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By Vic, 19 April, 2011 18:36

Now, normally I would write up this report and insert pictures in a chronolgical order but to be honest, I couldn’t say with 100% certainty, which fish came from which wreck and at which time. Plus too many pictues and not enough text make it all look a bit messy, so to keep things tidy and to stop me blathering about on about anything and everything, I’ll give a bit of an outline and put up some nice pictures. Photos are curtesy of the resident photographer for the day, Mr Terry Hill.

Following my trip out on Friday, I had the opportunity to again set out to sea on Sunday – this time, aboard a private boat, ‘Sea Mistress’ skippered out of Newhaven by WSF member Terry Hill. We met up at about 8am at Newhaven and after a bacon butty and coffee at The Captain’s Table, Terry arranged for his boat to be trailered from the boat yard, down the slipway and into the water. We set about stowing our gear aboard, while Terry fuelled her up and did other stuff. We were joined by fellow forum member, Dave and once everything was ship-shape, we set off out of the harbour.

Terry opened up Sea Mistress once we were clear of the harbour confines and headed off to some wrecks in search of cod and pollack. Like Friday, the sea was mirror calm and with no hint of a breeze to ruffle the surface, we made good time. It wasn’t too long before we were over the first wreck and Terry set up the drift.

Tactics were the same – long flowing traces with artificial lures worked close to and over the wreck. Although the water was clear, it was evident that there was already a lot of the dreaded ‘May rot’ in the water which could have an effect on the fishing. Terry was the first into a fish and nice bass was soon aboard. Expectations were high and we were buoyed up by such an early result. Unfortunately, that was the only fish on that wreck, so after a few fruitless drifts, we were off to the next mark, a few more miles out.

Fishing was slow over the next couple of wrecks but Dave managed a couple of reasonable pollack, while I seemed to be attracting large pout for my efforts.

Terry started up the engine again and we were off, this time to a wreck some sixteen miles out. Progress was good, with a steady cruising speed only interupted by the wakes of occasional passing larger vessels. First couple of drifts, I was getting small snatches at my lure but couldn’t get anything to take it fully. It wasn’t long though before I boated my first ‘proper’ fish, a small but welcome pollack.

…and then not long afterwards, Terry got the first of the target fish of the day, a tidy codling.

With renewed vigour, we continued to work the lures but to no effect, apart from more pollack for me and a beautiful little tub gurnard for Dave.

I then boated a whiting of all things – all this way out and I still get bloody whiting. At least it was of a decent size anyway.

Another wreck later and although we still weren’t getting large numbers of fish, we sort of ticked over with bits and pieces. Dave then had his first bass of the session after a short tussle.

…and he followed this up a bit later with the biggest pollack of the day at a shade under the ten pound mark.

While he was doing the pollack – so to speak, I had my first codling of the day but unfortunately didn’t get a picture of it.

We fished on for a bit and did some wrecks on our way back to port but as the tide slackened off, the fishing died with it. We decided on some ground fishing on the shoals off Beachy Head, so swapped our artificials for ragworm fished on long traces with plenty of beads and colour, in the hope of attracting a plaice or two. Alas, this wasn’t to be the case and all we managed to attract were pin whiting and pout.

So it was with an Easterly breeze picking up and chopping the surface, we headed back to port. I attempted to fillet my catch on the return but this proved a little risky, so after one fish and deciding I’d like to go home with the same amount of fingers as I had when I left, I opted to fillet the rest at home.

Back at port, we unpacked the boat and did other nautical things with ropes and pipes before collecting up our assorted bits and pieces and going our seperate ways. A big thanks again to Terry for the day out and putting us on the fish.

Here’s the stuff I didn’t get around to preparing on the boat and is awaiting the filleting knife.

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By Vic, 16 August, 2010 15:19

Had a session at Brighton Marina last night, on the East arm along with some fishing pals, dannyc, Mr codling and antonfish.  We set up in the high 50′s on a still evening with the tide dropping to a 10pm low water. The idea was to fish low water up in the hope of some bass action.

I set up one rod with a size 4 two hook sole rig baited with lugworm and chucked that out about 50 yards or so. I tried for some fresh mackerel using small sabiki feathers but only succeeded in hitting three scad and a few small pollack and pout that went into the live-bait bucket.

Once darkness fell, I set up the bass rod with a live-bait slider rig and sat back and waited… and waited…

In the meantime, I had some limited action on the sole rig, landing an under-sized sole, more pout and a ‘snotty’ eel. Once the live bait had expired, I switched to ‘joey’ mackerel heads on a long link running ledger and once those had gone, went on to use small calamari sized squid. This all proved to be a fruitless exercise, with nothing showing any interest in my offerings.

By about midnight, the other guys decided to pack in and head for home, while I, in my ever growing optimism, opted to stick it out for a couple more hours. This turned into a session of drowning worms and star gazing as nothing happened apart from some more pout and another slip sole. Feeling a bit deflated, I left at about 2am.

I was originally going to hit Seaford beach but had changed my mind in favour of the marina. I wish I’d stuck with the first option because at least there, I’ve had some success on the bass front and there’s always the chance of some decent whiting amongst all the bait robbing ‘pins’.

Ah well… Seaford will be the next session later in the week.

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By Vic, 13 May, 2008 12:31

Following the weekend’s squid action, I felt I needed a break and wanted to try for something else to add to the species list for this year. I fancied having a crack at some float fishing with live prawn for bass and pollack.

Monday morning saw my wife and I off down to Rottingdean at low water. I scrambled around the reef for bait while my wife went gathering winkles. We were having lunch with her parents and squid from Sunday was on the menu; the winkles were to be included in this seafood feast.

After about an hour or so, I had collected enough prawns for an evening session which was to be fished at Brighton Marina. There were a few large specimens but it has to be said, most were quite small compared to what can normally be collected. My wife however had collected enough winkles to feed a small army!

Later, I headed for the marina and headed out onto the East arm hoping to get a spot near the rocks at the far end. On arrival, I saw that there numerous people fishing at the beginning and over the rocks. I had to settle for bay 54.

Live prawn was sent out under a float and allowed to be carried by the current around the base of the caissons. Within seconds, the float disappeared and a small plump pollack of about a pound was swung in. I thought that this was going to be a great session but in the end was quite slow. In the three hours I was fishing, I had only six pollack all bout the size of the first. It may have been slow, but at least I was fishing and didn’t blank.

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By Vic, 13 October, 2006 15:56

I decided on Brighton Marina East arm as the venue for last night.

Arrived at about 9pm. and made my way to bay 58, to find I was the only one fishing in this area – lovely peace and quiet!

Weather was fine, clear sky, no wind at all, smooth sea with just the hint of a swell. The only sound was the incoming tide against the rocks below.

One rod was set up with standard paternoster with size4 hooks and baited with lugworm in the search for sole. The other rod had single paternoster with size 2/0 hook pennel rig baited with whole calamari and lobbed a few yards from the base.

A couple of hours passed with just a handful of Pout to show for it. This could be bait wasting exercise I thought to myself.

At around midnight or so, the lug rod arched over savagely, I lifted into what seemed like a reasonable fish. Got it to net and a few seconds later, a lovely conditioned bass of around 2 1/2lbs.was lying on the deck. Normally this would have gone back, but it had taken the small hook down so deeply, it had caused serious injury. There was no way that it would have survived, and so was quickly dispatched.

At this point, the second rod lurched over and the ratchet screamed as line was pulled from the spool – another bass? No, a pollack of around 2lbs. had struck the pennel rig. This was brought to the net and landed. I couldn’t believe it when I saw that this too had taken the hooks right down and had to meet it’s maker. I hoped that this wasn’t going to be the theme for the night.

After re-baiting casting, I sat down for a coffee and fag. I sat and studied the glowing rod tips when I saw the worm rod nodding a couple of times. I left it for a few seconds before lifting into the fish. A palm sized sole was duly landed – not quite the size I was hoping for but a sole none the less. This was lip hooked and was returned unharmed. A short while later another small sole was landed nda returned.

A few casts later, I was retrieving the worm rig and had got to the base just before lifting it out of the water, when the rod was wrenched downward so quickly, I nearly lost my grip. Another pollack slightly larger than the first had followed the worm and struck almost at the surface. It was duly landed and returned.

That was about it for the rest of the session apart from the usual suspects. So with a bass in the bag for lunch and pollack for the cat (although I do like it fresh like this, so the cat might have to fight me for it), I headed for home with plans for a near future return.