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By Vic, 26 May, 2010 16:21

Wanted to have another crack at the sole down at Brighton Marina, so yesterday I shot off to there from work and arrived at the East arm about 8.30pm. Met up with Mike (mr codling), another member of the WSF forums and another site, the Sporting Fish Community, who was already unpacking his car. Once all the gear was sorted, we walked out onto the arm and headed for the far end where I thought it might be a bit more sheltered and also offered the best chance of a sole. Conditions were a bit uncomfortable, with a brisk North East wind which was gusting quite hard along the arm but at least it was dry with just a threat of rain from the cloudy sky.

We set up in bays 55 and 56 respectively and started tackling up. I opted to start with one rod rigged with a size 4 two hook sole rig baited with lugworm and ragworm and chucked about 50 yards out. I set up the other rod with a string of 4 feathers, hoping for a few mackerel or two with dusk approaching. As it happens, the mackerel were either pre-occupied or didn’t care for my offerings, as I had no interest shown in them at all. The feathers came of and another sole rig put on, baited and cast out.

As darkness came, Mike was first in with a Pout. I was next in with a Co-Op carrier bag which appeared under-conditioned, scrawny and tattered although it did put up quite a fight in the tidal current and then in the air with that bloody wind. My next retrieve was a double shot of Pout which is how the rest of the evening went with more Pout for us both and only broken by a ‘snotty’ eel for Mike which wrecked his rig and a small schoolie bass for me. The only highlight being the non-appearance of any rockling. Mike also had ‘half’ a Pout which had been attacked  and partly scoffed by a squid whilst on the hook (Pictured right. Click for a larger image).

In between fish, tangles and carrier bags, Mike made regular updates of our ‘Live fish’ event on DannyC’s blog just to keep them amused while sat at home in the warm.

By 1am, the best of the tide had passed and the fishing had ground to a halt with no more fish coming to either of us. We packed up the gear and took the long walk back which was made worse by that bloody wind straight in our faces. I still had plenty of worm left, so will try and get out in the next few days and not put it to waste.

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By Vic, 21 May, 2010 19:43

After managing some sole the other night, I thought I’d have another go last night, so with bait in a bucket, I headed off to Brighton Marina after work, arriving on the East arm at around 8.30pm. From the off, I wasn’t expecting much, seeing how the Mayrot (an algae bloom) had discoloured the water turning it cloudy and just plain nasty. Anyway, as I was there, I thought might as well carry on and see what was about, if anything, so I tackled up one rod with a two hook size 4 sole rig baited with lugworm and ragworm and sent that out. At one point, I did consider using the second rod for bass but as I only had a few manky sandeels, I thought I’d have a thrash with some feathers on the off-chance of mackerel but after a few casts, it became obvious that nothing was going to see the damn things through the murk in order to be tempted, so took them off and replaced them with another sole rig, similarly baited and sent that out too.

Weather-wise, it was warm, absolutely zero wind with a flat calm sea, a beautiful night to be out and found it odd that I was the only one out there, with no one else within sight.

Fishing itself was a bit sporadic with busy moments interspersed with no action at all, nothing of any size was landed but there was a bit of variety in species caught and landed my first bream of the year which was surprising considering the state of the water. I packed in at about 3.30am with the final tally being:  one bream, two schoolie bass, two slip soles, one small thornback, countless, rockling and Pout.

Comments (3)

By Vic, 19 May, 2010 11:53

One of my target species for 2010 is sole, a particular favourite of mine as they always provide a tasty meal for the following day. It is also the subject of humour in our household, as whenever I mention the fish, my FPO always retorts with “sole?… Ah, sole”. We find it amusing but then we always find childish toilet type humour funny.

High water was predicted for 3.30am today, so yesterday afternoon, I packed all my gear into the car and went off to work with the intention of going straight to Brighton Marina after I finished. I stopped off at The Tackle Box before work to pick up some bait and got some of the best wrapped lugworm I’ve seen for a while – all decent sized worms which would give at least two baits per worm.

With everything sorted, I went in to work, hoping for an easy ride and an early get away. Why is it always the case that when you have plans, things attempt to sabotage them, whether it be work, heavy traffic or some other inconvenience. Anyway, I eventually managed to get away and headed off for my session.

It was about 8.45pm by the time I got to my spot on a deserted east arm of the marina and 9pm baits were in the water. It was a very still and quite warmish evening with no wind, an oily flat sea and overcast sky, so signs were pretty good for what I wanted. To start with, one rod was set up with a sole rig using two size 4 fine wire hooks baited with the lugworm; I wasn’t really expecting any action until it got dark but you never know. While it was still light, I set up another rod with a string of ‘feathers’ and set about seeing if any mackerel were about that I could use as a bass bait or take home for lunch. I tried until after dark but there was nothing, zilch, zero, bugger all, so I packed that in and set up the rod with the same sole rig and sent that out.

First two fish were schoolie bass of around 35cm that came at about 10pm after a series of rattly twitches on the rod tip. These were followed by a string of rockling and Pout interspersed with a palm sized thornback ray. It wasn’t until just before midnight and mid flood tide that the first sole was hooked and landed, it may only have been a slip of about 25cm but it was a sole at least; the first of 2010 and target achieved. A second one followed about 20 minutes later which was identical in size and could have been  the first one’s twin. I was feeling optimistic about landing a table fish but after an hour or so passed, this feeling ebbed away and was gone after yet another hour passed.

I fished through the high water period with only one bite which turned out to be everyone’s favourite (not) rockling. It was at this point that the bait ran out as well as my optimism, so packed up, cleared my area of any crap and walked back to the car, happy that I’d got my target species but downhearted that they weren’t table size.

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By Vic, 11 October, 2009 19:02

I’ve been eager to have another experimental session targeting bass at Seaford beach using only sandeel / launce for bait, so last night, armed with some large Ammo frozen launce, I headed off to see what I could achieve. I got to the beach at about 7pm, unloaded the car and walked across the shingle to a spot between the Beachcomber and West View. I was greeted by a mainly moderate sea with a bit of a swell which resulted in some nice wave action. Wind was minimal and when mild gust did come, it was from the West.

I set up the ‘experiment’ rod with a long lead link, running ledger with a 6′ trace terminating in a 4/0 pennel. I mounted the launce on the hooks and lobbed it out into the waves. I had brought another rod to see if there was a codling about, so set this up with a DVice on a running ledger baited with lugworm and squid. I cast this out before returning to hold on to the bass rod.

First fish of the night came about two hours before low water and was a nice fat whiting of about a pound. This was soon followed by another of identical size. While dealing with this second fish, I heard the other reel give two sharp tugging runs but by the time I got to it, there was nothing there. On retrieval, the sandeel had been absolutely smashed and was in tatters. Both rods were rebaited and cast out again.

At low water, I felt a huge take on the bass rod and lifted into a fish. as it it slid through the waves, I could see that it wasn’t the expected bass but a decent sized whiting. From then on, it was a long succession of whiting, some were good table size.

It wasn’t until about 3 hours before high water that the bass seemed more confident and were hitting the launce hard with long, ragged runs. None were huge, all being in the 2-2½lbs range but good fun all the same. all were taken just behind the first breaker in the turbulent water, no more than 10 yards out. I missed several runs through not being attentive or when I left the rod in the rest while dealing with the other road. Now I know that when bassing, you should only use one rod and that it should be held at all times but I can never resist the temptation to have another rod out for anything else that may be around. If you play it this way, you will pay the price and may miss THAT fish.

By 2.30am, I had run out of bait and so with a couple of hours of the flood and hour of the ebb tide left, I had to call it a night. It was not an amazing night but it was enjoyable one with a total tally of five bass and many whiting. Next time, I’ll make sure I have enough bait to see me through.

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By Vic, 5 October, 2009 11:36

The ‘sandeel only’ bait experiment I had been thinking of got under way last night with a session just East of the Beachcomber at Seaford beach. I arrived just after low water and set up two rods – one with a ledgered DVice pennel and one, a standard running ledger with a pennel, both baited with sandeel. I had only been able to get packets of small sandeel instead of the larger launce I had wanted, so due to the small size of the bait, I had to scale down to 1/0 hooks as opposed to the usual 4/0 or 6/0 I would use.

The Dvice was sent out at distance and the other chucked out just beyond what breakers there were. I was disappointed to see that the sea had flattened out substantially with hardly any lumpy water, it had retained virtually no movement after the recent winds and had cleared out with just faintest hint of colour.

About an hour after low water, I had the first take on the close in bait, which resulted in a plump bass of around 2½lbs. Shortly afterwards, I had another take which I snatched at and missed.

Things went quiet for a while as the water movement dropped off and it wasn’t until around 10pm that I had another take which I missed. A couple of whiting then made an appearance on the distance rod but they were of no real decent size, certainly not big enough to go home for fish cakes.

While dealing with the last whiting, the reel on the rod screamed and the rod arched over. I picked up but it had gone. As I started to retrieve, it went heavy and almost snagged up. I could feel the kicking of a fish on the other end and from the weight, it felt like a good ‘un. I was however, gutted to see a large ball of weed coming through the water and then weed jamming in the tip ring. I cleared the tip and then dragged the weed onto to the shingle where a bass of around the 2½lb mark flapped on the shoreline.

Another missed run about an hour after high water followed by nothing.