It wasn’t that long ago that after being fed up with just catching pin whiting and slugs (rockling) session after session, I said I would pack up fishing proper until the start of April. Anyway, I just couldn’t resist the lure of the beach, so last night found me at Seaford with rod in hand – if you’ll pardon the expression. I got there at about 8.30pm to fish the tide up to the 12.40am high water – big tide too at 7.2m. Conditions were less than ideal, a flat, oily calm sea which was as clear as gin. No wind at all, not even the slightest breath of a breeze. To cap it all off, the sky was crystal clear with a big and very bright moon.

I had decided that to avoid whiting and slugs, I would stick with my plan of all or nothing and fish just one rod and use large launce (sandeel) for bait. So a long link running ledger with a 4/o pennel was setup. The hope was for any bass that might have been around – although deep down, I really didn’t expect to snag one.

After about 30 minutes, the rod tip pulled down slightly and then just started nodding away. I struck and retieved a small dogfish of the lesser spotted variety any potential blank was thus saved. Unhooked and retured, the stupid fish swam back to the waters edge and was promptly stranded. Why do they all do that?

Half an hour later, another one hit the shingle, was unhooked and released for it to do the same – weird. The rest of the night was spent equally between standing there doing nothing and unhooking dogfish. They weren’t there in plague numbers but just enough to keep things ticking over. It certainly beats the persistant rod tip rattling and constant reeling in of tiny whiting and slugs.

I packed up at about 2.30am with a final tally of 11 LSD’s. Considering I wasn’t expecting much, it turned out to be a pretty good session. Another joy was being able to fish without having to wear my floaty suit, just the salopettes and leaving the jacket in the car. It wasn’t by any means warm but it wasn’t too cold either.