Yesterday, I took part in a competition organised by the Shoreham Angling Squad club. Funnily enough, this was held at the West arm of Shoreham harbour.

It was an early start for me, leaving home at 6.40 am in order to stop off at ‘The Tackle Box’ shop at Brighton Marina for bait. Whilst getting my lugworm and ragworm, Dave Grinham kindly gave me a large bag of Slipper Limpet to supplement my supplies.

Arrived at the venue at the allotted time of 8am. A long wait ensued while we waited for everyone to arrive, book in and draw numbers for the order of ‘walking off’. I unluckily picked 32 which meant I would be one of the last to walk off and would thus be limited to where I could fish.

My spot was quite a way inshore and I would be casting not far of the beach itself. Anyway, armed with a good supply of quality bait, I was confident of doing well. Targets were flounder and dab. I tackled up and awaited the hooter to mark the beginning of the match.

First few casts produced numerous knocks and bites but I couldn’t connect. First fish of the day arrived soon afterwards and I found the culprit to be a small 5 Bearded rockling which sadly was under the 18cm limit and therefore didn’t count. This was followed shortly after by another non qualifier. That was it for the rest of the day with no further fish landed. No matter what I tried, I just could not get the fish to bite. Frustration grew as I heard reports of a few fish coming up the blokes fishing at the end of the arm.

Gladly, it was a warm bright day with little wind – nice and comfortable for me but not good conditions for fishing.

The hooter marking the end of the match sounded at 3.30pm. Time to tackle down and make my way to the meeting point to watch the lucky ones receive their prizes. I didn’t even win anything in the raffle- pffft.

I then faced a journey of nearly one and a half hours through Brighton to get home. It had been an enjoyable day, even though I was virtually fishless.

Incidentally, I believe a reasonable amount was collected from people who fished the match towards a fund being set up for the family of Alan Wright, a young man who was washed away whilst fishing in the Bristol Channel. Alan was a member of WSF (World Sea Fishing), a fishing website/forums used by many of us anglers.

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Our thoughts are with his family and friends.