Saturday night fishing with John and Malc combined many ingredients for the perfect nights fishing from Brighton – the venue, the Norfolk Groyne, the high tide, a 6+ metre, at around 1am, clear skies and a calm sea. I envisioned catching numerous Sole, Bass, Mackerel, Eel and Bream, with potential for Smoothhound, Plaice and Thornback Rays – superb.
However, I’d gone no fewer than 6 weekends without having been clubbing, so had arranged a night out with Duncs instead!
I took it fairly easy on the vodka that night, and although I write this during my lunch break at work, *completely* knackered after a busy weekend which also involved an imprompu 9 mile run along the sea front, I felt pretty much fine on Sunday morning. It was a nice day, and I was really feeling withdrawals knowing that the fishing would have been so good on Saturday night (I’ve yet to get a report), so took a trip to Lagoon Bait to get a few packs of King. Whilst there, I bought two neoprene protective multiplier cases, and a reel bag for my Elites; a new filleting knife, some Breakaway Fast Clips and some size 2 Kamasan B940’s.
Filleting Knife
I then rode back home, collected my gear, and rode back down to the beach. Being that it was a nice day, with a high potential for sunbathers, I thought I’d avoid Brighton and Hove, and head along towards Shoreham. I didn’t go to Kingston as I’ve overdone it as a venue recently and wanted to opt for a change of scenery. So I headed along the Basin Road South – this gave me the option of choosing one of the many beaches, or heading up on to the sea wall.
I chose to go from a beach, as I thought fishing from the sea wall would be disturbed by the boats going in and out of the harbour. I chose a beach about 10 minutes walk from the car park, and started setting up the gear. I was fishing with King Rag as the sole bait, and using one of my favourite rigs, a 2 hook sliding leger. For a change, I boshed a few beads on the hooklengths to attract inquisitive species such a Flounder and Plaice.
I’d got to the venue with only about 1.5 hours to high tide, so not ideal – I prefer 3 hours – but OK considering it was a fairly last minute decision.
I used both rods, casting my main rod out as far as possible, and the secondary rod slightly shorter. There were a few other fisherman around – a few spinning from the rocks, and some casting out Mackerel feathers (and reeling in with the multiplier upside down!).
Waiting for bites enabled me to check out my new purchases and take some photos – uploads to come. The filleting knife looks a good purchase – it has a short, stumpy, but incredibly strong blade, with a serrated edge on one side. My last knife was one of the items that didn’t stand up too well to several years of usage followed by 10 years of non-usage!
About half an hour before the high tide, I got strong bite on my main rod (I set the reel on free spool with the ratchet on), so wound down to get a tight line between the rod and the weight, and struck firmly, then started reeling.
I thought I could feel a little kick as I reeled in, but wasn’t sure whether it was the weight bouncing over the sand. As I got the terminal tackle up to the waters edge, however, I realised that I’d hooked a double shot of Black Bream – sweet!
Shoreham Bream, 9.8.2009
However, one of them fell off the hook before I was able to get them far enough away from the water to avoid losing them if they did fall off – clearly I didn’t strike hard enough! The remaining Bream, however, was quite a sizeable fish, very plump. I took some photos before throwing him back to let him fight another day. wasn’t too sure about the size of the one that got away, but he was smaller. I got the hooks baited and cast out again as soon as possible, hoping that the shoal was still around.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t, and I didn’t get any more bites. I was pretty pleased to have picked up the Bream though – my biggest fish of the year (OK, OK, I’ve only been fishing again for about a month!). I started packing up my gear at about 14:45, giving myself enough time to get home for an Ebay auction I wanted to bid on (for an original Abu 6500 CT ; ) but had pretty much run out of bait anyway.
All in all, a good session in the bright sunshine, but one which highlighted again the reasons why I prefer night fishing.
Jims Sea Angling Diary - Fishing in Brighton, Sussex 