9th -Floundering on the Arun

Typical Estuarine Flounder swim

What started out as a bit of banter on an internet forum turned into a very enjoyable and totally relaxed four hours or so fishing a very tranquil setting in the heart of West Sussex. The River Arun runs from the chalk hills of the south downs, through arable fields until meeting the picuresque town of Arundel, complete with its fairy tale castle, and then ploughs on, muddied waters rich with the soft silts of the lower river bank, until it bursts into the English channel in the town of Littlehampton. The upper river is a loosely kept secret, with outsized sea trout, pike and carp being the quarry. The estuary is typical of many small river estuaries around our coasts, oozing in thick mud, a haven for harbour ragworm, crabs, and the wading birds they feed upon. In the warmer, drier months, the flounders are joined by large mullet and bass, but with the autumn floods, the estuary seems to be left to the flounders and eels.

Bunches of harbour ragworm, and small blow lug tipped with a couple of "maddie" teasers

There were five of us that turned up to fish. TRONIX managing director George Cunningham had managed to reshuffle his timetable, still buzzing on the fact that he had come second in a local flounder competition the day before, from the very spot that he dropped into on this grey but still morning. A classic flounder swim, an outfall pipe trickling fresh water on the head of a bend which as it sweeps around is an ever widening mud bank. We all dropped along this feature, with the session being as much about socialising as well as the fishing. George very kindly shared his left over harbour ragworm with the rest of us, a must should the fishing prove difficult. We also secured some excellent king ragworm, from Prime Angling in Worthing, and managed to persuade the proprietor to allow us to hand pick some of the smaller blow lug, which can be deadly for flounder, tipped with harbour ragworm. With the tide just beginning to lift, a variery of rigs were dispensed into the muddy waters in search of the flounder. George had opted for a Wessex rig, fishing three baits on 24" hooklinks. Lancing angler Steve Smith, opted for a simple running paternoster and three foot hooklink. Fellow lancing angler Graham Poulter was fishing a running ledger, TEAM FRANK ( southern match club ) member Gary Hazelgrove fished a one up one down, and I opted for similar, but with outsized (36 ") hooklinks and size 6 Mustad silver aberdeens, a very capable hook should a bass come wandering by.

George Cunningham ready for action.....

Rigs deployed, the anticipation was high. The wind was virtually non-existent, a very pleasant change from the last three weeks or so. No rain either, another bonus!! And there were a few taps and rattles from the start, although they were mostly written off as crab interest.

Steve Smith with the first fish of the session

It was Steve Smith who first connected with the quarry we sought. The running paternoster baited with harbour ragworm had captured the interest of a chunky little flounder in the 10-12oz bracket. A very nice fish to begin the session with, and all eyes sharpened to their rod tips.

My first fish of the session....

It was my turn next, with again the harbour ragworm being responsible. But unfortunately it was the first of several juvenile flounders to come our way. A very good sign of a healthy fish stock though, to catch fish of several age groups, with the promise of future quality flounder fishing in the years to come.

My only decent fish of the session

My rod off again, with the unmistakable pull of a flounder keen to continue its passage upriver. A few kicks on the retrieve as I lifted the fish from the security of the muddy river bed, which to be honest is about as good a fight as you can expect from a flounder, confirmed it was another chunky fish in the 8-10oz range.

Time for change.... My old Shakespeare Power play, right, with my new SK3 Bass, left

This session was also a deciding session for what rod to go into next year with. Most of my fishing is for bass, either on low water surf beaches or in the chalk gulleys that abound along the Sussex coast. 90% of the fishing is holding the rod, in essence touch ledgering for bass, so the rod needed to be light enough to hold all day. The tip needed to be sensitive, because as much as bass are likely to pick up a bait and pull hard, they can also let their presence be known with just vibrations, tremblings coming up the line, especially when freelining squid. But the rod would also need to be capabable of lobbing a freelined live mackerel, and keeping the head up of a decent bass over rough ground, two things which my main rod of 2009, a Shakespeare Power play which I re-rang with genuine Fuji eyes (great blank, really poor eyes in its original guise) was a little on the soft side for. After wading through a hundred reviews of at least thirty rods, all claiming to be bass rods, I had to be realistic in what I could expect for my budget. Which is why my jaw hit the ground when I first held the SONIK SK3 bass rod. At 12'6", it was the perfect length for keeping the line clear of weed ridden wave crests when fishing at close range in wind driven swells. It was certainly light enough to hold all day, had oodles of backbone, and a tip with perfect sensitivity. Plus, here it was proving itself as a cracking estuary rod. A very versatile tool that I am looking forward to being the main rod for next years bassing season, for both myself and my clients.

Gary Hazelgrove with one of two similar sized flounders for his efforts

More knocks and pulls followed, but there was a definate lull up our end of the bank, whereas Gary reeled in two juvenile flounders in quick succession.

Steve Smith into another Arun flounder

Steve's simple approach seemed to be finding the better fish. George was quietly astonished to find his tactics, so succesful just the day before, failing to find any fish on this session. My own efforts with the long hooklinks resulted in a bag of four fish in total. two to harbour rag, two to king rag, the lugworm having not succesful on the day. But three of mine were juvenile. Gary managed two, both juvenile. George and Graham both failed to bank a fish on this occasion. But Steve, fishing with the single hookbait, managed four fish, all comfortably over the 8oz mark.

A sore Flounder!!

One of Steve's fish was showing signs of either illness or recent parasitic attention. Not an uncommon sight on flatfish around the UK. A reason for the fairly recent decline in flounder numbers around our coast? There are many theories that abound, but I do remember these "sores" on the Essex flounders I used to catch as a child, when numbers were far more numerous.

All in all, a very enjoyable day. And if you are feeling the aching muscles from repeatedly firing heavy leads into gale whipped weed ridden seas in pursuit of seasonal cod, then perhaps a day on the river is exactly the relaxation you need!!