Comments (7)

By Vic, 29 August, 2011 12:19

Saturday should have been a great session at Seaford beach, with some great South westerlies stirring things up to get the fish on the feed. I arranged to meet a fishing buddy, Phil down that at the beach and fish from the 5pm low tide, up and over the 11pm high. I was going to fish two rods, both with big baits, searching for a decent bass or two.

I got down on to the beach and saw big rollers and a crashing surf, with little signs of the dreaded stuff I said I wouldn’t mention again – game on!

As a tester, I set up one rod with long link running ledger, 6/0 pennel baited with whole squid and launched it into the breakers. It managed to hold bottom ok but looked like it would be too difficult to manage two rods, so one rod it was going to be.

Phil turned up at about 7.30 and set just to east of me and soon had his bait in the water.

Darkness came and with it, the wind started to drop and the sea lost a lot of its energy but was still great looking conditions. Things were very quiet and there were no takes during the early part of the flood but I was confident of success later on towards high water.

About an hour or so before high water, the first of the ‘sea salad’ turned up – big clumps of the slimy stringy stuff. I thought it had been bad recently but things were about to get worse! As we neared the high water time, the damn stuff got heavier and seemed to choke up the sea from close in to medium range – it was everywhere! The main problem with it was that unlike before where I could unravel the stuff and pull it away from the line, this appeared to be dead and rotting, so just broke up as I pulled, meaning it had to picked off bit by bit, taking a lot more time to remove.

Phil timed one of my casts and found that after only 3 minutes and forty five seconds of being in the water, the line was clogged and had to be brought in for the crap to be removed. This obviously meant that baits weren’t being in the water long for anything to find it. I swear I was going demented, it was was driving me mental.

What made it worse, was I had a text from ‘Fishyrob’ to say that at Brighton where he was fishing (and where me and Phil had thought about going before opting for Seaford), it was relatively clear and that they were doing well with the bass. After that news, I reckon my language would have made even Kevin Wilson cringe.

Another Pal, Richard stopped by and said that he’d been fishing up by the Martello and had found the conditions to be just as bad and had given up. At least he’d had one fish but unfortunately, it had only been an eel.

Anyway, we persevered but it was all in vain with it being just about unfishable. Phil packed up at about half past midnight, whereas I thought about a few more casts. As we were chatting, I saw a good pull and bounce type of bite and unbelievably, I had a fish on! Alas, this was only for a few seconds and then it was gone before I could get it through the waves. Balls! – probably my one and only take of the night and it resulted in no fish.

Phil headed off home and I decided on ‘one last cast’, as I usually do but only lasted until about 1.30 before giving it all up as a bad deal and nightmare.

Comments (3)

By Vic, 26 August, 2011 20:25

The West arm at Shoreham has always been a popular spot for fishing, with it’s ease of access and variety of fish encountered. With this popularity comes the bad side of people who fish there. I’m not going to say anglers because serious anglers don’t do the things that were being done. Squalor, that’s all it can be described as – rubbish and rotting bait being left behind along with discarded line and tackle. People defecating on the lower deck, urinating anywhere. At times, the place smelled worse than a really smelly thing.

I reckon that if you took a load of people with ‘digestive problems’ and put them on a fishing boat with one toilet, fed them on cat food for a few days, then left the resulting carnage in the sun for a week, it would still smell sweeter than the West arm. I think you get the picture!

I digress. A few years back, some local anglers took it upon themselves to try and do something about the disgraceful state of the arm and improve it for everyone. The SAS (Shoreham Angling Squad) was born. The guys voluntarily cleared the rubbish, put bins up and kept the place in good order. Of course the usual Neanderthals carried on as before, not giving a damn about anyone or anything else apart from themselves, leaving their revolting crap behind and generally behaving like dick-heads. The lads of the SAS, undeterred, carried on cleaning and tidying. As well as trying to keep the West arm a pleasant place, they found time to organise charity fishing matches and managed to raise thousands of pounds in the process.

Anyway, it had to happen. Despite the best efforts of the lads, the Neanderthals won and because of the mess they left and their behaviour, Shoreham Port Authority decided that the West arm would be closed to anglers and it would be fenced off. A long standing, popular and productive fishing mark was going to be lost… until…

Some guys from Prime Angling in Worthing, Ally Harvey and George Cunningham (CEO of TronixPro) stepped in and put an offer to the port authority. They would find the funding to manage the arm and have someone on there to regularly clean up and keep good order; and thus West Breakwater Fishing (WBF) came into being. While these two guys are the main driving force behind the venture, they are obviously kept occupied with their business and so the day to day issues concerning WBF will be handled by Mark Sumner of SAS. This is a four month trial and the port authority still have the right to close the arm (and will do) if this venture fails.

To finance this, it was decided to start charging a small fee for fishing on the arm, in a similar fashion to what they do at Brighton Marina. This will go towards paying staff to man the arm, initially from 6am to 10pm. £3 for the first rod and £1 per additional rod. A steel hut has been erected at the beginning of the arm and will act as the HQ for WBF Tel: 07926 811882. From here, tickets can be purchased, along with bait, small items of tackle and now, even hot and cold drinks.

So far, the response has been positive, although there have been some moaners who want something for nothing. To them, I would say It’s either pay and support this idea or lose it as a venue for good. As already said, this is a four month trial. If it appears that the venture cannot be afforded due to lack of funds, then it will close and be fenced off – end of story. If it succeeds, then it stays open and will be a clean, pleasant place to fish, with the added benefit of having tackle and bait available on site. So if you think that by boycotting the arm and refusing to pay, you will somehow get them to change their minds and it will go back to being free to fish – think again, it will be gone, plain and simple. Is three quid a time too much to ask – really?

I really hope that this venture succeeds and goes from strength. Thank you all who are in involved – George, Ally, Mark and others and thank you to the port authority for listening and having the balls to trust these guys to make a good job of it. You can get the latest updates and news here on the WBF Facebook page

Comments (0)

By Vic,

On Wednesday, I wanted to get out for an evening/night session, so loaded up the car and headed for my usual spot at Seaford beach, getting there at about 7pm. High tide was at about 8pm and the plan was to fish over high and then fish the ebb down to the 2.30am low water and an hour or so back up.

What little wind there was, came from the back of the beach which made the sea a little flat, although there were some small waves which gave a bit of movement. I was going to stick to the big bait principle in an ‘all or nothing’ approach to bagging a decent bass but thought I might stick a scratching rig out in the hope of maybe getting a sole after dark.

Bass rod was set up with a long link running ledger, 6/0-4/0 pennel, loaded with whole squid and cast out. The scratcher was rigged with a size 4, two hook flapper baited with lugworm.

Soon after I got there, a mate, Phil turned up and set up to the east of me. First off, he had a shot with some feathers in an attempt to bag some mackerel for bait but after half an hour of thrashing around, he gave up and began to set up his serious fishing outfit.

Darkness fell and bites started almost immediately, unfortunately, there was nothing decent on the end of the line and the long procession of whiting started. It mattered not a jot where the bait was put, as soon as it was settled, the bait was pounced on by these greedy, toothy little critters. Even the close in, squid bait wasn’t safe! To most small fish, a bait of this size would be a daunting task but not for the whiting, which unable to swallow a bait of this size, tore it to shreds more efficiently than a chain saw.

We were soon joined by Arkam, a guy who came down from London to fish with us after reading on Facebook about recent exploits at Seaford. He set up to the West of me and soon had his baits in the water, before coming over for a chat. He told me that he usually fishes at Dungeness but had wanted to try somewhere different to get away from the whiting – bad move my friend, bad move.

All three of us were catching at all ranges but it was just whiting, with nothing else getting a look in. Phil called it a night not long after midnight, while Arkam and I stayed on for a while longer but by about 3am, I’d had enough of the bloody whiting and decided on home time as well.

Comments (2)

By Vic, 18 August, 2011 19:15

I was going to leave off fishing for a while to give the old back a rest but with the wind having swung around more Northerly and a flat calm sea, I couldn’t resist going out again last night for a spot of live-baiting at Seaford beach. I got there during the last of the daylight at just on low water and got everything set up.

The sea was flat calm, gin clear and no evidence of sea salad and noodles, so all in all looking too bad; no good really for static big baits but good for live-baiting. The wind was a just a gusty breeze from the North West which rippled the surface and whipped the cloud cover above along ata fair rate.

The plan was to have the bass rod ready and cast out with a gripper settled in and all ready to have the live-bait sent down on a slider. So with that done, I decided to hoof a worm bait out on a size 4, two hook flapper to see if anything was about yet. This could have ended in an embarrassingly inept disaster. As the lead was flying out, I saw that the line level on the ABU 6500 Sport Mag was getting dangerously low, so I slammed my thumb on the spool – just in time, there were only a few turns of line left! I’d forgotten that I’d recently begun stripping the reel but had stopped part way through. Now I don’t know why but for some strange reason, only known to those who inhabit my brain, I had tied a new shock leader on as normal. To think that the first cast and I could have spooled myself. It proves a point though – I can be a real tosser sometimes.

Anyway, with some line now back on the reel, the worm bait out all and the rest of the gear ready, I sat and had a coffee and generally chilled out. I managed to get a couple of pictures of the sunset over Newhaven which will join all the other ‘Sunset over Newhaven’ pictures I’ve taken. One of the drawbacks of being in Seaford, is that the only sunsets you get are in that direction; result? – they all look the same, apart from variation in the colours.

I digress – back on topic, once darkness fell, the pout came out to play and it wasn’t long before I had a few in the bucket. The first of the pout was promptly sent on its way on a slider and hopefully to tempt a bass.

Now, I hoped that some decent sole would hit the worm before any more pout and whiting got it. A bite! Leave it, let it develop, we know that sole need some time to get that worm down in that small mouth…wait, hands in pocket… something’s there (on the bait – not in my pocket)… just a bit longer…. pull down… lift rod – yup there’s summat there. Bring it in and instead of the anticipated flapping, muscular sole.. what do I have? A ball of slimy snot, a mangled trace and a bloody eel that’s what I’ve got. Hooray, I just love untangling stuff like this, it’s so satisfying – oh sod it, cut the line, cut the eel free and put on a new rig – it’s so much easier.

The next bit action had no fish involvement whatsoever, unless any of the people involved were called ‘Mr Fish’. It was about half midnight when I was aware of a loud crackling noise a couple of hundred yards to the East of me along Marina Parade. I looked over and could see something was well alight near to one of the shelters, I wasn’t too sure whether it was a car, rubbish fire or the shelter itself. I could also see two hooded oiks hanging around it. I phoned for the fire brigade and gave the information to the operator who said they would be along shortly. Meanwhile, the two oiks were dragging something from nearby – couldn’t see what it was and were taking it towards the fire. I then phoned for the police who arrived some time later.

Fire brigade turned up and extinguished whatever it was, while the two oiks watched for a while before skulking off into the garden area next to Hardwicke house. I updated the police who arrived, had a look around and buggered off, the brigade then went, so it was back to me just sitting on the beach not catching fish.

It wasn’t too long before I decided that enough was enough and it wasn’t going to be a fishy night. I’d given it until the hour or so after high water and there hadn’t been so much as a twitch from the live-bait to indicate a predator nearby. As said though, at least there was no sea salad and noodles that have been plaguing the fishing of late.

No fishing for the next few days but hopefully, the next session will be at least a bit more fishy.

Comments (6)

By Vic, 16 August, 2011 17:36

….Oh yes I am! Went for another session yesterday in the hunt for the ‘biggun’. Yet again Seaford beach was the chosen venue and the plan was to fish from low water, up and over the 01.20 high water. Arrived at my first spot – the ‘hump’, just West of Edinburgh Road and got myself ready.

I hit the beach and set up the bass rod with the familiar rig and bait. I had also brought along another rod which I set up with a size 4, two hook flapper. I stuck a couple of lugworm and hurled it out into the moderately lively water. I only did this because I fancied seeing if I could up my species list while waiting around.

Weed was again, a problem, nothing too dramatic but enough to be a pain while fishing close in with the big bait. It was even more troublesome with the distance rod and worm as the weed collected on the line and required leader knot clearing on each retrieval before taking on the main task of clearing the crud from the terminal tackle.

The next big cast obviously found some underwater obstruction as it snagged solid and all the rig was lost along with the leader. Not sure what is out there at about the 100 yard mark – mussel beds maybe? Anyway, I decided to forget the species hunt and packed away the spare rod, to concentrate on the bass rod.

By now it was dark and I was expecting some interest in the squid bait but it was proving difficult as it had to be brought in on a frequent basis to clear the weed. I sent a text to ‘Fishyrob’ to see if he was turning up along with another friend, Steve, as planned – when he called back, it turns out that we both had different ideas as to where we were supposed to meet. As it happens, I had decided to make a move further east anyway, so we decided to keep each other updated via text if we had any news.

With about 2 hours to go before high water, I set up again at the next spot, just up from the Beachcomber and within minutes I had a bait in the water. Virtually as soon as the bait settled, it was nailed by a bass which was soon up on the beach – only schoolie of about 1½lbs but at least it was a fish and it saved the blank.

Re-bait and cast and within seconds, the bait was on the beach in amongst a ball of weed so heavy, I had to hand line it up the shingle. Minutes later, I had it all sorted and back out again but it wasn’t long before the whole boring process had to be repeated. Pardon my French but this fucking weed is becoming a nightmare within a nightmare and is seriously hacking me off. All this lovely turbulent water unfishable due to stinking piles of worthless crappy weed. Are we going to see weed clear sea at any time in near future? I do hope so because I am on the verge of losing the plot – I have already found myself talking loudly to myself and to the weed and the stones and to the gulls and foxes and anyone or any thing that will listen.

And then, just to really piss on my strawberries, it started to rain – I mean, as if this weed isn’t slimy enough to start with, do we really need to add more water! It’s just occurred to my that I might have typed the word ‘weed’ more than any other word so far this year… hmmm.

Enough was enough, high water came and went – along with my enthusiasm and so it was time to call it a night at around 2.30. I’m going to give it a break now until all this crap has been blown away and hopefully, we can get back to fishing not gardening.

PS. I promise not to use the ‘W’ word again for the rest of the year!