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By Vic, 5 August, 2011 13:22

I’ve been out of action for a little while with the back absolutely screaming but looking at yesterdays forecast and seeing some nice South Westerlies breaking up the recent calm, I just couldn’t resist a visit to my old favourite hunting ground. So dosed up on painkillers and with my trusty beach chair, I set off for Seaford beach.

With a low tide predicted for about 9.45pm, I arrived at 8.30 to a blustery beach, opposite West View. It was blowing a good ‘un, with a big surf running and I suddenly had a feeling off déjà vu – surely it wasn’t going to be another nightmare! Always game for a laugh, I set up anyway, using only one bass rod rigged with a long link running ledger and 6/0 pennel to be baited with whole squid.

First couple of casts resulted in line getting clogged with weed and being dragged along the beach – this was going to be fun! I persevered all the way through low water and the first couple of hours of the flood, when it seemed to improve, with the weed lessening and the water losing some of its energy as the wind started to drop. Still no fish but at least I got to spend some quality time in my chair.

At about 1am, I had a huge pull down of a bite and was briefly connected to what felt like a reasonable bass before it spat the bait – at least I knew there were fish in the vicinity. 1.30am, I had another pull down and this time the fish stayed on and was soon beached, a plump little 42cm, two pounder. Couldn’t get a picture, as the camera came up with some cryptic warning of a ‘card error’, which later turned out be that the card wasn’t seated properly and easily remedied.

It wasn’t long after this that I had a chat with a guy that was fishing just along from me and who I’d seen earlier while he was walking his dog and had stopped to ask what the conditions were like. Anyway, he tells me he reads these pages often, so I thought I’d mention him – although embarrassingly, I didn’t catch your name (sorry).

It was coming up to 2.30 when I seriously thought about calling it a night – but as always, I decided to carry on until the bait ran out, besides I was quite enjoying myself in my little chair watching the quite numerous meteorites.

At 2.30ish, I had a cracking take, which had the rod whipping round as a fish picked up the squid bait, turned and shot back out through the waves at a rate of knots. This felt like a better fish and after a short but spirited fight, my shining prize was on the beach a lovely 54cm four pound bass.

I re-baited with a larger squid and lobbed it out to roughly where I’d had it before, about twenty yards out in the turbulent and now thankfully, weed free water. I let the bait settle, before turning to have a sit down and a coffee. It was a long sit, as it all went a bit quiet, with just the rhythmic nodding of the rod tip, as the waves broke over the line. 3.20 and time for a fresh bait, so I retrieved, selected a particularly fat and juicy squid, mounted it on the hooks and lobbed it back out.

I had just put the rod in the rest, so I could dig out a spare tip light, when the rod tip slammed down and the butt slipped out of the cup and shot skyward. I made a grab for it and could feel a hard fighting bass on t’ other end, I felt sure that this going to be a cracker! I gently but firmly steered the fish through the breakers, letting take line when it wanted – I did not want lose this one! I go the timing just right and I let the next big wave carry it up the shingle, where I was surprised to see it was smaller than I expected; nevertheless, it was still a reasonable bass of 60cm and 5lbs 1oz.

By now, I was down to my last couple of squid, so stuck the larger of the two on the hooks and cast it back out and waited. Twenty minutes later, there was a plucking on the rod tip that was out of sync with the waves, so I felt the line and there it was again – tap, tap and then wallop! Tip down, fish on and shortly after, it was fish on the beach – another 42cm, two pounder. The last squid was hooked and cast out and then I set about clearing up around in preparation for moving off. I then sat and finished the last of my coffee before deciding that I’d had enough for the night and desperately needed my bed.

So, it was another successful session at my favourite spot with some nice fish – I know that my elusive double is there and waiting and that this is all training for that night – fingers crossed.

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By Vic, 28 July, 2011 11:03

After the hectic and enjoyable morning at Seaford, I nipped over to Brighton Marina yesterday evening in the hope of bass that might fancy something from my bucket of treats, namely the heads and guts from the morning’s catch – yummo.

I arrived on the east arm at about 7.15 and walked out to the 40’s where I would meet up with Danny, Mike and Ant, who had got down there earlier. I was looking forward to seeing what festering crap Danny had brought with him this time for bait! as I got to the mark, our heroic trio were already hard at work with their – what seemed like – fifty rods between them. I was surprised (and disappointed) when I heard that they had fresh bait. My spirits were lifted later on in the night though when Danny cracked open a hermit crab and I heard that shout of “It’s minging”. Ah, normality resumed!

After the usual abusive pleasantries, I set up for the night – one rod with feathers for some fresh mackerel (by now my bucket of heads was smelling pretty awful and had liquefied), one scratcher with a size 4, two hook flapper, baited with lugworm and the bass rod using a long link running ledger, long trace and single 6/0.

First chuck with the feathers brought in a joey mackerel, so it was quick change and off came the single 5/0 on the bass rod and swapped with a sliding live bait rig; within seconds, the joey was back out. once the livey was expired, I started using mackerel head ‘n’ guts and fillet from fresh the mackerel I was catching on the feathers – I managed half a dozen before calling a halt. Despite my best efforts, the bass rig was ignored all night.

The scratching rod? Well, to cut things short, that stayed untouched all night! The only other thing to come aboard for me, was a lone scad (pictured), otherwise known as horse mackerel on feathers – not a very inspiring fish but at least it’s another one ticked off the species list.

As for the three musketeers, I think they had a mix of mackerel, small ray, small smooth hound, pout before finally bottling it and escaping by about 1am. I, of course, stayed the duration but even my normal optimism was well and truly dashed by about 3am, so decided on getting off home.

Not had a lot of luck at the marina this year really – but to be fair, I haven’t fished it nearly as much as I have in previous years, so maybe I should put a few more hours in and pay it more attention.

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By Vic, 27 July, 2011 16:44

Seeing as the weather has been settled for a while and conditions looked good for a mackerel or two off the beach, I decided to take our son Alex for a promised session for him to catch a fish.

Arrived at Seaford beach at around 8am and set up his small spinning rod with a single Dexter wedge and it wasn’t long before he was getting into the swing of things. With each cast, his distance was improving and he was managing to hoof it quite a way considering how light the rod was.

At about 8.30, I saw some activity not too far out, so guided Alex where to cast and he managed to hit the right spot straight away. Soon enough, the little rod was bending and bouncing away with the weight of a fighting mackerel. Within a short while, he got it in and beached the little scrapper.

He was soon away again and with the mackerel shoals now very close to the shoreline, he had no difficulty reaching them. It wasn’t long before I heard the cry “I’ve got another one” and I had to put the camera down and take the fish off the hook, dispatch it and bag it.

By now, the shoals were in a feeding frenzy and they were so close, they were right up to the waters edge, chasing small sprats which ended up beaching themselves in an attempt at evading their pursuers. I could see along the beach, people were just picking up handfuls of the small silver fish – much to the disgust of the many gulls circling for an easy meal. As not to waste such a fine little fish, we had a few ourselves!

This carried on for quite some time and I could see anglers along the shoreline having a bumper session. Meanwhile, Alex was continuing to have a right old time, bringing fish after fish. I couldn’t resist it, so asking if he needed a break, I kindly took the rod from him to give his arms a rest – see how kind I am! While I was having a chuck, the sprats kept leaping up onto the beach in their reckless escape attempts.

It wasn’t too long before I decided that we had enough mackerel for our needs (about a dozen), some for supper and some for bait, so packed up and went off to get Alex the ice-cream that he’d been after and had gone on about – again and again. To be honest I was ready for a cup of well earned coffee and a sit down!

And so we left after a very entertaining morning, with the bonus of a few fish. Alex enjoyed himself and seems to be getting the fishing bug from me – although I have a sneaking suspicion that it was the ice-cream offer that got him out of the house. Some of the the mackerel have now been put in the fridge and ready for an evening session down at Brighton Marina tonight. Hopefully there will be obliging bass hanging around ready for dad.

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By Vic, 20 July, 2011 13:42

Although the recent South Westerlies have subsided and the seas have calmed considerably, I thought I’d go anyway and have a bassing and scratching session last night. Armed with a couple of boxes of squid and some ragworm, I headed over to Seaford Beach. I arrived at about 8pm – an hour or so before low water and found a calm sea with a few gentle breaking waves to stir things up, virtually no wind, just a light breeze and a slightly overcast sky.

To start with, I set up the scratching rod with a size 4, two hook flapper baited with the worm and sent that out. I planned to start with the bass rod just after low water and into the dusk, so I set it up in readiness with a long link running ledger with a 5/0 pennel.

It wasn’t long before the scratcher showed signs of activity and the first retrieve brought in a double shot of a small dab and a micro smooth hound. I re-cast and within seconds, it was on the go again, only this time, it was small school bass of about a pound. In the following hour or so, I had another four similar sized bass and another dab.

At about 9.30, I deployed the bass rod, just lobbing the bait beyond what breaking waves there were. I kept the scratcher out as well, which brought in a few small pout to add to the tally.

Bang on the stroke of 11pm was when the squid was hit hard, hooping the rod over and after a spirited little fight, a plump bass was on the shingle. It went around 2½lbs and 46cm. A quick re-bait and cast and just in time to see the scratcher rod tip pull down which resulted in a small thornback ray hitting the beach. At this point, I decided to abandon the scratcher and concentrate on the bass rod. After packing the rod away, I saw that there was a huge slack line on the bass rod and after a frantic wind in, another bass of about a pound was on the beach.

Half an hour later, the bass rod trembled in my hand and then the tip slammed down hard and the fish shot off to the right, then out before spitting the bait, leaving the squid in tatters. Another good bite was missed, some twenty minutes later while distracted with my coffee.

1.15am and just over four hours into the flood tide there was a repeated tapping on the rod tip before a good pull down and it was another fish on. There wasn’t so much spirit in this one just some dogged tugging and dead weight – until it was on the shoreline, when it took off a bit before being gently slid up the shingle. A better fish this one at 54cm and 4lbs on the nose.

Re-bait, re-cast and re-coffee while awaiting the next one – hopefully. By now, it was actually quite warm and a really pleasant night to be out. The sea had flattened out even more and I wasn’t expecting much else to happen, when suddenly, bang! The rod tip went over and another fish was on but as quick as it came, it went, leaving another shredded squid.

With about half an hour to go before high water, thoughts of packing up were in my mind, when out of the blue I had another take and shortly after, a three pounder emerged out of the wavelets and onto the beach. The last squid was impaled on the hooks and lobbed out, where it remained untouched until it was time to go.

This turned out to be quite a night – especially when I hadn’t expected so much action. Just goes to show that sometimes, fish don’t always conform to the predictions on times, states of tide and weather. The next trips to this beach will be purely bass in an attempt to get that allusive ‘double’. It’s there and it’s waiting.

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By Vic,

Decided on a session at Seaford Beach on Saturday evening, seeing as there was a very brisk South Westerly blowing and there might have been a chance of a decent bass. I got there at about 8pm and saw that it was very rough and was going to be very tough going , I even contemplated just turning around and going home but thought, “why the hell not, let’s give it a go”.

I fished (if that’s the term for it) just one rod with a big squid bait. First cast was a nightmare – within seconds, my tackle was washed straight back up the beach I re-cast as near as I could beyond the big breakers. This time it held but not long after, I could see that my line was being dragged in the undertow and I found that when I tried to retrieve, the line had been buried in the shingle – result, one lost rig.

I re-tackled and had another attempt but this ended with the same result. Another rig lost. I decided to sit it out for a while, hoping that things might improve as the water deepened. so sat and worked my way through my flask of coffee. After an hour or so, I had another attempt but I could see that from the off, fishing in these conditions was going to be an impossibility, so, it was up sticks and sod off home.

Did a short video clip, which shows a little of what it was like and what a really brave little person I was to try and fish it.