After many reports of smooth Hounds being caught along the South coast, it was a toss up as top whether I went to Goring beaches or fished at Brighton Marina. High water was due to be at around 1130 pm. and the weather looked promising.

I popped in to ‘The tackle box’ at Brighton Marina to pick up some fresh bait and some odds ‘n ends. Dave, who owns the place reported that plenty of ‘Smoothies’ were being caught on the East arm. Hmmm. I was still undecided.

In the end, convenience won. That evening, armed with plenty of peeler crab, I headed off to the East arm. Looked like quite a few people also had ideas about fishing that evening. Found my self a spot at bay 17 and started to set up.

First rod set up with simple running ledger ending in a single 1/0 baited with peeler crab and cast about 80 yards or so out. Clutch was slackened off and rod placed in tripod.

Second rod also set up with simple ledger ending in single 2/0 baited with mackerel chunk and lobbed just a few yards out from the base.

Hours passed with not a sniff from a Smoothie, in fact no sniff from anything on the crab bait. From what I could see, no one else was having any either – it looked like the Smoothies had gone.

My baited drop net produced some small Prawns which were lobbed out on the second rod as livebait. Nothing there either except one savage take which produced a large Common eel which was immediately returned.

By around 1am, I decided that enough was enough and that it was unlikely that anything else was going to be caught. So, disappointingly, I packed up my gear and headed home.