The Famous Tacklebox Brighton

as it says, yesterday I took the “quad” down into the marina, part to do a bit of shopping but also to mooch along the wall & say hi to a m8 fishing down there. Yes it had BEEN A WHILE SINCE I had been down and said hi to anyone fishing !…
So whats going on you may wonder?

First off I stopped above My m8 Colin and chucked a few dog biccys at him to get his attention. Nope he didnt even notice so had to shout at the deaf old bugger to get him to notice me. Was good to see him especially as he had been quite seriously ill through the winter & he seemed back to his cheery self I’m please to say.

Having spoken to him earlier about trying for herring 30 mins b4 the high he was well prepared and while lower on the bend he did manage to catch some about 10 mins b4 the high but they were mostly hard work and the bulk I saw caught yesterday were deep and probably feeding off the sandy patches. Further along the wall I found Joe (aka Tony) trying and catching herring on bay 24.

Now some wonder why I call him Joe (ex night warden) , well surprisingly his name is JOE shocker eh. so how come many call him Tony ? & yes he answers to both ! well that was Dave Grinhams fault. Joes dad WAS called TONY, and for ease Dave called them both Tony, so when JOE’s dad passed he simply carried on calling him Tony. Joe simply couldn’t be arsed to correct him after his dads loss and so the name stuck in Dave’s head. The result, when Joe started on the wall dave introduced him to everyone as Tony , so if you see Joe, he will answer to being called Tony 🙂

Ok, now I should get back to the fish having slanted off in a different direction. Somewhere in between Colin and Tony up on 24 was another familiar face who had been fishing and about to pack up so a quick chat with my mullet informant told me he had tried this week but informed be as I had suspected that while there are mullet in the marina (warmer water) they were not or seemingly not venturing out onto “usual” spots yet and as in his words, “if you don’t try you wont know.”

The herring arrived about 25 mins b4 yesterdays high at 2.55pm and some were caught upto about 20 mins after the tide as low as bay 12. only a few plaice were seen yesterday and the plagues of dogfish must have been hunting food elsewhere as things were quite slow yesterday.
Conditions of water atm are quite cloudy and little to no water visibility, fortunately there was plenty of spring sunshine so most were able to easily keep warm. Irony is todays forecast yesterday shown just an hour or 2 of sun shining and overcast the rest of the day…. how wrong has that proved as today seems the warmest so far this year, little to no wind and bright sunshine so far most of the day.


We still only have 24 bays to use, Im told the issues with the water have reached frustrating levels for Mark who wants to get more of the walls open and now he has been told there will be delays to getting the work on the west started. East water supply is still to be resolved and the result is he has all but come to a frustrating crashing halt .
Ho hum , plan c I guess
Well, thats it for today, so I bid you all ADIEU
F

Yup, the first answer is as you see when you thing to ask what is open to fish atm on the Marina. The west is shut and will stay so until July and as I understand it we still have issues with water supply that is hampering jet washing.

Usually by this time of year much of it would be done or at least what was left to do wouldn’t be too much of an issue but, with these cold temps the algae on the walls is retaining moisture and is a serious slip hazard. Please bear with us, it will get done asap although not as fast as most including the wardens would like.

On the fishing front catches are dominated still by dogfish that some are convinced are out there in huge packs hunting down food and anglers baits en mass. As usual for this time of year now there are plaice to be had, no great numbers but enough to keep people interested while we are stuck with some very cold air temperatures that at times feel more like mid January rather than mid March ! defo too cold for my liking out there, Im finding as I get older id rather have my feet up indoors in much warmer temperatures!

There are still whiting out there while the water stays coloured and some reasonable numbers of herring to be had usually over the high tided. be warned though, sometimes as soon as they seem “IN” they are gone again and the window for catching can be as long as 50 mins or as short as 5, blink and they have been missed so to speak. Bass are about for those that know how to ferret them out and im hearing a few strap congers are about.

Catch reports are still a bit thin on the ground, not too many fishing the reduced number of bays on the wall and the cold temps putting quite a few people off venturing out too long.

Not a massive amount of info to work with so until next time I will bid you all ADIEU
F

10th MARCH 2025

We are still having issues with water supply that is delaying much of the jet washing, a couple of possible solutions have been tried and found way too expensive to continue with so we are currently back to waiting on the marina to resolve the water issue.

That said, some of the wall has been sorted on the lower level with the upper level ready to fully open.
Barriers have been placed over the “Vs” that have not been repaired and we will be able to do a

ROLLING OPENING

FROM TOMORROW Tues 10/03/2025
The east wall BAYS 1-20 ONLY will be open to anglers from 7.30am and close at 5pm so please start packing in time to clear the wall for 5pm

NEXT week the EAST will open mon -fri at 8am til 5pm, weekend opening time tba

ALL OPEN days are subject to weather conditions

As repairs are finished and needed jet washing is completed further bays will be made available in a rolling opening.

PLEASE NOTE, THE WEST WILL REMAIN CCLOSED UNTIL AT LEAST THE END OF JULY

I have checked with mark on current state of wall issues and repairs ect and can now give an update of sorts being as there are now a few enquiries and a decent spell of weather. so first up is the
WEST WALL (to remain closed)
As it says, the west wall will for now remain closed.
Some may already be aware already that the marina plan to continue with caisson filling to strengthen both walls. For the west this work is expected to start in March and obviously subject to weather conditions allowing the work to progress. During this work the wall will be classed as a building site and will be closed to all on both levels.
Due to the work starting so soon it is pointless jet washing, time to do it, staffing ect makes it somewhat pointless. Granted the algae this year is not such a serious problem but any moisture /frost/rain ect makes that algae like an ice rink.
The repair work is expected to last until the end of July but needless to say is subject to weather conditions being suitable to do the work which will require a dive boat stationed off the wall.
EAST WALL
currently closed, jet washing was planned to start a few weeks ago but the pipe work and water lines to be used have been condemned by Southern Water as a major Legionnaires disease risk. The current set up has been a spur line from the cafe water supply that ran 3/4 the length of the wall. Unfortunately this was a single one way line that left standing water in the water line and has been condemned as unsafe .
The result of this means that the marina has to put in suitable pipe work with a return flow so there is no standing water in the supply line. This is in hand and being worked on by the marina but it has meant that Mark has been unable to start any jet washing on the EAST WALL until the supply is resolved.

As well as the water supply issues there has been lots of concrete debris to remove from storm damaged areas of the EAST and I’m told that has now been completed.
POSTS & WIRES on the east are still being repaired and replaced as needed and is taking a bit longer than expected due to the high number of posts that need replacing and some smaller levels of damage to where the wires fix to the wall that have been damaged or smashed away. As a result extra wiring and red posts were needed above what is kept in the marina stores.

SO WHERE does that leave us with regards to opening the east to anglers…….

Mark is working on something and has a plan of action, if the weather holds he will be starting work on the EAST lower levels very soon. He is targeting March but obviously having the right equipment in place makes things progress quicker than has happened this year.
The work on the wires and posts should be soon finished and there are some minor hole repairs to sort on the upper walkways. While that continues Mark will deal with the excess algae issue and as mentioned he is hoping to have the EAST OPEN somewhen in MARCH.
Yes March is the aim, no we cant say when in March as we are still restricted in repair gear and water issues. so will it be early or late March ? hard to say but if the weather holds the plan is to have the wall open in MARCH (somewhen)

While the west is closed there will not be any night fishing as things stand. The east once open will open on a daylight only basis.
While we all realise people want to get onto the walls to fish for the early plaice the deciding factor is safety insurances, so, please be patient, we are very nearly there.
F

Is the 1st actual post with info for this year. being the case I should really start with happy new year and welcome back, not that there is much to come back too as yet.

So…, where do things stand this year. ?
mark is now back from his hollibobs and the 1st update of the year is as follows

EAST WALL , currently closed.
The is some work happening on the EAST in the way of smaller repairs such as re-wiring of th red posts and I hope also replacing of damaged and lost posts. Higher end there are some concrete repairs going on and although a new wall check by mark has not been done yet there is quite a lot of heavy damage that needs sorting on the bays just above bay 10.
Jet washing on the east.
It seems that there has developed an issue with the water supply on the east side of the marina. It may be a single inflow & involve any branch off said pipe it maybe more but don’t have details. The upshot is that there currently is no water supply to the taps we have access too so that the jet washing can begin. we are ready to start the jet washing on the east but atm lack water so a start has been delayed.

WEST WALL, fairly decent news in that the algae this year is not as heavy as in past years but it is known that there will be some major works carried out this year by marina developments. Mark as yet does not have any start date for thes works and once they begin there will be no access to the west for angler for the duration of the work.

For the above reason Jet washing has not begun and wont start until the development work dates are known. It is pointless Mark starting to knock his arse off jet washing if the west will get closed too all within a week or even a month. The extra work preparing the west VS the few that would get to use the wall before it is again closed is minimal and not financially viable.

Needless to say, as soon as Mark can provide me with the relevant info it will get posted here and onto facebook.

Im informed that Shop hrs are currently 7am to 12pm daily

Well here we are again although I will resist typing out the lyrics to the Queen song! Anyone would think that lack of posts means that its November and nothing going on out on the fishy front ! not quite so, more a gap in posts due to a few health issues and away from my keyboard for a few days. so, wtf is going on out there ?

Lets start with the obvious to a few of you but maybe not all.
Simply put , SQUID, squid , squid and more squid. It is quite extraordinary, high pressure, the gulf stream where is should be and unusually clear non autumn winds have created perfect conditions for the squid to come inshore as do what they do best but there is more.

I have been on or around the marina almost daily for 25 or so years and never ever seen the quite extraordinary numbers of squid in Sussex waters and especially around the marina region, boat crews , owners & users like shore anglers are all saying how they have never seen the likes, the sheer numbers are honestly stupendous.
Standard squid times for the marina tend to be 2 clear “runs”, the first in spring often arrive at the same time as a run of mackerel that I believe come up from the bay of biscay and if the weather hold will be around the marina for about 10 days usually mid April, Im guessing the squid follow them in on the food building energy so as to get giggy giggy with it, the squid run can be anytime in April feeding into May. The second run is usually in October and if the weather holds will feed into November, these squid are larger than the spring species (na cant recal the species names).
Its quite noticeable (normally) that the optimum time to catch the spring squid is during daylight and very few seem to be caught after dark. The revers is the norm for the autumn run in that the best time to catch is at night although they can be caught during the day.
This year ? well wow. numbers have exploded as the weeks ticked on and we have had squid since mid september this year, mostly at night but as the weeks ticked over the numbers not only slowly increase but the day catches also increased. As I type we now have had 2 weeks+ of huge catches. Some anglers have been catching 50-70, 50 is not atm an unusual number for the dedicated. Charter boat Likewise are seeing catches of stupendous numbers, one boat from the marina clocked up over 500 squid with the skipper moving on and actually stopping the squidding in favour of catching some fish. The catch numbers remained high over the weekend but, a word of warning, it looks like those “perfect storm” conditions are to change in a few days so if you havnt topped up on bait squid yet now is the time to get down age get in.

Now, at the beginning of this post I sorta hinted that there was more going on than squid ! well there is.

While there was a lull in the fishing post September I guess with water temps and weather patterns moving away from the summer cycles and bringing Autumnal conditions the fishing again like the squid has shown a little upturn, not to the levels & number of the squid but defo better than normal for November. October tends to see the changes of summer species moving out to deeper water, bream bass, wrasse & the like see an obvious slowdown as has been the case mostly but, the last couple of weeks have actually seen a bit of an upturn and a change from the standard whiting, codling if lucky dogfish and eels. Yea I said lucky !.

Now, where were these reports then you may be thinking? Well there were plenty of reports out there, just not here, time constraints, boring life stuff and occasional CBA days lead to the current gap of a couple of weeks no reports even though there has been quite a bit going on. Bass numbers may have thinned down as the better fish move off shore but is seems that some have chosen to have a late stay and there are still regular catches on the wall. yes the sizes have dropped but there are still 4-6lb fish being had on the walls and not only in darkness. This week alone on the walls there have been garfish, squid, bass, squid, red mullet, squid, gurnards, more squid, plaice, squid, 1 or 2 sole, squid, cuttle fish, did i mention squid ? herring (yes herring, no red ones though, some squid had also one of the charter boats even mention that there were still some mackerel out there.
Now that I mentioned charters I think I should add that they also are having a fantastic time out there, a few have added and adapted so that there are regular squidding trips to be had, turbot I believe are still on itinerates, pollack & cod are staples on wrecking trips. Rays are still being caught with the overall picture of November fishing being excellent.

Now if all of that lot wasnt enough you may think well , things couldnt be better ! , well yes they could and are. If you dont fancy a boat trip for fishing there is more than just sight seeing. local waters are being swamped with sealife at the moment, its quite extraordinary, we have seals getting in on the feed, dolphin pods are still here at least 2 months later than usual, Tuna shoals seem to be getting spotted all over the place and often from the beach !, not enough ? , Robin Howard got some pics of a minkie whale breaching barely a mile or so off shore. Thresher sharks and bull huss are this year common events, I think it is fair to say that Sussex waters at the moment are quite blessed.

Thus as I round todays post off you can see that the fishing for this year is not quite done but I suspect this “final surge” may not last much longer as next week there are some changes to the patterns we have recently enjoyed. If you have a day or 2 spare it may be worth getting the road trip plans in place quite sharpish.

And with that I am gonna sign off for today and wish you all happy hunting and bid you all ADIEU
F

quite simply put the sea is currently alive with squid. They are being caught during the day, easily at dusk and it seems much of the night. If you want anything other than squid or maybe bass of the west id say venture over the east wall as currently they are of plague proportions and I dont think anyone truly has seen the like in donkeys.

And with that I will bid you all a rapid ADIEU!
F

Surprisingly mild conditions have defo proved good for those wanting to catch squid, especially once the light has gone. General sizes are/have increased and while the weather holds its defo worth getting a go at them.
There are bass still around on both walls & still plaice to be found. Much of the summer species stock is now moving o as the temps drop and whiting is fast becoming the go to fish. There are still codling out there but like the pollack I gather they are starting to head out onto the wrecks now.

Reports are thin on the ground and angler numbers drop away all of which means I have little to post here re updates.
thus, until next time I bid you all ADIEU
F

A quick round up of sorts since the last one a few days ago.
Recent blows have left some damage on the lower bays that we hope gets dealt with next week so some bays on the lower section of the east remain closed Until sorted.
Over on the west night fishing is beginning to be stepped back as the autumn weather starts to take hold and numbers wanting to fish slow up. This week the west is open Sat & Sun and as far as Im aware will be the same next week but please keep an eye on the home page and there may be some late announced openings still if demand is there.

Catch wise things are starting to slow down as far as summer species are concerned although bream and wrasse can still be found and at this I cant resist saying they are in the “usual places” (take a look at the wall guides). bass are still to be had but I suspect not for long now as they are expected to start finding deeper waters for the winter (yes they often prove me wrong) I fully expect squid to be caught this weekend as we hit a patch of calmer weather for a few days and im aware that the lure boats have had some over the last couple of days they have been out.

Rays and conger are being caught along the local beaches as are sole and Dab although the dab are not that common on the walls they do happen ! Plaice are still about and it seems that the sizes are improving over those caught in the earlier part of the year.
Feed back from any night fishing atm is almost non existent so as far as the wall is concerned I have got nothing, zilch, nada, absolutely nowt to tell you how the west is doing at night BUT, based on the few reports Ive seen from the beaches west of the marina id say there was a chance of rays, eels, squid, sole even a mackerel or 2 to be had out there, & yes I have seen the catch reports.

Looking a few decent days ahead to get out on the water. The local charters are doing well and some are running specialised squid trips for anyone that fancies a bash, it should be decent also for those with access to a fishing kayak with calm clear forecasts for a week or more ahead.
Yes things are slower, that or its simply that the weather has put people off venturing out and posting up reports in the various FB groups.

Its Friday as I type and have already had a couple of invites out to “fish” that is already getting some serious thought but 1st a small matter of football and and a trip to the Amex tomorrow, (john, are you going ?) BHAFC Vs Wolves with a rare 3pm KO, Sun or Mon look possible to go have a dabble {if my body is in the mood} followed by WED evening BHAFC play Liverpool in the Carabao cup (should be fun) followed by an away game next weekend against Liverpool in the league ! fun fun fun eh

Well thats it from me for today so as per I will bid you all ADIEU
F

My usual platitudes for not posting any updates in 11 days ! shame on me, so whats been going on since then. Wellllllll it has been somewhat mixed. Autumn weather and night temps have arrived meaning random blows impacting water quality , temps, and days the walls have been open. Overall mark has tried to keep things open so sometimes things get closed at last notice so the most recent info is not already posted to the website or Facebook, it is the nature of the weather at the moment.
After the squid comp the Saturday fished quite well especially for squid although the signs are there that the squid catch rate is defo slowing down inshore, likewise the bass size quality seems to be reverting to schoolies although there have been locally some over 5lb it does seem that “just in size” is being muttered a fair bit. A few plaice were had but not aware of any bream, in fact this last week does seem that bream as well have tailed off and the switch from summer species to winter whiting is upon us.
Sunday saw the east wall closed as was the Sat/sun night on west and any hoped for opening Mon Tues also fell foul of the weather gods.

That brought us to the wed that saw the EAST open and west closed, conditions needless to say were not great and the water change to Autumn colours was obvious and was more of an eel day than anything. V few fishing but there was a decent bass posted up on marina group but was defo tough going for those that gave it a go.
Thurs to the Sun both were open but customer numbers were very low other than at night on the west where there were still loads going for squid with a reasonable level of success. Bream numbers had dropped to near nothing , a few scattered flatties, conger, schoolies,a couple of scad & the occasional whiting and squid mostly night caught although one or 2 were landed by those trying during daylight.

On too this week and Monday saw reports of squid from the night session and similar Tues night, a few morning mackerel and Gar fish had been reported in the 1st half of the week & squid on the west at night but numbers caught clearly dropping away. Ive no idea if there are horse mac about as it seems no one has been trying for them this week and the night fishing had been dominated by squid fishing. Bass were ticking over but again sizes were smaller than previous month. As I type this blog a nice Bass have been posted of 6.8lb caught by Lee Demario on the east wall. Piccy below.

Things have slowed down on the walls. Part from lack of reports but those reports have slowed up simply because few are posting catches and fewer are fishing the walls to post reports. Social media can be a great thing but can also be a curse. Anglers seem to be chasing catch reports and assume nothing is going on somewhere because there are few to no reports. It seems gone are the days when ppl just went fook it , im off fishing and instead decide a place is not worth going to simply as they have not seen catch reports.
I may get the wheels out and take a mooch down the marina, sun is out and looks quite mild out there, but, may is the dominant word having been out fishing yesterday evening. Something quite rare for me these day. Not only fishing pre sunset but I actually fished into the night on the west until 10.30ish with Colin. Only caught a a tiny pout but did enjoy being out and actually having the energy to fish at that time of day (quite rare)

Things were v slow last night, despite a large moon, huge tide of about 7.3+ at midnight and loads of rods on the lower bays of the west all targeting squid. It was quite odd to see for me as Im so used to daytime seeing everyone charging up the walls to get the higher “deeper water” bays and yet last night the “ignored low bays” during the day were packed with people squidding. Robins legacy of boosting squid fishing on the marina is now a firmly established thing