Yes there have been mackerel caught on the walls, occasional shoals are breaking the surface and in mixed up with them are herring. The inshore oats are reporting catches of squid close in, various rays and there does still seem to be plenty of schoolie bass, but please bear in mind that for Dec & Jan bass are to be returned if caught.

yes , sorry it has been a while since I posted an update or indeed much of anything here so lets start with a catch report.
Phil the day warden reporting plenty of schoolie bass still there for the lure angler to C&R while the season is closed on bass… irony eh…
Plenty of eels out there also to slime up those brand-new nets you all brought to catch the tons of bass you have to put back (sorry couldn’t resist posting the irony). There have as is often the case been some mackerel caught this week from the shore (ive seen the pics)

Plenty of rays are still being caught from many of the smaller boats out of the marina and am now also seeing the first reports of herring being caught for a while as the sea and air temps begin to Truley drop away. add to this little lot the walls have seen some wrasse still being caught and the occasional squid.

Im told the water quality is not bad for december and has at times a reasonable clarity so as long as you are well wrapped up there is stuff out there to be had other than the standard whiting that are out there in high numbers. (where do they go in the summer) answers on a post card I guess.

Finally, please keep an eye on the home page if you plan to visit as i Gather there are probable closed walls later in the week as temps drop to minuses and with algae on the walls acting like soaking up sponges’ frosts will create many very slippery patches on the upper and lower walls. It looks like jet washing may have to start early just to keep things partially open.

watch this space and as I said, the home page will carry the most recent openings as I get the info

here we go folks, the walls will open this weekend and we plan to get some open tomorrow.
IN DETAIL
EAST WALL
will open hopefully about 11am Friday bays 1-29 at the cage gate and will close at dusk 5pm providing the harris fencing can be set up correctly.
Sat open 7am till 5pm
Sun open 7am till 5pm

WEST WALL further checks and clean-up is required on the west but it is hoped to have the wall open for mid-day to 1pm and will CLOSED 5PM on Friday there will be no night fishing Friday due to outstanding repairs
Sat WEST will open between 7 and 7.30 am,
there is still some work to do on the wall to make it safe for night fishing and until finished I cant confirm the wall will stay open for night fishing on Sat but we are aiming to have it open if possible so watch for updates.

Sun WEST will open 7ish if the wall wasn’t open overnight (see above) it is expected to have finished the needed work on the west by Sun and we plan to open for night fishing Sun night all night.

Mon
EAST open 7am till 5pm
WEST already open will close 5pm ish
F

wall update/status

BOTH WALLS CLOSED until any checks get done on Friday once winds have settled. on last check @ 2nd Nov signs were that we may get 1-29 on the EAST back into service providing no further damage was caused over the weekend and beginning of this week.

The west has not been checked at all yet and the1st look at it will be Friday mid day ish so is not expected to open that day as there will be some level of clean up required.
Once the checks have been done on BOTH walls we will have a better idea of what we can get open and how soon that can be done.

Obviously, we want the walls open as soon as possible but,
until the checks are done on Friday no decisions on day or night fishing will be made.
Nor can we say how long any clean up may take until that inspection is done.

Please be patient, it will be done and I will post all relevant info here on the blog page and on the facebook group as soon as I get it TY

F

We have now made it to the first lull in what seems to be a series of autumn blows and storms with another large one coming in sometime Saturday lunchtime onwards for at least 5 or more days.
So what are the walls looking like?

in short

East will be closed for 2-3 weeks
West will be open Fri 9am ish with some minor repair work today and Fri morning

The EAST seems to have taken the worst of things and will be closed until repairs can be sorted around the series of blows with the upper half of the east taking the brunt of the damage done.
A few pictures will be posted to the facebook group in the next day or so but there seems to be quite a lot of the stepping sections where people sit broken away and in doing so caused further damage to wires around the V’s as well as some of the red posts have been smashed away.

As a result of the damage on the east the wall is expected to stay closed for at least a couple of weeks are any repair work will have to be organised around the severe Autumn weather.
There is a possibility of getting the lower third of the east open but as I type I have only had a basic and quick visual report of the extent of damage on the east.

THE WEST WALL has less damage than was expected with the extension having taken the worst of the weather and will stay closed.
After some minor fixes the WEST WILL OPEN FRIDAY 4th NOV about 9am and will stay open for NIGHT FISHING Fri night into Sat morning.

The plan for Saturday is to keep the west open for as long as possible as the weather is expected to close in soon after lunchtime.

After this weekend BOTH WALLS will be closed for at least a week

Catch report for what and when they were open im told was good for squid and bass but TBH The feedback from the walls this week has been sketchy at best and non-existent at worst.

This evening I post with a heavy heart and the permission of family members of the loss not only of someone I considered a friend not just to myself but many others also and know he will be greatly missed by many of the regulars on the marina.

	Over the weekend and yesterday news slowly filtered through of the death of a marina regular who fished the walls for over 30years. Many knew him as Ali or simply as the eldest of “the ALI brothers” and even “Allibaba” as Dave would often call him in jest and the name just seemed to stick.
	“Ali senior” died as I understand it after a blood clot was detected in his body and he was given medication to resolve the issue. At time of typing I don’t know if the meds were not given in time or not taken or simply had little impact on the clot but ALI died of a large aneurism or T.I.A. (stroke) so most likely very quickly. Dave was called by his younger brother Monday morning with the sad news, and I left a message on their answer phone mid-day.
	I was stunned that he managed to call me Monday evening and we chatted about fishing their cooking on the wall and my lads liking to fish with them at night for bass. The call was a tough one for me and often hardly knew what to say but realised also what it must have taken for him to ring me as he did, and I fee quite humbled by the whole call and its impact.
	Both were known well and would often fish the west wall for 2-3 days at a time camping on the wall often bay 1 when tents were allowed and more recently camping on the beach. His younger brother I commonly seen cycling around the marina for bait of shopping on an old beat-up bike :).

Between them both many have been introduced to fishing from London as well as being familiar friendly faces on the walls. I can’t say I have ever heard a bad word from either about other people and were always welcoming and helpful, so much so in that they were almost treated like fishing wardens by some as they often help those working while there were in Brighton.

There is a card of condolence in the tacklebox for a couple of days so if anyone reading this would like to leave a message or two thats where the card can be found. Please relay this message as I’m sure many would not only wish to know but would also like to add a few words
For me one of the worst things about getting older is hearing of the passing of friends and loved ones and some losses hit harder than others, this one is a tough one.


Ali, I hope you are out there somewhere looking down with that sly smirk as it breaks into one of those big grins
rest well my friend
F

A couple of days of northerly winds brought back the mackerel along with a fair few gar in amongst them. For mid-October it has fished quite well and there are still plenty of cuttle and squid out there to be had. Bream catches are starting to tail off although there is still wrasse to be had on the walls. Conger and bass are fishing quite well also with still plenty of small species down the sides and in the “Vs”

A day of southerly breezes may stir things up a bit followed by 2 decent settled days for Thurs /Fri but looking like the west will be closed Sat and maybe Sun as the west wind picks and tells us we are in Autumn !
thats it for today
F

I have not done an update for a few days as things while ok have been a bit sketchy with the walls being closed on & off mostly to do with high southerly winds, which, to be honest have been expected as we are now firmly into the autumn.
Bass are still there with some quality sizes, squid a little hit an miss in the choppy waters though. On calm days when the water clears a little there have been a few mackerel caught and its hoped there may be a late flurry as some northerly winds take control of the skies.
There are still summer fish out there, bream, wrasse and gar doing quite well still, plaice are also ticking over with some decent ta\ke home sizes and similarly on the flat fish there are some decent sole still out there.

Plenty of decent fish though the summer numbers are now starting to tail off and most are expecting the whiting invasion as soon as the water temps dip a little more.
If you plan a trip for late summer species now is the time to get a move on before the colder weather arives in November

thats it for now

F

things have been good on the bait this week with plenty of bass being caught, many in the 5-8lb range, some nice mullet also caught by one of the wall regulars(dave) and plenty to still catch just down the sides for the younger anglers’ interests.
Bream have done well this week likewise plaice. out on the east sand there are still gurnards and sole with squid coming up on both walls at a steady pace when people target them with jigs.
Other catches include wrasse, flounder, blennies, scorpion fish(bullheads)eels, rays are showing during the day again as well as at night so there is plenty out there to be caught although while we have squid against the wall the chance of mackerel are very low.
Both walls open day today and day session tomorrow but defo closed FRIDAY night . Anyone thinking of fishing at night this weekend would be advised to keep an eye on the forcasts as well as for any updates on the home page as things look like closing in and potentially a close this weekend for some or all of the remainder.
F

Well what a weekend this is proving to be. Im sat typing with the sun out and i’m looking out on a gorgeous fresh morning reporting on a fish bonanza of a weekend. plenty of bass, squid seemingly everywhere in the water, both walls reporting plenty of bream wrasse and garfish even as low as bay one on the east things have been productive. Not just daytime either. Night anglers are having a ball catching some cracking sole of local beaches and the marina wall.

Plaice are there , while not in the numbers like bream there is plenty going on. Rays seem to be returning for round two with plenty of small hound pups and im guessing the dogfish are lurking also. This week has seen red mullet on both walls as well as some lovely gurnards in full colour.
The only thing obviously missing are mackerel but that is hardly a surprise with so many predators out there feeding on something. Whatever it is (i suspect small mackerel shoals) the bass, cuttle rays, codling (yes codling) and hounds seem to be back and on the feed.

Now is the time to arm up , load up with bait and get out there as things seem to have ramped up another level and the catching around the marina is good.
Get out there and get some in 🙂
F