Sat was a tough day on the wall, I spent the day down there helping out and first light saw a few fish amongst the catches but to be honest .. it was a bit brutal. A couple of sole & plaice early doors, & by 10 am had heard of a couple of bream & mackerel plus an eel.
Queue system from 6.30 am to get on the wall lasted until 2am with the wind rising and a low tide waves were chopping up a fair bit making the west uncomfy to fish & fairly wet with lots of wave dodging.
Total catches by 6pm , 5 mackerel, 2 eels , 4 sole 6 plaice a mullet(returned) and a decent bass dropped at the wall. crabs … all small & maybe a couple of dozen … fishing was hard but some praise today…
5 hours + queueing and almost everyone was understanding and patient… very little booze on the wall and everyone well behaved , hard work & a long day but a pleasure to be on the wall saturday

So the night fishing news, Issues have been building for a week or two with the sheer volume of people wanting to use the walls day and night time. With Dover shut & a few other venues also restricted it seems everyone is opting to head to Brighton. Add into the mix more than 70% of the east wall has been lost to Building/repair work, furloughed people paid to have time off, fine weather and the arrival of mackerel shoals means that staff are already struggling to cope with the extra numbers in limited space and then the explosion of crazy that mackerel shoals on the walls bring.

This has resulted in aggressive behaviour to staff, miss use of the east wall thus hampering building work and creating health issues on the east on the upper levels and some cases on the west also, add to this various safety issues with the east upper due to works there.

Pressure from numbers and builders wanting to work means we have taken the decision to close BOTH walls at night. The entrances had to be manned from 11pm to 3 in the morning just to prevent the wall from being swamped with anglers unhappy about long waits to get on and fish with some electing to top up their beer levels while waiting and causing issues with the guys manning the walls all hours of the day.

Staff should not have to put up with any form of abuse from anglers disappointed in having to wait their turn to fish ! 3 this morning on the east were band for this reason so please , while we want to get you all fishing we simply cant do it while under space restrictions caused by the covid situation and repair situation on the east.

Once the building work is complete (sometime in sept) we will re visit the idea of night fishing but until we have the extra space & certain factors calm down it will be a case of daytime only.

frank

Tuesday catch up morning !, bit late with the round up

Hows the fishing ? .. one word …… manic

The weekend and tail of last week has produced some nice rays on both walls. Am pleased to say that those I know of were all returned safely with at least 3 in double figures .
Mackerel are definitely “in” & creating the usual mayhem on the walls and on social media. Unfortunately everyone wants in on the action & creates a very busy marina and very busy walls … The sun is out , tons of people on furlough , Dover admiralty is shut so we are the next best thing.

The wardens do their very best & do try to teach anglers how to dispatch fish… with luck nearby anglers may step in and advise new comers the same process of kill & store fish so we can all fish in a clean environment… education here is key… convince one in ten its a good idea and others will follow.

Other catches over the weekend include bass, gurnards plaice sole pout & occasionally channel whiting & horse mackerel at night regards

frank

Again plenty of mackerel & bass about, seem as usual angler fail to keep their fishing area tidy by bagging up & dispatching fish … something a few need to think about.

A nice ray on the east for Josh that went 9lb and landed with the help of an un named warden , well done , lovely fish

Mackerel in numbers , plenty of plaice , gurnard and bream amongst other catches today … both walls open tonight , with east daytime only tomorrow , west is now 24/7

So the mackerel have arrived in numbers on both walls , plenty of bait fish down the sides & micro species to keep the young ones occupied

A nice bass for John Sired yesterday on the east , I believe estimated around the 6lb mark caught on bait & another reported caught on feathers.

Plenty of plaice & bream about eels in the mix. Not heard of any horse mackerel yet but then they are a night fish so waiting on reports.

Black lug & ragworm in shop , west open 24/7 and east open tonight as a trial.

New wall charges began today, Adult 1 rod £5 or 2 rods £6:- Juniors (u18) and seniors £3 per rod or £4 for 2 rods. This is only the 2nd price rise on the walls in 15 years so not bad for value .

Night fishing also returns from today on the west wall, the wall will be open 24/7 subject to conditions with for now a no tent rule. Shelters at night will be permitted for those fishing. The lower levels remain anglers only and 2 per bay with social distancing rules in place.

East wall will open on a trial basis on a Saturday night with a view to extending this subject to anglers behaviour & respect of building areas on the east wall.

Sun & Mon a slow tick over with no real surprises, a few plaice in usual spots :), bream best on the west & eels & bass the main stays. Tues saw the arrival of mackerel so fully expecting visitor numbers to increase rapidly.

I have seen many posts on social media pointing at minimum & recommended sizes of fish & especially mackerel seem to be causing some confusion. The local size is 20cm , not 30cm as some seem to keep posting. The north sea area has a size of 30cm , everywhere else its 20cm.

The website has a page showing the local size restrictions “size regs” please refer to it for the marina guidance sizes.

From Friday the rod fee price on both walls will increase as well as the start of night fishing on the marina (see webpage). This is only the 2nd increase in 15 years so IMO still good value & as cheap as a pint locally. I will today change the prices on the website but bear in mind they wont change on the wall until friday morning

F

So Friday was a grubby day, west wall was shut due to the wind speeds, managed the east open & at least one mackerel was caught, tbh that was likely it as still lacking much in the way of feedback from the east wall when its open.

Both walls will be closed Saturday and Sunday with normal opening times come Monday assuming there is no further changes to the forecast. Shop has fresh lug in stock and a reminder that night fishing will restart on Friday on the west every day subject to conditions & as a trial Sat nights only on the East wall.

should have posted yesterday, forgot , bass,bass, bass, eels, n bass…. Having re opened on the east after blowy conditions it had a couple of very good days for those hunting bass…. did I mention bass ? 🙂

Today a bit tougher going, west was open for the morning but very testing conditions in the “breeze” , heard of some sole, a bass or two & lots of wet bodies… west closed mid afternoon as the wind rose. East open til 9 tonight & open again in the morning. West expected to stay shut now for a few days. Lack reliable news from the east to fairly comment on catches today.

Oh and the warden announced mackerel mid afternoon caught also … numbers unknown though.

F

Walls were closed on Saturday so nothing to say there. Sunday Phil(pieman) opened the walls just after 8am having done a safety check. Conditions blowy and unpleasant. Plenty of water splashing up from the start. In a nutshell the day was one of getting wet from water plumes , some conger and a few schoolies. Both walls are closed Monday with a review later regarding Tuesday. Likely west closed & east open.