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By Vic, 19 July, 2008 16:20

After a month of being laid up and not being be able to get out amongst the fishes, I was glad to finally manage a session a few days ago on Wednesday evening.

For ease of access, I plumped for the East arm at Brighton Marina and on arrival settled, myself in bay 28 and unpacked my gear.

I set up a rod using a a DVice on a running ledger with a 3/0 hook baited with hermit crab and cast it out. I then saw the mackerel shoaling near to the wall, so set up some feathers to get a few to top up my bait. Within a minute I had enough to see me through the session.

The water was literally boiling with the amount of mackerel. I have seen big shoals there before but not to this extent; to say the water there was full of fish would have been an under statement. It never ceases to amaze me when I see this happening, it really is one of nature’s little shows.

Having stocked with bait, I set up another rod with a running ledger and two hook pennel baited with mackerel fillet and lobbed out.

The next wonderful nature show was a couple of Dolphins a few hundred yards out from the wall. I saw at least two individuals doing there thing around on the surface but don’t know if there were others around too. I wish I could have caught them on camera but with the limitations of the camera and not knowing where they were going to surface next made it impossible.

Having watched the Dolphins, I sat back and waited and wondered when the predicted rain would arrive, The clouds were dark and threatening and were coming in on a light breeze from the South West, where it appeared to be getting darker. As it happened, the rain never materialised and it stayed a dry night.

First fish didn’t arrive until the last light had gone and was a small thornback about twice twice the size of my hand which had taken the crab bait. This was released, the hook rebaited and cast out again. The next bite was a sharp tug followed by nothing which I left to see if it would develop. After about 2-3 minutes, I retrieved the rig to find a small whiting firmly attached.

As for the other rod, I rebaited several times and no matter what I tried, I could not get a bite on this at all.

The next customer was a small smooth Hound pup of about 2lbs which was swung in, unhooked and released. I did hope that the larger ones would show up soon but it went really quiet with no more action until about two hours after high water when the crab rod suddenly lurched right over and the ratchet screamed, indicating a better fish. After a couple of minutes, the fish showed itself on the surface and was guided into the drop net (not easy when done single handed). It was another smooth Hound – a bit bigger at around the 4lbs mark, again it was unhooked and returned by way of dropping it in the net.

That was it for the rest of time I was there, with no indications of further fish activity. So, slightly disappointed, I walked off at around 2.30am.

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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, 20 July, 2007 16:13

Yesterday, I looked at the weather forecast and it didn’t look good for the evening tide (early hours of today actually). Storms were predicted with heavy, thundery showers. I was determined that I would fish and this instinct overtook the logic part of my brain, which suggested an evening in front of the telly.

Armed with a bucket of prawns, some lugworm and mackerel, I headed off to Brighton Marina (creature of habit, me). I arrived at around 6.30pm with the tide dropping away and about half way through the ebb. I settled myself in bay18 and looked at the horizon, from where the storms were supposed to be coming. Didn’t look too bad, heavy, grey and low cloud looked dramatic in the evening sun.

I cast out one rod using one hook ledger baited with lugworm and then set about float fishing with the prawn. I had a few takes on the prawn which I suspected were small wrasse but failed to land any. I did have one small bass but nothing spectacular. My meagre eyesight and falling light stopped play.

I had one small bream on the lugworm but nothing else.

Couple of blokes fishing up from me in the 20’s had a smooth Hound (Smut or Smoothie) using frozen Hermit crab. Looked to be in the 4lb range.

They kindly gave me the last of their Hermit crab before they left, for which I am grateful (for the crab – not for leaving). By now it was raining heavily and I was beginning to get a bit damp – even through a so called ‘water proof’ jacket.

The donated crab bagged the first smooth Hound within seconds of being cast about 20 yards out. It was only a pup weighing around a couple of pounds or so but it was a Smut. This was later followed up by another four of roughly around the same weight, although the largest was probably nearer four pounds.

I was amazed at the light show provided by the lightning, which seemed to be going no-stop. At times, it just seemed to be all around, which was a bit unnerving considering the carbon rods I was using.

Once the crab had gone so did the bites and my enthusiasm, as more rain began to fall and top up my already soaked clothes. I trudged back to the car, emptied my shoes and headed for home.

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By Vic, 16 July, 2007 12:15

After many reports of smooth Hounds being caught along the South coast, it was a toss up as top whether I went to Goring beaches or fished at Brighton Marina. High water was due to be at around 1130 pm. and the weather looked promising.

I popped in to ‘The tackle box’ at Brighton Marina to pick up some fresh bait and some odds ‘n ends. Dave, who owns the place reported that plenty of ‘Smoothies’ were being caught on the East arm. Hmmm. I was still undecided.

In the end, convenience won. That evening, armed with plenty of peeler crab, I headed off to the East arm. Looked like quite a few people also had ideas about fishing that evening. Found my self a spot at bay 17 and started to set up.

First rod set up with simple running ledger ending in a single 1/0 baited with peeler crab and cast about 80 yards or so out. Clutch was slackened off and rod placed in tripod.

Second rod also set up with simple ledger ending in single 2/0 baited with mackerel chunk and lobbed just a few yards out from the base.

Hours passed with not a sniff from a Smoothie, in fact no sniff from anything on the crab bait. From what I could see, no one else was having any either – it looked like the Smoothies had gone.

My baited drop net produced some small Prawns which were lobbed out on the second rod as livebait. Nothing there either except one savage take which produced a large Common eel which was immediately returned.

By around 1am, I decided that enough was enough and that it was unlikely that anything else was going to be caught. So, disappointingly, I packed up my gear and headed home.