Past Reports 2

The early part of the week saw good weather with N & NE winds keeping the sea calm. Most areas produced Mackerel and Gars on float and feathers with Brighton marina being ne of the most productive marks, however, reports indicate that the fishing has been a bit hit and miss at times with one day producing plenty of catches and the other day with far fewer. The may blume (or rot) is apparently here and this can turn the fishing off. This said, the marina is still producing some good Wrasse and Pollack.

There are reports that Climping is producing some good Mullet, Bass and doggies at the momment. Seaford has also been producing Mackerel in good numbers during the day and some decent pout and the odd doggy after dark.

The Wind turned around over the bank holiday weekend and this has lead to some S & SW winds making the sea churn up and become dirty again. This may the the time that its worth trying for a Bass from the shore.

Me and Glenn are planning a trip to Climping this sunday (weather permitting) so if your heading that way or are fishing a venue you think we may be interested in the drop me an email. We may change our location dependant on the forecast. Also apologies that glenns top 5 has been a bit delayed for May (PC problems) but it will be here shortly.

Recent Catch Reports - 01/05/2007

Firstly a big sorry for the reports and tides being a day or two late but i hope i can make up for it with a bumper report for you this week.

Glenns top five to fish for may is nearly here and is due any day soon. In the mean time he has this report for us. Pevensey Bay has been producing some large eels upto 2lb 10oz and school bass (mainly between 1lb-3lb) to peeler crab baits, also there have been flounders, dabs, rockling and the odd plaice showing mainly to fresh lug and rag. Fishing at Pevensey has been very inconsistent with large catches one day followed by poor catches the next.

The 1 day of rain last thursday has seemed to spoiled the fishing up the river ouse, the water has turned all cloudy and the flounders have disappeared. My session on sunday at southease was quite eventful if you enjoy catching 8inch school bass and boot lace eels all day, there was no sign of any flounders and the mullet havent been around in force although i did miss one mullet bite.

Also Climping near Littlehampton is fishing well. Fished it last night for 2.5 hours up to HT at 11 and had a nice Bass of 3lb at 9.00 on peeler at about 100yds. The sands there warm up during the day and the water was very warm too. Aparantly some sting ray and smoothound have come out too during the week to crab. Previous week golden grey mullet were caught on reg rag. Also loads of schoolies (undersize unfortunately) coming from the Worthing beaches - I fished the pier match last night which was won with 3 dogfish off the end.(thanks to Simon Pickles for this report).

Seaford is fishing well with a few more Mackerel showing as the days progress and im sure it wont be long until there is a good Bass caught. After dark there are some decent Pout being caught as well. there are flounders being caught on ragoworm baits. Newhaven East arm is now producing Mackerel and Gars as well. Howie Harden has also been fishing Seaford recently and has reported that in the last 2 weeks since we have been fishing seaford splash point at night.we have had some monster pout,large silver eels,and some good size dog fish (pics below) amongst ling and small pin whiting.these fish have been to range of baits but have fonud sand eels/squid and mackeral have been working much better than any of the worm baits that we used. He would'nt recomend fishing during the day as we have tried and not even had a bite untill it got realy dark and then it really hots up!!

Howie H with a Silver Eel Zak H with a monster pout (both caught at seaford)

Thanks to Nick Thasarather who let me know that there are nets very close in to the shore at rottingdean near the old cafe. He said that he has given it a few goes but not had much success and because it looks like it is being heavily netted may be effecting the fishing. He also fished Brighton Marina fished east arm today 2 hours either side of HT, peg 22. Quite a lot of people there but quite a lot of blanks. Used a storm strike float (3/4oz), silver/red beads/sequins/blade and size 4 hooks. Bait, rag tipped with mackerel strip. Caught a 2ft gar fish at about 8ft depth - best one I've caught to date - between 1-2lb but didn't have scales. Also hooked but lost a sizeable mackerel. Reports from the west arm were that people catching quite a few mackerel. He has also kindly written some info for the new Spinning and lure fishing guide section.

Other reports from Brighton marina include the fact that there are still squid being caught (squid jigs are best for catching them). There are also still a few Plaice being caught on ragworm baits matched with a spoon and some beads. There are still some good wrasse being caught down the sides on rag, crab and prawn.

My (craig Ide) top tip If i were float fishing for makerel or gars this week on the marina i would fish a 2 hook float rig, size 4 hooks and thin strips of makerel hooked once through the top so that the rest is dangling down and can float about in the water. i would fish anywhere from 6-12 ft deep for gars and 10-16ft for Mackerel. You will catch Pollack using this method but you need to fish around 18ft deep.

I just want to finish by saying a massive thanks to everyone who emailed with reports this week as it really helps put people on the fish and helps the site to grow, which in turn is helping other anglers (i hope).

Recent Catch Reports - 23/04/2007

This week has seen the introduction of the summer fish arriving with many of our local marks such as Seaford, Brighton, Worthing pier and Eastbourne providing sport with Mackerel, Garfish and Bass. There have been some good Pout showing at night from Seaford as well. Pevensy has also produced some mixed catches after dark.

The Palace Pier club held a competition on sunday 22/04/07 at Brigthon Marina. 18 people fished and there were a variety of catches including Garfish, Pollack, Wrasse and Plaice. the winning weight was 6lb of Wrasse by Sam Sampson, Ben Arnold came 2nd with a mixed bag including a cracking Pollack of 1lb 11oz which is a good sized pollack for the marina (pic below). Roy Arnold came 3rd with Pollack and Wrasse. I had a mixed bag with 2 gars, 2 wrasse and a Plaice. I caught the Gars caught using mackerel strips with one on a slider rig and the other on a normal float set up. I had 2 wrasse fishing close to the marina wall using a 3 hook flapper and king rag (2 up 1 down) both fish were caught on the bottom hook and this was the hook that had the most bites. I also caught the Plaice at distance on ragworm using a flowing rig with plenty of beads while slider fishing. The Pollack were caught using live prawns or mackerel strips and mostly at depth of 18ft+. The wrasse took ragworm and live prawns. There was also a squid caught which was just under 2lb (pic below).

Past catch report: 16/04/2007

This week there has seen brilliant sunshine and warm weather. I have reports of various catches from across our coast.

Brighton Marina has seen the start of the summer with Mackerel and Garfish being caught on float and feathers. A few Bass have also been landed. There have also been Plaice and Wrasse caught using ragworm fished on the bottom. The mackerel that have been caught have mostly been from the west arm and have been of good size with Sam Sampson catching one of 1lb 6oz. There are alo reports that there is a baby bottle nose dolphin currently in the area and has been seen close to the marina entrance.

Worthing Pier has also seen Garfish and Mackerel caught on float and feathering techniques as has Seaford beaches. Jay Bradley (report writer) fished a few miles off the seaford coast and said that he had plenty of Dabs and whiting at dusk. He also had some cracking fish including a 4lb Pollack and a 2lb Plaice. He Also fished Seaford beaches at night and had 3 Bass around the 2-3lb mark fishing 80 yads out as well as some monster Pout getting around the 1lb mark. He was using Rag worm and fresh lug on a 3 hook paternoster. Newhaven East arm has been effected by the dredging of the harbour making the water pretty dirty causing the summer fishing to be put on hold for a short while as mackerel and gars prefer clearer water.

Both the Ouse and the Adur has produced Flounders, eels, schoolies and Mullet mostly on red rag (maddies) and peeler crab but the mullet only on the ragworms.

I went for a trip out on a with Steve Palmer who kindly invited me out for a days fishing, courtesy of the Hove Deep Sea Angling Club. I had a fantastic day and between us we caught a wide variety of fish and some to relatively good sizes. Species included Mackerel, Garfish, Bream, Dogfish, Codling, Dragonets, Plaice, Dabs and Herring. We used mostly long flowing running ledger rigs with ragworm baits, on our other rods we had one rod each set up for doggies with a nice big chunk of Mackerel. at times we also used feathers and float gear to get fresh bait. We fished a variety of marks at 2, 4 and 5 miles out and i had a thoroughly enjoyable day catching some great fish on light tackle. Pictures of the days action to follow shortly.

Past catch report: 09/04/2007

Firstly Glenn's top five to fish in Apri report is now here so click here for the full guide as it will put you on the fish this month! This week there has seen brilliant sunshine and warm weather. I have reports of various catches from across our coastline. Brighton Marina has now begun producing Mackerel and Gars on float fishing gear with Plaice, Flounders and good Wrasse being caught on the bottom, mostly on King Rag. Sam Sampson had a Mackerel of 1lb 6oz on themarina west arm, which is a very good sized mackerel.

Southease has begun to produce fish. There was a match fished there

on Easter Sunday and the winning weight was 3lb with 3 flounders. There were quite a few Flounders about and the ones that were caught were generally of good size. Glenn Arnold (report writer) had one of 1lb 2oz which is a pretty decent fish (pic below). There were also plenty of mullet swimming about but non were hooked. Glenn was using a long flowing 3 hook flapper rig with mostly red rag for bait but the occassional peeler crab was also used. Generally these are the only 2 baits you need up the river.

Hove Deep Sea Angling club had a boat match just off Brighton, Hove and Shorham this weekend with Plaice being caught as expected, however, they were surprised at how few fish were landed as usually this is a good time of year to target Plaice from the boats. There were also small Codling about which was relatively surprising as the boats were generally fishing between 1-4 miles out over open ground.

Thanks to Simon Pickles for emailing me with his recent catch report.

He says 'Thought you may be interested in a session I had today on

the River Adur just upstream from the railway bridge. I fished 2 hours

up and 1.5 down from high using peeler crab bait. Bites started after

about 30 mins and were steady up until the tide turned when it went

dead for 40 mins. Then they started up again and were still biting when

I left. I ended up with 4 Flounders and my novice mate Greg had 2.

All sizeable, 5 of 35-38cm abd one of 42cm. I’d put this top of my 5

to fish in April.'

Thanks to K Cheesman who let me know that there are a few plaice showing up at Seaford in the daytime and there was a cracking fish

of 4lb caught. He has kindly also done a product review for us as well (below).

Just thought i would let you know that pure fishing have just

released 2 new updated reels. the replacement for the florida

mag ,(looks awsome ) and also the 6500 ct mag elite high speed,

the new florida replacement has a new style handle orange frame

and gunmetal side plates, apparently they have incorporated carbon

into the clutch discs and are saying that these should never

wear out, also has new larger star drag adjuster for ease of use,

the new high speed ct has a chrome frame complomented with

red side plates, it has a 6:1 reel in ratio and also has the new

clutch discs fitted. it is also fitted with a line out alarm which is

really what has done it for me, for fishing for bass and smooth

hounds. veals has some pictures of them in this months sea

angler. both look the bizz. They are priced at around £129

and are throwing in reel bags and a berkley line spooling station

at present as a special launch promotion.'