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By Vic, 13 September, 2007 16:00

Fished the East arm, Brighton marina on Tuesday evening in bay 17 from 7pm through until around 3am.

Loaded the bait armoury with some mackerel, freshly caught on small Hokkai feathers soon after arrival. There were a large number present and were feeding heavily on a huge shoal of small fry of some description.

I Fished one rod with lugworm on a running ledger set up, varying the distance in the search for fish. For the rest of the session, this bait was fiddled with, buggered about with and generally molested by small bream and Pout.

The second rod was baited with fresh mackerel – fillets and heads and lobbed just out from the base of the wall. Small Pout live baits were used on the third rod and were dropped down the wall.

The wind rose and was causing a bit of movement in the water before dropping completely in the early hours.

I had one take on the live bait which was dropped and then nothing for the rest of the night.

While fiddling with a newly acquired rod rest, there was a huge take on the mackerel head. On lifting the rod, I could feel huge resistance and a quivering sensation followed by much tugging.

Bringing the line in towards the drop net, I looked over the edge with my headlight and thought I’d stumbled into the set of ‘20,000 leagues under the sea‘, as below me there was a huge Cuttlefish hanging onto the mackerel head. Seconds later, with a sound like a huge watery fart, it released its prize and shot off towards who knows where.

No more heads available, I carried on and baited up with half fillets. I had just cast out, set the rod down, and turned around, when the rod lurched over. I lifted into a fish which shot off along the wall. I brought the fish back and was trying to get the net when I looked over and saw – mackerel, a big bugger too. Managed to swing it up without the net. Although I had no scales, this sod was around the two pound mark, much bigger than those we normally get.

It was around this time that while looking over the wall to investigated repeated and frantic thrashing noises, I saw fantastic sight. In the dark water, I could see mackerel, herding small bait fish into the corner of the caissons. They were leaving a sort of phosphorescent trail behind them as they hunted. As the large shoal of bait fish were split, they left the same trail but as there was a huge number of them, it was more like phosphorescent waves fanning out. It was a truly amazing thing to watch.

After watching the spectacle for a while, I returned to concentrate on fishing only to find I had a fish on again. It turned out to be yet another big mackerel. This carried on for a little while before stopping as quickly as it had started.

My next ‘catch’ was an old, minging drop net which was covered on foul smelling crap and weed and stuff. Sorry to any staff reading this but I couldn’t carry it when I left so I left it propped up against the railings.

By now, it was well into the ebb and the bites stopped completely. As I packed up, I was already thing of a return at the earliest opportunity.

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By Vic, 22 August, 2007 11:50

On Friday 17th. August, the weather looked awful with quite high winds and didn’t appear ideal for fishing. Undeterred, I decided I was going to fish come hell or high water. The East arm of Brighton Marina was the favoured venue and I was aiming to go quite a way around on the arm but as there was quite a bit of water being thrown up over the marina wall (slaps) by the wind, I decided to fish further inshore on Bay 18 .

I set up at around 9pm with two rods; one on a single running ledger baited with lugworm and sent out at about fifty yards or so. The second rod was a 2/0 pennel rig baited with whole calamari and lobbed down the side in the hope of a large bass.

The wind was blowing quite a bit with a strong W/SW breeze and there were a few slaps coming over but on the whole not too bad. There was a lot of weed though, which eased towards high water.

The first fish to come were small ‘bootlace’ eels which created havoc with my rigs, coating them in slime and knotting them up as they usually do. A couple of bass soon followed but were unfortunately only small schoolies, not large enough for the table. All these came to the lug baited rod. The next few fish were to my surprise, small codling of around 12oz. again too small for the table but indeed a welcome sight and perhaps a sign of better fishing to come.

As it neared high water, the wind strengthened and the sea was getting lumpier, with ‘slaps’ becoming larger and more frequent. It was time to leave, so having packed up and donated my unused bait to a chap fishing along from me, I trundled back to the car quite content with the evening’s result.

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By Vic, 20 July, 2007 16:13

Yesterday, I looked at the weather forecast and it didn’t look good for the evening tide (early hours of today actually). Storms were predicted with heavy, thundery showers. I was determined that I would fish and this instinct overtook the logic part of my brain, which suggested an evening in front of the telly.

Armed with a bucket of prawns, some lugworm and mackerel, I headed off to Brighton Marina (creature of habit, me). I arrived at around 6.30pm with the tide dropping away and about half way through the ebb. I settled myself in bay18 and looked at the horizon, from where the storms were supposed to be coming. Didn’t look too bad, heavy, grey and low cloud looked dramatic in the evening sun.

I cast out one rod using one hook ledger baited with lugworm and then set about float fishing with the prawn. I had a few takes on the prawn which I suspected were small wrasse but failed to land any. I did have one small bass but nothing spectacular. My meagre eyesight and falling light stopped play.

I had one small bream on the lugworm but nothing else.

Couple of blokes fishing up from me in the 20’s had a smooth Hound (Smut or Smoothie) using frozen Hermit crab. Looked to be in the 4lb range.

They kindly gave me the last of their Hermit crab before they left, for which I am grateful (for the crab – not for leaving). By now it was raining heavily and I was beginning to get a bit damp – even through a so called ‘water proof’ jacket.

The donated crab bagged the first smooth Hound within seconds of being cast about 20 yards out. It was only a pup weighing around a couple of pounds or so but it was a Smut. This was later followed up by another four of roughly around the same weight, although the largest was probably nearer four pounds.

I was amazed at the light show provided by the lightning, which seemed to be going no-stop. At times, it just seemed to be all around, which was a bit unnerving considering the carbon rods I was using.

Once the crab had gone so did the bites and my enthusiasm, as more rain began to fall and top up my already soaked clothes. I trudged back to the car, emptied my shoes and headed for home.

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By Vic, 16 July, 2007 12:15

After many reports of smooth Hounds being caught along the South coast, it was a toss up as top whether I went to Goring beaches or fished at Brighton Marina. High water was due to be at around 1130 pm. and the weather looked promising.

I popped in to ‘The tackle box’ at Brighton Marina to pick up some fresh bait and some odds ‘n ends. Dave, who owns the place reported that plenty of ‘Smoothies’ were being caught on the East arm. Hmmm. I was still undecided.

In the end, convenience won. That evening, armed with plenty of peeler crab, I headed off to the East arm. Looked like quite a few people also had ideas about fishing that evening. Found my self a spot at bay 17 and started to set up.

First rod set up with simple running ledger ending in a single 1/0 baited with peeler crab and cast about 80 yards or so out. Clutch was slackened off and rod placed in tripod.

Second rod also set up with simple ledger ending in single 2/0 baited with mackerel chunk and lobbed just a few yards out from the base.

Hours passed with not a sniff from a Smoothie, in fact no sniff from anything on the crab bait. From what I could see, no one else was having any either – it looked like the Smoothies had gone.

My baited drop net produced some small Prawns which were lobbed out on the second rod as livebait. Nothing there either except one savage take which produced a large Common eel which was immediately returned.

By around 1am, I decided that enough was enough and that it was unlikely that anything else was going to be caught. So, disappointingly, I packed up my gear and headed home.

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By Vic, 14 June, 2007 23:52

Fished Brighton Marina East arm on Wednesday evening to get the 10.30pm high water. Arrived at about 6.30pm and settled myself in bay 20. Spent a little while enjoying some sport catching mackerel on light spinning gear to be used as bait for the serious stuff.

I used to rods, both with running ledger terminal tackle, one with lugworm on size 1 hook. The other had mackerel mounted on 2/0 Pennel rig.

Had a number of small black bream on the lugworm and a few runs on the mackerel, which I believe were Cuttlefish, as the bait was stripped from the hook on retrieve.

A couple of small bass followed before a small pouting was landed. This was immediately used as live bait and was quickly scoffed by a spirited bass of around 18 inches which on landing was seen to be in beautiful condition and as plump as a plump thing, so had obviously been feeding well.

At about 1 am, the fishing went dead and it was time to call it a night and head off home. I might just have to have a bash at landing the Cuttlefish on a future visit.