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By Vic, 21 March, 2012 10:23

Decided to have another crack at the plaice on Brighton Marina yesterday and fish a few hours up and over the 10am high water. By 6.30am, I was at the gates to the East arm waiting for Frank to open up, which he did pretty soon after I arrived. It wasn’t too long before I was in my chosen spot.

It was a chilly morning but not overly cold with very little wind and an overcast sky. The sea was clear and flat and all things looked good for a great day apart from the tide being a little short. There was only one other guy waiting at the gate and I had my spot all to myself. It pays to get down there early or you risk getting to a packed wall with not much space to fish. Dave, at The Tackle Box, who runs the fishing concession reckons the damage to the wall should be finished soon, at which time, the rest of the wall should be open.

I set up using the familiar running ledger, long trace with beads and attractors, ending in a size 2 hook baited with lugworm and long, thin squid strips. This was cast out only about 50 yards or so and then I settled to a coffee and pondered if I should have a go at the herrings, or just fish for the plaice.

Just after 7am, I had a knock on the rod and in quick fashion I had my first plaice of the day on the deck. It wasn’t the largest in the world but it was over the minimum size limit and in view of the fact of it bleeding heavily from a deep hook, it was dispatched and put in the infamous ‘dinner bucket’.

I re-baited and chucked out again and while having another coffee, two regular fishing nuts turned up – local guide, Fishyrob and ‘ Mesito’ Steve. After the usual banter and insult trading, they too were fishing.

To say the fishing was slow, would be an understatement; it was very slow. I abandoned my morning’s self imposed ‘no herring’ rule and soon had a string of size 12 Sabikis out and being worked on my other rod. While working away, I noticed a nod on the other rod and in a quick retrieve and swing over the wall, another plaice was landed. Smaller than the first one and nicely lip hooked, this one went back. Back to the herrings which were being a bit elusive, although they did come up in ones and twos.

Late in the morning, the clouds parted and we were briefly bathed in lovely warm sunshine; it wasn’t long though before the clouds came back and it was time once again, to stick a jacket on. Due to other commitments, I had to leave the marina by 1pm and by the time it came around, the fishing had slowed further with the dropping tide. I did however, manage another two plaice which sadly were under sized. Rob, donated one of his catches which had again been deeply hooked and unlikely to survive after release.

So with a brace of plaice and a nice few herrings, I left, leaving Rob and Steve to carry on fishing. The plaice would be for Anna’s dinner, while I would divide the herrings into some for my dinner and some to be frozen for bait. It wasn’t a too shabby session and I was pleased to walking away with some rewards for the hours put in.

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By Vic, 17 March, 2012 14:15

Another early start on Friday morning in the hunt for plaice. I got to the east arm of Brighton Marina at about 7am and I have to say though, from the start, I wasn’t that hopeful. Conditions had changed to a South West breeze ruffling up the water a bit that still remained clear. The tides Weren’t ideal and I would be fishing down to the 11.40am low water and some of the flood but missing the 6pm high water due to work. The temperature had dropped a bit too making it a bit chilly throughout the session.

AS I pitched up at my chosen spot, another WSF nut, Martin (Bubbles) slotted into the bay to my left and Fishyrob a couple of bays down from there. Also down for the day to do an article, were some guys from ‘Sea Angler‘ magazine.

I decided to concentrate on plaice this time, so was not going to set up a rod for herring. Main rod was rigged with an up n over ledger which allowed for better casting with a long hook length. The hook length was outfitted with some ‘bling’ beads and reflective spinner blades and ended in a size 2 hook baited with lugworm tipped with thin squid strip.

Fishing was so slow, that I ran the risk of going into a vegetative state, so despite earlier plans, I eventually broke out the herring rod and had a go just to do something active. This wasn’t any better and even though I gave it a decent go, the herrings weren’t exactly forthcoming. Meanwhile, in the next bay, Bubbles was bringing them out with alarming regularity. At one point, I accused him of having a large bucket of them down the side and he was fishing into this.

I did eventually manage three, which I donated to Dave from ‘The Tackle Box’ as he seemed to be doing a collection of them to try. After this though, I packed up the herring rod and put all my effort into plaice.

This wasn’t to last though; with time moving on and thinking about packing up to head home early, I retrieved my plaice rig only to find one of the critters had hooked up without me knowing. It was deeply hooked, taking down a couple of beads as well as the hook. I cut the line as close to the hook as I dare and released it back into the water. Deciding that that was a good time to call it a day, I packed everything up and headed off.

It will probably be a few days now before I can get out again and have to decide whether to have another session or two on the plaice or have a go at an early squid or even maybe going after bass on the beach. Decisions!

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By Vic, 15 March, 2012 10:10

After Saturday’s enjoyable session, I decided on another daytime foray after herring and plaice at Brighton Marina. The plan was to get there early and have a few hours fishing up and over the 2.30 pm high water.

I got to the East arm at about 6.30am and while waiting waited for Frank to appear to unlock the gate, I had a look around at the conditions. The air was misty and pretty still apart from a very light Easterly breeze. The water was gin clear and calm with just the hint of surface ruffling. Looking to the cliff tops, I could see my place of work and I thought of my unlucky colleagues doing the early morning bus run while I was out here relaxing. Being the efficient and conscientious type, it wasn’t long before he arrived and by about 7.15, I had both rods set up and was fishing.

The routine was the same as before, one rod – running ledger, long ‘blinged’ hook length with beads and shiny Tronix spinner blade ending in a size 2 Aberdeen hook baited with lugworm and squid strip to try and tempt the plaice.The second rod was equipped with a string of size 12 Sabiki’s for the herrings.

It wasn’t too long before I had the familiar tugging and wriggling of herring on the Sabiki’s and they were soon swung in and dropped into the dinner bucket. A short while later, a couple of knocks on the other rod showed that there were signs of interest in the worm bait. I left it to develop while I slugged down a cup of hot ‘mud’ coffee and then returned to it and brought in a small plaice – too small for the table, so back it went. Signs were good and I hoped for a half reasonable catch throughout the day. Unfortunately, the fish had a different plan and were not in a co-operative mood.

I was soon joined by a couple of guys from WSF, Steve and Martin aka ‘Mesito’ and ‘Bubbles’ who set up in the bays to my left. They didn’t take too long to get in amongst the fish and in the time it took me to write this, they had overtaken me in the catch rate. Another fishing nut, Steve aka ‘scottish_and_mental’, from a different forum I inhabit came over a chin wag. He was up for the day from down the foreign Western parts along with fellow fanatics, ‘DannyFisher’ and ‘Jaycee’ to try and plunder our plaice stocks.

For me, the fishing was dead slow all day, with very little activity on the worm rod and just a few herring showing to the lures. I knew I had to leave before 3pm, so that I could get home, get scrubbed up and ready for work that evening, so pressure was on to get a plaice for Anna (she doesn’t ‘do’ herrings).

Soon, the ebb current was fairly ripping through from left to right, making it difficult to hold bottom; as soon as the gear had been cast out, it was being dragged around to the right, putting a nice bend in the rod. It was in these conditions and on the last knockings, that I saw my rod being pulled along the wall. Grabbing it and lifting, I could feel that there was a fish on. To my surprise, the plaice that came up was smaller than anticipated but still big enough for the bucket – as soon as Steve sends me the photo, I’ll add it here.

Pressure was off and not long after this, I had to pack up and head for home, not really wanting to, I would have loved to have stayed through the rest of the ebb. That’s the trouble with work – it gets in the way of fishing! Anyway, not long now until we break up for Easter and the luxury of a month off.

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By Vic, 12 July, 2011 16:16

After the drenching I got the other night, last night was a complete contrast – in weather and in results. With the calm conditions looking promising, I felt like having a go for a bass down on the East arm of Brighton Marina, so got down there about 8pm with the intention of bagging some mackerel for bait over high water and then to do some scratching until the early hours and fish mackerel head and guts over the 3am low water period.

It was a warm, clear evening with no wind and a flat calm, clear sea; as said completely different to the other night. It was nice just wearing a t shirt and jeans instead of the clobber I had previously worn and positively thrilling to have dry hands.

Unlike last time I fished the marina, I had made provision this time and had taken some frozen joeys with me, in case the mackerel didn’t show. Just as well really, as the buggers were conspicuous by their absence and the only fish activity I could see on the surface were probably scad.

Anyway, I set up the scratching rod with a size 4 two hook flapper baited with lugworm and chucked it out and almost immediately had a knock which resulted in a small dab – blank saved. Re-baited and then set up the bass rod with the usual long link running ledger, size 5/0 hooked through the snout of a mackerel head and guts which I lobbed out and sat back.

By about midnight, a brisk easterly picked up and made it feel a bit chilly in comparison to earlier – certainly enough to put an extra top on. The good thing that came with it was a bit more in the way of cloud cover.

The only action coming my way was on the scratching rod, with a few small bream and then on low water, lots of school bass taking a shine to the worm. There was one half hearted attempt at a run on the bass rod about half an hour before low which had the tip buried down for a brief few seconds and then nothing.

I gave it until about an hour after low before tiredness set in and I had an overwhelming desire to have a good kip. Looks like Thursday and/or Saturday will be my next outing when I’m hoping for more promising results.

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By Vic, 5 July, 2011 12:34

I haven’t had a session down at Brighton Marina for a while, so I thought I’d take advantage of the fine weather and calm seas yesterday evening to have a crack at some bassing with in-close big mackerel baits, plus a bit of general scratching with worm baits.

I arrived on the East arm at around 7pm and walked out to a free space at bay 36. Conditions were no wind, a flat calm sea and a bright sun. The plan was to snag out a few mackerel on feathers for bait, before fishing in earnest – only one problem – the mackerel decided they weren’t going to play and despite my best efforts, there were to be none. On to plan B then – use the worm to get a few pout for bait (more on that later).

A couple of fishing pals, Jonah Danny and Mike joined me not long afterwards, which I should have known would be the kiss of death. They had planned ahead though and brought some ‘bait’ with them in the form of ‘orrible, minging, poisonous mush; otherwise known as supermarket ‘fresh’ mackerel. Honestly, I’ve seen better conditioned fish in the bottom of a bin that’s been run over and set alight.

Not being able to get any proper fresh mackerel and with no signs of them even being in the same sea as us, I baited my feathers with small sections of worm and dropped it over the side to temp some small pout. In this exercise, I only managed to catch small bream (Pictured) and for the life of me, I could not get a pout – silly really as normally they are a bloody bait robbing nuisance. Anyway, at least the bream was another one on my species list for the year.

In the meantime, my other rod had been setup with a size 4 two hook sole rig (hoping for a sole once darkness fell) baited with worm and lobbed out – maybe I could get a pout on that. Even that didn’t work, as the first fish on that rig was a small thornback ray, followed by another small bream – it wasn’t looking good on the bass bait front. The second picture isn’t another bream – it’s the same as the first but artistically photographed by Danny to make it look bigger (I don’t think it worked).

I later managed more bream, another small ray and a small flounder but I reckon the pout had hitched a lift with the mackerel and gone to wherever they went. So then, while I was busy breaming, the boys were busy blanking with their poisonous offerings.

They packed up around midnight (lightweights) to head off home. Kindly (I think), they left me with a bag containing the remains of their toxic and by now dried out yet still slimy fish offal. Having examined it in the style of CSI Grissom and deciding not to bait up with it, I put paid to my chances of catching anything decent by lobbing the bag of offending shite over the side (not the bag though, obviously).

I stuck it until just after the 2.30am high water but only managed another couple of bream in that time. Although the target species (all three) weren’t forthcoming, it was a lovely evening to be out and with some good company, a great time was had.