Seaford Beach
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Directions: The beach is situated just off the A259 main South coast road and lies between Newhaven to the West and Eastbourne to the East. Access is easy enough:
If coming from the East, turn left at the mini roundabout just before Seaford railway station and bear round to the right. Continue down Dane Road, past Morrisons on your left until you reach the end where you will see the Beachcomber pub on your right and Marine Parade in running across in front of you. From here it’s your choice; turn left or right, depending on where you want to fish.
If you’re coming from the West, turn right just before the Buckle by-pass, where it’s signposted for Bishopstone railway station, continue under the bridge and bear round to the left you are now on Marine Parade and a short distance to the Buckle car park (Free) should you wish to fish this section beach. For the rest of Marine Parade, there are many free on street parking spaces which are limited to 12 hours duration.
Description: The beach itself is steeply shelving, providing reasonably deep water at high tide. The bay deepens the further East towards the cliffs at Splash Point you go. It is mainly clean ground made up of sand and shingle with some snags along the beach but I have found these difficult to plot with any accuracy. The Eastern end is considerably snaggier than other parts of the bay. The beach can be split into different areas and are usually referred to in this manner in any reports:
‘The Buckle’, East of Tidemills, which covers the sailing club and the area up to a region called
‘Edinburgh Road’ because it’s opposite err.. Edinburgh Road.
‘The Beachcomber’, near the pub by that name which is pretty much the centre portion of the beach.
‘The Martello’ or ‘Canon’
‘Splash point’ at the Eastern end of the beach.
Of course, these are general outlines and more experienced fishers and locals may well have differing views.
Regardless of where you go, the methods are fairly consistent: Lure fishing in the Summer for mackerel, garfish and bass. Bottom fishing a paternoster rig or ledger with worm bait will take the flatfish such as flounder, plaice and dab along with Pout, bass, bream, gurnard, small rays and eels. At night, squid, a mackerel fillet or head ledgered close in will take bass. If conditions allow ie calm and clear, a small Pout or joey mackerel livebait is a great method for tempting a hungry bass. A worm bait fished tight on the bottom will get you sole.
Autumn through Winter time is mainly about night fishing and this means whiting by the ton and codling from the deeper parts of the beach – from about Edinburgh Road Eastwards. Bigger baits are needed here and probably the best all-rounder is lugworm tipped off with a strip of squid, although, if you can get hold of peeler crab, this is an excellent cod bait. If you’ve never used one, this is the time to try out the DVice, which will let you chuck a decent sized bait a decent distance in search of those codling without it disintegrating mid-flight. whiting will be a pest but you can get some of a reasonable size and certainly big enough for the table. Autumn is also time for the big bass and the time to be deploying whole squid or mackerel fillets close in if conditions allow.
Now I’m by no means an expert on this place and I’m not a long time ‘native’ of the area, so if there’s something that needs changing or adding, please feel free to drop me a line.
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For more information on this town, please visit the Seaford website