Decided on an after work session bown at Seaford beach on Friday and had arranged to meet a bloke from South Devon Fishing who was up this neck of the woods visiting – great to meet you Nigel and look forward to a return visit and a trip down to your shores in the summer.

I got there about 8pm and headed over the shingle to our chosen spot between West View and the Beachcomber. A brisk South East breeze was putting a bit of movement in the coloured up water. Once setup, baits were cast out and the wait began. I was using a size 2 two hook flapper baited with lugworm on one rod and a whole launce close in on a running ledger and pennel setup in the hope of an early bass. Big tides of 7 meteres plus, meant that the water was pushing through at quite a rate and tackle was being dragged a fair bit at times despite using grippers.

Whiting were the first of the fish and Nigel had a tidy, table one which I reckon was close on 1½lbs. whereas I could only manage pins. The dreaded rockling put in an appearance just to spice things up a bit (not), along with a few pout.

Have to say the fishing wasn’t brilliant, with long periods of inactivity but this at least meant we could have a good old chin wag, put the world to rights and swap info on our favourite marks.

High water came and went at about 11.30 and the ebb tide was a bastard to fish with the wind coming straight along the beach, helping to push bait and tackle back Westwards. Sadly, there were no more fish forthcoming to speak of, although Nigel managed a scorpion fish in the last moments. We finished up at about 1.30 with the visitors side trouncing the local boy.