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By Vic, 20 July, 2010 14:34

Last night was going to be a session at Seaford beach but the wind dropping as it did, it meant that there would be little in the way of any surf, so a change of plan saw me opting to go to Brighton Marina instead. The Tackle Box had no fresh lugworm but a visit to The Peacehaven Angler secured some quality worm for the evening. Just before I was setting off, I got a call from Eddy at The Tackle Box to say that a customer had cancelled their order and there was two packs of worm on offer.

I got onto the East arm by 7.30pm, an hour and a half after high water and got myself a space up at bay 31. I set up a rod with feathers to get some mackerel for the bass and another rod was set up with a size 4 two hook sole rig baited with worm and cast out about fifty yards. While that rod did its work, I set about getting some mackerel which didn’t seem to be that abundant.

It was a beautiful evening to be out – warm, with absolutely no breeze, slightly overcast sky and an oily calm sea.  Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the worm rod pull down, I struck and the first fish of the evening was soon on the deck – a bream of around 20cm which went straight back. Another one was added to the tally a short while later. In the mean time, I managed half a dozen mackerel which was enough for the session.

While taking the feathers off and setting up the bass rod, I saw the other rod making the movements that meant the dreaded weed. I decided to bring it in before the weed built up too much and was soon dragging a heavy weight in. As it got near the base of the wall, I felt the ‘weed’ pulling back in jerking bursts and instead of the expected ball of crap, I saw a lovely lobster flapping away. It was carefully hauled up the wall and was soon in its new home – a bucket. Normally they get themselves tangled up in the line but this one was fairly hooked in the mouth parts after dining on the presented worm. They are usually found in the craggy parts near the wall base not out in the open fifty yards out. If I caught nothing else during night, I wouldn’t be bothered as Anna and I would be having a beautiful dinner anyway.

A few more bream were brought in but they were all in the 20cm bracket, so got their freedom. A break from the bream came in the shape of a small thornback ray just as darkness fell, this was followed by two schoolie bass in quick succession before it all went quiet for a long period. The bass baits remained untouched apart from nibbling by whatever micro beasties were lurking in the vicinity.

All chances of a decent bass were blown when a group set up not far down from me and proceeded to make more noise than a noisy thing and insisted on lighting up the whole area like blackpool with unnecessarily bright lights, shining them everywhere and on to the water about them and me.

With this in mind, I packed up bassing and continued with the sole rig which brought in a few more small bream. While awaiting the next capture, I busied myself, changing the water in the lobster bucket and generally sorting through kit and making sure all rubbish was put away in a bag. I suppose it was half an hour later, when I retrieved to re-bait and noticed that there was a fish on, I was well pleased when I saw that it was a nice plump sole of 28cm – oh what a lunch we were going to have!

Apart from the noise and light show along from me, it was a deathly quiet night and at times I could hear what seemed to be the noise of a Dolphin or Porpoise surfacing some way off, a slosh and whoosh sort of sound. Fish-wise, a couple more schoolie bass fell to the worm bait, along with one small ‘Bootlace’ eel and another small thornback.

By 3am, things had died down and no more bites were coming, so it was with thoughts of a decent lunch, and happy at having had a good night’s fishing, I packed up and headed for home. Once home, I put an air pump in the lobster bucket to keep it  aerated and tucked it into the fridge along with the sole.

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By Vic, 13 June, 2010 16:58

I’d been looking forward to yesterday all week; with the bigger tides and the arrival of mackerel in numbers, the prospects for a good nights fishing on Brighton Marina, after bass were pretty good. I arrived on the East arm and headed out and found a space in bay 59, arriving at about 7pm. The place was extraordinarily quiet for a warm, sunny Saturday – hardly anyone out there, anyone would think  there was some football tournament on.

There was a hint of an Easterly breeze but it was literally just a whiff. The sea was flat, clear and the tide was just into the flood and coming up to a midnight high, conditions looked promising. I set up a rod for bait gathering using a set of small  Sabikis to get a few mackerel at dusk. I then set up a scratching rod, using a size 4 two hook flapper baited with lugworm and tried  this at varying distances throughout the session.

Won’t rabbit on as there isn’t really that much to report, I packed up at 3am after a disappointing 8 hours of inactivity – the final tally was one black bream (a keeper), one schoolie bass and a Pout that all fell to the lugworm. The mackerel bait was never even touched except by crabs. An evening that had promised a bit more, failed to deliver.

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By Vic, 8 July, 2009 16:59

I have been rather lax over the last week or so and haven’t added any new posts on my fishy adventures, could be because the results haven’t been too good. Anyway, to summarise, here’s how it went:

14.6.09: Fished the East arm of Brighton Marina yesterday from about 5pm through until midnight. Couldn’t catch any fresh mackerel (well one actually but that was a stray). Had to make do with that and some frozen stuff that I got from The tackle Box. No bass runs at all but did get a large spider crab that absolutely destroyed my rig and didn’t even have the good grace to be peeling.

18.6.09: East arm of Brighton Marina. Fished in bay 1 as there was a strong SW wind that made fishing further round a tad wet with water being pushed up the wall.

22.6.09: East arm at the marina again but further round the wall at bay 57. Very little caught apart from Pout. No sign of any bass.

23.6.09: A planned session on the chalk reef just West of Saltdean but had to go to the marina first to catch some mackerel first. There was a n evil Easterly wind that made things quite uncomfortable (I get sort of cranky and cross with these winds). Anyway, managed a few mackerel just as the light faded with the sun setting at about 9.45pm. Drove straight over to Saltdean and was on the reefs by 10.15 and onto the areas I’d previously researched. I surprised that there was no interest at all from the bass and try as I may, just couldn’t tempt a fish out.

25.6.09: Went for a session down on the East arm last night from 8pm through until 3am. Only had a few peeler crabs, so needed to stock up with fresh mackerel which was hard work, the first not coming until about 9.45pm. Only managed three in total which at least gave me nine bass baits.

First fish to came about 10.30 which was a very small smooth Hound pup that took a crab. Then at about 11pm, I was talking to a couple who had arrived, when suddenly I had a tremendous take on a mackerel head that had line stripping off the reel at a rate of knots but stopped just as I got to it, I hoped it would return to finish what it started but it was not to be and the head was untouched after that.

Straight after this, the other rod pulled round and within short time, a small smooth Hound of about 4lbs was safely on the deck. That was the last fish of the night apart from the continual bait robbing Pout that destroyed everything that was put in the water.

There was a switch from the original Easterly breeze to a lull with no wind and then a bit of a South Westerly. The only other thing of note was a fantastic light show as thunderstorms rumbled on the horizon.

Not that productive but a pleasant evening all in all.

28.6.09: Another early start at the marina to gather bait. Got there at about 4am after an awful drive there in some really dense fog. On arrival, I could see that fog was beginning to burn off as the sun rose. The mackerel duly arrived and in short time, I had enough for bait, for lunch and a few to give to my in-laws. It was then home and return to the marina later that afternoon for an evening session.

On returning I eventually managed to get some room at bay 32. It was a case of bream and more bream. They took the baits as soon as they hit the sea bed and nothing else could get a look in. Most were quite small, some were reasonable but none were table sized.

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By Vic, 5 June, 2009 22:35

Quick report from East arm, Brighton Marina:

Fished bay 16 from 0800 – 1600. Sea was clear and the Mayrot seems to have gone now leaving the water its usual colour (hoo bloody ray). Weather wise, there was a gusting South Easterly breeze, cloudy overcast sky. Baits used were ragworm, lugworm and mackerel (caught at the venue).

Tally for the day was one dab, one bream (on ledgered worm baits) and four mackerel. Disappointing on the mackerel front and the fishing for them was patchy with no great concentrations. I did have one rod out using mackerel (fillets and heads) but no interest shown.

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By Vic, 11 May, 2009 15:17

Despite the forecast Easterly winds, which are not a fisherman’s best friend according to the old folklore “When the wind is from the West, fish feed best. When the wind is from the East, fish feed least“. I decided to still go ahead with a session down the at Brighton Marina, fishing from low water through to high water at about 1am.

On arrival at bay 30 and setting up, it became apparent that float fishing was going to be a no-no, with the float just being swept back in towards the wall with all the weed and crap. I packed that up and sent out a lugworm on a ledgered DVice and then set about trying for some fresh mackerel for bait. No luck on the Sabikis and the worm baits kept coming back masked in fine stringy weed.

It was about this time that Keith, one of the wardens came along and mentioned that the West arm was pretty much wind free. With the wind strengthening and the weed getting worse, I soon made the decision to pack up and head off to the West arm, even though I thought it would be packed. As I got there, I met a bloke who had just finished and asked if there was any space on the arm; I was surprised when he said that it was empty apart from only a few fishing there.

As I arrived on the arm and started walking out, I couldn’t believe my luck, it seemed as though the bloody wind had followed me and had now swung round from an Easterly to a Northerly and was blowing straight along the arm. Undeterred, I set up about half way along determined not to blank. First rod out was a ledgered lugworm tipped with strip of mackerel that I had blagged from Keith who was now on the arm too. As I was waiting for a take on the worm, I worked some Sabikis and managed to haul out four mackerel in a few casts.

The worm rod started lunging and the first fish to hit the deck was a nice black bream. I re-baited, cast out and started on the Sabikis again but nothing else seemed to be interested, so I changed over from that and set up a running ledger with 3/0 pennel rig baited with half mackerel fillets.

As the light faded, the wind swung round even more and was now quite fierce and was blowing fine sand and all sorts of rubbish along the wall which seemed intent in getting into my bag and bucket. As I was clearing out the crap from my bucket, I noticed the worm rod nodded a few times and the next bream was quickly aboard. This was slightly larger and was probably around the 1lb mark.

The next take seemed better and having initially struck, I became snagged but could still feel a fish at the other end. I got out of the snag but the rattling on the line had stopped and was now just a dead weight. I cranked the ‘weight’ in and swung aboard the culprit – a set of what I presume were supposed to be a string of mackerel feathers but looked more like something that would not look out of place draped around the shoulders of Elton John or Lilly Savage. Christ, I have never seen such a garishly coloured set of monstrosities; the hooks were huge too, at least 4/0. I reckon the previous owner had deliberately left them snagged there out of embarrassment or a big game boat had passed through thinking there were Marlin or some such beasts lurking near the West arm and lost them on the reef. Anyway, I cut it all free from my gear and dropped them in my bucket with a metallic thud.

I carried on for a while and landed another two bream on the worm baits whilst the mackerel remained untouched. By about 11pm, the wind had increased while the bites had stopped, so with thoughts of a decent coffee (not the hot brown sludge in my flask) and a more comfortable setting, I tackled down and headed for home. At least it was the first time I had fished the West arm and been virtually the only one there.