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By Vic, On 12 July, 2011 16:16

After the drenching I got the other night, last night was a complete contrast – in weather and in results. With the calm conditions looking promising, I felt like having a go for a bass down on the East arm of Brighton Marina, so got down there about 8pm with the intention of bagging some mackerel for bait over high water and then to do some scratching until the early hours and fish mackerel head and guts over the 3am low water period.

It was a warm, clear evening with no wind and a flat calm, clear sea; as said completely different to the other night. It was nice just wearing a t shirt and jeans instead of the clobber I had previously worn and positively thrilling to have dry hands.

Unlike last time I fished the marina, I had made provision this time and had taken some frozen joeys with me, in case the mackerel didn’t show. Just as well really, as the buggers were conspicuous by their absence and the only fish activity I could see on the surface were probably scad.

Anyway, I set up the scratching rod with a size 4 two hook flapper baited with lugworm and chucked it out and almost immediately had a knock which resulted in a small dab – blank saved. Re-baited and then set up the bass rod with the usual long link running ledger, size 5/0 hooked through the snout of a mackerel head and guts which I lobbed out and sat back.

By about midnight, a brisk easterly picked up and made it feel a bit chilly in comparison to earlier – certainly enough to put an extra top on. The good thing that came with it was a bit more in the way of cloud cover.

The only action coming my way was on the scratching rod, with a few small bream and then on low water, lots of school bass taking a shine to the worm. There was one half hearted attempt at a run on the bass rod about half an hour before low which had the tip buried down for a brief few seconds and then nothing.

I gave it until about an hour after low before tiredness set in and I had an overwhelming desire to have a good kip. Looks like Thursday and/or Saturday will be my next outing when I’m hoping for more promising results.

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By Vic, On 9 July, 2011 11:15

Last night was one of those ‘Do I or don’t I’. Do I go to Seaford and fish in the wind and rain or do I sit at home and watch the TV? No brainer really, so armed with a couple of boxes of squid, I headed over to Seaford beach, where I was greeted with rain, a South South West wind and plenty of surfy action to the water. The only downside was the amount of weed in the sea – great rafts of dark floating stuff. Undeterred, I decided to give it a shot anyway.

The plan was to fish the last three hours of the ebb tide, over the midnight low and a couple of hours of the flood, using just one rod with big bait, in the hope of a bass or two in the surf. I set up the bass rod with a long link running ledger, ending with 5/0 pennel to hold the squid bait and cast it out just behind the breaking waves and in front of the weed. From the off, weed was a problem, soon collecting on the line and rig causing it to break out, so for the first hour or so, it was cast, breakout, retrieve and re-cast.

All the time, the rain was getting heavier and I could see from the colour of the sky in the distance, the was no sign of it letting up. I got pretty pissed off with the rain and the weed and a couple of times, I almost thought about packing it in – now I don’t know why but I had this inkling that if I cold stick it out, I would be in with a chance of a half reasonable fish.

As low water passed, the weed eased a little and I was able to keep the bait out for longer periods until it got top the stage that the weed all but disappeared – even the rain stopped a couple of times, albeit only for a few minutes before it fell in buckets again.

About an hour after low water, I had a tentative take, which then shot off, slamming the rod down in my hands. A short while later, a bass of around 4lbs was in the surf and up onto the shingle – briefly before it shook the hook and was washed back in the the next wave. To say I hacked off would be an understatement; what could have been the only fish of the night lost when so close.

By now, my waterproofs were no longer that waterproof and water was finding its way into various crevices. I again thought about jacking it in but thought better of it and so I stayed, although just a bit damp around the gills.

Two hours after low water, I selected the biggest of my remaining squid, mounted it on the hooks and lobbed it back out. I put the rod in the rest while I had a coffee and pondered why we persevere in uncomfortable conditions and wondered if this should be my last cast. I went back to the rod, picked it up and almost immediately felt two sharp tugs; thinking it was perhaps weed on the line, I raised the rod but felt none. As I stood, there was another couple of more determined tugs and then the rod was almost wrenched out of my sodden hands and line was being taken. A few minutes of line taking and a fish was in the surf. I timed the next few turns of the reel handle with the incoming waves and the fish got closer, only to take off again – this was not going to be easy. I could see a couple of big approaching rollers, so got ready for the last few turns. As the waves came in, I retrieved and half staggered, half backwards ran and the fish was up on the shingle and out of the water. I wound in some slack and went down to the fish which was about to be engulfed by the next wave, luckily the next wave pushed it a bit further up where I was able to get a hand on it and drag it back to safety

A lovely dark coloured, big headed bass laid on the wet shingle. It measured in at 71cm and 8lbs 2oz. Woohoo!! The discomfort and disappointment over the previously lost fish was now but a memory, I was over the moon – target achieved and in fine style too. Needless to say, I quickly re-baited and had another chuck in the hope of a quick follow up.

In fact I stayed until about 3am or so until the bait supply ran out, by which time I was even more wet and starting to get a bit cold. A crap night weather-wise but oh so worth it! Must admit, my enthusiasm and mojo, which has been lacking of late, has been rekindled and I’m looking forward to my next session with renewed vigour.

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By Vic, On 5 July, 2011 12:34

I haven’t had a session down at Brighton Marina for a while, so I thought I’d take advantage of the fine weather and calm seas yesterday evening to have a crack at some bassing with in-close big mackerel baits, plus a bit of general scratching with worm baits.

I arrived on the East arm at around 7pm and walked out to a free space at bay 36. Conditions were no wind, a flat calm sea and a bright sun. The plan was to snag out a few mackerel on feathers for bait, before fishing in earnest – only one problem – the mackerel decided they weren’t going to play and despite my best efforts, there were to be none. On to plan B then – use the worm to get a few pout for bait (more on that later).

A couple of fishing pals, Jonah Danny and Mike joined me not long afterwards, which I should have known would be the kiss of death. They had planned ahead though and brought some ‘bait’ with them in the form of ‘orrible, minging, poisonous mush; otherwise known as supermarket ‘fresh’ mackerel. Honestly, I’ve seen better conditioned fish in the bottom of a bin that’s been run over and set alight.

Not being able to get any proper fresh mackerel and with no signs of them even being in the same sea as us, I baited my feathers with small sections of worm and dropped it over the side to temp some small pout. In this exercise, I only managed to catch small bream (Pictured) and for the life of me, I could not get a pout – silly really as normally they are a bloody bait robbing nuisance. Anyway, at least the bream was another one on my species list for the year.

In the meantime, my other rod had been setup with a size 4 two hook sole rig (hoping for a sole once darkness fell) baited with worm and lobbed out – maybe I could get a pout on that. Even that didn’t work, as the first fish on that rig was a small thornback ray, followed by another small bream – it wasn’t looking good on the bass bait front. The second picture isn’t another bream – it’s the same as the first but artistically photographed by Danny to make it look bigger (I don’t think it worked).

I later managed more bream, another small ray and a small flounder but I reckon the pout had hitched a lift with the mackerel and gone to wherever they went. So then, while I was busy breaming, the boys were busy blanking with their poisonous offerings.

They packed up around midnight (lightweights) to head off home. Kindly (I think), they left me with a bag containing the remains of their toxic and by now dried out yet still slimy fish offal. Having examined it in the style of CSI Grissom and deciding not to bait up with it, I put paid to my chances of catching anything decent by lobbing the bag of offending shite over the side (not the bag though, obviously).

I stuck it until just after the 2.30am high water but only managed another couple of bream in that time. Although the target species (all three) weren’t forthcoming, it was a lovely evening to be out and with some good company, a great time was had.

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By Vic, On 30 June, 2011 15:49

I haven’t been out for a while, being laid up with chronic back pain. Anyway, feeling better, I was desperate to get out, so armed with some squid, I headed off to Seaford beach last night for a session over high water.

On arrival at about 9.30pm, I opted to fish just east of the Beachcomber and set up one rod with a long link running ledger ending in a 5/0 pennel baited with whole squid. Condition looked great – a nice onshore breeze was putting plenty of movement in the water with some good wave action. Twenty minutes into the session, the bass rod lurched over and I was quickly into a fish and then quickly not into a fish as it threw the hook. At least I knew there was fish there.

It wasn’t until about 10.30pm that I had my next take which resulted in a reasonable 2½lb fish on the shingle. I re-baited and chucked it back out just behind the breaking waves in the hope of another quick follow up fish. ‘Quick’ turned out to be half an hour as bang on 11pm and virtually on high water, the rod tip banged down and I was soon into another fish (pictured). This was slightly larger at 3lbs on the nose.

Half an hour later, I had another stonking bite which I missed due to me not paying attention as I was bagging up some rubbish and general tidying of my kit.

By now, the wind had dropped to nothing and the sea flattened out with just a few residual half-arsed attempts at waves. I had another couple of chucks before the bait ran out around 1am and it was time to head home. It was a great night and although the fish weren’t huge, were great fun.

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By Vic, On 8 June, 2011 16:32

Following on from my previous entry, I met up with Bill last night at a spot just opposite west View on Seaford beach and after the initial intros, we wondered onto the beach. We were about an hour before low water and intended to fish up and over high water and maybe some down. There was a bit of a South Westerly breeze blowing and the sea surface was just chopping up

I was beginning to set up when I noticed some mackerel just off the shoreline in very shallow water, I clipped on some feathers and had a few chucks, which resulted in some nice fresh bait for the night.

My two rods were then set up for the evening – one with a size 4, two hook flapper baited with luworm and the bass rod using a long link running ledger with a 4/0 pennel baited with launce or squid.

Bill was first in with a nice flounder and I followed this up with a lesser spotted dogfish which took a ledgered launce at a relatively close range. Bill then did tit-for-tat and pulled a dog of his own. Once darkness fell, bites were frequent and I was heartened when I saw a good tug on the bass rod and heard the ratchet chirp. I struck into something that was very obviously not large and not exactly putting up the scrap of the century and was surprised on beaching it, to find a nice table sized whiting of all things. This was to be later joined by two more of about the same size – so that was lunch sorted then. These last two took the worm baits at about fifty yards well into the flood.

It was around this time that I saw Bill walking back from the waters edge carrying what like a nice fish. I popped over and saw him clutching a very nice sole which he told me was his first. I was really pleased for Bill, it’s always a lovely feeling to get a new species under the belt, especially a tasty one like that. The photo shows a very placid and cooperative sole but what it doesn’t tell is the story of his ‘sole juggling’ act just moments before, as the critter leapt and slid around in his hands – a very funny thing to see. Personally, I think it should be a ‘must have’ in the next series of that shite TV show otherwise known as X Factor, it would certainly be a step up entertainment wise.

My next big moment was while I knelt to retrieve some bait from the bucket and felt something give ‘down below’ – not anatomically but my jeans beginning to fall apart. As I went to stand, there was the sound of old, bait soaked, manky fabric literally giving up the ghost and as I rose to the noise of rending cloth, I could see and feel that my nether area was ripped from ‘arse to breakfast time’. I now had the pleasure of that cooling breeze blowing around the man vegetables for the rest of the night.

On the fish front, I managed a couple of schoolie bass along with a few pout that took the worm baits but nothing else bothered the bigger bass bait for the rest of the night. As it neared high water time, the bites dried up and it went completely dead, apart from Bill who managed a new one for him – a bloody rockling.

I did however manage to get myself a nice boot full of cold water while trying to get my bucket filled, so not only did I have chilly parts, I now had bloody freezing, wet foot – which was nice. I was glad when we both agreed enough was enough and decided to pack up.

So that was Seaford done on Bill’s marathon fund raising and now he’s off to Shoreham for the next leg. We had a great session, with a few species and great company, I look forward to his next visit.

Please support Bill if you can, all donations to a good cause – the RNLI. Details of his trip, along with dates and venues can be found here:
Bill’s RNLI Marathon