Ok an honest update/ catch report before I even stab my finger to do a blood sugar check !.
So its not great news atm, after talking to 3 of the wardens I can honestly say that compared to previous years at this time its crap. Yes the species number is there not though the amounts of fish. Deeper water venues fared much better than the marina while the summer weather has been topsy turvey( ie crap)..”-3 days of wind colouring the water and disrupting inshore fish then a day or 2 of calm right through the summer has meant a lot of the fish have stayed off shore where the boats have been having a ball.
So whats going on ? 100 crap weather has meant the inshore stuff that is usually there has stayed in deeper water for its own safety BUT , yea always a BUT , … but its a good but (honest guv) we suddenly now have a clear run of decent weather.(i will get to the report for the weekend but im delaying it an making you all read a pile of waffle first ;).

IMO that clear run of weather will see this month start to pick up, the big shoals of mackerel have not arrived YET, likewise the hatching bream and wrasse are now moving away from protecting parents into shallow water so there may even be a burst of small bream sandeels and the likes of other smaller (large fry) species heading inshore. What does that mean for anglers ? Initially there should be a pick up/increase of small fish but also varied species . The weather looks like holding for at least 10 days of late summer. Get past the small species run and Im betting the larger parents of all types will be coming inshore to feed and fatten up b4 heading back out to deep water. I expect the fishing to get better over the next week as we get into September with a bonus big 7m tide coming at the end of the month that as well as the bream, mackerel and other fish inshore may even bring the start of the Autumn squid run. yes a big expectation but I have a feeling we are about to get some decent fishing on the wall.(which is overdue this summer)

Ok onto the catch report, overall loads of species although it comes with that BIG BUT ! the numbers caught is quite poor, eels small plaice, likewise, Bream, Wrasse, Mullet, red Mullet, Gurnards all the usual summer stuff are in small numbers this weekend with wardens saying glorious weather but hardly any fish. The best has been early morning and shortly after it gets dark and into the night. The bass horse mac and mackerel are there but its slow going and pinning a “BEST” time to fish over the last weekend has been a case of pot luck unfortunately. Mackerel have had little flurries prob beast early in the day but only a few here n there to keep ppl worn out feathering!. likewise horse mac have been there , nowhere like usual numbers but again can come in bursts with ppl doing well one day and struggle another. Bass anglers that know their stuff on the marina are doing ok but other than the 12.11 beastie on the west most takes are in the 3-4lb range at the moment. I realise its a bit of a crap picture atm but im confident that its about to pick up,BUT, yea the BUT again its hard to say how soon things will pick up. 3 weeks ago things suddenly turned on and the fishing looked properly underway and then that fekn weather did it again and blew like a hoolie disrupting it all again…. it will get better … honest.
I was on the wall last night and the day round up was poor although I did see a cracking bream caught on the extension around the high tide that was likely 2lb plus. As I left close to 9pm there were 5-6 on the wall with the day anglers having all gone home who were feathering in the hope of some late mackerel.
On that note of night anglers it seems the message about using only blue filters on lights is not fully getting there. Marina (harbour) policy is now that all powered lights on the wall or in the water should be blue or blue tinted. If you dont have these you will be asked by the warden to sort it out or not use them.
Underwater lights can easily be put into a blue plastic bag that can be got from many small corner shops.
Headlamps and powered tip lights should be blue or blue tinted , likewise torches. There is blue tint sheets of sticky back film in the store on the west so please get them from the night warden for a token cost, each sheet will cover & tint at least 10 lights and are easy to sort, ty

And on that final note I will sign off with the usual ADIEU
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Well here we are and into Autumn, seems the weather gods have been having a laugh with everyone, what the EFF happened to summer?
Oh well , a bit of a meagre report full mostly with scraps unless your name is Glenn!
So lets start, we have had 2 days where garfish have been caught on the east, today they started 2 hrs before the high, no doubt Glenn will be after them tomorrow. Bream seem to be ticking over now that we have some settled weather but I recon things are fairly slow. I suspect all the winds we have been plagued with have totally wound the fish up and as a result both walls are suffering still. Hopefully a few days of clear weather will start to make it worth having a dabble.

12 lb +, yea but 12 lb what?, well a decent bass was landed on the west yesterday morning and caused a stir as the angler chose to take it home. Some insisted it should go back on the forums which is a shame as most anglers rare get to see yet alone land such a fish and if was me I’d have said aaaaawwwwweeeeesoooommmmeeee and then knock it on head for eating later.
Now some think a 20 year old fish like that should go back, not me though. Why ? well its had its breeding years & im of the view that in taking the biggies it is far better than taking decent matured breeding bass of 50-60cm out of the water.

Good luck to the dude that caught it , when cooked I hope it tastes fantastic :).

Other catches over the last few days, well yes there have been some mackerel but mostly in the morning early and not many of them. On the other hand horse mac are doing ok at night . There seems to be fewer Wrasse and gurnards being reported although like the goat fish/red mullet they are out there. And with the mention of mullet that rounds us up quite nicely in that I heard confirmed a decent mullet for east wall regular Roy Arnold although the weight is not known to me.
Finally a reminder that there is a blue light policy at night. Please dont give the night guys grief over this, like Shoreham we have been asked to ensure the correct light colours so they do not clash with navigation lights for any boat traffic that may be about . This includes blue lights in the water not green , many thanks.
And with those last few words i will bugger off to the footy to watch BTN Vs Newcastle thus I bid you a grand ADIEU
F

Wow ! we have actually had some decent weather, infact its been enough to finally clear the water from that murky green/brown colour that seems to have been a fixture since the rot broke up. The result, the fishing is on the recovery mode with plaice bream gurnard rays all on the caught list, a few mackerel in and out and horse mac for the night anglers on top of the bass number.

Now that I have mentioned night fishing I will again raise the issue of LIGHTS on the wall and remind everyone that there is filter material available from the wardens on the west wall at a token cost . All anglers are asked to comply with the blue light code when fishing the marina. Some anglers seem to be getting agressive with the guys working at night regarding the use of filters and its simply not on and ppl are simply putting fishing at night at risk. Please pass the message along, the light filter ruling has come from the harbour master and wont change. What will change is the fishing at night … it will get stopped for all so please help us pass this message along.

Thats it for today so I will bid you a good day and .. yup … ADIEU
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Plenty going on now that we have some settled weather,( & its nice to have something to report) while no big shoals there are mackerel about. Looks like the gar are starting to arrive with catches happening over the last couple of days on both walls. Likewise on both there are bass, no great sizes to report but plenty for the lure guys to plug away at 🙂 pun intended! .. Both walls also producing bream with recent reports also of rays on the east.

Plenty of micro species just down the sides of both walls to keep the juniors occupied and Im please to say the spiders have all but buggered off :). Plaice and wrasse to be had though people may want to check some of the size regs prior to keeping plaice atm. Gurnards are about out on the sandy areas, small hounds and dogfish are about when the water is coloured as are the eels, and for those night guys looking for horse mac… there have been decent amounts on the west. Finally on the fish front that has been reported are mullet…finally..

well from me today is, as the toon says, “t-t-t-thats all folks” yup i’m gonna type it …ADIEU
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well as the title says, long time no see! It really is a case of having had little to say as we endured a sequence of very blowy days then open for a couple of days in very coloured waters. And so the cycle seem to continue through June & July and now into August! FFS someone has nicked the British summer!.
Hows the fishing ? erratic to say the least, mostly coloured waters produced eels ,residential bass,a few flounders and a mixed bag of scratching for most fishing.

There have been mackerel once the water cleared and then would again come that flipping wind to stir it all up. Great I guess if you are hunting bass in the larger surf but i got the impression that even the bass guys were strugging with some going over to the dark side and hunting carp(some claimed the carp were really Pike ! yea? na, dont tell him P……

Also I have little to say as the reports have been very thin on the ground and little info has been filtering back from the walls.

Hopefully this will change and the weather starts to settle… I bet summer arrives just as the kids go back to school (poor buggers !
oh well , until next time I bid you a hearty ADIEU
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For most regular readers here I guess a few will be thinking ive buggered off or at least absent without leave :0, truth is there has been little to post.
We seem to be stuck in a weather pattern of strong southerly or SW winds then a few days of calm followed by another stint of strong wind.

I can honestly say that while it may keep the bass anglers happy it is of little use to regular wall users that simply want to chuck a bit of bait over the side, catch a few bream(speaking for myself) and chill out. Instead we have a cycle of close, brown weedy water, a clearing phase , 2 days of decent fishing followed by more weather alerts.

Im sure the sequence is due to settle and no doubt the science boys will talk about shifting gulf stream, global warming and the end of the world ! BUT, that doesnt help when one simply wants to get out there and go fishing.

On the news front I have now sourced some sticky back coloured film for headlamps and white lights. There will be a blue and a purple/violet transparent film available in the store on the west wall for sale, It can be a little fiddly separating the blank from the sticky bit but can be bought from the warden for a token amount to cover costs.
If you prefer to buy your own I have linked a couple of examples that are suitable on ebay to give you an idea what you should be looking for.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/325197042156?var=514096592392
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/325197048992?var=514096148421
Fairly much any colour will do the job but I suggest avoid the lighter blues as more than one layer would be needed to de-glare the white lights.

The sticky back film should be available once the west is back open for night fishing, Please be prepared to sort your lights, It is a requirement that the harbour office has asked us to comply with and as I understand it there are quite a few harbours now looking into de-glazed lighting to protect skippers and pilots entering ports in poor to no light conditions.

There are fish being caught on the marina (when open) but obviously when conditions are poor the real winner it seems are the summer species avoiding our baits and leaving the main catches other than bass as conger, pout whiting, rays and sole.
If you do plan a session on the east with the water coloured as is at the moment it would be worth “cooking” some black lug,, in & out of the freezer a few times until it gets very sticky and very strong smelling. Mixed in with some fresh bait it can work as a decent attractant for the likes of sole that will be out & about in the coloured water.
Until next time folks , good hunting and I will bid you ADIEU
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first up a weather alert yet as I type it all looks very calm out there.
That said xcweather indicates the expected blow coming in early and if correct the WEST is likely to be closed somewhen during the night (early Tues)morning orpossibly all night, will update later with a better idea It may also cause some issues on the EAST so please keep an eye on the home page.

Catch reports for Sunday did not disappoint with mackerel in & out most of the day on both walls. Varied catches on the EAST over the sand and similar results on the west with mackerel, bass and horsemackerel as the light was dropping. Unusual for a weekend many on the west had packed up by 6.30pm and were heading home most with bags full of mackerel and a fair few bream as well.

Thus on the fish front the weekend has been a busy one with many a happy face .
thats it for today, bit of a short one as I have yet another check up to do at the hospital… fun fun fun…till next time folks…ADIEU
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Well hello there, for those of you that recognise the title as a song you may thing this post is about to be bad news … or I may have a hangover ! well actually it is a very very

Good morning !
yes despite the cloudy start (imo good for fishing) the catch news is excellent. Over the last couple of days the may rot that had seemingly stuck to the marina’s concrete has finally been blown clear and the fishing on Friday showed signs of an instant pick up and change for the good.

Fridays day time was followed up by a night of fish. The evening mackerel continued on and off well into darkness that were then soon followed by some shoals of horse mackerel.
Now I know there have been a few out there waiting in this news as the horse mackerel I can firmly say are now hear at night as are the mackerel during the day.
WHITEBAIT on the shore lines have exploded everywhere with shoals of mackerel chasing them. Close behind the Mackies are BASS chasing and gorging themselves. Add to this the expected promise of BREAM has followed with some decent catches on both walls.
GAR FISH I heard someone ask yesterday , well yes and no sort of, the numbers are barely there to say anything other than one or two straps. I will copy in the tail end of BECKY LEE’s post on the marina FB group to give you an idea of what this weekend had turned into :-

{part of Becky’s post}
Baits were ragworm and blacks and some frozen peeler. Species caught Pout x 6Ballan wrasse x 2Bass x 1Corkwing wrasse x 1Tompot Blenny x 4Plaice x lost count best three 33, 33 and 34Dabs x 5 Black Bream x 2 Silver eel x 2Mackerel White bait Smooth hound pup x 112 species for the day so happy with that but no soles.Also witnessed a heron being chased by a couple of seagulls. Never seen so much whitebait. The water was black with it all day against the arm. Sea trout jumping. All in all a good day and met some new people.

The west wall at night over the weekends has become very busy so advice to night anglers is get there by 9pm or you may not find a spot to fish in comfort.
A reminder to all that use the marina that good practice is highly encouraged and if retaining fish anglers are expected to dispatch(kill) their fish quickly and then store them suitably. Wardens have been instructed to do this and it make the walls far more acceptable to casual visitors walking along watching the “fishing” if anglers look to be doing the right thing by killing fish quickly so no suffocation flapping on the concrete.

A second reminder about blue lighting on all powered lights, we have been sourcing transparent sticky back coloured film for lights and with advice from people that help run things over at Shoreham I was advised to try purple as well as various shades of blue which work well so I can add here for readers a list of some items that work on changing the lights to non white.
Blue carrier bags:- Work well in a double layer, cheep and simple, can also be used whole to tie around underwater lights.
Blue marker pens:- or bingo markers, also cheep and easy
Quality street wrappers:- yup easy to use once you have eaten the box full 🙂
sticky back TRANSPARENT colour paper/film I have tested light blue which was not suitable but any darker blue or even the purple shades work very well.

Back to the fishing report and as per Becky’s post I copied I can confirm that both walls have been very busy for fish and obviously quite busy for people wanting to fish, there has been space for all but occasionally the gate has been shut to control numbers once or twice at night. thus please plan your trips to arrive at suitable times, getting here an hour before high tide and wondering why its so busy will be explained as .. well everyone else thought the same, get there just b4 the tides just to find the place very busy :).

Finally a word about the EAST WALL at night.
Sadly some morons decided that they would fish the east wall at night, Yes it is CLOSED AT NIGHT, the gates are shut over with it being obvious they are closed.
I would like to thank the anglers that reported this incident to me last night, while it was past midnight I do encourage these calls.
the duty warden was alerted to the issue who then reported the matter to marina security and then the idiots over on the EAST were removed.
Hopefully the marina prosecute these people for trespass so the message is loud and clear

and with that I will say, happy fishing folks , its all happening out there so go get some. And with that my final words until next time…. ADIEU 🙂
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wow Friday already and tbh , I should have posted this last night but got delayed while visiting the wall !.

popped down to chat with Joe the night warden (some know him as tony , thats daves fault, hid dads name was tony so dave kept calling Joe by his dads name and it stuck ! ) Any hooo, as was saying I popped down onto the west about 6.30-7pm , ended up having a dabble alongside Joes son in the corner by the tower. A spur of the moment thing and there were loads of small mackerel flashing past in mini shoals.

Well in amongst the undersized were a few decent sized ones that were worth taking home so tea was sorted very quickly. In amongst the mackerel? yep the schoolie bas came out to play and Seb was into them very quickly, nearly all undersized, all he had went back as none there of size but decent fun jigging to pass the time as the sun dropped.

Half way down the wall @bay 17 was a first time visitor doing well on the low catching bream. None of size but he was pleasantly surprised to be getting them on the low mid wall as about 20 metre’s out. Had a nice chat with him and explained that I hung about when he landed a bream while I was there. very please to see it returned and I explained that I wasnt being funny watching him land then return the bream and explained as a warden we do actively encourage good practice with size returns and encouraging anglers to so so. His reply was that he was an old hand, always returned undersized fish and it was his first visit to the wall having read the website (yes another reader who may be reading this)
I am very pleased to say he came prepared and even had a blue marker for the lens of his headlamp, then jokingly suggested I dont update the website often enough that prompted a chat about best months to fish and what to expect.
To that gent I will say sorry, but, I’m crap at remembering names so please drop me an email, say hi, and let me know how things went for you last night.

One down side, an Asian gent with 2 young ladies had arrived on the wall with a drop basket and 4+ buckets who started netting for spider crab. Now many regulars on the wall may think yay he is removing them spiders but. The marina is within a protected fishing zone, while It may be right at the far end of “BEACHYHEAD WEST” Marine controlled zone rules do apply when collecting crabs.

For those unaware info is on the “size regs” page on local catch sizes. Spider crabs from nose to bum need to be 12cm with a max of 20 per person per day.
The gent in question was advised of the rules and instructed to return all of the 40+ crabs he had collected, not one met the legal size.
Illegal collection of undersized species will get us into trouble not only with the
fisheries IFCA’s but also with the marina for not dealing with illegal catches and risks any night fishing on the marina.
This also brings me to the point that the local IFCA’s will prosecute offenders and as well as hefty fines court costs get added to the fine bringing the penalties into the 1000’s, not worth it IMO

As a final note some readers here also use the marina uk facebook group, to reduce the sillyness on the group I have set the group to invisible. To members already they will not really notice any change. The real change is that the group without the link is invisible in searches and invisible to non members. Thus on an admin side things should be somewhat easier to deal with all the summer applicants wanting to join.
The 3 questions to join are deliberate, it thins out the lazy and makes sure people do a little research prior to joining.
Without answering correctly the application will be declined so please, if you invite someone to the group, make sure they know of the invite as they are time limited and also make sure they know to answer the questions. Quite simple , but very effective.
Anyhoo until next time …. ADIEU
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Its Monday and would you believe I have very little to say .. or type ? well tbh thats the situation. Fairly high westerly winds have closed the west or made conditions that side fairly much a waste of time trying to the casual angler.

Reports from the east over the weekend were next to nothing other than sort of scratching reports, that or the wall was so quiet it may have been easier simply to not open.

The nights the west has been open have just as much been quiet so here I am trying to type up useful info but lack it.

West expected now to be closed til WED late afternoon in a hope of getting it open for a night session. Once past WEST things should settle a bit more on the easterly breezes with possible showers over the weekend (can change) but no issues regarding being open.
I suspect my next write in will be at the weekend !
until then … yup.. ADIEU
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