesn’t seem to have dampened his enthusiasm and is now asking when the next fishing day is.

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By Vic, 21 May, 2009 20:53

Fancied having and afternoon/evening session down at Brighton Marina yesterday and had planned on fishing the East arm to do a bit of float fishing as well as the usual bottom fishing. These plans were scuppered when, as I drove along the coast road and looked at the sea on my left, I saw that there was a band the colour of weak tea all along the coast and around the marina – a result of all the silt and chalk in the water being stirred up by recent heavy seas.

I carried on anyway popped into The Tackle Box to top up my bait supply and get a few bits and pieces. After a chat in the shop and seeing one of the wardens, it became apparent that the West arm would be the better option as it was thought the colour would drop out of the water as the tide flowed. Stock replenished, I headed off to park the car and by about 3.30pm, I was walking out onto the West arm. The sun was shining, it was warm with hardly any breeze and unusually, there weren’t that many people out there but they were pretty evenly spread out along the wall. To have any chance of some space, I had to settle for bay 13 ( luckily I’m not superstitious – touch wood ).

As float fishing was out, I opted to start off with one rod, 2 hook flapper rig using size 2 hooks and baited with ragworm, tipped with strips of mackerel I had with me (frozen). I hoped I might manage to get a few fresh mackerel for bait if the sea cleared enough later on. One cast and one cup of coffee later, the first good bite of the day and I missed it. I left the bait out a bit longer but nothing returned to finish it’s meal. There must have been enough on he hook though because when I did retrieve, there was a small bloody spider crab hanging on while it finished the last morsel. This happened again on the next cast… and the next, I must have had a dozen of the things by the end of the session. I wouldn’t mind if they were peeling but they weren’t, they were all bullets.

I new it was going to be black bream that were giving the bites, so scaled down to size four hooks but by this time, the bites had dried up and all went quiet. I did notice that the water was clearing very slowly – very, very slowly. I tackled up with a set of Sabikis, just in case it was clear enough for some mackerel. As the tide rose, the colour was dropping, so I decided to have a few chucks; this resulted in zero, zilch, nowt.

By now the arm was filling up and I soon heard the swoosh of people casting sets of feathers into the oggin. There were also a few ‘Swoosh ‘n’ crack’ noises, as quite a few were obviously not using shock leaders on their setups and their main line was snapping under the strain of the cast. This is just daft, dangerous and puts everyone around them at risk. Luckily none were that near to me.

Time rolled on and before I knew it, sunset was upon us and it was a real beauty, I grabbed the small camera out of my bag and luckily it decided it would work this time which gave me the opportunity to get a couple of pictures. As darkness fell, the bites started again but were still difficult to hit even with the small hooks. I decided to hold the rod after each cast and it proved to be the downfall of two unlucky fish – one bream and one Pout, both which would not be worrying the record books.

High water came and went with nothing to show for my trouble, so with disappointment, I trundled back to the car and buggered off home.

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By Vic, 17 May, 2009 22:44

Desperate to get out for a session, I decided that even though the tides are crap neaps at the moment, I went for an evening session at Seaford last night. I fished from 9pm through low water at 11pm until about 3am. Arriving at the beach, I could see that even though the wind had dropped dramatically, there was still quite a bit of movement in the water and chucking up some big dumps up onto the shingle.

I used just one rod with peeler crab on a ledgered size 3/0 hook in the hope of some bass lurking in the turmoil. First fish was a big Pout (well big compared to the usual stuff there), which came at about an hour before low water. Next was a schoolie bass of around 1lb on low water and the only other fish was a flounder at about 1am of about 1lb or so (at 37cm) which had taken down the 3/0 hook and whole crab.

I was a bit disappointed that it was such a really slow night with no sign of a bass but at least I was out and I hadn’t blanked.