Fished Seaford beach last night from about 9.30pm until 3am, near the Beachcomber. High water was at 1230ish.
On arrival, I saw a very lumpy sea with some large rollers and big wave dumps up onto the shingle. A Strong Westerly breeze was coming straight along the beach. The sky was overcast but with clear patches. Wind did die down later – as did the fishing.
Fished just one rod with ledgered DVice and alternating between big lug and squid baits. First couple of casts saw the wind hold the DVice in the air and push it back which meant it was landing down-tide, where it had difficulty gripping the seabed properly. To ensure proper gripping and bait placement, I walked up-tide, cast out, let bait settle and then walk back to the rest.
It was hard fishing and only had three whiting before 10.30 and nothing until around high water when I missed the mother of all pull downs. How I missed it I don’t know because the rod was still bending while I picked it up and briefly felt a dull thudding at the other end before the dreaded slack line and no resistance – indicating fish off!
It was all dead then until just before I left when I retrieved my last cast and found one small unfortunate whiting had been unlucky to hit my bait.
Anyway, that was it for the session. Crap fishing but I nice bracing night out.
Saturday was a ‘Do I, don’t I’ sort of situation. Calm clear seas with no movement, didn’t bode well for a beach session but I needed to get out and fish. I finally made up my mind and so armed with some fresh lugworm and frozen squid, I headed for Seaford beach. I arrived early at about 6pm, as I’d heard that there were competitions being fished in the area and the beach could be crowded later on. Although there were already people there, it certainly wasn’t crowded. I chose a spot just east of the Beachcomber pub and setup two rods – one with a Dvice on a running ledger armed with size 1 hook and baited with lugworm tipped off with squid strip, the other, long link running ledger and size 4/0 pennel with whole squid.
The water was gin clear and with virtually no movement, so I wasn’t expecting much at all, it was just great to be out on the beach. Worm rod was sent out at distance, while the whole squid was lobbed out a few yards in the hope of a lurking bass.
Not much to write about really, so I’ll just give a brief total for the night. Finished at about 2am, so worked out at about 8 hours fishing. Loads of whiting but none in the decent keeper bracket, three small rays and some Pout. The Pout went out as bait in the hope of a decent bass being tempted but by the way they were coming back with the tell-tale ‘V’ notch taken out of the neck area, they had obviously been attacked by squid. That being the case and me not having any jigs with me, I gave that up.
Anyway, it was a decent night to be out and did get some fish, so not all a loss. This coming week should give some better results with a shift in the wind and hopefully some movement and colour to the water.
I’ve been eager to have another experimental session targeting bass at Seaford beach using only sandeel / launce for bait, so last night, armed with some large Ammo frozen launce, I headed off to see what I could achieve. I got to the beach at about 7pm, unloaded the car and walked across the shingle to a spot between the Beachcomber and West View. I was greeted by a mainly moderate sea with a bit of a swell which resulted in some nice wave action. Wind was minimal and when mild gust did come, it was from the West.
I set up the ‘experiment’ rod with a long lead link, running ledger with a 6′ trace terminating in a 4/0 pennel. I mounted the launce on the hooks and lobbed it out into the waves. I had brought another rod to see if there was a codling about, so set this up with a DVice on a running ledger baited with lugworm and squid. I cast this out before returning to hold on to the bass rod.
First fish of the night came about two hours before low water and was a nice fat whiting of about a pound. This was soon followed by another of identical size. While dealing with this second fish, I heard the other reel give two sharp tugging runs but by the time I got to it, there was nothing there. On retrieval, the sandeel had been absolutely smashed and was in tatters. Both rods were rebaited and cast out again.
At low water, I felt a huge take on the bass rod and lifted into a fish. as it it slid through the waves, I could see that it wasn’t the expected bass but a decent sized whiting. From then on, it was a long succession of whiting, some were good table size.
It wasn’t until about 3 hours before high water that the bass seemed more confident and were hitting the launce hard with long, ragged runs. None were huge, all being in the 2-2½lbs range but good fun all the same. all were taken just behind the first breaker in the turbulent water, no more than 10 yards out. I missed several runs through not being attentive or when I left the rod in the rest while dealing with the other road. Now I know that when bassing, you should only use one rod and that it should be held at all times but I can never resist the temptation to have another rod out for anything else that may be around. If you play it this way, you will pay the price and may miss THAT fish.
By 2.30am, I had run out of bait and so with a couple of hours of the flood and hour of the ebb tide left, I had to call it a night. It was not an amazing night but it was enjoyable one with a total tally of five bass and many whiting. Next time, I’ll make sure I have enough bait to see me through.
As the weather looked promising with some Westerly winds building up over the weekend which meant more movement in the water, I decided to take advantage and fish Seaford beach after work on Friday. I arrived at the beach at about 9pm and set up just about half way between The Beachcomber and West view. The wind was a moderate, in the face breeze; sea state was not rough – a bit lumpy and easy enough to hold bottom. DVice held solid as did 5oz Breakaway gripper. Things looked just right.
I fished one rod with lugworm /squid cocktail at varying distances on a ledgered DVice and another rod close in with a ledgered 4/0 pennel baited with either whole squid or sandeel.
First fish of the night was a bass of around a pound and a bit which took sandeel close in and then managed to get its revenge by slicing my thumb with one of it’s gill plates. I then missed a lovely run, and followed it with a hook up but dropped fish, both again of sandeel. Only had one knock on the squid which took me by surprise so much that I struck, forgetting I had the reel in free spool (not a good idea). These were all about 1 – 1½ hours before high water after which it went dead.
Had a couple of small Pout on the lug/squid combination and then about an hour after high water, had a couple of whiting which were of a decent size. It then turned off completely with no other bites showing.
Having been weeded out at the Beachcomber in Seaford last time around, I was eager to have another go and to see if there were any decent bass in a feeding mood, so I had another session last night. Got there at about 7.30pm while still light and parked about 50 yards East of the of the pub and hopped out onto the beach for a peek to see if the dreaded weed was lurking. At first glimpse, I couldn’t see any weed but I did see what I thought was a string of net markers only about 10 yards from the shoreline. It wasn’t until I got closer and had a good look, that I could see they were Gulls – strangely all equidistant and in a perfect line and parallel with the shore, it was so weird. Anyway, I’m off to Specsavers tomorrow so as not to be so easily fooled next time.
Having seen that there were no signs of weed, I set up one rod with a ledgered DVice, size 2 hook baited with lugworm and chucked this out while I set about setting up the bass rod in preparation for darkness. Having got everything sorted and had a coffee, I tended to the worm rod, to find it rattling away. On bringing it in, I saw an obvious small flatfish coming in that I first thought was a dab but having taken hold of it and turned it ‘colour side up’ I saw that it was a small plaice. Unhooked and put back, baited up and re-cast. The next two fish were whiting which although not ‘pin’, weren’t exactly ‘jumbo’ either.
As darkness fell, the bites dried up with not one bit of interest shown except by large balls of the ‘Spaghetti weed’ we’ve been plagued with. Anyway, I decided it was time to deploy the bass rod in earnest. I put the worm rod to one side, baited up the 4/0 pennel rig with a whole squid and lobbed it out into what was not so much a nice surf but a gentle tumble of wavelets. First hit was a small bass which threw the hook at the waters edge. Next was another bass of about 1½lbs. which was quite a spirited little blighter.
It all went a bit quiet after that until about 2 hours before high water when it went a little hectic with a bass a chuck, the biggest going about 2½lbs but not one was on squid. I’d changed tactic when it had gone quiet and had tried to some largish blast frozen Ammo launce (Greater sandeel) which the bass hit really hard. One of the fish had a distinct deformity of the lower jaw and lip which made it look like Victoria Beckham at a photo opportunity. Its mouth could hardly open and it was a hell of a job to get the hook (how a 4/0 got in there in the first place is a mystery). Hook was removed and ‘Posh’ was returned to pout another day.
I was full of expectation for the ‘Golden hour’ after high water but it was not to be. After the earlier flurry of activity, it went to none at all and before long it was 2.30am with not one more fish added to the tally. As I packed up, I reflected that it hadn’t been too bad really – total of 8 bass, 2 whiting, 1 plaice. Now, I know the bass weren’t huge – not even big but it was good fun and its better than a blankety blank. I think I may give the launce another try on the next trip and see if I get similar results. I was surprised that only two were taken on squid but it could just be coincidence that at the time I changed over to launce, the fish came on at the same time and that if I’d carried on with the squid, I would still have caught anyway… who knows.
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