13th March - More hunting spotties on Brighton Marina

14 rods looking for spotties

Back down the marina, this time with another seven forum buddies in tow, in pursuit of the elusive Spring quarry, plaice. With a bigger tide, and light north westerly winds, the conditions were picure perfect. However, even in perfect conditions plaice are far from an easy quarry, and unfortunately they once again failed to put in an appearance.

D-Breakout, bling and lightly hooked ragworms

Techinques for the session were fairly similar for everyone. Bead loaded hooklinks, in my case a little wishbone, and ragworm baits. It was nice to see a few DVice's in action, as people realise how good they are for firing out un-aerodynamic bling laden lightly hooked worm baits. With few fish or crabs to worry about, the DVices were proving their worth in preserving bait, as many times the hooks were retireved to find the baits perfectly intact, and wriggling fiercley.

Jet skiers enjoying the calm

About half way through the session, a guy wearing a wet suit, which was wet, and carrying a spear gun walked up the arm. There is no-one better qualified to give an update on the inshore marine situation than a spear fisher, so I forced him into conversation. He had just been finning over the rough ground inshore. I asked him what he had seen. Nothing. Not a crab, a goby, nothing. The cold winter would seem to have hammered the rockpools into sterility. He was going to fin the rocks up the end of the arm, but on hearing of our stint, with so many rods and not even a bite, he decided to retire for the day.

"Good Luck" sorting her catch

That there were fish about came obvious with two situations. The first was the site of one of the marina small commercials being shadowed by a cloud of seagulls as it came in from the horizon. But that journey wasnt long enough as "Good Luck" would have appeared to have lived up to her name, and they layed off 400 yards off the marina to sort the catch. When we saw her later on the commercial quay, it became apparent she had a great catch of flatties, and some cracking round fish which I couldnt quite see but would assume to be pollock. The second came with a call from my friend Bruce. He had gone out in his sports fisher, but had engine trouble about five miles out. He had no choice but to drop the hook where the engine failed, and after advising the coastguard of his situation, set about fishing while he arranged a tow back. About half an hour into the session, he had a 2.5lb plaice. Not bad, as the spot was a very randomn spot, and with no features to speak of!!

Calmer seas could not have been wished for

The top of the tide came and went, and still no action. Graham headed off, as with his wife Carol and young lad Arron in tow, a no fish situation is no good at all. George also took advantage off the lack of action to head off in time to watch Tottenham play (I would rather catch rockling......). The rest of us kept plugging away.

A scorpion fish for Stuart

Then, about 1pm and three hours down the tide, the rest of us decided to knock it on the head. A blank for us all, I thought. But then I heard an excited voice behind me. There, swinging on the end of Stuart's beaded hooklink, was a drab female Scorpion fish, saving the blank for him....!!

Turnstone eating worm scraps

Strangely, no-one felt that the fish warranted further effort, so we continued to pack away. Leaving nothing behind but a few scraps of worms for the scavenging Turnstones, Stuart, Michael, Steve, Richard and myself headed off.

Foxy in the Garden

That was it for the fishing, but another interesting thing occured when Steve dropped me back to the bungalow. At this time of year, things are hard for Mr and Mrs Fox. With the cubs now being born, the need to hunt for food takes them outside the security of night, and makes them come out even in the early afternoon. As I put my rods away, I noticed one jump in from the neighbours garden, and attempt to pick up one of my dog Hasina's bones. Luckily for Hasina, she is a rather large dog, with a big heavy bone, as the fox couldnt quite manage to carry it off, but as it tried, I managed to get this shot off on full zoom, which I have to say I am rather happy with. As I am with my new camera. Cant wait to try it out again, so I am back onto the marina in the morning, to squeeze in an unforseen opportunity with the left over bait from today!!