Seeing that we’d had a few days of winds from Southerly directions to stir the sea up a bit, I decided on a session at Seaford beach after work yesterday. I hit the beach at the 9pm low water and went to a spot just West of West View, mind you, I could have picked anywhere, as I was the only soul on the beach as far as I could see. It looked very promising, with a good amount of movement in the coloured up sea. Access was much easier than the last time with the recent rough seas having almost demolished the steep shingle cliff.
Within minutes, I had a size 4, two hook flapper with lugworm launched out at distance to do its work while I set up the second rod with the same end gear. Once both rods were out, I poured a coffee and waited. It wasn’t long before the first fish was out, a decent keeper of a whiting at 38cm. It was then back to normal pin size, with a sprinkling of pouting and 5 bearded rockling.
The next few hours were mainly spent fending of a solitary fox that was intent on raiding my bait bucket and fish. The damn thing always remained within a few yards and made numerous forays down the bank in my direction before the penny obviously dropped and it realised there was going to be no free meal that night until I had gone and left scraps behind.
By about 2am, the fishing had died off, with bites being very sparse and only a few extra whiting, pout and rockling hitting the beach. I gave it until 2.30 before calling it a night and not even waiting for high water. I left a few scraps of bait and the guttings for the fox, which was still hanging around in the vicinity before packing up the car and heading for home.
One good thing, it’s definitely warming up, as I spent most of the night not needing my floatie jacket and on the occasions I did put it on, I only lasted a short while before taking it off again as it getting too hot.
Having not been able to make it to the World Dab Championship at Dungeness, organised on WSF, I consoled myself with a session at Seaford beach on Sunday. I arrived there at about 4.30pm about an hour so after low water and found a spot opposite West View that was reasonably easy to access – considering all the work that shingle shifters have been up to recently. I was going to fish up to and over the 9 pm high water period and a couple of hours down. Conditions were not ideal – bright sun, no wind, calm and clear sea. I wasn’t expecting anything really until dark but it was nice to be out.
Two rods, both with size 4 two hook flappers baited with lugworm which had been left to fester a bit until it was nice and sticky with a distinct aroma. Both were cast out, one at distance and one mid-range. I then set about waiting for the first knocks. I had to wait a while, in fact they didn’t start until about an hour and a half later when it was dark.
First fish was a small dab (the only one of the night), followed by the inevitable whiting, occasionally interrupted by rockling. It got so hectic, that I brought one rod in and just fished with one as I got fed up with cast one, retrieve one and so on.
I fished over high water and finally left at about 11.30pm with a tally of very many whiting, a couple of which were keepers. Anna’s blog will detail how they were done for lunch today. A thoroughly enjoyable session; no great fish but enjoyable just the same.
I fished a ‘dab only’ small comp at Seaford beach yesterday with a few guys from WSF. Apparently there had been loads of dabs the previous day, so I was feeling lucky. We fished from 9.30am to 2.30pm opposite the Beachcomber.
Result?… feck all. Bloke to my right (Barry from DVice ) had a couple of dabs and a plaice and bloke to my left had dabs, flounders and whiting. It must have been like a bloody desert in front of me. I tried blinged traces, non-blinged, tried squid tipped lug and non-tipped. Varied ranges but nothing. As much as I stared at the rod tip, it remained motion-less for the duration.
Going to sulk now…………………………….
After nearly three weeks of no fishing, I had to get out no – matter if I caught anything or not – I just wanted to get on the beach. So after finishing work, I shot home, loaded the car and headed for Seaford Beach armed with some freshly acquired lugworm from The Tackle Box. I arrived on the beach at about 8.15pm – two hours after low water – to a still night, clear sky and calm sea with just a whiff off a breeze coming from the back of the beach. The plan was to fish up and over the mid-night high water and maybe a couple of hours down.
First task was to pick an access spot that I could get down to get to the water. Environment Agency ‘Shingle shifters’ have been re-profiling the beach recently, overhauling the sea defences (old news item). The beach is virtually flat on the top at street level, suddenly dropping (almost vertical in places) around 8′ down on to the tidal part of the shingle. A word of advice here: If you’re planning on fishing the beach at night, either check your chosen spot out in daylight first and make sure you have adequate lighting and take care when wondering off towards the sea. It wouldn’t be too difficult to plunge down this abyss if you’re not careful. The other thing to bear in mind is an escape route for when the tide gets up, this steep bank is very loose and could be bloody difficult to climb up if it’s one of the steeper parts.
Once on the beach, I set up two rods, both with size 4 two hook flappers which I baited with lug tipped off with this strips of squid. Both chucked out and I settled down to a coffee. It wasn’t long before the rod tips were rattling to the familiar whiting and sure enough whiting were the first fish to come ashore – really small ‘pins’. They weren’t in the frenzied amounts we had late last year but it was enough to keep busy. Had the first of the nights dabs at about 9.15 pm or so, not a huge size but at least it wasn’t a rockling (slug)! I had been thinking about the lack of slugs when – to put the mockers on it, the first one was landed within minutes.
There was a steady stream of small fish through the night, consisting of whiting, dabs and slugs. Just before mid-night I had a half decent 37cm whiting and then about an hour later, I had the first dogfish of the year. Things started to tail off after this and by 2.30, it had dried up completely which is just a s well as bait had run out.
Tally for the night was half a dozen dabs (two keepers by the fact they were gut hooked), dozens of ‘pin’ whiting one decent whiting, one lesser spotted dogfish and numerous slugs. Lovely night to be out and a few fish too, so I was well pleased. Still can’t wait for spring to come in and fishing in earnest can start.
After a bit of a break over the Christmas and new year period, it was good to get out again, even if it wasn’t the best session ever. I’d decided on Seaford beach as the first venue of the year, so headed off and arrived at a spot near the Beachcomber at about half and hour after low water. There was no wind and the sea was mill pond calm with a bit of colour and quite a bit of foamy scum stuff on the surface. The plan was to fish the tide up to the 10pm high water to see what was about and get the first fish of the year.
I set up two rods, both with size 2 two hook flappers baited with lugworm tipped with squid. One was cast out at distance and the other mid-range. It wasn’t until 6pm that I had the first knock on the mid-range rod and on retrieval, it turned out to be a double shot of dab and whiting – they weren’t the biggest fish but they were the first of 2011, so was glad to start off the year by not blanking.
This year, I’ve joined in on a species hunt competition being run on one of the fishing forums that I haunt, so was happy to get a kick start on that one. It’s not a serious competition but does give an idea of what is caught in the various parts of the region and is a light hearted bit of rivalry between members, although there is a prize at the end of the year.
At about 6.30pm the mid-range rod trembled and quivered giving an indication of a bite that couldn’t be anything else other than ‘the fish whose name shall not be mentioned’ aka the rockling or ‘slug’. On retrieval, sure enough it was. Now I had to go through the embarrassing procedure of getting a picture for the species hunt. A quick check to make sure nobody was watching, then flash – picture done and fish returned and hopefully before being seen.
After that, it was a few more slugs, another dab and a couple of whiting. It really was quiet and without the frenetic whiting fests that were happening before the break. I think my next trips will probably be during daylight into early evening to target flatties further West along the beach. I might even have a crack down at the marina, as I hear that some herring are still about. This time of year is never really up to much, so it is a matter of scratching around for what you can get.
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Seeing that we’d had a few days of winds from Southerly directions to stir the sea up a bit, I decided on a session at Seaford beach after work yesterday. I hit the beach at the 9pm low water and went to a spot just West of West View, mind you, I could have picked anywhere, as I was the only soul on the beach as far as I could see. It looked very promising, with a good amount of movement in the coloured up sea. Access was much easier than the last time with the recent rough seas having almost demolished the steep shingle cliff.
By about 2am, the fishing had died off, with bites being very sparse and only a few extra whiting, pout and rockling hitting the beach. I gave it until 2.30 before calling it a night and not even waiting for high water. I left a few scraps of bait and the guttings for the fox, which was still hanging around in the vicinity before packing up the car and heading for home.
