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By Vic, 19 May, 2010 11:53

One of my target species for 2010 is sole, a particular favourite of mine as they always provide a tasty meal for the following day. It is also the subject of humour in our household, as whenever I mention the fish, my FPO always retorts with “sole?… Ah, sole”. We find it amusing but then we always find childish toilet type humour funny.

High water was predicted for 3.30am today, so yesterday afternoon, I packed all my gear into the car and went off to work with the intention of going straight to Brighton Marina after I finished. I stopped off at The Tackle Box before work to pick up some bait and got some of the best wrapped lugworm I’ve seen for a while – all decent sized worms which would give at least two baits per worm.

With everything sorted, I went in to work, hoping for an easy ride and an early get away. Why is it always the case that when you have plans, things attempt to sabotage them, whether it be work, heavy traffic or some other inconvenience. Anyway, I eventually managed to get away and headed off for my session.

It was about 8.45pm by the time I got to my spot on a deserted east arm of the marina and 9pm baits were in the water. It was a very still and quite warmish evening with no wind, an oily flat sea and overcast sky, so signs were pretty good for what I wanted. To start with, one rod was set up with a sole rig using two size 4 fine wire hooks baited with the lugworm; I wasn’t really expecting any action until it got dark but you never know. While it was still light, I set up another rod with a string of ‘feathers’ and set about seeing if any mackerel were about that I could use as a bass bait or take home for lunch. I tried until after dark but there was nothing, zilch, zero, bugger all, so I packed that in and set up the rod with the same sole rig and sent that out.

First two fish were schoolie bass of around 35cm that came at about 10pm after a series of rattly twitches on the rod tip. These were followed by a string of rockling and Pout interspersed with a palm sized thornback ray. It wasn’t until just before midnight and mid flood tide that the first sole was hooked and landed, it may only have been a slip of about 25cm but it was a sole at least; the first of 2010 and target achieved. A second one followed about 20 minutes later which was identical in size and could have been  the first one’s twin. I was feeling optimistic about landing a table fish but after an hour or so passed, this feeling ebbed away and was gone after yet another hour passed.

I fished through the high water period with only one bite which turned out to be everyone’s favourite (not) rockling. It was at this point that the bait ran out as well as my optimism, so packed up, cleared my area of any crap and walked back to the car, happy that I’d got my target species but downhearted that they weren’t table size.

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By Vic, 17 April, 2010 22:03

My last couple of attempts at snagging squid at Brighton Marina have been dismal failures, with the last one being particularly annoying as I had one but lost it at the net. In an attempt to break my squid Duck for 2010, I was back at the marina early this morning, making sure I got a decent spot before the weekend hoards filled the spaces – although this time, the East rather than the West arm was the venue.

I was on location in bay 48 on the arm by 6.45 am on a lovely bright morning with just a slight Southerly breeze ruffling the surprisingly cloudy water; I was hopeful that the sea would clear later as the tide rose. I set up my gear and used the usual terminal tackle of a float fished Tronix jig – pink to start and green later and then back to pink. As high water wasn’t due until around 2pm (depending on which tide table you read), I wasn’t expecting too much in the way of action, so I just enjoyed the peacefulness of it all, having not been out too much this year. As the hours wore on, the breeze dropped and it got quite warm but the on the business side of things, I was still squidless.

After a few hours, Richard, one of the guys from WSF turned up with his mate Nick and started fishing a couple of bays along from me. Handily for me that they’d brought a drop net along (left mine at home again) because at about 1pm, I had a slow take and a squid was on. A minute or so later, after Richard guided the net-handling Nick, my first landed squid of 2010 was on the deck and what a relief it was too.

The rest of the day was dead, no further takes at all, not so much as a sniff. The only highlight was reuniting Fishyrob with his leather hat he’d lost the previous night and found by me while walking out on the arm today. I left the marina by about 4pm and once home, the days catch was cleaned sliced and fried for tea, there’s nothing quite like straight from the sea onto the plate freshness. Anna was going to do her squid casserole but we decided that today was going to be “Calamari” as Alex has been pestering me about squid since last year. The next one will definitely be going casseroled though. Here’s a few pictures of before during and after. Click on images for larger versions.

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By Vic, 10 November, 2009 14:03

I Fished Seaford beach last night after work, from 9pm through until 4am. It was a brilliantly clear night which became cloudier later on, not a breath of wind but still quite chilly. There was very little movement in the water which had just a tinge of colour. I used a familiar setup, two rods – one with size 2, two hook paternoster baited with black lug and squid strip. The other rod, used a 3/0 pennel with whole squid relatively close in.

There were loads of whiting from the off, with many double shots of small to medium fish on the lugworm/squid combo but some really decent sized ones of around the pound mark (with one in particular at 1lb 10oz) on the bigger baits. It was pretty frantic at times with both rods rattling and bouncing away with bites at the same time. I swear there must have been a carpet of the things as the rods were going virtually as soon as the lead hit the bottom. As the tide rose and approached peak, the bites dropped off until there was nothing happening at all. Having been reduced to just scraps of bait, I decided to call it a night and head for home safe in the knowledge that I had enough whiting to keep Anna happy in the kitchen.

Ended the night with a dozen keepers which are now all cleaned, filleted and skinned and ready for Thai fish cakes and fish balls.

All in all, a cold but busy and enjoyable night.

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By Vic, 3 October, 2009 10:21

As the weather looked promising with some Westerly winds building up over the weekend which meant more movement in the water, I decided to take advantage and fish Seaford beach after work on Friday. I arrived at the beach at about 9pm and set up just about half way between The Beachcomber and West view. The wind was a moderate, in the face breeze; sea state was not rough – a bit lumpy and easy enough to hold bottom. DVice held solid as did 5oz Breakaway gripper. Things looked just right.

I fished one rod with lugworm /squid cocktail at varying distances on a ledgered DVice and another rod close in with a ledgered 4/0 pennel baited with either whole squid or sandeel.

First fish of the night was a bass of around a pound and a bit which took sandeel close in and then managed to get its revenge by slicing my thumb with one of it’s gill plates. I then missed a lovely run, and followed it with a hook up but dropped fish, both again of sandeel. Only had one knock on the squid which took me by surprise so much that I struck, forgetting I had the reel in free spool (not a good idea). These were all about 1 – 1½ hours before high water after which it went dead.

Had a couple of small Pout on the lug/squid combination and then about an hour after high water, had a couple of whiting which were of a decent size. It then turned off completely with no other bites showing.

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By Vic, 8 September, 2009 16:19

Having been weeded out at the Beachcomber in Seaford last time around, I was eager to have another go and to see if there were any decent bass in a feeding mood, so I had another session last night. Got there at about 7.30pm while still light and parked about 50 yards East of the of the pub and hopped out onto the beach for a peek to see if the dreaded weed was lurking. At first glimpse, I couldn’t see any weed but I did see what I thought was a string of net markers only about 10 yards from the shoreline. It wasn’t until I got closer and had a good look, that I could see they were Gulls – strangely all equidistant and in a perfect line and parallel with the shore, it was so weird. Anyway, I’m off to Specsavers tomorrow so as not to be so easily fooled next time.

Having seen that there were no signs of weed, I set up one rod with a ledgered DVice, size 2 hook baited with lugworm and chucked this out while I set about setting up the bass rod in preparation for darkness. Having got everything sorted and had a coffee, I tended to the worm rod, to find it rattling away. On bringing it in, I saw an obvious small flatfish coming in that I first thought was a dab but having taken hold of it and turned it ‘colour side up’ I saw that it was a small plaice. Unhooked and put back, baited up and re-cast. The next two fish were whiting which although not ‘pin’, weren’t exactly ‘jumbo’ either.

As darkness fell, the bites dried up with not one bit of interest shown except by large balls of the ‘Spaghetti weed’ we’ve been plagued with. Anyway, I decided it was time to deploy the bass rod in earnest. I put the worm rod to one side, baited up the 4/0 pennel rig with a whole squid and lobbed it out into what was not so much a nice surf but a gentle tumble of wavelets. First hit was a small bass which threw the hook at the waters edge. Next was another bass of about 1½lbs. which was quite a spirited little blighter.

It all went a bit quiet after that until about 2 hours before high water when it went a little hectic with a bass a chuck, the biggest going about 2½lbs but not one was on squid. I’d changed tactic when it had gone quiet and had tried to some largish blast frozen Ammo launce (Greater sandeel) which the bass hit really hard. One of the fish had a distinct deformity of the lower jaw and lip which made it look like Victoria Beckham at a photo opportunity. Its mouth could hardly open and it was a hell of a job to get the hook (how a 4/0 got in there in the first place is a mystery). Hook was removed and ‘Posh’ was returned to pout another day.

I was full of expectation for the ‘Golden hour’ after high water but it was not to be. After the earlier flurry of activity, it went to none at all and before long it was 2.30am with not one more fish added to the tally. As I packed up, I reflected that it hadn’t been too bad really – total of 8 bass, 2 whiting, 1 plaice. Now, I know the bass weren’t huge – not even big but it was good fun and its better than a blankety blank. I think I may give the launce another try on the next trip and see if I get similar results. I was surprised that only two were taken on squid but it could just be coincidence that at the time I changed over to launce, the fish came on at the same time and that if I’d carried on with the squid, I would still have caught anyway… who knows.