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By Vic, 24 October, 2007 15:24

Fished Seaford last night from 7pm through til 12.30am. Parked at Edinburgh Road and then found a spot just West of there. A very still, bright and clear night with no surf didn’t bode well for a fishy night but I was willing to give it a shot.

Bites were frantic from the start using one hook, DViced ledger baited with lugworm/squid strips. Loads of whiting landed, some a decent size, some not. I guess there must have been a carpet of them, there were that many. This made it difficult to target any codling that might have been around, as the whiting were taking the bait virtually as it hit the sea bed.

A second rod had the usual ledger with Pennel mounted whole calamari lobbed out about 20yards. This resulted in the one and only bass of the night. It was a very thin and scrawny 46cm specimen which looked like it was in need of a decent meal.

By 11.30pm, the bites stopped and all went quiet but I stuck it out for another optimistic hour before calling it a night.

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By Vic, 2 September, 2007 12:48

Saturday night was to be a late do, with high tide predicted for about 3am. I was going to fish a certain area on Seaford beach near Edinburgh Road but changed my mind and moved further East to a spot near the Beachcomber pub.

There was a fair breeze blowing in from the West which produced a decent size surf to stir things up a bit.

I set up and started to fish at about 8pm. One rod had a two hook Paternoster with size 2 hooks baited with lovely fresh black lug and cast 50 yards out. The second rig consisted of a Pennel with size 3/0 hooks baited with whole calamari and lobbed out just beyond the surf.

First two fish of the evening to come in, were two palm size thornbacks which took the whole calamari. It’s not often that the bait is actually larger than the fish that takes it and gets hooked.

Next fish to visit was a small ‘Snotty’ eel which managed to reduce my precision made rig into a ball of knotted, mucous covered line. By the time the eel had been unhooked, there was no choice but to attach a fresh rig and cut up the tangled one.

Next in were two smallish whiting on successive casts. A bit bigger and they would have been keepers but as it is, they were returned to put on a bit of weight.

Apart from a couple of really small (and I mean small) Pout, that was it for the night until around half an hour after high water when I had two savage takes on the calamari rig which I managed to fluff up and miss. That got the adrenalin going and expecting more of the same, I stood by and kept a watchful eye on that rod. Time went on and nothing happened.

Disappointed, I packed up at around 4.30am and as I headed home, I was already planning a return.

It later transpired that one of the guys from World Sea Fishing forums fished at the spot I was originally going to use and he ended up with a couple of codling of just under two pounds each. Read his report here.

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By Vic, 7 April, 2007 10:49

Fished East arm at Brighton Marina on the night of 3/4/07 in the hope of picking up something decent (yeah right).

Got there at about 7.30pm to a brisk NE breeze/wind. Set up at bay 20 and it looked like I was the only one out on the whole of the arm – at least it was peaceful.

Decided to only fish one rod as the bait situation was not good. Packs of ‘King’ ragworm that were more like pauper rag, only marginally bigger than maddies (Harbour ragworm) and a pack of frozen slipper limpet. I had no whole calamari that I would normally use to target bass.

Anyway, made the best of it and fished on. The breeze/wind got stronger but was weird to see the sea totally flat calm with no movement. Bite detection was a problem but I persevered. A couple of small pin whiting broke the fishless situation – I had begun to wonder if there was anything there.

The wind continued to gather pace and it began to get a bit uncomfortable but I carried on anyway in the hope of at least one decent fish. It was not to be – by midnight I’d had enough of whiting – all pins – no sign of the bigger ones that had been there over Winter.

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By Vic, 3 February, 2007 23:59

Fished the East arm at Brighton Marina somewhere in the high teens/20’s.

Got there at about 8pm, bit of movement in the water, clear sky, bright moon, no wind but quite cold. On one rod, I used 2 hook flapper, one hook with large Sandeel fillet, the other with squid strip, lobbed out about 20yds or so.

First fish came quite quick, a whiting of about 12oz. which fell to the sandeel. Rebaited and cast again. Second rod set up with running ledger and large calamari bait, lobbed out a few feet from the base.

The next few fish were a mixture of small whiting and small rockling. It was an even split between the baits.

All went quiet until about an hour after high water, when a few more reasonable whiting came in, all around the 12oz to 1lb.

Packed up at 1.30 when all went quiet again.

Final tally was 9 whiting, 5 rockling. Not too shabby since I hadn’t managed to fish for the last couple of months. Now next time I will make sure I get some worm before setting out.

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By Vic, 2 November, 2006 01:03

Decided to fish the East arm at Brighton Marina last night, so headed off armed with a load of lugworm and for a change, some frozen sandeel.

Arrived at around 9.30pm with the water very low and set up in bay 58 near the rocks. Conditions were a flat calm with no wind at all. Very overcast and heavy cloud.

First rod was set up with a two hook scratching rig baited with nice juicy lugworm. A gentle lob placed the bait a short distance out from the wall. Put the rod in the rest and turned to set up the second rod. Bang!! The rod lurched over over with a violent take, I grabbed it and leant into what seemed a decent fish.

A few seconds later, a decent looking bass was rolling at the base of the wall, problem was, my drop net was still against the back wall along with the rest of my gear, the cord still coiled up nice and tight. I tried, but there was no way of getting to the net without letting go of the rod or letting the fish take a load of line. In the end I decided on trying to hand-line it up the wall – big mistake – twang! as the snood line parted and Mr. bass was off into the distance. (I swore that it turned and stuck two fins up at me). I reckon on it being around the four pound mark, maybe a bit bigger.

I was well pissed off, but nevertheless, attached a new snood, re baited and chucked it again – after uncoiling the drop net and putting it in a convenient spot.

Second rig was a flowing trace baited with sandeel fillet and lobbed a few feet out from the base.

The scratching rig brought in never ending double hits of Pout and a few smallish whiting.

Whilst having a ciggy, the sandeel rod lurched over suddenly. There was a definite tugging going on, but it only resulted in a whiting of around a pound.

Some twitching on the scratcher caught my attention. It failed to develop, so I brought it in, only to find one of the smallest thornbacks I have seen hanging onto the size 2 hook. After sending it back, I recast and then repeated the action again with an even smaller thorny. Try as I might, I couldn’t get any bigger than that.

At about midnight, the wind got up and became quite a brisk SW breeze that added some movement to the water.

In the next couple of hours, it was more Pout, more whiting, a couple of school bass and one crab.

As the tide fell away, so did the bites, as did my ciggy and coffee supply. Time to call it a night and head off home.

As an aside, all the Pout fell to lug, almost all the whiting fell to sandeel or lug/sandeel mix. bass fell to lug as did the Thornies.