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Update: 31/01/2010
I still dont have Net access and cannot update the site (doing this from friends pc). This is due to delays and issues with the net provider not turning up to install the net on a couple of occassions and then rescheduling 2 weeks later (as i moved house at the start of Jan). I am planning to have the Net by Feb 10th and will do a series of reports and updates then (all being well).
Apologies if you have checked the site and not seen any updates. Please check back in Mid feb and all should be well.
I can receive emails via my phone so if you have any fishing queries or reports then email me at craigide@hotmail.co.uk
Regards
Craig
Tides:
31st January 2010
| |
Time |
Height (m) |
| High |
11:46
|
6.8
|
| Low |
05:42
18:05 |
0.6
0.3 |
1st February 2010
| |
Time |
Height (m) |
| High |
00:16
12:31 |
6.9
6.9 |
| Low |
06:28
18:50 |
0.5
0.3 |
2nd February 2010
| |
Time |
Height (m) |
| High |
01:00
13:15 |
7.0
6.8 |
| Low |
07:13
19:36 |
0.5
0.4 |
3rd February 2010
| |
Time |
Height (m) |
| High |
01:43
13:58 |
6.9
6.6 |
| Low |
07:59
20:20 |
0.6
0.6 |
4th February 2010
| |
Time |
Height (m) |
| High |
02:25
14:41 |
6.7
6.3 |
| Low |
08:43
21:03 |
0.8
0.9 |
5th February 2010
| |
Time |
Height (m) |
| High |
03:07
15:26 |
6.3
5.9 |
| Low |
09:27
21:47 |
1.2
1.4 |
6th February 2010
| |
Time |
Height (m) |
| High |
03:53
16:18 |
5.8
5.4 |
| Low |
10:16
22:40 |
1.6
1.8 |
|
14/12/09
With the winds dropping, more and more people have been able to get out and wet a line.
There has been plenty of Whiting about and a few good Cod. There has also been Eels and a few Flatties.
I will start with the best report, which is of my dads trip to Hove. After raiding my tackle box (rigs) and then stealing my frozen bait, he headed off to a winter beach match with HDSA. He was fishing with 2 rods, 1 for whiting and another with a larger bait. There was the usual Whiting action and not much else until his rod doubled over and he hooked in the this beast (below).
After getting it onto the beach, it was weighed on club scales at 13lb 8oz, which smashed the previous club beach record of 6lb. Also a PB fish. Nice way to finish the year! (Git). As you can imagine, he is a very pleased (smug) man. There was also reports that an 8lber was caught that night on another part of Hove beaches.
It was caught on a squid black lug combo and on my rig, im not bitter though :) .
Brighton Marina has been fishing well when open with plenty of Whiting. There has been some to good size. Quite a few Eels have been caught in the dirty water as have a few Plaice and quite a few Scoolie bass. A bass of 5lb was caught on Mackerel in the week.
Pevensey bay and Seaford have fished well with Whiting and the odd Cod being caught. It seems that after these strong winds, it really is the time to wet a line. Which is gutting for me as i havent been able to get out, due to other commitments.
Last but definately not least, a big thanks to Kevin for this fantastic report:
Just thought i would let you know about a trip i went on sat night. I could not get any fresh bait so as a last resort i raided my freezer for some 6 month old black lug. I decided as the high tide was at approx 8.00pm at Seaford and only a small 5.5 metre tide I would fish by the beachcomber pub and to get there at around 7.15 pm to fish over the top and down the tide a few hours.
Decided to use a three hook Portsmouth rig with 1.0 worm hooks and a 5 oz impact lead on my zziplex gb3 light rod and to use a pulley Pennell rig with 3/0 hooks and 6oz impact lead on my zziplex LT bullet rod.
Conditions were very calm with no wind at all, ideal for distance casting, although with all things considered and the bait I had I was not expecting a very entertaining evening.
Into good size whiting straight away on both rods, getting up to 40cm in size, at least my dogs will be having a feast tomorrow i thought, then at approx 9.15 pm had a small bite on three hook trace then the line went slack, i thought it was just a bigger whiting picking up the 5oz lead.
I started to pull into line to reel in but could not move the weight, bugger snagged up i thought, with that the weight moved on the line and started to take line off my reel, never had this happen before so i tightened drag up a bit more then started to haul the line in. Then i found myself being drawn towards the shore with the tip bending over to a heavy thump. I then decided to start pumping the rod and bullying the fish in with which after afew minutes i had a lovely cod on the beach, i weighed the cod at home that night which eventually weighed 9lb 6oz, not bad on 6 month old frozen bait.
I didn’t catch any more cod that night but i did end up with over 35 whiting , all on a four hour session. Over all the best night i have had in a long time. I have attached a photo i took which is very rare for me to do nowadays.
Also thought i would let you know there was 8 recorded cod caught at Eastbourne over the weekend varying weights from 6lb to 9lb.
07/12/09
This week has again seen windy and rainy conditions but with a few brief calm spells in between. With the water having been churned up, the fish have been on the feed inshore and im itching to wet a line. There are some catch reports from the calmer days so here we go.
Seaford has been fishing very well with Eels, Pout, lots of Whiting and a few Codling up to 5lb on Squid and fresh worm baits. A few Scoolies have also been landed. Best results have come after dark.
The Hope inn has been providing sport with Whiting, Pout and Eels during night and day.
Pevensey bay has been fishing similar to Seaford but a few Rockling and flatties (Sole) have also been caught.
Eastbourne and Langley have had reports of Some Cod with one approaching 9lb on a night session.
Hove Beaches have produced Whiting, Pout, Eels and the odd Codling. There has also been quite a few Scoolie Bass caught near the lagoon/power station areas in the big surf at low tide. The only issue has been the weed. This has been the same issue for Shoreham and Worthing beaches.
Brighton Marina has been shut for most of the week due to the winds. When it has been open there have been Whiting, small Bass and a couple of nice sole (one around 2lb).
Kingston beach has been a retreat from the rougher conditions and there has been a few Whiting and Rockling caught but not too many reports.
The winds are due to continue to be strong all week but currently they are forecast to reduce slightly later in the week so it may be worth a session (weather permitting). Tight lines
24/11/09
This week has again seen exceptionally strong winds which has meant that getting fishing in has been difficult. As such, i dont have too many reports but when people have opted to fish, it has been sheltered areas which include Kingston Beach (shoreham harbour), the Hope Inn (newhaven) and Tidemills (between seaford and newhaven). All of these places have a degree of shelter from the strong winds. Some people have also fished Pevensey bay.
Glenn Arnold fished the Hope Inn with the palace pier club. There was a mix of fish caught with Whiting and Pout being the majority of catches. There was also a few eels and flat fish landed.
Brighton Marina has been closed most of the week but when it was open for a brief period there was Whiting in very good numbers and to decent sizes.
Whiting have been pretty much the order of the day in terms of catches when people have been able to get out. As soon as the weather calms down i would suggest getting your gear ready with some decent sized baits for Codling and plump whiting. The bad news is that the winds dont look like they will calm down for about 5 or 6 days.
27/10/09
This week has seen constant winds but nothing too strong until the latter part of the week. As a result there has been a mix of summer and winter species caught along our coast.
Jay fished Seaford this week and managed to get some good whiting up to 1lb. He was fishing the deeper and and put a whole squid out on a pennel rig at 20 yards. While baiting up his whiting rod he turned to see his rod balancing on the stand, when he pulled into there was nothing. Given the take he thinks a bass had struck the bait but not taken it fully, despite the strong take.
Pevensey bay has been fishing very well with some good whiting & pout, plus the odd Sole. There was also a few Cod caught between 3-10lb! The strong conditions seems to have really turned them on the feed.
Hove has been fairly slow by comparrison but there has been a few Whiting, Bass and baby thornbacks.
Brighton Marina has been fishing well, when open, this week with Mackerel, garfish and Bass in the daytime. After dark there has been a few Codling (mainly small) and quite a few Whiting.
28/10/09
This week has seen windier weather at the latter part of the week after a settled start. As such there has been a mix of catches.
I will start with Brighton Marina which has been fishing well with lots of Mackerel showing up right through to Saturday. Schooly Bass have also been taking a range of Baits. After dark there has been the Odd Codling, amongst whiting and pout. There was also a few dogfish caught which is fairly uncommon for the arm but a good few were landed.
I fished Seaford with my mate Ben fished Seaford on a very windy sunday night (25/10). We were after Cod and Whiting and were armed with fresh black, Squid and frozen peeler.
We arrived just as the tide was going down and the darkness was setting. We seemed like the only ones mad enough to fish as it was blowing a goodun with plenty of waves. We headed to edingburgh road but it was too windy and rough so moved towards a spot between that and the buckle where it was a little calmer.
We both used 2 rods with big bait ups on one and 2 hook clipped downs on the other. First cast yielded a couple of whiting, as did the cast after that and the next cast. this was the theme for the night really with plenty of whiting and some to good size (around 1lb). After about an hour i put a whole squid on a clipped down pennel rig with 3/0 hooks. I had codling as the tide was going out before and given the conditions i thought i had a chance. I cast it as far as i could into the wind/waves and waited. About 15 mins later the rod pulled down in a way that looked different to a wave hitting the line. I let the bite continue and after a few mins pulled in this lovely 3 and a half pound Codling. I knew i had it on but didnt say anthing as didnt want to jinx it as there was a chance it could have been lost in the surf but i got it in. Besides this the whiting continued and we also had some Pout.
Not bad for a 3 hour session as must have had 3 pout, 20+ whiting and a Codling. Ben had similar minus the Codling. I gutted the Codling and it looked as if there was worms and fish (sprats or herring) in its stomach. this was also the same for a couple of the whiting we kept.
Me with 3lb 8oz Codling
Pevensey has had similar results to Seaford with the Odd Sole, Eel and Schooly Bass being caught.
Jay fished Langley point midweek and caught over 10 Bass between 1-2lb. He also managed to catch some monster Pout and nice Whiting in what proved to be a very productive session.
Thanks to Jon for this great report:
Friday saw Bret and I set off from west London at 3.30 to arrive at Anglers Den Pevensy bay at 7.30. Note to self, never again leave London for the south coast the Friday before school break. Anyhoo 100 lug, pack of squid and a pack of macky secured and enough local knowledge to see us through till the new year, we set off for Mortelo tower (excuse my ignorant spelling) One thing I must say is how amazingly helpful all those we met were. HOOGE thankyou also to Crazyplums for all the info prior to the trip and great to have a chat on the beach,. I’ll be definitely contacting you again when we head back down to Pevensey (probably sooner than later)
Back to the fishing, after a fish n chip dinner and meeting up with another couple of friends who also headed down from London a little later than us we setup a few hundred yards from the tower near the bungalows. One rod pennel lug, chucked out far, another 3 hook clipped down chucked as far as poss and another fairly close in again on a penel but this time with a whole squid. Fishing was fairly frantic from the start, with whitting falling to almost everything we chucked out. Upscaled hook size still whitting galore. Not complaining as it has been such a long time since I’ve managed to get out so something is better than nothing. Fished the tower until around 1 with far too many whitting to count and one schoolie to show for our efforts.
Arrive at white horses by the sailing club and continue fishing around 1.30. Conditions at the point were pretty bad. If not for the groyne to hide behind I think we would have called it a day. Fished hear until 5am then decided to set the tent up for a few zzz. Fishing was a lot slowe, another schoolie showed to Bret and a few more whitting but that was all.
Woke at 9am after a fairly good sleep considering conditions outside to have a whitting bbq and continue fishing. I had another 4 schoolies, all around the 30cm to 45cm mark except for one tiny lil thing that took the bait in deep. Fortunately after what seemed like keyhole surgery hook was released. Held the little thing in the water to regain life and she swam off as if nothing happened. Something quite special about holding a bass in the surf to feel the life springback into it. We continued by the sailing club until about 4 where we decided to call it a day after a 2-3 hour patch of nothingness. Back to anglers den to spend more money then back to London. All in all a fun session. Shame we didn’t get to fish with fishyrob on the sat which was the initial plan but maybe next time if conditions are better.
12/10/09
Firstly, apologies for the delayed updating of reports. I have had net access issues, hence the delay. I have also been able to add a couple of Pics from recent catch reports (below) such as my dads Trigger Fish. Anyway, onto the fishing. There has been some good catches across the coast this past week and i wil start with Brighton Marina.
The Mackerel and Garfish are still about and being caught on Floats and Feathers. There are still a few bream being caught on worm baits during the day. There has been quite a few Mullet landed and some good Bass beteween 6-10lb caught on ledgered Mackerel head. After dark there has been Whiting, Pout, Sole and the odd Codling. October is one of the best months for fishing the Marina so its worth getting down there if you have the chance.
Jay fished Seaford last week and had a cracking session with plenty of Whiting, 5 over 1lb. There were also a few pout but no Codling this time. There have been Codling landed in the week as well as baby thornbacks and Eels. Pevensey bay has been fishing very similar to Seaford.
Newhaven East arm has been fishing very well. Mackerel and some big gars in the day. Also there are still a few Bass about. Ben Arnold had a couple of Golden Grey Mullet. After dark there has been a few Sole, Pout and some good Whiting.
My dad fished with HDSA at a mark 2 miles out from the shore. He had a number of Bream and 2 Cod, 1 of 10lb (pic below) and another 5lb. Ray also had a trigger fish at the same place my dad had his previous ones last week. They also had some Gars. I have added my dads trigger fish from his last trip as well.
Glenn Ide with a 10lb Codling
Glenn Ide with a 3lb 8oz Trigger fish
28/09/09
This week has again seen N and NE winds which have kept the water clear. There have been some very good catches this week and i have been fortunate to get a couple of fishing sessions in.
On Saturday i managed to get out on my kayak for a couple of hours. I decided that for ease of access i would fish the inner jennies (a rocky mixed ground area about 600 yards off Shoreham powerstation). I paddled out to the sussex Yacht club Bouy which is 0.7 miles out (according to my GPS). Once there, i baited up my 2 hook running ledger rig with fresh black and king rag and started to drift. I deliberately headed out just after low so that the drift would take me back into shore. After about 50 yards i started getting bites and it resulted in a bream. I continued to drift until i got 200 yards away from the mark and the bites slowed so i paddled back out. I repeated this a few times and it resulted in a couple of sizeable bream and a few small Wrasse. On my second to last drift i had a monsterous bite on the ragworm bait which ripped the 4ft kayak out of my hands and luckily onto my lap. After a good tustle (which made my kayak slightly turn) it resulted in a personal best wrasse, which was approaching 3lb! I have had plenty of wrasse and a few over 2lb but this was a proper lunker and rounded off a nice trip. Unfortunately, i had left my new camera phone on shore (as I didnt want to risk damaging it like my last one) so i couldnt get a picture. After this i decided to drift back and had a bream. I continued to drift all until i got back to shore where there was the odd shoal of mackerel to entertain me.
I also fished Deal Pier (Kent) on Sunday with BPPAA. It was an absolute Pout bash with plenty of fish being caught. It was primarily catch and release unless anyone wanted the fish. I seemed to be hooking into the ones all just undersize but did manage a few weighers. I was using 3 hook rigs (2 up 1 down) size 2 and 4 hooks and a mix of worm baits. Me and Glenn also managed to catch some Scad but besides that there wasnt much variety bar a shad. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day all in all.
Anyway, onto the other catch reports:
Brighton marina has been fishing well with quite a few Mackerel being caught. Gars have been landed on float fishing gear. There are still a few Bream about and reports of a 3 1/2lber as well! Bass up to 4lb have been caught on float fished live prawn and mackerel fillets. Wrasse and pout have been caught down the side of the wall on worm baits.
Seaford has been fishing well for Mackerel with best results at dusk. A few Sole and Pout have also been caught after dark. There have also been a few nice Bass caught between 2 - 8lb. There was also a Codling caught. Pevensey has been much the same with a few Eels to add.
My old man fished with HDSA on Sun 27th and fished around the Billy Bouy. He had an unexpected set of catches which resulted in 8 trigger fish amongst pout and bream. The biggest Triggerfish (pic to be added) was also a personal best and club record of 3lb 8oz! Amongst other catches included a Codling of 5lb by Ian R and a few dogfish.
21/09/09
This week saw NE and N winds for the most part which lead to calm conditions inshore. As such, the fishing has been pretty good for most summer species, especially with the bigger tides. Hence more reports.
Brighton Marina has been fishing well with plenty of fish day or night. During the day there has been Mackerel and Garfish on floats and feathers. Bass and Pollack have been caught on live prawn floatfished just off the bottom. Worm baits have been producing bream when fished just out from the wall and when fished closer to the wall it has produced some nice Wrasse. After dark there has been Pout, Whiting and Small Codling but by all accounts they have been a bit hit and miss. I fished the East arm on Monday eve for a few hours float fishing along with my mate Glenn. It was pretty much Mackerel after Mackerel with large shoals chasing whitebait up and down the arm. We did have a couple of gars and a shad but not much else. All in all an enjoyable float fishing session on light gear. We had a few goes for Bass and Pollack with Prawn but even when fished at depth we were hooking into Macks.
Newhaven East arm has been producing good numbers of Mackerel and Garfish in the daytime. Some to very good size. After dark there have been Pout and Sole. In view of this I decided to try and fish for Bass on Sunday daytime and to be honest i was fairly confident of getting a one because i was fishing a spot where i had caught them before on a big tide with tactics that i knew worked well. The main key to success at this spot is using a small joey as live bait. I had tried a range of tactics in the past and this definately had a much better strike rate for me. The problem i had on sunday was that despite my efforts i was struggling to catch a joey! most of the mackerel i as catching were pretty big and getting onto the 1lb mark. I did manage to get a joey or two and had some time bassing but there was far too much time spent frustratingly trying to catch joeys. Unfortunately, this meant that i only manage Mackerel but i got some follow ups from very big gars on my lures and feathers. One thing i did see was a comorant taking on a schooly bass. It had it by the gills but the bass was almost the same size as the bird! after a bit of flapping the bass went free.
My friends Roy and his Son Ben (who is now bigger than me) were fishing on the arm as well. They were both after Mullet and managed to hook into a couple of nice Goldies with one nearing 2lb (which is a big goldy)! Ben also lost a Bass that had taken his mullet bait.
HDSA fished a match with species hunt being the match rules. My dad had some nice Bream and good Pout at the Billy Bhouy. There was also a few Cod up to 6lb landed at some marks within a few miles of shore which is a good sign. A few nice Plaice were landed by guys that were drift fishing.
Seaford has been fishing well with shoals of mackerel all along the beach during daylight hours. After dark there has been some Sole, Pout, a few Bass and the odd Codling (although i suspect its a bit too clear at the mo, but there had been a few to 3lb in the past few weeks.
Pevensey Bay has been has fished similar to Seaford but with a slightly better chance of Codling.
Im off to Deal on Sunday with BPPAA for their annual trip so i will hopefully have some catch reports and pictures from the session.
14/09/09
I fished with HDSA on saturday and due to the strong NE ENE winds it meant that for a good part of the day we could only goa mile out before the white water started. It was calm inshore as the land protects the sea but as you get further out the protection lessens.
Anyway, 6 boats made the venture out. Some went to the inner jennies, some to portabello and some tried a few marks around the piers. Catches were mainly made up of Plaice (up to 3lb) and Bream. I must have had countless Bream throughout the day but only 2 of any notable size. I was using running ledgers (1 & 2 hook, size 2 hooks) and a rag, lug or mackerel for bait. I also had Gurnards and Wrasse on the same set up. Harry had a nice wrasse around 2lb while fishing the same area and also landed a Gar fish. Later in the afternoon i thought ihad something better on but when it came to the surface it was a cuttle fish that had clamped itself onto the smaller wrasse i had caught! After some splashing and shootng of ink, it was freed.
As things calmed down a little we tried the 2 mile marker for Bass, I managed to hook into one on a sandeel lure but after about 30 seconds the fish came free (gutted!). The only consolation was that i knew it was only a smaller one.
After the day had finished there was some interesting conversations about catches and whilst we had seen no whiting or dabs at the ground off hove, the guys that fished portabello and rottingdean were swamped with them, they also had more Plaice per boat then us, but then again they also got wetter in the trip there!
Elsewhere, Brighton Marina has fished well this week with Mackerel, Gars and Pollack during daylight on usual tactics. Bream are still around and taking most baits offered. There has been quite a few Bass between 3-5lb caught on Mackerel heads and float fished live prawn. After dark the sole have been caught on lugworm and small channels have shown up as well, which ties in with above reports.
Mackerel shoals and Bass have been showing at Seaford. A few Codling and Whiting after dark. Similar reports for Pevensey as well with some Good Sole at both marks.
07/09/09
I only have reports from a couple of locations this week as the weather has been poor:
Brighton Marina has been fishing well when open (as closed most of week due to strong winds) with wrasse and pout down the wall to worm baits. Garfish and Mackerel were caught over the weekend on sliders and float fished baits. After dark there have been some nice Sole caught to worm baits.
My dad fished with HDSA on sunday and there was a really good mix of fish caught, which included plenty of Bream, Dogfish a few Rays and some schooly Bass. Most were between 2-4 miles out from shoreham harbour.
Pevensey Bay is producing some nice sized Sole after dark as well as plenty of Pout and Eels. Similar reports from Seaford where there have also been a couple of Whiting. Interestingly enough, this time last year was when the first Codling was caught at Seaford. There have also been some nice Bass up to 5lb caught on Mackerel and Squid fished close in.
Hove Beaches are producing Pout, Flounders and schooly Bass after dark with not too much weed.
Thanks to Howie H for this really great report from a session in Selsey. There is also some pics which i will add shortly but here it is:
I had decided to take the kids down to selsey for some camping but managed to get a pass to fish for two early morning sessions on the wednesday and thursday to try for some smooth hounds so went down to see dave at the tackle box and brought some great devon peeler crabs.These were then carefully packed in the cool box with the other food which the girlfriend diddnt like at all!!
> When i got down there i went into the local tackle shop for some worm bait(brought some good fresh rag worm localy dug) and local advice about how things were fishing.The lady said that although it was getting a little late for the hounds there were some still showing and 2hrs up and 2hrs down was the best time for fishing there obviously at night.This ment we needed to get to the beach at about 1:30am on the wednes day morning so the alarm was set traces made rods put in car bait sorted etc ready for the early session.
> Due to the alarm NOT going off even though zak swears he set it correctly it ment that we diddnt get to the beach untill about 3:15 and had missed the last stages of the flood.As we were walking along the shingle bank we were greeted by another angler who had just finished and was walking back to his car.We cahtted for a while and he said that he had been there for 3hrs without a single bite and reconed there were a lot of crabs taking his bait.This was not good news but we were there now and we were still going to fish the tide down for a bit,also i have had other people say this to me in the past and i have had a really good session so you can never really always judge some elses oppinion as they may be doing something wrong??
> We had three rods with us so i set zak up with a bass rod and 3 hook flapper baited with rag and makkie and rag and small bits of crab just to see what was around and then i baited up my beach caster withe a big crab bait on a pulley rig with size 4/0 hook(i dont use pennell rigs for hounds as i have found it difficult to get them out of the mouth of the fish).After a few minutes zaks rod started to show signs of a small bite so things were looking up and when reeled in a reasonable sized pout was pulled out,perhaps not all doom and gloom like the other guy was suggesting although pout was not whah we were after!
> Then things stopped and not anymore bites let alone anymore fish not even a pout!!! We carried on for another 2hrs untill daylight trying other tactics but nothing.We packed up and left a bit pissed off but with the aim to go again the next morning.
> During the day i went to get some more bait and spoke to another person in the tackle shop and was told that the area we had fished usually produced but lately the west beach between the coastguard and the windmill was fishing better so we went ther for a look.Ispoke to one guy who was fishing and asked about any snags and best time to fish etc and got a lot of usefull info and he also said that 1hr before high water the tide runs quite hard and this is when the fish feed the most espeshaly the hounds which is what we came for.Armed with this info and fresh bait I set the alarm this time and we got up at 2am (high water at about 4:15am)to fish this beach.(only about 1/4 mile along from where we were fishing the night before).
> The rods were set up the same as the night before but this time i set up another beachcaster with a 1 up 1 down rig size 2/0 hooks with some worm and makkie bait cast at distance to give us more of a chance than the night before if things were going to be as quiet.Zak was first in after about a minute with a small pout and then again and again etc and it was looking like we wouldnt get through them and i even had some on the rod cast at distance well about 100 yards so not a great distance(havent cast from the beach since the winter and was very rusty)then zak started to catch some school bass which pleased him very much and was something different!!
Unfortunately, some of the text was missing but Howie did provide an update:
the missing text was about the smooth hound that i caught which was a little over the 11lb mark well chuffed as biggest fish to date and gave a real good fight in the water and on the beach when trying to remove the hook!!
31/08/09
I have just returned from Holiday 31/08/09 but have very few reports to put on the site as have had no access to email etc. so please bear with me while i work through emails and contact friends to get reports for the past week or two. Please email me if you have any catch reports from this period and I will add them asap. Keep checking back through the week for updates. Thanks, Craig.
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10/08/09
The weather has been much more settled this week and as such there have been more fish about and more catch reports coming in.
I fished twice this weekend from my Kayak just out from Hove Lagoon. I was after Bream and Plaice so headed out on both days to the inner jennies. I had rag and black for bait and was fishing with 1 rod on a 2 hook running ledger with size 4 & 2 hooks and beads. I didnt manage to get any Plaice but i did catch plenty of Bream which all put up a good scrap on the light rod and reel combo i was using (see review below about rod & reel). I also had a small Red Mullet. Both sessions were really good and the weather stayed fine. The fish were caught on both baits and appeared to have little preferrence. I did try spinning for Mackerel but had no luck on that front. The only issues i had to contend with were the Jet Skiers bowel waves as for some reason they love to come close even though they have the whole sea and they have little regard for to you not thinking about their actions (rant over - i know its not all of them).
My dad fished with HDSA at a mark called the box (6 miles out) on Sunday 09/08 and managed to catch a 20lb Conger which he returned. Its a Personal best for him and a fairly unexpected catch as they were after Bass. He also had plenty of Bream and a Few Dogfish.
Brighton Marina has been fishing fairly well with more Mackerel and Garfish showing up as the week has progressed. A few Schooly Bass up to 3lb have also been caught this week. Pollack have been caught on Live prawn over the rocks on the east arm. Wrasse and Pout down the walls during daylight and there have also been quite a few small Bream. Sole and Smoothounds have been showing after dark on worm and crab baits respectively. Ben Arnold fished the east arm for Mullet and had two around 2lb on bread flake and also caught a Bass of 4lb on bread. There is also reports of a trigger fish being caught on the west arm.
The Hounds have been showing up along Ferring, Worthing and Brighton with good numbers and sizes being reported.
Zebco kayak king rod and Abu blue max baitcast reel - Review.
The helpful staff at www.abfishingtackle.com kindly sent me this combo to review as they know that i am into my kayak fishing. I have used it frequently when i am able to get out on the yak, so heres my thoughts:
In my honest opinion i think this is a great little combination for use on the kayak. At first glance the rod and reel combo looks far to small and almost comical as the rod is only 100cm tall, almost as if its a childs one. However, once your past the strange glances and comments from friends, you really begin to appreciate why the rod is the size it is, comfort control and usability. Not to mention weight and balance when on your kayak. If you have ever tried using anything that is the size of a normal boat rod or larger on a kayak, you will know how difficult it can be to do rig/bait changes etc when your obbing up and down on the waves as it can make you feel unstable.
The rod has clearly been developed for kayaking and a considerable amount of thought has gone into the development of suiting it to kayak anglers requirements. It comes with a fuji real seat which locks your real firmly in place. The rings are well spaced apart and are a seymo type design with black whipping. They will be durable for a good few kayak seasons. Its incredibly light weight which is ideal and there is enough flex to get a decent cast. The rod has a nice foam grip which doesnt become slippery when wet so you can be confident that you can cast without any problems. Its size makes it easy to use, hold and change rigs etc. Its very comfortable to use and not at all cumbersome while trying to manouvere around on the kayak.
There is only one limitation to this rod. If you get a really good sized fish (Bass, Hound etc.) it may cause you slight problems. This is due to its size, which is strange as the size is also one of its benefits, but let me explain. With a large fish, it will inevitably swim around you and possibly under your kayak. In most cases this causes no problems but if it goes under your kayak, you may have to pass the rod under the kayak to the otherside to stop it tipping you over or causing difficulties. This is the only real limitation with a shorter rod because this can be difficult in comparrison to a slighlty longer rod. With this in mind i would say to use this rod for most situations (spinning, bait fishing for bream, plaice etc.) but if you are after somthing large then it may be worth using a slightly larger rod. This said, im not sure how big a fish you would be able to target on a kayak anyway and the zebco rod will easily handle fish up to 4-5lb. I had a Mackerel on it and it gave a really good fight. The tip was flexible and sensitive to give a good fight but the butt of the rod was stiff enough to ensure i was always in control of the fish.
The Abu reel was really good and perfectly weighted for the rod. I managed to cast a lure about 20-30 yards using the combo and this is more than enough when out on your kayak. The ree holds plenty of line (160yrds of 12lb line) and i was using a standard 15lb mono line on mine as it still held plenty. The bait cast design of the reel meant that i could cast with one arm confortably with minimal fuss. This is perfect when your on the kayak. The retrieve was very smooth and even when you have a fish on there is enough power in the handle to bring the fish in smoothly. It really feels as if the combo has been thoughtfully considered for the kayak angler and i felt much more confident when using it then when using other rods as i have in the past. The reel feels as if its of a quality much above its price range. The braking system is really good and i felt in control of every cast.
Its features include:
· Three ball bearings and one roller bearing
· Power disk drag system
· Duragear brass gears
· Magtrax brake system
· 175m / 030mm
· 6.2:1
· 225g
Overall: I would say its a must for any serious inshore kayak angler and for the price its exceptional value for money as i have used the reel when fishing from the shore with a normal spinning rod and it was not out of its depth at all. It was comfortable to use and lightweight which is important when your out on your kayak. It gave me absolute confidence on the water while fishing as i felt i was easily in control at all times and able to change my set up with minimal fuss or movment. Just ensure that you wash everything down with fresh water after use as it will have inevitably got a soaking with sea water while out on your kayak. I now take it on every Kayak trip.
27/07/09
Not too much to report this week as there has been consistently strong winds making the sea dirty. Along most beaches from Worthing to Brighton, there has been quite a bit of seaweed.
Brighton Marina has been closed periodically throughout the week but when it has been open, there have been a few Mackerel and Bream caught. Down the wall has seen the odd Eel, Pout, Bass and Wrasse. After dark there has been a few nice Sole and the odd Smoothhound. Ben Arnold won a Palace Pier match on the Marina with 7 Wrasse for 9lb.
Shoreham arm has been producing a few good Sole after dark with some Schooly Bass and Eels.
Newhaven East arm has produced Pout, Schoolies, Flounders and Eels during the daylight. After dark there have been a few Sole showing up and Seaford has also produced the same with Pout showing as well. Tidemills has been producing quite a few Schoolies.
13/07/09
Apologies again for the delay, if its not my back its my internet connection. Unfortunately, it went down and took a week to repair hence the delay. Moving onto the fishing, Brighton marina has been patchy this week due to the windy weather. In the day time there has been the odd Mackerel and garfish while the water has been clear. The odd bream has also been caught on worm baits. When the water stirred up there have been a few Bass up to 5lb and some eels on crab. A friend of mine fished it sunday and had some small thornbacks and an eel. After dark there has been quite a few hounds on peeler crab. mostly up to 4-5lb.
Tidemills and newhaven east arm have been producing golden grey mullet on maddies, gurnard, flounders and Schooly Bass. Gars and Mackerel have been caught when the water was clear. A few small thornies have also been landed.
Eastbourne has been producing Eels, Schooly Bass and Pout plus the odd hound pup. Pevensey Bay has been fishing ok with some Pout, Flounders and a few nice Sole amongst the Schoolies.
I am hoping to get a few kayak sessions in when the wind calms down a little. I went for a paddle in the surf which was fun and also gave me useful time in the water getting used to slighlty rougher conditions. I actually loved it and caught some good waves which was fun. Fingers crossed the wind stays down for thursday (as current forecasts suggest) and i can get out on the yak for a fishing session.
30/06/09
Hi all, sorry about the delay in updates over the past week and a half. Unfortunately, if you read my previous report, you may have heard that i have hurt my back again. After 2 weeks of resting, i am feeling much better and itching to wet a line. I havent had too many report due to my absence on the fishing scene, and also i didnt want to hear what people were catching while i was stuck in bed!
Anyway, onto the reson why your reading this...whats being caught? Brighton marina has been fishing well with the usual mackerel and garfish, although they have been slightly more patchy then you would have thought. Some good sized bass have been caught on mackerel baits. Bream are being caught on a range of baits with best results being small hooks. Smoothounds up to 4lb have been showing after dark on peeler crab baits. A few Sole are starting to show too. Down the wall in the daytime there have also been some nice sized wrasse and after dark there is the usual invasion of pout.
Seaford has been producing a lot of mackerel with some shoaling on the surface. A friend of mine went spinning on Friday and had plenty on his dexter wedge lure. They were approximately mid water as he was letting the lure sink a little. During the day there has also been a few bream caught but none of notable size, as far as im aware. After dark seaford has been producing Pout for the most part with the odd dogfish, baby thornbacks and hound pups.
My dad has fished woth the HDSA this weekend and amongst the catches were a lot of Dogfish, some hounds up to 6lb, plenty of bream and a nice undulated ray just under double figures.
Pevensey bay has fished ok with some schooly bass, pout and hound pups. A few eels have also been caught but all in all the reports have been fairly slow from that area.
If you have any reports, please send them onto me and i will add them asap.
16/06/09
Sorry about the delay but i hurt my back this week so this is the first chance i have been able to get to my laptop. This week has seen patches of calm weather mixed with windy days so it has meant that the sea has been clearish with the odd patch of coloured water. This has effected the fishing but on the whole things have been good.
Brighton Marina has been fishing well with reports of bass up to 6lb being caught on Mackerel heads and guts. Smoothounds have shown up to 5lb after dark along with a few sole and small thornbacks. During the day there has been quite a few Mackerel and Garfish when the water has been clearer. There has also been some nice Wrasse down the wall to worm baits and pout after dark. Bream up to 1lb have also been showing on both arms.
I fished with HDSA on sunday (when i done my back in) and there was a real mix of catches. Most notably some good rays. Me and Pete decided to fish a mark known as the box (about 6 miles out). Unfortunately, the current was strong and our anchor tripped to start with. We then held bottom and finding the fish was proving a bit difficult. After a couple of hours we did manage to have a few sizeable dogs, undersized bream and I had a hound just over 5lb. We decided to move and fished closer to shore where i got another hound and a dab of 10oz. I also hound around 20 bream but couldnt get one sizeable (all 1/2 cm undersize) but pete did manage 2 good ones. I then hurt my back and wont bore you with that but it ended my fishing for the day although it was just before we were heading in anyway. At the weigh in it was clear that some marks had produced while others didnt as some people had quite a few good bream while others had none. Most notably were Glenn Ide's and Harry Leeson's rays (pics below). Glenn also had a Plaice of 2lb.
Glenn Ide with his 2lb Plaice and 10lb 13oz Undulated Ray.
Harry Leeson with his 15lb 5oz Undulated Ray.
Seaford has produced a few hound pups and thournbacks but on the main it seems to be mackerel and the odd bass during daylight with the Pout coming on after dark as well as the odd dab and whitinh, yes whiting (i whitnessed it 33cm long).
Pevensey has fished very similar with the odd schooly and sole being thrown into the mix as well as a few bigger hounds
08/06/09
This week has seen much better weather but again the winds caused summer fish to move out for a bit but they are back in now. The May rot was present at almost all sussex beaches at the start of the week which meant that there wast much being caught. If you had been to the beach you would have seen a tea colour in the sea and this was the may rot.
Brighton Marina has been producing some good catches this week after the may rot cleared. Bream have been caught up to decent sizes on both arms with quite a few smaller ones being caught as well. There has been some good bass caught up to 6lb. Down the side of the wall there has been some Wrasse and Pollack on worm baits. After dark Smoothounds up to 6lb have been caught on peeler crab and there has also been baby thornbacks and pout. Roy and Ben Arnold fished the marina on saturday night and had a couple of hounds around the 4lb mark.
Me and Charlie went on our fishing trip to pagham in the persuit of hounds. Unfortunately, the seaweed was soo strong that on the Friday night that we didnt catch any hounds because everytime you cast out the bait was being masked by sea weed as was the whole of your line. Many anglers packed up early and after chatting to a few fellow anglers it was clear that very little was caught and no hounds. I did manage a nice schooly bass around the 2lb mark to save my blank. We camped on the beach and woke to bacon sarnies at sunrise. We tried fishing again but the weed was too bad so we decided to try selsey in the day but as we arrived many others were packing up due to the weed so we gave it a quick go but it was far too weedyt. Later i learnt that my mate Jay had fished there the night before and there was only a few pout landed amongst the weed.
After this we decided to head nearer to home and fish the Ouse and then Seaford. We fished the ouse for a few hours and tried to lure a mullet but frustratingly they done the typical thing of playing with your bait but not getting hooked. I did hook one but after a brief fight the hook came loose. We moved onto Seaford and as soon as we got there the mackerel were shoaling in massive shoals, almost beaching themselves after the whitebait. We caught some mackerel using loght tackle and dexter wedge lures and it was a welcome relief to feel the fight of a fish. I tried for a bass but no luck although my livebait joey was taken after a lot of movement on the rod. After dark we had almost a pout per cast and some approaching the 1lb mark. There was also dabs and some whiting caught. I had a small smoothhound pup and charly caught his first ever thornback which was really great and it wasnt a bad size.
The frustrating thing is that despite catching fish and having a great lads fishing weekend we felt a little dissapointed that we didnt get a decent hound but knew we werent doing anything wrong as we had caught fish using the same rigs in the past and we had plenty of perfect bait but they just werent feeding. Also the fact that no one caught them at pagham showed it was just one of those days.
Pevensey has fished similar to Seaford and i expect some hounds to start showing up.
25/05//09
This week has seen much better weather but the winds have put some colour to the water at some places which means that the summer fish have not been about until the latter part of the week. Unfortunately, the HDSA match i was due to fish was cancelled as there was a little too much swell to be able to launch off the beach.
Brighton marina has fished well this weekend once the water has started to clear. Mackerel have been showing in good numbers with plenty of whitebait down the side of the wall. Garfish have also been caught on float fished baits. Bass and bream have been caught close to the wall. A couple of bigger bass have been landed on prawn. Wrasse are still being caught down the side of the wall mainly on worm baits. A few Hounds and baby thornback rays have been caught after dark with peeler crab being the most productive bait. Charlie fished the west arm for a couple of hours on friday afternoon and had a some Bream and Garfish. I will add a picture shortly.
Elsewhere, there have been some nice Bass up to 4lb caught at seaford beach. There has also been Pout and Dogfish showing after dark. Similar catches have been reported from Pevensey Bay as well.
Hove Beaches have produced Bass up to a couple of pounds as well as eels and a few hounds to 5lb.
The British shore caught smoothhound record was broken this week at Hayling Island. A monster of 28lb 10oz was caught on half a large peeler crab on a 3/0 hook. For the full report by the angler who landed it, click here.
Wothing Pier has produced a few gars, mackerel and dogfish as well as some schooly bass.
Thanks to Rick for this report from Newhaven east arm:
hi there me my son and daughter fished the east arm newhaven yesterday
31,5,09 we was using red rag,lug ,king rag and some white rag the only
bait we caught on was red rag we had a good size mullet about 2lb a
nice size bream and 3 flatys only the mullet was taken home we cast
onto the east side (beach) was very windy casting against the wind so
wasnt getting great distances but didnt need to realy there was quite
a few fishing a lot of them were feathering and some had lug and king
rag but wasnt doing any good for us was a ok day the mullet was caught
on a carp rod fixed spool reel and 15lb line on a running ledger hope
this news helps cheers rick
Me and Charlie are fishing 2 days over the coming weekend. We are intending to fish pagham on the friday and Selsey on the saturday night in te persuit of hounds. I am then fishing the boat (weather permitting) on Sunday day so hopefully (fingers crossed) i will have some good reports to give you and some pics.
25/05//09
I will start with Brighton Marina because there are reports that quite a few bream are being caught on a range of baits. Some Bream have been to good size with one reported to be approaching the 4lb mark. Besides the bream there have been gars and mackerel when its been calmer as well as the odd schooly bass and wrasse down the wall. After dark there have been a few hounds landed as well as small baby thronback rays.
I fished with HDSA this weekend and there was a good range of fish caught. Most notably there were a couple of nice hounds caught with one topping 10lb. Also there was plenty of bream about with one being 2lb 15oz and another (pic below) of 2lb 2oz. I came third overall with 9lb of fish. I had 4 sizeable bream, 1 gurnard, 2 dogfish and a smoothhound. I caught many more fish but there is quotas for each species. There were lots of bream about and frustratingly they would rip baits apart within seconds of touching the bottom. They were biting so much at times that the dogs couldnt get a look in.
Glenn Ide with a 2lb 2oz Bream.
I also had the heartbreak of losing a very good ray. I was using light gear for bream and had a small strip of mackerel attached to a size 2 hook. while dealing with my other rod i noticed that my bream bait had moved against the tide so i reeled in the slack and pulled into what felt like the bottom but as we werent drifting there was no way this could have happened or snagged. I applied pressure and it started to move and lifted a few inches but i could do nothing. Unfortunately i havent fished for rays in the past and didnt really know how to tackle this so i applied more pressure and pop it had gone, the line just above the hook had snapped. I later learned that you need to wait it out a bit and not apply too much pressure! I can only assume that the line had snapped because the ray had the hook in its mouth and the line was rubbing in its pads that are like crushers in its mouth. on reflection its frustrating but i wasnt set up with the right tackle and line to target them so had i got it in it would have been lucky, at least thats what i tell my self to get over it. There was also another decent ray lost by an angler on another boat.
Hove and shoreham beaches have been starting to produce hounds after dark with some good bream and bass showing at dusk. Seaford has fished fairly similar although not many reports of hounds yet.
The hot pipes are producing a few bass and it may be worth a spinning session down there. |
11/05//09
This week has seen some better weather in terms of sunshine but the breeze has meant that the inshore waters have been dirtier at most marks.
Brighton Marina has been closed most of the week due to the winds but when it has been open there have been a few Mackerel and Garfish caught. There are also reports that a couple of Codling around 6lb were landed.
Charlie Gill kayak fished near the West Pier on Sunday morning and managed to catch this eel (pic below). He fished for a couple of hours until the wind and waves picked up and called it a day.
I fished twice this weekend. The first was Saturday night at Pagham in persuit of some of the Hounds i had heard about and the second was an inshore boat match with HDSA.
I will start with Pagham. I could only fish for the 2 hours approaching HT as i had to get back and have a good nights kip before a boat match early the next morning. I was armed with plenty of crab and used a puley rig with a pennel hook set up (3/0 hooks), which has worked plenty in the past. Unfortunately, I didnt get the hound i was after but i also didnt see many come up while i was there. Im not sure if they came on the feed after i left but typically as i was packing up i saw the guy next to me land one around 9lb. I did contemplate staying on but really couldnt as i had to be up and on the boat early. I did manage a Thornback around the 1lb mark and also a pout for my efforts which saved the blank but the weed was quite strong at times and often masked the bait. A fairly uneventful first trip down that way but there is always next time.
Back to Sussex now and the second of my reports. I fished an inshore boat match with HDSA on sunday and the weather reports looked ok. I headed out 3 miles from the club and got some fresh mackerel to go with my other baits (peeler crab, squid, lack lug and ing rag). The mackerel were fairly deep. We set off for a mark around 4 miles out and anchored up over a patch of ground we have fished in the past. I used 2 rods and set up running ledgers on both. On one i was using a 3/0 hook with either Peeler crab or Mackerel fillets and on the other i had 2 hooks with worm baits for Bream and flatfish. Things started quickly with Dogfish being the first to show and taking any bait put in front of them. Then the bream came but most of these were small and frustratingly 1cm undersize everytime. I managed to catch 2 sizeable dogs (club quota) and returned the ones that were taking my baits intended for earlty rays or hounds. The bream offered entertainment and i managed to get 2 sizeable ones. Pete who i was fishing with also had his dogs and managed to catch a 4lber and a sizeable dab. I then caught a small hound pup around 1lb and a bass that was 1cm undersize. As the tide swung around i also had a couple of Pout. Just before we decided to move spot i caught a sizeable Plaice which was good as you currently get bonus ponts for the target species which is currently Plaice.
We lifted anchor and moved nearer shore and drifted for Plaice. If your wondering why we hadnt drifted all day if Plaice are the bonus species, its because it was wind against tide which meant we would remain pretty much stationary until the tide turned. We went on the drift and didnt manage Plaice but caight plenty more small Bream almost every cast as well as some small dabs.
Overall i came 3rd with 5lb 10oz made up of 2 Dogfish, 2 Bream and a Plaice. Although i only weighed in 5 fish, it was pretty much a fish a cast with the range of species adding some variety to the days catches. Some of the other anglers managed a few nice catches. Harry L caught a 6lb Tope which is earlier then expected (he caught and released it). There was also a 2 Plaice over 2lb caught.
Pevensey bay has been producing plenty of Pout, some Pin Whiting and dabs. There has also been a few Schooly Bass landed and small Hounds. Seaford has fished pretty much the same as Pevensey bay.
Fishyrob had a lovely Bass near Southwick which tipped just over the 9lb mark.
05/05//09
Sorry about the delay this week but i have had issues with my pc which is now thankfully repaired. Anyway, onto the fishing. This week has provided a range of catches and has shown that the summer species are coming in.
Thanks to Chalie for this report from Brighton Marina:
Popped down the east arm with my farther 6am till 9am light eastly wind peg 19 only had a few frozen black lug and one frozen mackeral. we had endless pout down the side and a couple of star fish and a gurnard all on black lug with a mack tippers, we also had a couple of big mackeral on feathers and i got a gar on a float with a mack strip.
Brighton Marina has also produced Mackerel and Garfish on feathers and floats throughout the week. There has been some good sized Wrasse caught down by the wall. A few Bass around 3-4lb have also been landed. Some Bream have started to show during the daylight as well. After dark there have been Smoothhounds, Dogfish and Sole.
Hove beaches have produced a few Eels, pin Whiting and Small baby Rays after dark. During daylight there has been the odd Flounder.
Shoreham Arm has been producing Flounders and Garfish during daylight with the odd Doggy after dark.
Newhaven East arm has also been producing a few gars and mackerel on float and feather set ups. There has been a few Pollack and Wrasse down the wall.
Seaford and Pevensey bay have been fishing fairly similar with catches being the same as the above marks. Most notably, there has been a few Dogfish caught at Seaford after dark.
Southease has provided some sport with Flounders and Eels but its still a little early yet with late May and June seeing the start of the fish.
29/04//09
This week has seen more settled warmer weather which has brought on some of the summer species, albeit not quite in full force yet. There has been some bass caught by the hot pipe and reports are that one was around 4lb.
Dogfish have been caught after dark along many of our local beaches (Worthing, Shoreham, Goring, Seaford) this week. There has been a few Smoothhounds caught as well but these are mostly small.
Brighton Marina has been fishing well with a lot of Mackerel being caught on Feathers during the week. There has also been some garfish and pollack on float fished baits. Wrasse have been down the side of the wall on worm baits and there has been reports of a 3lb Plaice landed. After dark there has been a few dogfish and smoothounds caught but not much of notable size. Charlie fished the east arm fridat night and between him and his dad they caught countless Pout. Charlies dad also had a nice eel around 1 1/2lb.
I fished with HDSA this weekend with the target species being plaice. The heaviest weight wins the match but you get bonus points for Plaice which are credited in the league. I must start by saying that im writing this report with a tear in my eye as i really had the case of 'the one that got away' today. I will explain shortly. Upon beaching it became clear that i wasnt the only one.
Anyway, onto the report. We set out at 9 am and headed about 3 miles out for Mackerel. Each boat picked their own detsination with some heading towards worthing, some straight out from the club and others went nearer brighton. Upon getting 3 miles out we were into some mackerel but they werent in the volumes we expected. After getting some for bait, and a few for the table, we headed another mile out in the search of an early ray as one had been landed last week. There were no Rays between the 4 boats that fished the area but there was countless dogfish. In between there were some Bream and i also had a gurnard, dab and whiting.
After a couple of hours it was apparent that there were no rays there this week so we headed in to about 2.5 miles to drift for Plaice. After about. For the last hour we went to the 2 mile marker and drifted for a bit. This is where my anguish starts, as my rod doubled over and there was a real crashing dive and fight. It was so strong that it almost felt like a snag except that it was pumping and thuding. To me it felt like a typical Bass fight and thats what can be caight over the patch of ground we fished. After about 3 minutes of trying to get the fish in and only making about 10 ft on it i felt the heart breaking twang as my hook came loose from the fishes mouth and it was gone. I think the worst thing is that i didnt get to see it, which means it will always be that mystery fish that got away. I knew it was a very big fish as i have had Smoothounds up to 7lb on the rod i was using and this fish was much tougher! Afterwards, I went over the fight in my head trying to think if i had done anything wrong but i done everything that you should and i think that this is my only comfort because it just bad luck that the fish must have been lightly hooked.
Upon getting back to the beach my friend Steve told me that he lost a Plaice that would have been over 4lb! Despite these tales of woe I had an enjoyable day and there were some good catches including a Plaice of 3lb 1oz (pic to be added). I ended the day with 2 dogfish (2 is the club quota), 2 Bream, 1 Plaice and a Garfish for about 7lb and third place.
Pevensey Bay has produced some schoolies and flounders during daylight and Pout, Sole and Pin whiting after dark.
20/04//09
Its been another relatively calm week and this means that more fish are starting to show. Reports of mackerel and Gars are coming in as well as the odd Bream which means summer fishing is starting. There have also been quite a few Dogfish caught along Worthing and Shoreham beaches after dark. Seaford has also been producing good numbers of them as well as Pin Whiting, Pout, Flounders and Dabs.
There have been reports of Small Smoothhounds being caught all around the sussex coast which looks good for this years season.
I will start with Brighton Marina. Mackerel and garfish have begun to show in better numbers on both arms this week. Feathers and Float fished mackerel strip have proven best tactics. Wrasse around the 1lb mark have been caught down the side of the wall on worm baits. There was also reports that a large Pollack was caught on the east arm which went around the 6lb mark. This is a very tidy fish for the marina. There has also been the odd Flounder, Bream, Gurnard and Plaice during daylight. After dark there have been a few Dogfish, Sole and 2 Smoothhounds caught (one of which was around 6lb).
Charlie Gill (my prodigy) fished the arm on sunday morning and thanks for his report:
really new to fishing but am totally hooked excuse the pun. decided to have a quick session today late last night but had no bait so i call my mate ideyboy up and he sorted me out with some frozen lug and squid. fished brighton marina east arm today peg 22 arrived at 5:15am there was a 13 mph NE so it made it flat although it was fairly blowy high tide was 7:20ish, fished with two rods launched one out with a one up one down with lug and squid tippers size 2 hooks and on the other rod i just droped it down the side. After a couple of mins taking in my surroundings i realised that about 5 yards out there were herring splashing about as i pulled in the rod down the side i had a tiny pout so put him back and stuck on my shrimp feathers with a 2oz weight on my first cast i got my first ever herring out of ten casts i got 4 after all that fun i forgott my other rod a pulled that in and had a double shot of pin whitting. I carried on fishing till 9 but nothing else apart from a couple of mackerel. my old man turned up around 6:30 he had king rag he had 7 mackerel 1 shad 1 gurnard and a couple of wrasse.
Well done Char, get back out on the kayak soon mate.
Moving onto other areas and Chris Ellis had this great catch in the week:
I've attached a picture of a 6lb bass I caught today on lugworm 20 yards out a Rustington beach, might look good on the site shows the summer fish are just coming in.
As for me, i fished with HDSA on sunday 19/04/09. This is an inshore boat club that only go a few miles out. The weather was nasty to start with because a strong NE wind was making the sea choppy but towards the afternoon it calmed down as per the weather report. The target species was Plaice but any fish count as its done on overall weight but with bonus points for target species. The wind was up and it was a short tide which made drifting for Plaice difficult. Nevertheless, I headed to the same area (out from Brighton Marina) that had produced for me last week (6 Plaice) but despite there being lots of fish this week they were all undersize. Included in my catches were Plaice, Dabs, Whiting, a Gurnard, Mackerel and a Smoothhound pup. Unfortunately, despite catching what felt like and must have been 50+ fish i only managed to get a sizeable Plaice and Dab. Most of the dabs were frustratingly half a centermetre undersize. I tried all tactics (larger baits & larger hooks etc) and moved to a few different patches but i really struggled to get past the smaller fish. Baits included rag, lug, squid, crab and Mackerel.
Most of the other boats scratched around for sizeable fish as well, but a couple of boats that headed to different grounds in and around the hove area produced some good catches including Plaice, Mackerel, Dabs, Bream, Gurnards, Dogfish, Undulated Ray , Bass and Garfish. The most notable catches were made by Harry Leeson with a 2lb 11oz Plaice and a 9lb undulated Ray (Pics below). There was also a 1lb 8oz Bream and 1lb Gurnard landed.
The rivers Cuckmere, Adur and Ouse have begun to produce Flounders, Mullet, Eels and Schooly Bass so if you prefer the light tackle approach then it may be time to get your gear out. Tight lines and have a good week. Please keep the reports coming.
12/04//09
This week has seen calmer weather after a windy start. The wind start put some colour in the water which has lead to some good catches. I have a load of reports which will hopefully give you some good reading and anticipation of going out and catching some fish. One thing is apparent is that the fishing has begun showing signs that things are pciking up and there is an air on anticipation.
I will start with Brighton Marina. Ben Arnold fished the east arm around the first few pegs at teh start of the week and managed this lovely two and a half pound Eel. When the water has been clearer there has been a few Gars and Pollack caught. The wrasse have begun to appear down the side of the wall caught on worm baits. After dark there has been some dogfish, Sole and even Smoothounds albeit pups.
There was a Palace Pier match on the East Arm on Sunday. MrCrabs won with 5lb 8oz which included a new club record wrasse of 2lb 9.75oz, ben A was 2nd with 3 wrasse for 4lb 13oz, biggest was 1lb 15oz. Other than the wrasse there were a few garfish weighed in. Hopefully mrcrabs will let us know more.
Shoreham arm has also produced similar results to the marina with the addition of some good sized flounders. Worthing, Shoreham and Seaford beaches have all produced Dogfish after dark. There was also a Small Smoothy pup at Pevensey as well as Dabs, Whiting and Pout.
I fished the HDSA centenery launch match Shotoday (inshore boats). The target species were Plaice. In total there were 20 anglers in ten boats and the conditions looked fine, although recent trips had not yielded much.
At the launch the boats headed out in various directions towards their desired marks. Plaice were the target species with a bag limit of 5 but other species (excluding mackerel) were included.
Me and Pete headed for an area just off brighton marina. After setting up we were straight into fish but they were all pin whiting and small dabs. As we drifted the tide picked up and we managed the small rattles turned into deeper thumps which lead to us getting 3 Plaice in a short space of time. As the tide slackened things slowed down and it was back to dabs and pout. As the tide turned we drifted again and i managed to land two double shots of Plaice (3 sizeable and 1 not) and pete had one Plaice. Pete also landed a dab on the second drift over the area. We were using long flowing running ledgers with size 2 hooks. I used 2 hooks on one rod and one on the other with beads and attractors.
The fish came either side of the tide when drifting at about 1mph. they succumb to fresh black lug and king rag. Once i had my quota of Plaice i tried other things and managed to get a smoothhound around 1lb on crab. Whilst messing around for bait i also caught 5 mackerel (all very deep) and 2 whiting on feathers! that shows how close to the bottom i was going for them. My biggest Plaice was 1oz shy of 2lb. I came 2nd in the match on weight but got maximum points for my Pliace quota so it was a really good day.
Me with my days catch.
Amongst the catches was a 4lb codling (caught near billy bouy) and two Plaice around 2 and a half pound. There was also a few sizeable dogs and one sizeable smoothy. A gar was caught. A few Pout were also taken at the jennies and suprisingly my dad had a red mullet! All boats fished within 4 miles of shore between shoreham and brighton. There were also a few Bream landed by the boats that fished nearer to Worthing.
My dad with his Red Mullet and Plaice.
All in all a really good day with a real mixed bag of fish.
I think one thing is becoming clear and that is that the summer season is on the brink of starting. The summer species are on their way in while the winter species are slowly departing. Personally, i was suprised with the smoothhounds showing a little earlier than eusual but hopefully it bodes well for this season.
06/04//09
This week has seen much calmer weather and as such we have seen the start of some summer species creeping in. Brighton Marina has seen the first Gars and Squid of the year turn up. Not in great numbers but they are there which is promising. There have also been a few Garfish at Worthing Pier. A few Schooly Bass, Pout and Wrasse have been caught down the side. There has also been one or two Pollack caught over the rocks on the east arm.
Pevensey Bay and Seaford have fished pretty much the same. A few Plaice and Flounders with the odd Pout and Pin Whiting after dark.
Me and Charlie gave the kayaks a go on sunday in an attempt to get some more Plaice. We set out from the west pier at 7.30 am and the sea was calm. We drifted for around half a mile but no luck. As we got further out the offshore breeze made paddling more difficult so we decided to fish inshore. We fished for a few hours but no bites and the wind swund easterly which put a chop on the water. As a result we decided to stop fishing and put the fishing gear away and went back into the water to paddle in the surf. I was using long flowing Plaice rigs with beads and size 2 hooks with King for bait.
Thanks to Matt Cumbers for this report from Seaford:
Fished a short session opposite the beachcomber in Seaford on Tuesday evening 5-8. Was using straight forward 2 hook pats with fresh blow lug, started off with a small blenny in first half hour then as it got towards dusk the bites picked up a bit and I got 2 reasonable size dabs just before the light went. I'd say they weren't more than 50 yards out.
Nice enjoyable session in the sunshine.
A few boats fished out from HDSA on sunday in search of plaice. They drifted patches between 2-5miles out but nets were a bit of an issue. There wasnt too much to report but there was a few Plaice landed between the boats but nothing of significantly notable size.
30/03/09
Brigthon Marina has been producing a few Flounders and Schooly Bass when it has been open. The Palace Pier club had a match on sunday and there were quite a few Flounders caught on King rag, Red rag and crab but most of them were undersize. One approaching 1lb was caught by someone who wasnt in the match. There were also a few Wrasse and Pout caught down the side of the wall. There was some Pollack caight on prawn up near rocks but nothing of any size. There have also been one or two Shad caught on Saturday.
According to reports there was a garfish caught on Worthing pier in the week. The mackerel are only a few miles out and providing that the weather stays relatively calm they should be within casting distance soon.
Two boats fished out from HDSA on Sunday with Plaice being the target. Unfortunatley i couldnt go but the sea was very calm and all i was doing was day dreaming of being on my Kayak. The boats drift fished about 2 miles out from the club and managed to land 7 Plaice in total, with a couple being around 2lb caught on rag and fresh lug.
Seaford and Pevensey Bay have been producing similar catches to most areas with small whiting and rickling being caught after dark and some Flounders during daylight.
Besides these reports there really hasnt been much to feedback im afraid. Im afraid its just that time of year where all winter fish are going and the summer fish are on their way in and this recent wind didnt help things. Hopefully much more to report next week.
23/03/09
Firstly, I am aware that the picture of my snapper may not have worked so i have tried to fix this and add it for any of you that wished to see it.
As for this weeks catches and reports i have a few but again it seems that there is not much about. I will start with my kayak fishing session.
After buying my kayak in Dec i have been itching to get out on it and the current weather presented the perfect opportunity. I had purchased accessories such as a fishing seat with rod holders as well as some safety equiptment and was all set and ready to go.
Me and my mate Charlie fished from Hove (near hove lagoon) and paddled out about a mile to near the inner jennys. I can assure you that the water was still chilly as my feet were like ice but my wet suit kept me warm throughout. We anchoured up over a patch of rough ground for about an hour and tried various tactics and baits but to no avail so we decided to drift for plaice.
We were using running ledgers with beads and attractors on to appeal to the Plaices inquisative side. They were about 5ft long flowing rigs and we were using light geat and 2oz weights. You could feel every patch of ground and every little knock or snag. After the first drift using ragworm we had nothing so we went out again. I decided to use some freshouts and so we drifted again. After a couple of minutes there was a knocking that was different from just the bottom. After leaving it to develop for a brief while i reeled in and felt the welcome resistence of a Plaice about12oz (which i released alive after the photo). We also tried some lures and feathers in the vein hope that there may be some early mackerel about but no luck.
We drifted again but to no avail so called it a day after 4 hours. Im itching to get out again once some more summer species are around. We also tried trolling lures, plugs and shads behind us whenever we were paddling out but to no avail, but it is ear;y in the year and im sure we will have better luck as the summer approaches.
If anyone has any marks within a mile of the shore between seaford and worthing they wish to email me, then it would be greatly appreciated.
If you have a kayak your also more then welcome to come along with me and my mate. I am also going to be developing Kayak fishing pages and guides to help thise of you that are kayak fishermen or those of you looking to get into it.
As for elsewhere, Brighton Marina has been producing a few Plaice and Flounders. There were reports of a Plaice over 3lb being landed. There are still a few herring showing up as well as some Schoolie Bass. Not much else to report in terms of catches from the marina but providing this calmer weather stays then im sure the summer species will not be far off.
Glenn Arnold fished Pevensey Bay midweek and caught a few eels and flounders on peeler crab.
Shoreham has been producing a few Flounders as well as some Pin Whiting and Rockling after dark. Seaford has fished very much the same as most other areas and it really seems that its a case of waiting for the summer species to start turning up. |
