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By Vic, 2 June, 2011 15:19

I took the opportunity last night to fish down at Brighton Marina with the hope of bass and sole on the East arm. Armed with some lugworm and a box of squid, I walked out onto the arm and headed out and found a quiet spot at bay 40. There was a light South Westerly breeze which was enough to chop up the surface of the somewhat coloured water. It was a bright evening with virtually no cloud cover.

The intention was to try for some mackerel at towards last light and use heads and chunks for bait. I started off with some feathering and immediately hit a problem with weed, which although not visible, was obviously lying on the sea bed. Each retrieve brought the feathers back with clumps of what looked like fibrous and slimy cotton wool. Even keeping the hooks and lead away from the bottom, still brought the damn stuff back.

As light faded I rigged up a rod with a size 4 two hook flapper, baited it with the worm and cast it out. While I had a coffee, I saw the rod tip twitch a little, followed by slight tugging. I left it while I finished my drink and then retrieved a heavy weight, which turned out to be balls of the aforementioned crappy weed with a small eel amongst it. My rig was completely trashed by the critter and by the time I sorted it, I was left with one released eel and a ball of weed and snotty eel slime, the only thing I could do with it was to salvage the bits and cut the rest up for the bin. I attached a new baited rig and cast it back out in the hope that I had seen my last eel of the night – a hope that was dashed when, within minutes of the rig being out, it started to twitch and shortly after, another mass of slimy weed and even slimier eel hit the deck.

I didn’t bother trying again but carried on my quest for mackerel instead. Unfortunately, by the time darkness hit, I had cleared what seemed like the entire sea bed of weed and crap and landed precisely zero mackerel – good job I’d brought some squid along as a standby. The feathers were taken off and a rod was setup with a long link running ledger, 4/0 pennel and whole squid.

I lobbed it out about ten yards and sat back for another coffee. Within seconds, the rod tip was bouncing around to the rhythm of wave and weed. I hauled up pounds of the stuff which clung to the tackle like crap to a blanket – this was turning into the session from hell. I only hoped that the weed subsided with the rising tide.

In the meantime, the again re-deployed worm rod cunningly captured another eel which resulted in another trashed rig. For the next few hours, I alternated between clearing crap from the bass rig and the eel catching device. I must admit to feeling very disheartened, especially when Ryan and Pieman informed that it was pretty weed free up where they were in the 50’s. I toyed with the idea of moving along there but I really couldn’t be arsed and decided to stick it out. In the end, I wish I had moved.

By about 1am, I’d had enough and decided to sod off rather than waste my time anymore. So the the tally for the night was about a dozen eels, a shed load (literally) of weed and a very grumpy Vic.

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By Vic, 31 May, 2011 12:48

Just a quick report from last night. Fished Splash Point (well just East of), from about 7pm through until 12.30. Two rods, both using long link running ledgers and 4/0 pennels, alternating between launce and squid as bait.

Large amounts of weed in the wave line and beyond during the first few hours of the flood which made fishing difficult – spendt most of the time clearing leader knot and swivels etc meaning baits were out more than in. As the wind dropped and the tide rose, the weed eased off until just before high water, when the breeze came back along with the weed.

Very quiet night and was happy to end the night on two lesser spotted dogfish and one schoolie bass of around a pound.

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By Vic, 19 May, 2011 12:22

Yesterday evening, after work, I met up with a Nigel, a guy visiting from sunny Devon and a member of another site I visit – South Devon Fishing. We had initially planned to fish Brighton Marina but the wind conditions at the time put paid to that, so to plan B, we decided to fish Brighton beach, just West of the Banjo Groyne. We got onto the deserted beach at about 8.30 pm to a brisk South Westerly breeze and a nice lumpy, coloured sea, lovely looking conditions for bassing.

I setup the bass rod with a long link running ledger ending in a 4/0 pennel baited with launce to start with. After the first cast, it became apparent that weed could be a problem, as it was soon clogging up the line and tackle and I ended up having to bring in the baits at frequent intervals to clear the line. Nigel had setup his rods with flappers and vaious combinations of baits and was soon in the water.

Nigel was first in with the fish when he landed a small thornback – and no matter what he tries to tell anyone, that is not a size 47 wellie, it is my rather demure and delicate size 11! I do like these little rays but they can be a pest at times and I do wish we got them in the larger size off the shore around here.

I had just re-baited the bass rod with squid and cast out and was in the process of tackling up my second rod, when I heard the ratchet on my reel go briefly and thought it was another clump of weed pulling line off in the waves, so let it go. It then went again and I noticed my line was way off to the left – big weed! It wasn’t until I started to retrieve that I could feel the definite kick of a fish on the other end. I carefully brought it in through the waves and up onto the shingle where I found a lovely small bass of a measured 47cm and around 2½lbs. A nice and promising start to the evening, just needed to get its big brother now.

By now, the wind had started to drop and thankfully, the drizzle had also stopped, for which I was eternally grateful as my lovely neck warmer was somewhat damp and it was beginning to feel more like a wet cat around my neck – or what I imagine a wet cat around my neck would feel like.

Nigel was soon in again with another small thornie. He had told me that he had spent six? sessions in his native homeland trying for a thornie and had finally managed his quest. He then comes up here and they come along like buses. I know, I know they’re small and I hear you say that they’re not real thornies but it’s all we can manage in these ray deprived parts. Anyway, he then started to show off his ray catching prowess by landing a double shot of the little critters. Honestly, there was no way of stopping the guy. I thought I was going to spend the entire night taking pictures of the damn things.

Not to be outdone, I then had one of my very own which took a crab bait out at distance. I must point out at this point that I believe mine was the biggest one of the night – Nigel may have had the edge on quantity but I defintely had the quality factor 😉

As the tide pushed up, the wind dropped completely and as a result, the sea flattened out completely with virtually no wave action. The good thing though, was that the weed had gone and gear was coming back clean. Bites also dried up and it seemed like the fish had gone too. Launce wasn’t working and neither was the squid or crab; varying distances made no impact either.

I heard a shout go up from the thornie king and saw him walk back from the waters edge clutching a fish – and it wasn’t a thornie! He’d got his own bass, although somewhat smaller than mine A quick photo and off it went back into the oggin.

With nothing doing, I was thinking about packing up but as usual, I can never resist that ‘last cast’ and so carried on, even though my optimism levels had dropped to those of a Christmas turkey – but as they say ‘you just never know’.

As I stood there pondering what to do, I saw a rod tip dip down – the one at distance baited with crab. I waited and it dipped again and I lifted into what felt like heavy resistance with a bit of a kick. Another thornie maybe? Anyway I dragged it into the shallows and saw a flounder – must have been a greedy bugger to take whole crab on a 3/0 I thought. It was then that I saw there was another line tangled in there, which turned out to be one of Nigel’s previously lost flapper rigs -and it one of these hooks that was in the flounder. We’ll call that one a joint effort I think.

With the tide dropping quickly and at about 3.15 we decided to jack it in for the night and head back. It wasn’t the busiest of sessions but at least there were fish and it was a great time in great company. I’m hopeful of a re-match at some time in the summer when I’ll be heading off down Devon way.

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By Vic, 14 May, 2011 14:10

With the local waters being murky with May rot, I was going to give it a week before trying any serious fishing again but as usual, the draw of the sea was too strong and I just had to hit the beach. So last night, after work, I rushed home, filled the flask with a good strong coffee or “mud” as the FPO describes it, threw my gear in the car and headed off to Seaford beach.

Once there, I saw that condition wise, it was breezy with a South Westerly blowing straight into the face. Sea was nice and lumpy with some colour but with some weed thrown in. There was some cloud cover but this was somewhat patchy.

The spot I had picked was just East of the Martello tower and with lightning speed, I was setup and in the water around high water time. The rig was just the one rod with a long link running ledger, ending in a 4/0 pennel baited with whole (well minus head and tail) launce. It was then time to sit back and wait – I wasn’t expecting too much activity while it was still light but was hopeful for when darkness fell. I was a bit surprised when I heard the reel singing and saw the rod arch over (yet again it happened when my attention was pouring a cup of the aforementioned ‘Mud’). I picked the rod up and felt a fish on and quickly navigated it through the breakers and onto the beach. My first bass of 2011… woohoo. Not large but a reasonable one of about 2½lbs. (First picture)

I re-baited and sent the rig back out at the same distance and thirty minutes later another little run and another bass on the beach – smaller at about 1½lbs. (Second picture). Re-bait, re-chuck and not long afterwards, another schoolie on the shingle. Another similar sized schoolie came in about twenty minutes later. Subsequent casts produced nothing and the fish seemed to have gone off the feed completely as the tide fell rapidly. It was at about this time that weed started to become a problem, clogging up the gear within minutes of being out. Also, local beach foxes became a nuisance – two them stalking and checking my bait bucket out at every opportunity. I don’t know if they understood my accent or not but I couldn’t seem to get through to them, until I used an old trick and spoke louder, which seemed to do the trick – for a while. They stayed hanging around and showed no sign of disappearing completely.

With no more bites coming and my patience with the weed and foxes wearing a bit thin, I packed up and trudged back over the shingle to the car. No big fish tonight but at least there was some fish to be had. Looking foward to some more beachy stuff in the near future.

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By Vic, 12 May, 2011 11:43

Having had a disastrous squid championship result, I thought I’d have a go on Tuesday morning to see if I could get my squid mojo back. I arrived on the West arm at about 5am just after high water to find that the dreaded May rot was as bad as ever. With a flat calm sea, the water should normally have been crystal clear – what I had in front of me resembled pea soup, a horrible murky green with clouds of particles swirling around. It was nicely topped off with a generous helping of foaming patches….mmmmm, what a delightful recipe.

I setup two rods – one with standard float gear and squid jig, while the other was rigged with some feathers in the hope that maybe some not so bright mackerel put in an appearance. I have to say though, that with the conditions, I wasn’t really hopeful of a result on either front. However, not to be defeated at the first gate, I decided to selflessly carry on in hope. I do feel that fishing and blanking is better than not fishing at all – and as they say, “you have to be in it to win it”.

As the morning wore on, I hoped that maybe the sea would clear out at least a bit. It soon became apparent that the sea was going to remain nasty, cloudy and full of crap, although there were some clear patches at adistance away from the wall. I did sling some feathers out into the patches searching for any mackerel that may have been hunting in the clear. This exercise only resulted in an aching arm and a sense of ‘Why?’ The water got cloudier and the foam hung about and gave no impression of moving on.

A breakthrouogh came at 10.30, when a solitary, terminally stupid mackerel wandered through the murk and found my feathers – the blank was saved! I carried on for what seemed like a lifetime, alternating between feathers and float with no reward. I eventually gave in and had my last cast before calling it a day and trudging off.

Hope to hell, that this bloody rot disappears soon, so that normal fishing can resume.