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By Vic, 30 June, 2010 17:04

Today’s challenge was to gather some mackerel for a sort of ‘Parent’s help out day’ our son’s school, whereby Anna would show the kids how the fish was cooked and then let them taste it. So with rod and feathers in hand, I headed off to Brighton Marina for sunrise this morning to bag a dozen. Hmm – ever wished you’d never volunteered for something?

I got to the West arm at about 4am and started chucking the feathers out and got one almost immediately – looked like this was going to be an easy task, I thought. I had spoken to soon and obviously put the mockers on the morning. Over the next two hours, I only connected with two more mackerel, which to my dismay, dropped off at the wall. By 6am, the water was dropping fast, was starting to colour up and was choking in weed, so I decided on a move over to the East arm to try there. A short dash later saw me over on the other wall and chucking feathers there.

The water there was also choked, with large rafts of that ‘orrible ‘spaghetti’ weed we had for so long last year. Anyhow, I carried on and after a few casts, had another two mackerel on, only to drop at the wall again. I changed over to some slightly larger lures and started with them, thinking that the slightly larger hooks wouldn’t pull out as easily.

A few casts later and there was a fish on but felt different, very un-mackerel like, I got it up the wall and saw that there was a quantity of weed with a small fish buried in it all. As I pulled the weed off, I saw that the fish was a small Lesser weever which had been foul hooked. I know most would recognise this poisonous little bugger but some may not, so thought I’d get a picture just to act as a reminder for everyone to be aware. DO NOT HANDLE THEM, the black dorsal fin and gill covers have spines that will inject venom when picked up. They are often mistaken for small Pout when caught in low light situations or when covered in weed. Please make sure you know what a fish is before handling, unhooking etc. I very carefully unhooked the creature with pliers and lobbed it back before continuing with my efforts.

By 8am, I had only had one more fish which managed to get off the hook soon after it had taken the lure. With the water dropping ever faster, this looked like being a fruitless activity and decided to call it a day, so walked back to the car with the one solitary fish looking lost in a rather large and optimistic bucket. A total contrast to a week ago when the place was alive with mackerel.

The one benefit of my failure was that I would get to sit at home with a coffee, instead of standing in the school looking like a muppet, while Anna cooked fish for the little darlings who would in all probability not eat it anyway – result!

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By Vic, 28 June, 2010 10:35

Sundays at Brighton Marina, especially sunny ones can be purgatory when it comes to serious fishing. You can generally never find your ‘hotspot’  or favourite bay, the place is noisy and quite frankly, the behaviour of some can only be described as disgusting. Anyway, I thought I’d take advantage of  the England v Germany match and hit the marina after the game yesterday in the hope that it may not be way too crowded as normal. I was pleasantly surprised when I got to the East arm – there were hardly any people on there at at all. Weather-wise, it was a flat calm, clear sea, bright sunshine with no wind – not ideal  for fishing in the day but I hoped that once dark it wouldn’t be too bad.

I walked out to my favoured bay and started to set up, one rod geared for bass, with a long link running ledger ending in a 3/0 hook to be baited with mackerel once I’d caught them. The idea was to feather for mackerel on the other rod until I had enough and then set that one up with a size 4 two hook sole rig baited with lugworm. As it happens, it was hard work getting the mackerel and they didn’t show until it was almost dark when I managed to bag half a dozen.

The bass rod was baited up with mackerel chunk and cast out before I swapped the feathers for the sole rig on the second rod, baited up and cast that out. First hit was a schoolie bass that took the lugworm. The next to come up was a small palm sized thornback ray, also on the lug.

As  the evening wore on, the bass rod refused to twitch and nothing appeared to be interested in the mackerel bait – not even crabs, the only time it moved was when I retrieved to re-bait! The lug was proving to be a hit though as I had a steady stream of fish: schoolie bass, Pout and Small thornbacks, not great but at least I was busy.

High water arrived (about 1am) and went with nothing spectacular to report. The bait ran out at about 3am and that was my cue to leave with a final tally of 8 bass, the biggest at 35cm, a few Pout and half a dozen small thornbacks. The next trip will probably be a prawn and float and float session, although before that, I do have a mission to bag some mackerel for Anna’s cooking demo at Alex’s school on Wednesday. This will be a first light episode that morning, so I hope that the bloody mackerel oblige and show up.

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By Vic, 18 June, 2010 08:49

Had an early session on the West arm of Brighton Marina this morning from 4.30am, to bag some mackerel – bait for a bassing session tonight and some for the smoker. The water was flat calm and crystal clear and weather-wise, there was no wind and an overcast sky.

I set up in bay10 and cast out a set of small Sabiki style feathers which were immediately hit by mackerel, first cast and a full house of five fish; from then on, it was fish every cast – some singles but mostly a full string. They were everywhere, the water seemed alive with the blighters. I must say, it makes a nice change to see so many; up until now, they seem to have been quite sparse when I’ve fished over on the east wall, at least now, you can be guaranteed to get enough without having to work for hours to catch them.

Once I’d caught enough for my needs, I stood against the edge and marvelled at the site of the shoals working along the arm. Looking down into the gin clear sea, I could see individual fish chasing the masses of fry which were being corralled up against the wall. It was like watching one of those TV programmes you see, featuring Tuna attacking Sardine shoals, only in miniature. This is one of the things I love about fishing; you get to see the wonders of nature that many people will never experience and that we anglers all too often take for granted. The photos I took don’t really convey the ferocity of the feeding and shoaling but do give just a hint of what it’s like.

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By Vic, 13 June, 2010 16:58

I’d been looking forward to yesterday all week; with the bigger tides and the arrival of mackerel in numbers, the prospects for a good nights fishing on Brighton Marina, after bass were pretty good. I arrived on the East arm and headed out and found a space in bay 59, arriving at about 7pm. The place was extraordinarily quiet for a warm, sunny Saturday – hardly anyone out there, anyone would think  there was some football tournament on.

There was a hint of an Easterly breeze but it was literally just a whiff. The sea was flat, clear and the tide was just into the flood and coming up to a midnight high, conditions looked promising. I set up a rod for bait gathering using a set of small  Sabikis to get a few mackerel at dusk. I then set up a scratching rod, using a size 4 two hook flapper baited with lugworm and tried  this at varying distances throughout the session.

Won’t rabbit on as there isn’t really that much to report, I packed up at 3am after a disappointing 8 hours of inactivity – the final tally was one black bream (a keeper), one schoolie bass and a Pout that all fell to the lugworm. The mackerel bait was never even touched except by crabs. An evening that had promised a bit more, failed to deliver.

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By Vic, 10 June, 2010 15:57

I haven’t been out for a few days, so thought I’d have a go down at Brighton Marina after work yesterday. Arrived on the East arm at about 8.15pm with a predicted high tide at 10pm – not ideal, as I prefer to fish from low tide up. Anyway, beggars can’t be choosers, so got myself sorted in bay 28 and had a look at the water. The mayrot had disappeared but the water was choked with masses of floating weed, moving in the West to East current (this did thin out over high tide and the ebb). The sea was flat calm with virtually no breeze in the clear sky.

One rod was set up with a size 4 two hook sole rig baited with lugworm on one hook and ragworm on the other and cast out about 30 yards. Tried for some fresh mackerel and only managed three by the time darkness fell.

First fish was a very small smooth Hound pup which took the ragworm and was quickly followed by another. Then had a surprise mackerel which took the remains of the lugworm that was being retrieved for re-baiting. A schoolie bass then took a fancy to the lugwom a few casts later.

I packed away the mackerel gear as darkness came and swapped it for a long link running ledger rig which I alternately baited with either mackerel head on a single 6/0 or fillet on a 4/0 pennel in the hope of a decent bass. To be honest, I would have been better saving the mackerel for taking home for all the good they did. The baits were either clogged with weed or savage by crabs, with no interest shown by Billy bass at all.

My painstakingly built sole rig was utterly destroyed by a snotty eel which had taken the ragworm and then spun itself into a sort of cocoon of tangled line and slime. I managed to cut away the line and release the bloody thing which would no doubt make someone else’s life a misery later on.

The only other fish of the night were a brace of Pout and another small smooth Hound pup followed by nothing. By about midnight, my enthusiasm was flagging, a brisk easterly breeze got up and the bait ran low, so gave it another hour before calling it a night.