After nearly three weeks of no fishing, I had to get out no – matter if I caught anything or not – I just wanted to get on the beach. So after finishing work, I shot home, loaded the car and headed for Seaford Beach armed with some freshly acquired lugworm from The Tackle Box. I arrived on the beach at about 8.15pm – two hours after low water – to a still night, clear sky and calm sea with just a whiff off a breeze coming from the back of the beach. The plan was to fish up and over the mid-night high water and maybe a couple of hours down.

First task was to pick an access spot that I could get down to get to the water. Environment Agency ‘Shingle shifters’ have been re-profiling the beach recently, overhauling the sea defences (old news item). The beach is virtually flat on the top at street level, suddenly dropping (almost vertical in places) around 8′ down on to the tidal part of the shingle. A word of advice here: If you’re planning on fishing the beach at night, either check your chosen spot out in daylight first and make sure you have adequate lighting and take care when wondering off towards the sea. It wouldn’t be too difficult to plunge down this abyss  if you’re not careful. The other thing to bear in mind is an escape route for when the tide gets up, this steep bank is very loose and could be bloody difficult to climb up if it’s one of the steeper parts.

Once on the beach, I set up two rods, both with size 4 two hook flappers which I baited with lug tipped off with this strips of squid. Both chucked out and I settled down to a coffee. It wasn’t long before the rod tips were rattling to the familiar whiting and sure enough whiting were the first fish to come ashore – really small ‘pins’. They weren’t in the frenzied amounts we had late last year but it was enough to keep busy. Had the first of the nights dabs at about 9.15 pm or so, not a huge size but at least it wasn’t a rockling (slug)! I had been thinking about the lack of slugs when – to put the mockers on it, the first one was landed within minutes.

There was a steady stream of small fish through the night, consisting of whiting, dabs and slugs. Just before mid-night I had a half decent 37cm whiting and then about an hour later, I had the first dogfish of the year. Things started to tail off after this and by 2.30, it had dried up completely which is just a s well as bait had run out.

Tally for the night was half a dozen dabs (two keepers by the fact they were gut hooked), dozens of ‘pin’ whiting one decent whiting, one lesser spotted dogfish and numerous slugs. Lovely night to be out and a few fish too, so I was well pleased. Still can’t wait for spring to come in and fishing in earnest can start.