The Palace Pier held its first competition of 2007 (results below) on Brighton Marina on 01/04/07 and amongst the catches some seriously good Wrasse and Flounders, a few Pollack and a Garfish. The Wrasse were caught on fresh ragworm close to the marina wall on size 4 hooks, Harry Leeson had the biggest of the match with a cracking 1lb 15oz fish but Sam Sampson and Glenn Ide also had fish around the 1 1/2lb mark. There were also small pollack about and Flounders were caught on fresh worm baits cast 20+yards out. Roy Arnold had the first club Garfish of the year by perserveering with the Slider. I would like to say thanks to Simon, Roy, Howie and Keith for coming alog to the match. Also this week the marina has seen some Plaice caught and another Garfish so maybe if the weather keeps up we will see a few more summer fish on our shores by the weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I fished a match for the Palace Pier Club on Sunday (17/06/07) and conditions were pretty bad at the start of the day. The match was fished on Brighton Marina east arm and as they day progressed it got pretty full. Catches began early with a few Wrasse being caught on ragworm and prawn. I had a sizable Rockling, yes Rockling in June at the beginning of the day fishing close to the wall and this is where most of the fish appeared to be caught. Catch rates were slow and there were a few other species landed at this point with most people still being in contention as the winning bag was only a few fish. Then a guy who was not fishing in the competition hooked into a 4lb 4oz Smoothound and a Bass in two casts and it seemed the action may be on the change with the incoming tide. Sam Sampson decided to have a few casts with peeler and hooked into a smoothound of around 4lb but unfortunately lost it when trying to bring up the side. He had another bite and then hooked into what he says was a very substantial fish which gave him a real run for his money, again unfortunately the fish broke free without seeing it break the surface but he says it could have been around the double figure mark. Seeing this action I decided to have a cast with Peeler, I left it out there for about 20 mins but nothing, so I rebaited with peeler and a small bit of ragworm and cast my 1 hook rig about 80yards and had another go. I was using a 1/0 hook and put the crab on with bait elastic. I was also using a slider just incase there were any gars about. I sat down after a few mins and waited, after about 10 mins I started pre baiting my next rig when BAM! My rod bent over and I grabbed it before it was almost pulled over (smoothys really go and if your not near your rod even a small one could pull it in). I reeled down and struck and I knew fish was on. It started by swimming at me and I reeled in the line to keep tension on the fish. When it got close to the wall it made a few hard runs but after a decent fight it was netted by the chap who had his one earlier on. It was a lovely specimen of 4lb 6oz (pics below), which gave a real good scrap.

I weighed, had some pics taken and then released it by lowering it back down in the drop net to catch its breath, it was an awesome sight seeing it swim back as he hung around a bit and then swam off into the depths. Its a wierd thing that only anglers will understand but releasing the fish and watching it swim away was one of my best fishing momments of late. The fish won me the match and also the prize for heaviest fish so I was understandably happy. The results are as follow:

1st Craig Ide (4lb 9oz)

2nd Ben Arnold (1lb 8oz)

Most Fish: Ben Arnold (4 fish)

Heaviest Fish: Craig Ide (Smoothound 4lb 6oz)