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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 (1)

By Vic, 12 May, 2011 10:26

After several recent trips in search of squid, I have to report that the closest I’ve had to success has been three dropped at, or just before the net – so things not looking too good. Undeterred though, I headed off to the East arm of Brighton Marina last Sunday for the ‘4th International Squid Championship‘, organised by George Cunningham, CEO of TronixPro, along with Robin ‘Fishyrob‘ Howard.

This annual event, in aid of the RNLI was attended by even more than last year and I believe it was in the region of 78 anglers participating. We all met up at the cafe on the end of the arm, where after a chin wag, we booked in. I queued and collected a free squid jig (courtesy of TronixPro) and score card, which had written on which peg number I was to fish…. arse!!! I had drawn 68, right out at the far end – best start walking then!

After doing a stunning impression of a cart donkey, I eventually got to my peg. There had been some confusion over peg numbers reserved for the event but quite frankly, I’m losing the will to live just thinking about it, so I’ll go no further.

Fishing (or squidding if you prefer) started at 1pm on the dot and for me, what followed felt like a lifetime of staring at the orange blob that was my float as it did just that – float. No sliding under the surface as a squid made off with my jig. As hard as I tried, I just could not get a take. The only excitement was when the jig drifted into a bit of weed and was pulled under – at least I knew what it would look like if any creature felt like trying its luck.

Even an afternoons visit from FPO, Anna along with her Mum and our son Alex didn’t induce the critters into action.

I stuck it out and tried as hard as I could and was spurred on by one caught and lost and one landed by the guys to my left. With half an hour to go, I studied my float and watched it slide under – weed again I thought – but no, it was a real, live squid, a good ‘un too. I brought it in closer and was about to ask the guy to right for a hand with the net when the damn thing let go and was away. I quickly let the jig back down in the hope that it might be taken again but was disappointed when the float remained as it had for most of the day – floating.

6pm and the competition was over. I packed up my gear and made the long walk back to the car and loaded up. It was then over to the pub and a welcome pint while the trophies and prizes were dished out to the winners. The day wasn’t a complete ball breaker for me, as I managed to snag a bait pump in the raffle

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By Vic, 17 April, 2010 22:03

My last couple of attempts at snagging squid at Brighton Marina have been dismal failures, with the last one being particularly annoying as I had one but lost it at the net. In an attempt to break my squid Duck for 2010, I was back at the marina early this morning, making sure I got a decent spot before the weekend hoards filled the spaces – although this time, the East rather than the West arm was the venue.

I was on location in bay 48 on the arm by 6.45 am on a lovely bright morning with just a slight Southerly breeze ruffling the surprisingly cloudy water; I was hopeful that the sea would clear later as the tide rose. I set up my gear and used the usual terminal tackle of a float fished Tronix jig – pink to start and green later and then back to pink. As high water wasn’t due until around 2pm (depending on which tide table you read), I wasn’t expecting too much in the way of action, so I just enjoyed the peacefulness of it all, having not been out too much this year. As the hours wore on, the breeze dropped and it got quite warm but the on the business side of things, I was still squidless.

After a few hours, Richard, one of the guys from WSF turned up with his mate Nick and started fishing a couple of bays along from me. Handily for me that they’d brought a drop net along (left mine at home again) because at about 1pm, I had a slow take and a squid was on. A minute or so later, after Richard guided the net-handling Nick, my first landed squid of 2010 was on the deck and what a relief it was too.

The rest of the day was dead, no further takes at all, not so much as a sniff. The only highlight was reuniting Fishyrob with his leather hat he’d lost the previous night and found by me while walking out on the arm today. I left the marina by about 4pm and once home, the days catch was cleaned sliced and fried for tea, there’s nothing quite like straight from the sea onto the plate freshness. Anna was going to do her squid casserole but we decided that today was going to be “Calamari” as Alex has been pestering me about squid since last year. The next one will definitely be going casseroled though. Here’s a few pictures of before during and after. Click on images for larger versions.