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By Vic, 1 March, 2009 12:14

My previous session had gone reasonably well, so I decided on a day time session for Saturday on the East arm of Brighton Marina in the pursuit of herring and maybe a plaice.

As word has got out about the herring to be had on the marina, the usually quiet, wintery days have turned into a bit of a bunfight with multitudes of people fishing there. I hate to have to walk too far in search of a suitable spot to fish and I’m no great fan of crowded, shoulder to shoulder fishing, so I opted to set off early and get there in time to bag a decent spot.

I arrived in the marina and was at the door of The Tackle Box by just after 7am, just in time to see the owner, Dave arriving followed by the worm guy delivering some tasty fresh ragworm. After a quick chat and purchase of some odds and ends, I set off full of expectation.

Walking onto the arm, I noticed the lack of people there and the free reign I had to choose where I wanted to go. I walked around the bend and settled on bay 24 (or 25 depending on which painted number you take notice of) and started to unpack. With the tide rising I first had a shot at drifting a float through my section dragging the bait along the bottom to see if it brought any interest but this was impressively ignored by anything that might have been down there. I persisted for a while but as the tide picked up, it coincided with more and more people arriving, making it difficult to let the float drift through.

As time wore on, I began to work a set of 5 size 12 Sabikis and was immediately rewarded with a triple shot of small herrings, beautiful little bars of silver, dashed with a light mauve colour across the back and looking comletely unlike the grey dull offerings you normally see in a supermarket. Wanting to have some a bit larger, I continued to work the small lures, bouncing the lead across the seabed. Each time I had a hit, it was always the smaller herrings and nothing of a retainable size.

In an effort to try and bag something else, I swapped the float setup and went for a single size 2 hook ledgered DVice setup baited with ragworm. This was cast out at varying distances over the time I was there but each time I retrieved to rebait, the bait came back as good as it went out with nothing having given it a chew. The only exception was the capture of a small Masked Crab which had latched on to the worm and had refused to release it.

Had a few more goes for the herrings but only ended up with the little ones and these were very sporadic. As darkness fell, I felt there was little worth staying for, so decided to leave it for another day.

All in all it was a great day to be out and was another session of testing my back and showed that things are improving all the time.

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By Vic, 18 June, 2008 15:54

On Monday 16th myself and a few blokes from WSF decided to have a session at Brighton Marina. The target was smooth Hound (aka smoothie or smut). There have been a few small ones caught recently with the beginning of the annual moult of the Spider crab. It was hoped that the larger ones were not far off, coming in to feed on the soft, recently moulted/peeled crab. Not renowned for large smoothies, the marina does produce a few reasonable ones at times.

I arrived at around 6.45pm and while walking out on the arm, I spotted Fishyrob fishing in one of the lower bays using live prawn on a float rig. After a brief chat, I continued along and saw that there were a few already fishing along the ‘bend’ and filling the bays. I could have wondered all the way out on the arm for more room but wanted to stay in the lower mid section as we had decided earlier, for the best chance of a smoothie. I finally found a vacant spot and settled myself in bay 22.

I started off with a bit feathering for mackerel to top up the bait situation and managed a few. There didn’t seem to be that many around compared with other days but that is the way at the marina – some days loads, other days scarce.

As the evening wore on, I set up my rods ready for darkness to fall. One was set up with running ledger DVice with peeler crab or hermit crab on a 3/0 hook and fished at varying distances. The other rod was set up again with a running ledger but with a 4/0 pennel rig and alternating between whole calamari and mackerel fillet as bait.

The other lads turned up and after introductions and a quick chat, unpacked and set up their gear to begin fishing. We filled a few adjacent bays which apart from making for a better atmosphere and almost competition conditions, it is better as we were all in one place. The fishing was a bit on the quiet side with not even Pout to break the monotony. At least it gave us a chance to have a natter, as some had never met before and were just known through the WSF forums.

We had a brief period of activity where a few smoothies were landed which although not large, were in the 3-4lbs bracket. The spell was short-lived and as quickly as it started, it went quiet again and no further smoothies were caught.

By the end of the evening, for my efforts, I was rewarded with one pout but determined to have a least one half reasonable fish, I stayed after everyone else had gone. Shortly after Rob left, I brought in a small thornback ray which went for the peeler crab on the DVice rig. I really like rays, there’s just something about them that appeals to me. It’s just a shame that for some reason, this venue and Seaford produce numerous small rays but never anything of a decent size. Quite why this is, I don’t know but maybe I should do some research into the matter and try and find out why. I should make the effort to travel to better ray spots but there is nowhere relatively near for that produces decent rays in larger numbers apart from maybe Hampshire. Widewater at Shoreham does throw them up from time to time but not enough to go there specifically for them.

Anyway, enough of the muttering, the next piece of action was shortly after this. My second rod lurched over sharply and the ratchet screamed loudly as something below grabbed the whole small mackerel fillet I had lobbed over the side. I knew it wouldn’t be a Smoothie and that it was more likely to be a bass. It gave a very spirited fight and I did think it was going to be somewhat larger than the 2½ lb specimen that came aboard. However it was another fish under the belt and made up for the direness of earlier. I had intended to pack up around this time but opted to stay a just while longer (how many times have we done that) to see what else I could bag. I should have gone with my earlier decision as no more fish showed and it went back to unfishy. This being the case, I decided to jack it in at 3am.

Although there were no Smoothies in quantity, it was a nice little meet and good to see a few more faces from the WSF forums.

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By Vic, 6 June, 2008 15:29

Fished a few hours down at the East arm of Brighton Marina last night from about 7pm through until around 2am.

Settled in bay 24 and fished 2 rods – one was rigged with a long & low alternating between peeler crab and hermit crab as bait, the other, a running ledger with 3/0 pennel alternating between mackerel fillet and whole calamari.

The supposed North westerly light breeze had turned to a West or South West which added a bit of chop to the water which had just a slight hint of colour to it.

Tried to get a few mackerel for bait and added 3 to the bucket but they weren’t exactly swarming. That changed once the light faded when it went absolutely berserk, the water boiling in huge patches. After a few minutes, I had enough for bait and for the BBQ.

First ‘proper’ fish of the night was a small thornback ray about twice the size of my hand which fell to hermit crab. Another followed about half an hour later – again to hermit crab.

There was no interest in the pennel rig apart from being ripped up by crabs and other small creatures.

About an hour before high water, I had a stonking bite on the pennel whole calamari which had the rod hooped over. I was convinced it was going to be a bass as I lifted into what felt like something reasonable – not a great fight by any means, just weighty. Imagine my surprise when this large Pout came up. It’s the biggest I’ve had from the marina and one of the biggest I’ve had from the shore. It weighed in at 1lb 10oz and was just nudging 40cm.

That was actually the last fish of the night and I jacked it in shortly after.

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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, 12 May, 2008 21:43

Having had some success at the WSF organised event on Saturday, I returned to Brighton Marina again yesterday with squid being the target. I arrived at at around 3pm with high water expected at approximately 5pm. As before, the marina was quite crowded, so I headed out to the bays nearer the end and eventually set up in about bay 54.

Tackle consisted of an eleven foot, 2½ lb test curve carp rod, bait runner fixed spool reel loaded with braid. Terminal tackle was a green jig under a float cocked with a 1½ oz ball weight.

Things started slowly with no indications of activity showing. By about 4pm, I tried a tactic change and decided to bait the jig. I’d been unable to get any mackerel for bait at the ‘Tackle Box‘, so after being persuaded, I thought I’d try frozen ‘Blueys’, otherwise known as Pacific Saury which are an imported oily fish, mainly used as a food source but have found their way onto the bait market. I cut a section from the tail end of a Bluey and lashed it to the jig with bait elastic. I cast to roughly the same location as before, hoping that there were more waiting there.

I propped my rod against the wall, set the bait runner and started to get a drink when the bait runner wailed as line was pulled from the reel. While picking up the rod, I looked over the edge and saw my float disappearing. I lifted gently and began to recover some line and saw a nice squid below the surface.

This is where I took a chance in deciding to lift the squid straight out rather than using a drop net. I pointed the rod down, wound in as much as I could until the squid was just on the surface below me and lifted in one smooth movement. Job done, one squid landed safely. It was photographed by a kind chap who was fishing just along from me. Whoever you are and if you’re reading this, many thanks.

In the next ten minutes, I had a further two squid landed, both on ‘bluey’ baited jigs just off the bottom and no more than twenty yards out from the base of the wall. Biggest of the three weighed in at 2lb 6oz.

The action died after not long after these three had been caught and no more were found. I tried various tactics – baited and non-baited jigs in varying colours and sizes from the medium sized green one I’d caught the three on, to blue, orange and red, small and large. I am of the opinion that groups of squid work their way along the wall hunting their prey of prawns and small bait fish and do not remain static in one place. On my next trip, I’ll travel lighter and be more mobile while attempting to follow them along the wall and try to establish a pattern of feeding behaviour. Of course, I’ll be experimenting as I go, trying different rigs, methods and even baits, trying to gather more information on these interesting (and tasty) creatures.