Morning all, not Rawhide as the title suggests just a rare moment of updating the blog. So, whats going on out there.
Dave G with Ashley T got busy during th week with deck scrubbers and buckets of sea water as mentioned in an other post. Its back busting to do and I cant say I was over shocked when they weren’t back the following day to smash the rest of the wall but, they did a great job and the wall barrier fence has now been moved up to bay 42 and no doubt like yesterday people were allowed beyond to fish the higher bays, yes all of the wall can be opened if dry enough beyond 43.

Fish wise I guess things could be better but all this sudden good weather can be deceptive. We are still only in April and looking at my older records as my memory now somewhat fuddled with age I can see that April/May can be fickle months with some of the years being quite poor when things like weather blows, storms etc, and even good weather dragging “May rot” out to play early causing very varied conditions and mixed fishing.
Yes there have been up until the last 2 years or now 3 spring seasons we have had a decent squid run & a mackerel run often of larger “harvester” mackerel that could last 10 days to two weeks in April.
No doubt ive said this a few times to people but I’m convinced (particularly in spring) the squid & mackerel run are linked or even symbiotic. Without one the other seems lacking. As to if its squid that is the lead or the mackerel they sure do look like being tied together.
“May Rot” also can be a big factor this time of year (various boats already remarking on the rot being out there) If we get the early spring sunshine in March the water temps can raise enough to trigger the bloom activity early so that we end up with “May Rot” starting early April and being as the rot survives at specific temperatures if the water conditions remain calm without huge amounts of sunshine in April/May that algae bloom can last quite easily thorough both months & has been known to be still stubbornly clinging on well into June. The firs signs of it do seem a little late this year and now that we are being told that there will be a mini heat wave ( how long ? no idea) I can see conditions perfect for the bloom to rapidly multiply.

This year for me has already seemingly started quite slow on the fish front. Fek I thought last year was slow but this one seems worse. Yes we could all speculate as to why & most will at some time suggest over fishing or them monster trawlers ( I cant see any good about them regarding maintaining fish stock levels) but at the end of the day either the fish are moving into deeper waters or they are simply put in decline. The last 3 years have been the worst I can recal, I guess these things may go in cycles longer than I know or realise but at end of day , catches are down , not just on the marina but I suspect the whole of the south coast shorelines. On this Ive no answers and probably could go on for ever about over fishing but, if it is the case us rec anglers while on a lesser level than commercial are also adding to the problems of declining stocks …. a tough one to face.

Ok , sermon over, what’s happening on the marina ?
As said anglers have access to bay 43 now and if conditions allow we can open the whole wall. Thee west remains closed. thus no night fishing the marina.
Catch wise things remain sluggish and catches come in bursts. Of the weekend there have been a variety of catches but the numbers are tough going for many.
Bream, strap conger, dogfish, pout, plaice, Flounder (possibly dab, cant recal if this or last week they were mentioned) dogfish, Herring seem to have fizzled out as the water temps raise, rumour of a mackerel or 2 but they near non existent. Smooth hound pups, more dogfish,, gurnard (prob 1st reported this yr) bass and some very small schoolie’s (returned) not sure if any wrasse have been had yet but they should also be making a showing & bye this point you may also realise that the most plentiful of catches do seem to be dogfish & this seems a similar story for most of the Sussex coast line.
Now, while the species list gets longer as we get deeper into the year, the catch rate does seem to be low. Some of this may be the lack of numbers o the wall but for many fishing its not for lack of trying.
I fished high on the east yesterday. I got there quite late in the day with my youngest son, prob just b4 2 pm so was well into the dropping tide of which little seems to be happening (atm). we fished until about 6.30 pm and had 2 small plaice, yes I blanked but it was more about getting out and wetting some worm in the good weather. More about the chill out than an expectation of actually fishing or catching something.
The bones are sore today but then these days thats the down side of getting out fishing…. or just getting out sometimes.
The weather bar prob Sunday looks decent & weatherman say, get the wellies & rain coats out ready for the weekend or at least Sunday as things stand.
No planned closes on the east for the next 7+ days or so, WEST as said remains closed as work is on going on that side, tus , no night fishing until the west re opens later in the year.

ATM close time on the east is
weekdays 6.30am until 6.30pm
Sat/Sun 7.30pm close
Finally a reminder to all using the east late afternoon/early evening The times shown are when the wardens are expected to be locking the gates, so please as things get to 7pm, start to pack down so you are all off the wall by close time. Hanging back and being the last off the wall at 7.45 pm does no one any favours and closing the wall later than agreed with the marina will only cause issues if we request special close times for any events or even specific tides,
Help the wardens please and ensure you are off the wall by close times , ty
And, with that reminder I will say, tight lines folks and until next time, I bid you all ADIEU
F

Well, did you ? no ?
Ok then.

For those that didn’t clock the home page or the news on the facebook group, David Grinham and Ashley Tamley have been very busy with deck scrubber, wire brooms and loads of buckets of water bashing out the bays on the east wall.
Now I can tell you doing this is absolutely back busting and I know as Ive done it myself a few times. I will also add here that Roy Arnold also cleaned a couple of bays with a deck scraper, again no easy task and I will say all anglers using the wall this year should be grateful that they have.

I AM PLEASE TO SAY

THE EAST WALL IS NOW OPEN TO BAY 43

Over the last week the weather has been a bit up & down and with fairly strong easterlies the wall has had to close for 2 or 3 days. This does impact water conditions and does no one any favours. Add to that some over night showers/rain etc means that we do have to limit access beyond bay 25 on the EAST when wet. Obviously if its ok up there the duty warden will decide on the day if they will open beyond but predicting how dry(or not) the wall will be on any given day becomes impractical.

As I type I gather there is some form of work going ahead on higher bays but ive no idea of what it is.
Observant types may notice work has actually began on the east with the approach to the pathways block off. Pease avoid trying to climb onto the west as its a real pain in the arse getting people off there and there a decent chance it could be a police matter.

On the catch front have things picked up any ?
So far it seems the usual April fare prior to may rot setting in with plaice, dab, flounder, dogfish, a spider crab reported, a few bream have been taken this week also. Whiting, smooth hound pups a bass or a few depending on which whispers you listen too Pout and some herring and last but not least a conger or 2 have been mentioned but no picture evidence of them.

Over on the Boat side of things I havnt seen may reports so a fair call is beyond what I can say other than Brigands reports which indicate that Pollack are the main stay over the wrecks and the bream fishing is in very good swing with some great reports on both fish species.
Obviously talking to the skippers is the best options when you are picking on where/who to go with and in the same manner they also are the best ones to ask when deciding what bait or lures they are recommending.

Water conditions are a bit milky on lower tides as the rivers are still flushing rain water, it seems to me that flounder are more active a couple of days after rain as well, perhaps they like the brackish water that happens as the rivers flush that rain out. As the tide rises the milky deposits tend to clear into a decent emerald green type of colour.

As we get well into April 3 questions seem to get asked more often than any others, the first 2 im convinced are symbiotic with one following the other and that is Mackerel & squid. This year I know of 3 of each confirmed on the east wall & that was on the bigger spring tide 2-3 weeks ago. Since those were caught on the wall, nothing, fairly much the same as the 2 previous years. Now I don’t know if poor weather/water conditions have scuppered this 10 day- 2 week runs in April ( I sort of think the mackerel are last years that make the run up from the bay of biscay and the squid follow & feed on them bringing them into sussex waters.) but things are beginning too look like that spring run may now become a thing of the past.
The reasons for this I can only speculate on.
Is something eating them pre arrival ? (tuna shoals?)
poor weather ?
over fishing ?
Ive genuinely no Idea why its not happening but something definitely seems to have changed with the larger (main) mackerel shoals arriving a bit later each year and number clearly declining with “ICES” the stock watchers commenting on how they are as a species now at risk ! I fear it wont be long before mackerel get put on a restricted listing ! quite shocking in my books.

So, what was the 3rd ask ? well that one relates to the water quality and everyone’s pet hate of
MAY ROT
WTF is may rot some no doubt ask. Well its an algae that forms at certain water temps as we creep towards summer and warmer temperatures. It forms as a bloom in the water and multiplies causing a cloudy colour in the water. The algae grows by removing oxygen from the water and the thicker areas can smell like bad eggs and leaves sticky snot like deposits on fishing line as anglers rewind. It also impacts on the fish quite heavily by clogging up fish gills combine this with the lesser oxygen levels in the water and you can see why fish stay clear of may rot patches or try to swim under it much reducing the fishing and becoming quite a pest to anglers.
Now, some loacl anglers are already saying May Rot has already started (im not convinced its here yet) and if is the case it could be an issue for some weeks unless we start getting some very decent hot days. Im not overly sure that we are going to get the early summer heat that many will hope for and if is the case May rot could well easily stay through MAY and well into June ( hope not).

Anyhoo, as things stand while the species numbers are on the rise with summer species slowly arriving catch rates to for the average anglers on the wall are quite slow , although that said the counter is that tbh things number wise on the east are quite slow and even on “busy days” there usually is plenty of space for those wanting to chuck some line & rigs at the sea 🙂

With that I am done for the day & will as usual bid you all ADIEU
F

Right, first an apology for not updating in a while and also not posting about the wall being shut due to high winds but I was out on the piss for my birthday. Yup it was a blast, 1st saw the rocky horror pic show at theatre royal then met friends n family in the mash tun on the piss till just gone 2am… nope no regrets but very groggy yesterday !

So, whats been going on this week or so?
Sadly, no they havnt started working on the west wall yet so more delays until at least after April ! FFS. On the east we still have no F***ing water so no jet washing meaning the bays above 25 are algae covered and slippery as F*** if even a little wet.
What does that mean for anglers ?
the duty warden can only open up these bays if they are properly dry, any splash ups mean that bay is immediately out of use so a pain in the arse for the duty warden calling when they consider it safe enough to allow anyone on the higher bays even if they look dry. If anyone falls the buck stops with the warden so please respect their call even if it means delaying access for a few hours or even saying no it stays shut. A pain but we have to be super careful risking people on those slippery bays.
Ok thats that done , wtf has been caught ya ask…
Well , Nick(warden) reported the 1st bream of the year caught on bay 24 a couple of days back and while fish numbers are still slow there have been plaice, dab, flounder, bass, conger, whiting, herring (over the high) one or 2 mackerel and a single squid during the week and there are still dogfish taking anything chucked at them so varied just waiting on numbers to improve.

Saturday the early forecast showing some fairly strong easterlies but hopefully while it may feel colder it should be ok to stay open, other than that we have some rain Friday evening and probably on sat so please dont expect the extra bays on Saturday or Sunday as the risk is too high but come Monday it may have dried out enough.

Thats about it for now so until the next post I will bid you all ADIEU
F

Well, what can I say ! Went fishing yesterday on the spur of the moment Myself & jnr who not so junior any more at 23 !. No early morning tide plans just go when & where sort of thing.
Spoke to mark about opening up some of the untreated bays while there and took a green jacket with me. I opened the east to bay 40 advising anyone using the untreated bays that should any water get on the bays they would be immediately a risk as wet.. case was proven later when a wave splashed up at 31 around the wires making it more like an ice rink.
If you see open bays while we haven’t treated them be aware it only takes a few drops of any liquid to make them super slippery.

Im told someone had caught 3 herring over the high yesterday on one of the low >10 bays and on chatting to people already there that truly seems like they were the highlight of the day.

You may note I avoided saying how we got on so here goes very little info & loads of waffle(you were warned)
First thing was to move the barrier down to bay 40 for the duration we were there and advised everyone using the bays that when I pack up we would have to move anglers back below 25, as it turned out that wasnt going to be an issue as when we left there were only 2 guys left on bay 17/18.
Michael & I set up on bay 28, water looked shiny green but lower 12 bays were quite milky from chalk sediment most of the day. Now, while the sun was out , bright & hot the wind on xcweater claimed to be 12 with gusts of up to 16, well I can tell you it was more like 16 gusts to 20 and was quite chill. Now the irony of that was not only were we both sand papered with bits of sand blown on the wind but that sun also managed to do a number on us !

For those that havnt yet been out in the sun for long periods be advised you may want to take some sun cream. My forehead is just shy of burnt ! as well as raw from the sand blasting. Just to add more injury my hair is cropped quite short on a no2 trimmer, it seems that my scalp has also been cooked while we were on the wall for 5hours or so. SUN & WIND in April is I now realise is VERY DECEPTIVE & my scalp is also just shy of burnt and a little bit tender for the next day or so.

So how did the fishing go ? fairly much the same as the other 25 or so that fished the wall yesterday (granted many just took feathers , prob at least 15 of them) yup a big fat blank and very few nibbles to be honest although I wasnt using any fresh bait (frozen black, squid & sand eel). The weather bar the wind was great and having not fished for over 6 months it made me realise how much I missed just chilling on the marina walls.

Today as I type it looks glorious out there and based on tree movement around the house Id say the wind was less than the forecast of 10-14 mph.

we still lack water to get the jet washing done despite constant promises of the supply being sorted out so all we can do atm is make a judgement call on opening up extra bays to get some foot fall on them when conditions allow.
Which bays & how many I can say/predict nor when it will happen as the duty wardens or mark will call it based on the conditions of the day, jes we are still subject to the safety of all wall users and knowingly opening up bays that could become a risk to users mean we have to take extra care doing this.

Contractors keep fafing with start dates on the west and im beginning to think we should have taken the time and expense of jet washing the west and get it in use prior to the work starting but, its damned if do , damned if dont situation. Mark could take a week and jet wash the west only for the work to begin the very next day resulting in wasted money and time.
YES they should have started 1st week of March and we are almost mid April looking at a situation that has become super frustrating not only for mark but for all anglers that could have been using the west had we known the scheduled work would get delayed starting.
Ho hum, if wishes were kisses eh,
Well thats me done for todays essay, hopefully the fishing will pick up rapidly in the warmer weather. Until then….. I bid you all ADIEU
F

It hasnt been the greatest of fishing this week as conditions have been somewhat dominated by brisk to stiff easterly winds. I guess the old saying about wind from the east and everything often rings true. Adding to the slower catch rates this week has also been a case of very few reports coming back from the wall so its hard to get a truer rather than general picture of whats going on.

Mark (the birthday boy today) said that the east will stay open until 7.30 this Sat & Sun so anglers can catch the later high water and beyond that I have nothing I can add here other than that there are no plans to close the wall this week as weather conditions look ok for the next week or so.

Hopefully the next post will have a bit more of whats happening , so, until them I bid you all ADIEU
F

So, as we hit the last day of march I find myself thinking where did the last 3 months go ! It seems that Christmas was only 2-3 weeks ago and yet we are about to hit April and a late Easter this year !

So whats been going on down here in Brighton.? well, night temps still feel nearer like its still winter but the mornings are getting warmer and the sun is finally making things feel very spring like. Air temps are up and believe it or not, I know of one due that managed to get himself a bit of sun burn from being in his garden all day topless ! go figure!

I took the quad out again yesterday after sorting out my new fish tank and getting water into it to cycle, tbh couldn’t resist it and once down on the east I instantly regretted not taking the rod with me ! while down there I stopped and had a chat with one or two regulars including Roy who was doing a bit of fishing and also scraping off some of the algae on bay 25 using what looked very similar to a flat head garden hoe and stiff broom (until the broom head broke)
Now for anyone that has ever used a deck scrubber on concrete they will know its bloody hard work so credit to Roy for helping Mark shift some of the algae as not only is it back busting but it takes very little water on those sections to turn them into near ice rinks.
after a chat with Roy I had a short chat with Mark who confirmed what a couple of others had told me that Sat & Sun there was a complete lack of herring, not assumed it was a little too choppy and coloured water didnt help.
Regarding water quality, Id say its not actually that bad. Over all it resembles a sort of emerald green with not much depth visibility. Id say it was probably a bit better further out for the boat anglers.

Now, you may have noticed the pattern of how I type today, If I waffle the catch report sorta lacks fish & if the fishings decent I’m straight at it with the round up so, you may have figured that its not been that great. Well, Yes & no. For some, the fishing has ticked over quite nicely, Roy managed to get himself a mixed bag of Plaice, half a dozen dogfish, whiting, eel, a couple of schoolie bass(yes returned & a bit more on bass shortly)while most struggled Roy was ticking over nicely.
Further down the wall things were soewhat slower for most although there were more eels, dogfish and at least one “in size” bass that was returned. While chatting to the bass catcher I did mention how nice it was to hear of, how to put this politely,
erm a non English, white East European
yooouuuu knowwwwwwww, a fekin angler, yes they are all anglers. I dont give a rat if someone grey , green yellow or from outer space, if they have a rod in their hands they are anglers … that simple.
Any hoo, no offence meant to anyone here but the dudes fellow anglers often get tagged as keeping every fish they catch so it was nice to be told by this fellow (who has fished the marina a fair bit) that bass atm have to be returned even if it was keeper size and he wished it was April already as it would defo have been had for his tea. !

As a warden it is always nice to see anglers that, not only follow the rules, but have an interest in sensible sizes of fish and does his best to show this to other anglers also.
SAD NEWS
While chatting with Roy I also learnt of one of the wall regulars passing. Im told that VERNON who was a regular with the Palace Pier club has died in the last week. Ive no Idea if his wife reads this but if anyone reading this knew Vernon and Viv please pass on my condolences to Vic and the family. I believe his funeral is this week and think the venue is at WOODVALE but not 100% sure although most pier members would have that info.

Right, whats the weather doing this week ?< well, we have it seems a week of easterlies of which TUESDAY looks a bit gnarley with the wind speeds estimated on xcweather.com as picking up to near 20mph with gusts of maybe 30mph. high tide tues is 14.50 and things could be a bit iffy if the wind estimates are true, if it is the case its possible that mark would have to shut the wall if he doesnt decide today to shut anyway.
If you plan to fish TUES please check in tues day b4 you travel and no one likes a wasted journey.
for the rest of the week It looks like we will have a fairly sunny week and potential temps reaching 16 degrees on a couple of the days and no planed shut downs.

East wall still atm bays 1-24 and west remains closed
Thats it from me today so, as per, I will bid you all ADIEU
F

Morning world(as I type) things somewhat sluggish and very variable at the moment. The first recorded squid of the year poked their noses out of the water Tues & Wed although none were caught yesterday & not heard of any this morning.

I took “GRUMPY1” down onto the east for a mooch yesterday, the sun was out & lovely and warm, it actually felt like a decent spring day with decent water colour a sort of shiny green and probably the cleanest Ive seen this year I had expected to see a few more out making the most of the sun but there was only a few on the wall fishing. I guess a few had given up and headed home as the general story was that people caught some herring over/around the high water & that was fairly much it bar an occasional dogfish to bother the baits.

Yesterday also delivered some sad news with NICK the warden announcing that his dog “ELLIE” had died during the night at the age of 13, she was a regular sight on the west for many and such a good natured dog & I for one will miss seeing her on the wall this year. 🙁

After leaving the east I took the wheels into the marina as maidenhead aquatics shop had rung me to say my new fish tank was ready for pick up & no it wont be used as a live bait store :), once cycled it will be to split off some of the Bristle nose plecos I have.
With letting nature do its own thing some of the babies in my main tank fall prey to the larger fish and self turn into fishfood but it seems that a few have managed too avoid that fate and as a result I had a genuine excuse too convince my wife I needed an extra tank 🙂 (Yes im already planning on a 3rd one but it may take some convincing !)

Anyhoo, I just managed to make it home (fish tank in the foot area of my scooter) when I noticed that there was a layer of fog coming down . Turned out that the fog was also responsible for the days temperatures dropping like a stone and most on the wall called it a day early resulting in nothing else to report from yesterday.. and thats why im filling the page with waffle!

Today a quick chat will mark told me that things were quiet on the wall unless you fancied having a go for dogfish ! oh joy of joys!
Finally for today I had a word or 2 with Mark about the squid comp being as 3 were caught this week so no doubt would be on peoples minds if there would be a comp this yea, especially with the current state of wall openings.

The last 2 years that “spring run” hasn’t happened or its been so little people barely noticed any Personally I suspect they are linked in with the early April run of mackerel that happen if the water state is reasonable and lasts for about 10 day pre may bloom set in. Neither occurred inshore as said for the last 2 years . Thus logic & common sense came to the conclusion of aiming the squid comp this year in the AUTUMN especially as we still have issues with water supply on the wall to get it jet washed.

With regards to space on the wall it is planned to open higher untreated sections of the wall providing there is no threat of rain nor risk of water splashing up over the untreated bay and there are numbers there to justify the opening. needless to say I cant really post here if or when those extra bays are likely to be open simply because I don’t have a crystal ball to tell me when the numbers coincide with decent dry conditions to safely open further sections. Obviously if we can get untreated bays open the angler foot fall would hugely help knock the algae back.

So to round up & confirm

SQUID COMP 2025 will be in the AUTUMN

and with that last note I will bid you all ADIEU
F

So, we have our 1st recorded squid catch of the year on the east wall today, Mark posted to the FB group and caught by curtis

As well as the squid it has been reported that there were plenty of herring caught this morning. Along the beaches plaice catch numbers are improved on last week but im told most of the sizes are barely keepers. If you like skinny plaice barely in size I guess you will have a few to take home but in all honesty they would be better returning to grow out somewhat.

Plenty of whiting still about and a few strap congers in amongst the catches in somewhat cloudy waters.
And that,… as they say is a wrap so I will bid you all as usual ADIEU
F

….UP.
I was going to post yesterday but tbh either I forgot(again) or time simply got away from me. Thus, today is the day I guess!
The last 2-3 days have all in all been a bit quieter than I was hearing on Thursday when I previously trundled along the wall. I again popped down yesterday and caught up with a couple of people, one a regular down again with his 2 lads fishing on 24 ( sorry Im crap remembering names but you know who you are 🙂 ) who not only told me he had been checking up on the blog (nice to know) and was fairly much on his 1st time out fishing with the lads. He informed me that things too him were fairly quiet and they had only had 3 mutts and a whiting, now, if that is quiet i’m typing this all wrong as most this week would have considered the day “not bad” especially as it wasnt quite noon and the tide was only 30 mins past the low mark with half the day still to go.

Nice also to see Nick the warden with his GF and dog “Ellie”. Had a chuckle as his GF walked away with the dog because she saw me stop n chat with NICK and the dog promptly decided she wasnt leaving an parked her rear on the wall not budging, end result the GF joined Nick and fished as well !
To fully round up the water remains coloured although I was told by one of the commercial anglers that water temps have risen and are now almost 10 degrees which is more like the normal for this time of year. Hopefully April brings us some nice sunny & warmer days so everyone can get out, chill out and brush the cobwebs of the fishing gear.

Catch wise this week it started with whiting and plagues of dogfish, tues wed were prob best for the plaice & Fri/Sat slowed up a fair bit the have been herring most days this week and most were saying they are/were very close to the bottom, the bulk of which have been caught in the half hour b4 & after the high water. I guess they were feeding deep due to the poor clarity but yup, it may be a guess. In amongst the herring has also been the occasional mackerel, no doubt lost its way or too daft not to realise its shoal mates were not thee same as it was!

Next week is looking milder with a bit of a stir up potentially next weekend but that is still a few days away and could al change by then.
Well thats it for today so I will bid you all… as usual, ADIEU
F