Had the first session for a couple of months and the first of 2010 on sunday out at Seaford beach. Loaded with some nice black lugworm and two boxes of squid, I arrived at around 6pm and started to unload the car. By the time I’d got all sorted and walked onto the beach, I couldn’t feel my fingers it was so bloody cold!
Undeterred, I trudged across the shingle and started to set up the rods. After the first was done, I had to have a short break to warm the hands and fingers up before doing the next one. Big baits were the order of the day to try and avoid any small Whiting and Rockling, so one rod sent out with ledgered DVice 3/0 hook crammed with lug and squid, second rod out with whole squid on 4/0 pennel rig. It was then a matter of keeping warm and waiting!
Although freezing to start with, later on, as cloud covercame over, it actually felt like it was warming a bit – so much so that I had to open the main zip on my ABU floaty suit as I was getting a bit too warm.
Fish wise, I ended up with a few Whiting and the dreaded Rockling ‘slugs’ which still manaed to get themselves hooked on the worm baited 3/0′s. Not a great start to 2010 but at least it wasn’t a blank. May leave the beach for a while now as the Rockling seem to be in abundance and the cod having moved off before I could target them in earnest. Will now concentrate on the Herring at Brighton Marina if the seas clear out.
Fished Seaford beach last night from about 9.30pm until 3am, near the Beachcomber. High water was at 1230ish.
On arrival, I saw a very lumpy sea with some large rollers and big wave dumps up onto the shingle. A Strong Westerly breeze was coming straight along the beach. The sky was overcast but with clear patches. Wind did die down later – as did the fishing.
Fished just one rod with ledgered DVice and alternating between big lug and squid baits. First couple of casts saw the wind hold the DVice in the air and push it back which meant it was landing down-tide, where it had difficulty gripping the seabed properly. To ensure proper gripping and bait placement, I walked up-tide, cast out, let bait settle and then walk back to the rest.
It was hard fishing and only had three Whiting before 10.30 and nothing until around high water when I missed the mother of all pull downs. How I missed it I don’t know because the rod was still bending while I picked it up and briefly felt a dull thudding at the other end before the dreaded slack line and no resistance – indicating fish off!
It was all dead then until just before I left when I retrieved my last cast and found one small unfortunate Whiting had been unlucky to hit my bait.
Anyway, that was it for the session. Crap fishing but I nice bracing night out.
I was tempted out into the wind and rain on Friday night to try and hunt out some Codling and Whiting down at Seaford beach. On arrival about an hour or so before low water, I saw that the sea was pretty lumpy with some good heavy wave action. I set up just East of the Beachcomber and used two rods – one ledgered DVice loaded with lugworm and squid cast at distance, the other, a ledgered 4/0 hook pennel rig with whole squid cast into the turmoil of the waves.
To cut a long story short, I fished until about 1am when I had to pack up due to running out of bait. The conditions had been ok, even if it was a bit a bit wet and windy. Although no Codling showed, there were enough Whiting to keep things busy; most being reasonable size, with two being good table size. The great majority of fish fell to the lugworm and squid cocktail at about 50-60 yards out but a few did take the whole squid in the surf.
Saturday was a ‘Do I, don’t I’ sort of situation. Calm clear seas with no movement, didn’t bode well for a beach session but I needed to get out and fish. I finally made up my mind and so armed with some fresh lugworm and frozen squid, I headed for Seaford beach. I arrived early at about 6pm, as I’d heard that there were competitions being fished in the area and the beach could be crowded later on. Although there were already people there, it certainly wasn’t crowded. I chose a spot just east of the Beachcomber pub and setup two rods – one with a Dvice on a running ledger armed with size 1 hook and baited with lugworm tipped off with squid strip, the other, long link running ledger and size 4/0 pennel with whole squid.
The water was gin clear and with virtually no movement, so I wasn’t expecting much at all, it was just great to be out on the beach. Worm rod was sent out at distance, while the whole squid was lobbed out a few yards in the hope of a lurking Bass.
Not much to write about really, so I’ll just give a brief total for the night. Finished at about 2am, so worked out at about 8 hours fishing. Loads of Whiting but none in the decent keeper bracket, three small rays and some Pout. The Pout went out as bait in the hope of a decent Bass being tempted but by the way they were coming back with the tell-tale ‘V’ notch taken out of the neck area, they had obviously been attacked by squid. That being the case and me not having any jigs with me, I gave that up.
Anyway, it was a decent night to be out and did get some fish, so not all a loss. This coming week should give some better results with a shift in the wind and hopefully some movement and colour to the water.
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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