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By Vic, 21 May, 2009 20:53

Fancied having and afternoon/evening session down at Brighton Marina yesterday and had planned on fishing the East arm to do a bit of float fishing as well as the usual bottom fishing. These plans were scuppered when, as I drove along the coast road and looked at the sea on my left, I saw that there was a band the colour of weak tea all along the coast and around the marina – a result of all the silt and chalk in the water being stirred up by recent heavy seas.

I carried on anyway popped into The Tackle Box to top up my bait supply and get a few bits and pieces. After a chat in the shop and seeing one of the wardens, it became apparent that the West arm would be the better option as it was thought the colour would drop out of the water as the tide flowed. Stock replenished, I headed off to park the car and by about 3.30pm, I was walking out onto the West arm. The sun was shining, it was warm with hardly any breeze and unusually, there weren’t that many people out there but they were pretty evenly spread out along the wall. To have any chance of some space, I had to settle for bay 13 ( luckily I’m not superstitious – touch wood ).

As float fishing was out, I opted to start off with one rod, 2 hook flapper rig using size 2 hooks and baited with ragworm, tipped with strips of mackerel I had with me (frozen). I hoped I might manage to get a few fresh mackerel for bait if the sea cleared enough later on. One cast and one cup of coffee later, the first good bite of the day and I missed it. I left the bait out a bit longer but nothing returned to finish it’s meal. There must have been enough on he hook though because when I did retrieve, there was a small bloody spider crab hanging on while it finished the last morsel. This happened again on the next cast… and the next, I must have had a dozen of the things by the end of the session. I wouldn’t mind if they were peeling but they weren’t, they were all bullets.

I new it was going to be black bream that were giving the bites, so scaled down to size four hooks but by this time, the bites had dried up and all went quiet. I did notice that the water was clearing very slowly – very, very slowly. I tackled up with a set of Sabikis, just in case it was clear enough for some mackerel. As the tide rose, the colour was dropping, so I decided to have a few chucks; this resulted in zero, zilch, nowt.

By now the arm was filling up and I soon heard the swoosh of people casting sets of feathers into the oggin. There were also a few ‘Swoosh ‘n’ crack’ noises, as quite a few were obviously not using shock leaders on their setups and their main line was snapping under the strain of the cast. This is just daft, dangerous and puts everyone around them at risk. Luckily none were that near to me.

Time rolled on and before I knew it, sunset was upon us and it was a real beauty, I grabbed the small camera out of my bag and luckily it decided it would work this time which gave me the opportunity to get a couple of pictures. As darkness fell, the bites started again but were still difficult to hit even with the small hooks. I decided to hold the rod after each cast and it proved to be the downfall of two unlucky fish – one bream and one Pout, both which would not be worrying the record books.

High water came and went with nothing to show for my trouble, so with disappointment, I trundled back to the car and buggered off home.

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By Vic, 11 May, 2009 15:17

Despite the forecast Easterly winds, which are not a fisherman’s best friend according to the old folklore “When the wind is from the West, fish feed best. When the wind is from the East, fish feed least“. I decided to still go ahead with a session down the at Brighton Marina, fishing from low water through to high water at about 1am.

On arrival at bay 30 and setting up, it became apparent that float fishing was going to be a no-no, with the float just being swept back in towards the wall with all the weed and crap. I packed that up and sent out a lugworm on a ledgered DVice and then set about trying for some fresh mackerel for bait. No luck on the Sabikis and the worm baits kept coming back masked in fine stringy weed.

It was about this time that Keith, one of the wardens came along and mentioned that the West arm was pretty much wind free. With the wind strengthening and the weed getting worse, I soon made the decision to pack up and head off to the West arm, even though I thought it would be packed. As I got there, I met a bloke who had just finished and asked if there was any space on the arm; I was surprised when he said that it was empty apart from only a few fishing there.

As I arrived on the arm and started walking out, I couldn’t believe my luck, it seemed as though the bloody wind had followed me and had now swung round from an Easterly to a Northerly and was blowing straight along the arm. Undeterred, I set up about half way along determined not to blank. First rod out was a ledgered lugworm tipped with strip of mackerel that I had blagged from Keith who was now on the arm too. As I was waiting for a take on the worm, I worked some Sabikis and managed to haul out four mackerel in a few casts.

The worm rod started lunging and the first fish to hit the deck was a nice black bream. I re-baited, cast out and started on the Sabikis again but nothing else seemed to be interested, so I changed over from that and set up a running ledger with 3/0 pennel rig baited with half mackerel fillets.

As the light faded, the wind swung round even more and was now quite fierce and was blowing fine sand and all sorts of rubbish along the wall which seemed intent in getting into my bag and bucket. As I was clearing out the crap from my bucket, I noticed the worm rod nodded a few times and the next bream was quickly aboard. This was slightly larger and was probably around the 1lb mark.

The next take seemed better and having initially struck, I became snagged but could still feel a fish at the other end. I got out of the snag but the rattling on the line had stopped and was now just a dead weight. I cranked the ‘weight’ in and swung aboard the culprit – a set of what I presume were supposed to be a string of mackerel feathers but looked more like something that would not look out of place draped around the shoulders of Elton John or Lilly Savage. Christ, I have never seen such a garishly coloured set of monstrosities; the hooks were huge too, at least 4/0. I reckon the previous owner had deliberately left them snagged there out of embarrassment or a big game boat had passed through thinking there were Marlin or some such beasts lurking near the West arm and lost them on the reef. Anyway, I cut it all free from my gear and dropped them in my bucket with a metallic thud.

I carried on for a while and landed another two bream on the worm baits whilst the mackerel remained untouched. By about 11pm, the wind had increased while the bites had stopped, so with thoughts of a decent coffee (not the hot brown sludge in my flask) and a more comfortable setting, I tackled down and headed for home. At least it was the first time I had fished the West arm and been virtually the only one there.

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By Vic, 4 May, 2009 12:02

Yesterday was set for the re-scheduled squid competition in aid of the RNLI organised by Fishyrob and to be held at Brighton Marina, so I arrived at the ‘Tackle Box‘ at 9am ready for pre match get together prior to the 10am start. Unfortunately, because of the new date, the number attendees was somewhat reduced to the 10 or so of us. After making sure all was set and entrance money was handed over, George from Tronix generously handed out some complementary jigs to everyone before we set off over to the East arm.

The wall was pretty busy with quite a few people taking up many of the bays and it wasn’t until we had got up near the end and we were in the higher numbered bays that we got enough space for us all to fish reasonably near to each other. Fishing started at 10am and we were all hopeful of a good result even though conditions didn’t appear absolutely perfect.

From then on, it was non-stop inaction with nothing remotely interested in our jigs. I tried pink, green and blue, baited and non baited but nothing could be enticed into snapping them up. The only things I managed to land were a starfish and a Masked crab. It wasn’t until quite late on into the match that Matt, who was fishing just along from me, landed a nice looking Cuttlefish. I should add here that although a Cuttle isn’t a squid, the competition was for all Cephalopods. Spurred on by the first critter to be landed, we carried on forever hopeful. Alas it was not be and at 3pm, the competition closed.

Now Matt was fully entitled to be crowned as the champion and take the spoils but he was so sporting, he elected to decline the trophy and agree to the competition to being re-run in two weeks time in the hope that there would be more action than just one being landed. I personally applaud him for his sportsmanship. Now I know this was just a bit of fun and not being taken seriously but all the same it was a great gesture.

I decided to fish on after the competition as the weather had dramatically improved and it was a lovely afternoon to be out in the fresh air. I continued to fish the jig in the hope of a squid for tea and carried on with the baited ‘flyer’ above the jig which is essentially a spur of line coming off the main line above the jig with a baited hook and offers the opportunity of catching other fish while still jigging. I was standing watching my float, when it suddenly dipped down and hovered just under the surface. I reeled in slowly hoping to connect with whatever was grabbing at the bait, and I could feel a slight quivering through the line and I knew immediately it wasn’t a squid. I retrieved the jig only to find a Lesser weever had taken the mackerel baited flyer. It was carefully unhooked using forceps and shaken back into the sea.

I fished on until about 5.30pm letting the floated jig work itself while I thrashed around with a set of Sabikis in the hope of  mackerel or few. This seemed a fruitless waste of time with nothing showing any interest,  so decided to cut short the intended time and head for home.

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By Vic, 2 May, 2009 13:58

Popped down to the East arm of Brighton Marina yesterday afternoon to try and bag something squiddy-like for tea. I reality, I wanted some sneaky practice before the squid catching Championship‘ which was supposed to be last weekend but was cancelled due to bad weather prospects (as it happened the weather turned out to be perfect but that’s another story) and is now being held this Sunday

As soon as I arrived, I could tell it was going to be a bit lumpy and windy with a brisk South Westerly breeze whipping the sea up. Undeterred, I headed out and got a spot at bay 20. Trying to fish a float in the big swell was near impossible, so gave that up. Tried ‘sink and draw’ with a Tronix pink jig but that resulted in no takes and me getting wet by standing too close to the ‘Vees’ and when gushers came in.

Finally decided enough was enough so tried for some mackerel to take for tea and some for bait. Sent out a string of Sabiki lures and in a few attempts had half a dozen for the bag. Having taken what I needed, I packed up and set off for the early evening crawl along the coast road to get home.

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By Vic, 30 April, 2009 10:57

Just to catch up on recent trips out.

Thursday 23rd April: An evening session on the East arm at Brighton Marina. Nothing inspiring happened on the squid front with none being caught. I did get a few mackerel, so I could at least go home with something for the table.

Sunday 26th April: Decided to have the whole day after squid down at the marina. The forecasts showed that it should have been a good day for it but unfortunately this proved not to be the case. The sea was patchily and coloured – almost like heavy clouds of silt going through with small areas of clear water. It proved enough to put the squid off and despite my best attempts, I couldn’t coax anything out. I tried with some Sabiki lures for some mackerel but only managed to hook a small but still dangerous Lesser weever which took the lower of the hooks.

While thrashing around alternating between the Jigs and Sabikis, I also had a setup baited with worm ( lugworm and ragworm ) which was out there hoping for something to come along. I did have one almighty take which dragged the rod along the wall but I was too late to connect with whatever it was. I did manage two small thornback rays but these were the usual palm sized juveniles which were released.

Although it was a glorious day to be out, it was decidedly disappointing on the fish front.

Tuesday 28th April: An evening session at Edingburgh Road in Seaford. Armed with a selection of worm baits, Peeler crab and squid, I fished through until high water at around 2.30am. Had been hoping for a bass on the squid but I reckon the sea was too calm with no real wave action to entice them in. Total tally for the night was loads of small whiting, Pout and one small thornback ray.

Nice night but in reality, a waste of time and good bait. When will I learn?