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By Vic, 23 March, 2011 10:09

It wasn’t that long ago that after being fed up with just catching pin whiting and slugs (rockling) session after session, I said I would pack up fishing proper until the start of April. Anyway, I just couldn’t resist the lure of the beach, so last night found me at Seaford with rod in hand – if you’ll pardon the expression. I got there at about 8.30pm to fish the tide up to the 12.40am high water – big tide too at 7.2m. Conditions were less than ideal, a flat, oily calm sea which was as clear as gin. No wind at all, not even the slightest breath of a breeze. To cap it all off, the sky was crystal clear with a big and very bright moon.

I had decided that to avoid whiting and slugs, I would stick with my plan of all or nothing and fish just one rod and use large launce (sandeel) for bait. So a long link running ledger with a 4/o pennel was setup. The hope was for any bass that might have been around – although deep down, I really didn’t expect to snag one.

After about 30 minutes, the rod tip pulled down slightly and then just started nodding away. I struck and retieved a small dogfish of the lesser spotted variety any potential blank was thus saved. Unhooked and retured, the stupid fish swam back to the waters edge and was promptly stranded. Why do they all do that?

Half an hour later, another one hit the shingle, was unhooked and released for it to do the same – weird. The rest of the night was spent equally between standing there doing nothing and unhooking dogfish. They weren’t there in plague numbers but just enough to keep things ticking over. It certainly beats the persistant rod tip rattling and constant reeling in of tiny whiting and slugs.

I packed up at about 2.30am with a final tally of 11 LSD’s. Considering I wasn’t expecting much, it turned out to be a pretty good session. Another joy was being able to fish without having to wear my floaty suit, just the salopettes and leaving the jacket in the car. It wasn’t by any means warm but it wasn’t too cold either.

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By Vic, 7 March, 2011 09:45

Saturday nigh night saw a change in venue as I headed for a small, unofficial competition organised by a young lad passionate about his fishing (well done Ryan for your efforts). Brighton beach, down by the Banjo Groyne was the mark chosen.

I arrived there at about 6pm and walking onto the beach , just West of the groyne, saw that there were already some of the guys down there. The plan was to fish the tide up and over the midnight high water. Conditions were slightly better than the previous night, with an overcast sky and a bit of movement in the clear sea.

Two rods used, one with a two hook flapper baited with lugworm, while the second rod was setup with a long link running ledger terminating in a pennel baited with launce, hoping for bass.

Nothing happened until darkness came and then it was as the previous trip – tiny whiting and slugs (rockling). After Ryan truned up, we wondered over for a chin wag with some of the other guys who are also members of  WSF a fishing website that I frequent.

It was then back to the fishing which really was a just an excercise in bait up, cast, retrieve, unhook small whiting/slug, re-bait, cast out etc etc. The launce was being savaged by the small fishs, I ended up taking that rig off and putting a flapper on that rod too. It wasn’t long before Igot fed up with watching two twitching and rattling rod tips, so I packed up one rod and continued with just the one.

High water came and went along with my enthusiasm. It wasn’t long after this that I decided bed was better than beach and upped sticks and left.

I think that between us, we shifted a lot of whiting and a load of slugs. Ryan did have a small flounder and the other guys managed flounder and a schoolie bass.

This was the first time I had fished this beach for many years and I’d forgotten what a great place it is. There are always promising reports from this area of the coast and good fish are landed every year. This being the case, I’ve promised myself that I’ll make the effort to fish it more often this year.

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By Vic,

This crap period for sea fishing continued its typical direness during a session at Seaford beach on Friday night. I got to the beach at about 8pm after finishing work and setup near West View. Two rods used – one with a two hook flapper baited with lugworm and squid strip, the other employed a long link running ledger ending with a pennel loaded with launce.

Conditions were icy cold, clear sky with no wind at all. This meant a very still and clear sea – not ideal for general fishing.

From the start, it was the usual pin whiting and slugs (rockling) on the worm baits while the launce was shredded by pin whiting looking for a change in diet. The only change was when a small, palm sized dab took one of the worms.

It was so cold that I had frost forming on my bag and floaty suit and the very slowly thawing launce sat in a bucket of fishy slush puppy. I don’t know why I stuck it out but I guess the draw of just being on the beach was too strong. I stuck it out until about 1.30 am., by which time, I was sick of seeing slug after slug and tiny whiting. I decided that saving the bait was a better idea so headed off to defrost the car before heading home.

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By Vic, 21 February, 2011 13:27

Decided on an after work session bown at Seaford beach on Friday and had arranged to meet a bloke from South Devon Fishing who was up this neck of the woods visiting – great to meet you Nigel and look forward to a return visit and a trip down to your shores in the summer.

I got there about 8pm and headed over the shingle to our chosen spot between West View and the Beachcomber. A brisk South East breeze was putting a bit of movement in the coloured up water. Once setup, baits were cast out and the wait began. I was using a size 2 two hook flapper baited with lugworm on one rod and a whole launce close in on a running ledger and pennel setup in the hope of an early bass. Big tides of 7 meteres plus, meant that the water was pushing through at quite a rate and tackle was being dragged a fair bit at times despite using grippers.

Whiting were the first of the fish and Nigel had a tidy, table one which I reckon was close on 1½lbs. whereas I could only manage pins. The dreaded rockling put in an appearance just to spice things up a bit (not), along with a few pout.

Have to say the fishing wasn’t brilliant, with long periods of inactivity but this at least meant we could have a good old chin wag, put the world to rights and swap info on our favourite marks.

High water came and went at about 11.30 and the ebb tide was a bastard to fish with the wind coming straight along the beach, helping to push bait and tackle back Westwards. Sadly, there were no more fish forthcoming to speak of, although Nigel managed a scorpion fish in the last moments. We finished up at about 1.30 with the visitors side trouncing the local boy.

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By Vic, 10 February, 2011 14:17

Seeing that we’d had a few days of winds from Southerly directions to stir the sea up a bit, I decided on a session at Seaford beach after work yesterday. I hit the beach at the 9pm low water and went to a spot  just West of West View, mind you, I could have picked anywhere, as I was the only soul on the beach as far as I could see. It looked very promising, with a good amount of movement in the coloured up sea. Access was much easier than the last time with the recent rough seas having almost demolished the steep shingle cliff.

Within minutes, I had a size 4, two hook flapper with lugworm launched out at distance to do its work while I set up the second rod with the same end gear. Once both rods were out, I poured a coffee and waited. It wasn’t long before the first fish was out, a decent keeper of a whiting at 38cm. It was then back to normal pin size, with a sprinkling of pouting and 5 bearded rockling.

The next few hours were mainly spent fending of a solitary fox that was intent on raiding my bait bucket and fish. The damn thing always remained within a few yards and made numerous forays down the bank in my direction before the penny obviously dropped and it realised there was going to be no free meal that night until I had gone and left scraps behind.

By about 2am, the fishing had died off, with bites being very sparse and only a few extra whiting, pout and rockling hitting the beach. I gave it until 2.30 before calling it a night and not even waiting for high water. I left a few scraps of bait and the guttings for the fox, which was still hanging around in the vicinity before packing up the car and heading for home.

One good thing, it’s definitely warming up, as I spent most of the night not needing my floatie jacket and on the occasions I did put it on, I only lasted a short while before taking it off again as it getting too hot.