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By Vic, 18 April, 2007 19:10

Decided on the spur of the moment to have a spinning session on the Ouse at Newhaven today.

Got there at about 1130, before high water. Fished on the Western bank of the river above Denton Island. Tried a few spots and varied type of lure (Dexter wedge, Toby, Mepps), speed and depth but had no takes at all.

From what I could see, there no signs of fish movement or activity. I’ll be keeping a close eye on the area and will be having a serious go later in the year.

After a couple of fruitless hours, I packed in and left it to the numerous small boats that were ‘messing about on the river’.

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By Vic, 13 April, 2007 15:55

I should have known better and stayed at home. Having decided on an evening session at Seaford beach, all the signs for decent fishing were absent. Slight breeze from the NE, small tide, clear sky, flat calm and clear sea with no movement. However, always the optimist, I set up opposite Edinburgh Road at about 6.30pm. I had earlier obtained some quality large and lively King ragworm and Peeler crab from the tackle box at Brighton Marina.

One set up consisted of running ledger baited with Peeler on size 1/0 hook. The other was 2 hook flapper baited with worm on size 1 hooks.

In the next two hours, the only thing that happened was a bloke brought his kids, plus a dog and decided to let them go swimming about 20 yards away. This bloody beach is miles long, so why decide to have their enjoyment near me? Did I look like I wanted company?
High water came and went without a single bite. And that’s pretty much how it stayed. Until I left at about 12.30am.

I did however, manage to get the old and temperamental digital camera out and working to get a couple of pics of the sunset. Not brilliant, but reasonable for that camera.

Just have to sit and wait now for a change in the weather, a decent SW blow to stir things up a bit and kick start the summer season.

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By Vic, 7 April, 2007 10:49

Fished East arm at Brighton Marina on the night of 3/4/07 in the hope of picking up something decent (yeah right).

Got there at about 7.30pm to a brisk NE breeze/wind. Set up at bay 20 and it looked like I was the only one out on the whole of the arm – at least it was peaceful.

Decided to only fish one rod as the bait situation was not good. Packs of ‘King’ ragworm that were more like pauper rag, only marginally bigger than maddies (Harbour ragworm) and a pack of frozen slipper limpet. I had no whole calamari that I would normally use to target bass.

Anyway, made the best of it and fished on. The breeze/wind got stronger but was weird to see the sea totally flat calm with no movement. Bite detection was a problem but I persevered. A couple of small pin whiting broke the fishless situation – I had begun to wonder if there was anything there.

The wind continued to gather pace and it began to get a bit uncomfortable but I carried on anyway in the hope of at least one decent fish. It was not to be – by midnight I’d had enough of whiting – all pins – no sign of the bigger ones that had been there over Winter.

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By Vic, 3 February, 2007 23:59

Fished the East arm at Brighton Marina somewhere in the high teens/20’s.

Got there at about 8pm, bit of movement in the water, clear sky, bright moon, no wind but quite cold. On one rod, I used 2 hook flapper, one hook with large Sandeel fillet, the other with squid strip, lobbed out about 20yds or so.

First fish came quite quick, a whiting of about 12oz. which fell to the sandeel. Rebaited and cast again. Second rod set up with running ledger and large calamari bait, lobbed out a few feet from the base.

The next few fish were a mixture of small whiting and small rockling. It was an even split between the baits.

All went quiet until about an hour after high water, when a few more reasonable whiting came in, all around the 12oz to 1lb.

Packed up at 1.30 when all went quiet again.

Final tally was 9 whiting, 5 rockling. Not too shabby since I hadn’t managed to fish for the last couple of months. Now next time I will make sure I get some worm before setting out.

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By Vic, 2 November, 2006 01:03

Decided to fish the East arm at Brighton Marina last night, so headed off armed with a load of lugworm and for a change, some frozen sandeel.

Arrived at around 9.30pm with the water very low and set up in bay 58 near the rocks. Conditions were a flat calm with no wind at all. Very overcast and heavy cloud.

First rod was set up with a two hook scratching rig baited with nice juicy lugworm. A gentle lob placed the bait a short distance out from the wall. Put the rod in the rest and turned to set up the second rod. Bang!! The rod lurched over over with a violent take, I grabbed it and leant into what seemed a decent fish.

A few seconds later, a decent looking bass was rolling at the base of the wall, problem was, my drop net was still against the back wall along with the rest of my gear, the cord still coiled up nice and tight. I tried, but there was no way of getting to the net without letting go of the rod or letting the fish take a load of line. In the end I decided on trying to hand-line it up the wall – big mistake – twang! as the snood line parted and Mr. bass was off into the distance. (I swore that it turned and stuck two fins up at me). I reckon on it being around the four pound mark, maybe a bit bigger.

I was well pissed off, but nevertheless, attached a new snood, re baited and chucked it again – after uncoiling the drop net and putting it in a convenient spot.

Second rig was a flowing trace baited with sandeel fillet and lobbed a few feet out from the base.

The scratching rig brought in never ending double hits of Pout and a few smallish whiting.

Whilst having a ciggy, the sandeel rod lurched over suddenly. There was a definite tugging going on, but it only resulted in a whiting of around a pound.

Some twitching on the scratcher caught my attention. It failed to develop, so I brought it in, only to find one of the smallest thornbacks I have seen hanging onto the size 2 hook. After sending it back, I recast and then repeated the action again with an even smaller thorny. Try as I might, I couldn’t get any bigger than that.

At about midnight, the wind got up and became quite a brisk SW breeze that added some movement to the water.

In the next couple of hours, it was more Pout, more whiting, a couple of school bass and one crab.

As the tide fell away, so did the bites, as did my ciggy and coffee supply. Time to call it a night and head off home.

As an aside, all the Pout fell to lug, almost all the whiting fell to sandeel or lug/sandeel mix. bass fell to lug as did the Thornies.