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By Vic, On 9 November, 2013 16:09

In the past, many people have said that I’d end up living on the beach at Seaford, considering how much time I spent there. Anyway, I recently found myself in the position of having to move house (gain).

After much searching, viewing and general ‘Moving house buggeration factors’, I finally settled on my new current abode. It looks like all those who jokingly suggested where I should live, turned out to be right. Not only in the right area but virtually on one of my favourite marks, I couldn’t have done better if I’d built it myself. Here’s a couple of pictures from my front bedroom window.

Due to various reasons – long boring story – I’ve hardly fished at all this year, to my eternal shame. Fingers crossed and touching wood, I’m hoping that my long awaited surgery will go ahead at some stage in the bear future. Once that’s sorted, I will be back with a vengeance and shall be putting some serious hours in on the shingle. I’m hoping that the weather improves from what we have at the moment and have had recently. Talk about sod’s law kicking in firmly, I’d only been in the new place days before the wind ripped the skylight off my roof, leaving a big hole above the bathroom. Landlord was brilliant though and was soon out to get it fixed. There is the smallest of gaps which means that a good South Westerly finds the skylight whistling away like Roger Whittaker on speed.

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By Vic, On 21 July, 2013 08:21

Sunday morning a couple of weeks ago, saw me down on the slipway at Newhaven, waiting for boat owner and fellow angler, Terry Hill, as we were going out on the hunt. The plan was to hit some wrecks and hopefully find some cod before heading West in search of bream.

Once supplies for the day were loaded, ‘Sea Mistress’ slipped out the port and we headed to the first mark. We stopped en route to stock up on fresh mackerel, which were duly plonked into the live bait tank.

After a not too long steaming time, Terry found one of his favourite marks and set up the drift. The rods were rigged with running ledger with a six foot hook length. Live joey mackerel were hooked and sent down to the bottom to work their magic.

Almost immediately, something hit the bait and although there was a fish on, it could only have been small, as there was no fight. It was brought to the surfaced and I was gob smacked to see a pout fairly hooked in the mouth and no sign of the joey. The bloody pout wasn’t much bigger than the bait and had no business being there!

Anyway, a fresh joey was sent down on the next drift and both our rods arched over as the baits were hit. Two fine pollack were boated, mine going 8lbs, terry’s 13lb – a nice start.

My next catch wasn’t so good as I got got snagged in the wreck. I wrapped the braid around a stern cleat and hoped for a pull out or a break. Unfortunately, the braid slipped on the cleat, pulling the rod tip onto it and snapping it clean off… Bollax!!

Terry loaned me a rod for the rest of the trip but the words.. “you can christen this one, it’s hasn’t been used before” made me shudder… no pressure then.

We boated a further two pollack on this wreck, both just under the double figure mark. On the way out, Terry had told me of some fish that had been lost previously on this mark, strong, fast fish that smashed tackle up. Could be big coalfish (coalie), maybe even tope or similar sharky things. I was to experience this myself when something below grabbed my live joey and took off like a bat out of hell. With the drag set as hard as I dare, the fish just stormed off and snapped the 30lb mono leader like cotton. I guess we still don’t know what the mystery fish is.

With not much else happening, we moved off West to fish Kingmere rocks, a reef just off Littlehampton known for its black bream fishing. Once there, Terry dropped anchor and started to fish. I used a two hook flapper baited with strips of cuttle and was almost immediately in to a bream, albeit a small one. Although most were small, I did manage a few keepers, while Terry had the best individual fish of the day at 2½lbs. He also bagged the one and only bass of the day.

Later in the afternoon, with the wind starting to freshen, it was decided to call it a day and head back to port. I had a fantastic day in good company and with a few fish fillets for the freezer. The only downside, was the smashed rod with a good 12-18″ lost, I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do with it – a stubby boat rod maybe. I guess it means having to go shopping for another – shame 😉

Tea time was nice, lovely fresh bream fillet gently fried and served up with a crisp salad… yumm.

Well done Terry for putting us in the right place and many thanks for the loan of the rod.

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By Vic, On 5 July, 2013 12:48

On Monday, I decided it was time to get out on the beach and have an evening ‘blow away the cobwebs’ session. I knew the tides were short but was going to go anyway.

I stopped in at ‘Tools and Tackle’ in Newhaven and picked up a box of frozen squid. I was only going to be bassing, so need of any worm baits.

Later in the day, I decided against going, as I really needed to try and get some sleep. For a while now, I’ve had no problem getting to sleep, it’s just I can’t stay asleep. Anyway, I unpacked all my stuff, checked it was all ok before re-packing my bag ready for next time.

After a relaxing evening, I headed for bed and as usual and dropped off quick as that. Midnight – awake – bollox! Wide awake, I grabbed my bag and the now soggy box of squid in the sink that I’d forgotten to put away in the freezer.

Half midnight, I was on Seaford beach opposite West View. One rod, simple running ledger, single 6/0 baited up with whole squid and lobbed it out just beyond the waves.

Conditions weren’t too bad – on shore breeze and a small but decent surf and about two hours before low water. I had a hit almost straight away that had the rod bouncing like a good ‘un. Turned out to be a schoolie of around a pound. Fish returned, hook re-baited and chucked out about the same distance, The long wait began… and went on… and on…

It wasn’t until just after low water that I had the next hit, which was a lovely pull down – again another schoolie that could have been the twin of the one before it.

As the tide rose, the breeze dropped until there was nothing – and along with it went the ‘surf’. The sea went calm and apart from one rattle which could have been a pout worrying the squid, there was no other activity.

I stayed a while longer and was entertained by two of the local beach foxes squabbling over whatever scraps they were finding. They then split up, with one trotting its way further along the beach, while one remained and sat not too far away from me, obviously interested in the smells from my bait bucket.

I left the beach as the sun crept up and made my way home, hoping that the fresh air would have done its bit and I would get a decent kip.

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By Vic, On 6 May, 2013 13:13

I was determined to bag some more squid, so with that in mind, I headed off to Brighton Marina on Friday morning, nice and early. Got onto the East arm at about 7am and it was virtually deserted. Absolutely beautiful morning, bright sunshine, no wind, flat calm, clear sea – perfect. I was on a dropping tide but decided to start in bay 1 with the intention of moving up to the higher numbers as the tide fell.

Standard set up of a sliding float rig with TronixPro squid jig at the end of the hook length. I plumbed the depth to make sure the jig was settling just right and then had the first proper cast of the morning – well, more of a gentle under arm lob really, putting the float out at about ten yards out.

I had a quick coffee then returned to the rod to see what the drift was like. The float had come in closer, so went for another lob. As I retrieved the gear, the rod tip suddenly dipped and the line went taught. A squid had taken the jig as it was rising and was soon on the deck.

I quickly put the float back out and then tended to the catch. Same as the other day, a relatively small one compared to what I’ve normally had off the arm. Would still make a decent lunch though, so it was quickly dispatched and tucked away.

The rest of the morning was slow, I mean really slow, no more interest shown in the jig, even after having moved up to higher bays. Looked like they’d all done a runner and disappeared. I gave it until around mid day and then decided I was on to a loser for the day, plus I needed time to get cleaned up and ready for work that evening anyway, so packed it all in and headed off home.

Lovely day to be out, I just love those early mornings when it’s dead quiet before the masses turn up and you have the place to yourself and pretty much go where you want. I had thought about going today but having been to the marina on previous bank holiday Mondays, I decided I couldn’t be arsed fishing elbow to elbow with the inevitable tinsel chucking. Besides which, work beckons anyway, so it was pretty much a no go anyway.

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By Vic, On

After a minor success at the squid competition, I thought I’d make use of the decent weather and take Alex along for a shot at the squid. So we were up early the next day and shot off to Brighton Marina before the crowds descended. We were on the East arm by about 8am and shortly after, the float was in the water.

I’d set up a 9′ sea spinning rod with a 5000 size baitrunner for Alex and this seemed a perfect match for him, nice and light, easily controlled but with enough strength to handle a squid.

It was a glorious morning, bright sunshine, clear water and no wind. It would have been perfect apart from the fact we were on a very low tide and there was hardly any depth at the spot I wanted, so aimed for a higher bay but even then, we would have a wait until there was sufficient depth to fish.

I set up the gear and after a few short refresher lessons on casting and explaining that it was different from casting off the beach, Alex set about with gusto. There were the odd misfires but on the whole, he did pretty well and was soon into his stride.

After a couple of hours, the breeze began to pick up a bit and it was soon proving difficult for Alex to cast into the wind. There had been no signs of interest on the jig, so I set another rod with the same sliding float rig, only with a size 2 hook replacing the jig. I baited with small slivers of mackerel and had that one out in the water too.

Due to lack of action, impatience was setting in and Alex found new activities to amuse himself – cutting up mackerel into small strips. Surprisingly, his knife skills are pretty damn good and so he proved to be an excellent bait provider. In between doing that, made numerous runs back to the cafe to obtain snacks and drinks.I think the most widely used terms that morning were “Do you need another drink?”, “Can I get you anything from the cafe?”

It soon began too feel like a hopeless mission on the squid front and nothing was showing any interest in the floated bait either. We decided it would be better to pack up and go home to cook the squid I’d caught the previous day.

All in all, a nice to day to be out and although nothing was caught, Alex at least had an opportunity to practice his casting. The bait cutting should see him in fine form if he ever decides he wants to be a pathologist.