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

A meeting was held in the marina yesterday (wed 21st) and it has been decided to follow the pattern of Shoreham harbour and insist that all powered lighting (headlamps/under water lamps and battery lighting on rods) should now be blue in colour. The wardens will be carrying blue markers as a quick fix but anglers should like on Shoreham harbour walls use blue Lense covers of some form.

As many will know the marina walls were closed yesterday for the occasion of HRH the Queens funeral. Prior to that catching thing’s up while the weekend was slow for most hunting mackerel, over on the bass side of things they quite well with squid baits proving popular for many. Strangely that brings me to a familiar phrase so YES, the SQUID (and cuttle) are most definitely in around Brighton.
one angler i’m told managed to bag up 20+ squid on the west through Fri or Sat night (sorry not a lot in detail) as one happy angler told me Sunday afternoon while having a chat.

The offshore boats are also reporting large numbers so for those wanting a stab at them now seems a great time for cephalopods around Sussex shores. While talking shores and local catches, the marina may not see many COD or codling but the beaches seem to be teeming with codling many sub 5lb (please watch the min sizes) but there are plenty of anglers saying its the best start to Autumn they have seen in a fair few years and one local private boat managed a lovely cod of 10+lb while out yesterday.
It does seem time to get a boat trip under the belt locally as cod, squid Turbot trips are all thriving and there seems also to be a late burst of bream activity with many boats reporting plenty of 2-4lb fish out there on many of the usual marks.
One angler sent me a pic from the weekend of the largest garfish I have seen on the marina for a couple of years and I will try to get it up on the gallery this week with a few other pics I have been hoarding back to upload as a batch on the various galleries.
Tons and tons of decent species out there right5 now so well worth baiting up unless you are targeting mackerel which seem to have strangely dropped off the map over the last 2 weeks. Some poor weather yes but not enough to account for the distinct lack of shoals this year. There has been a decline year by year but last year to this is quite a shock in less numbers than expected. I suspect the sudden drop in air temps may be a factor even that cant make full sense of it all.

Strange thing is I cant help but feel the temps may rise in a week or so and see a late October flurry of mackerel, as they say time will tell.

The final bit of news I can’t report in detail as I have yet to get further information and permission to post further details.

I have the sad news of our former warden Colin’s recent passing in the care home he was being looked after following a very serious period of time in hospital late last year with health complications and covid issues. While in hospital I understand he was revived on a few occasions and had been transferred to a care home for closer care after being left unable to walk unaided with much recuperation needed.
Sadly, news came through that Colin passed on or around the 10th of September and will be greatly missed by many on the marina and my thoughts along with others go out to his son and family. Funeral details are yet to come.
F

Things fairly quiet over the last few days but still plenty of bream and plaice out there to be had. Gurnards still about over the sand and red mullet had over on parts of the west wall.
The bigger story this week is the increase of catches either on the wall or very close of squid and cuttle fish who seem to have started their Autumn run, not prolific in that they are easy work but for those that regularly catch they will be there for them. other catches about are bass, wrasse sole even a lobster or two im told have been reeled in now the crabs have gone back into the deeps.
Rounding up whiting have been slowly arriving at night alongside the horse mackerel and garfish have made what seems a bit of a rare visit this week, numbers for them seem very down on usual number.
Thats it for now bar a reminder thaat Sunday the west will close at midnight, and both walls will remain closed on Mon 19th as a mark of respect for the queens funeral.
For those wanting bait that day the shop WILL OPEN 7am to 11am Mon.
F

Dave has chosen to close on the day of HM the Queens funeral on Monday the 19th as a mark of respect, The Queen did open the marina for public use so as a mark of respect for the countries Queen of 70 year the wall will close.

The night session on Sunday 18th will end at midnight with the walls close on Monday the 19th.
the SHOP WILL OPEN on the 19th from 7am to 11am for anglers wanting bait to fish the beaches as many will be out as the day will be classed as a bank holiday.

Yes it was Sunday yesterday so how did it fish , well on the west again it fished ok for bream but 99% on the wall were waiting on mackerel. Lesser number Sunday (people) than the day before and was gated over for about 2 hours so most got onto the wall fairly quickly.

The incident on wall Sunday,
One incident to speak of on Sunday with a dude fishing the ledge under almost bay 1, and with the wall full 2 guys fishing bay 1 ended up crossing lines and starting a verbal fight over how and where lines should be.
This escalated quickly into threats and violence before I could intervene it became quickly a screaming match.

The dude under the wall should have moved and had been earlier advised by security the same but chose to stay. as he got wound up further, he then chose to come up onto the wall shouting and trying to pick a fight fairly aggressively,
by this point I was already trying to talk to the angler and calm him so I could resolve things, but…

If he reads this, I thank the regular that assisted myself in separating the now aggressive pair and calm the situation down. I very much doubt just myself would have managed as both kept confronting each other as I tried to split them … Id push one back away and other would then come close behind myself making it hard to split and talk/calm either so the intervention of the wall regular (sorry I have forgotten your name again & did tell you Im crap with names) but Im very grateful for your step in.

One of the pair chose to ring the police (he had a small son) as he felt over threatened and as were parked close to the wall on the beach and I fully agree with the choice he made, and security confirmed they had the incident caught on their cameras but were not needed to assist.
Plenty of witnesses if needed for when the police arrived (yes it drew the attention of everyone in eye line on the wall) who did attend and spoke to the 2 dudes and myself for views of incident and things all settled down again with the guys fishing bay one moved up to bay 24 away from any further incident clashes (Yes, the troublesome one was still fishing under bay one on that ledge!) so, it wasn’t really started by anyone on the wall, the police I believe did go and speak to him on the ledge) Once moved things calmed back down allowing people to fish again. and the silliness was over

It was again tough going on the walls as the water was still very sandy colour with heavy silt in the water from recent windy weather and as a result only a few mackerel were about to be caught. Plaice were coming up at a steady rate for one gent on bay 4 who took full advantage of the low bay and sand patches with a few gobies and other micro stuff scattered along the wall. Early arrivals also had some horse mackerel and some pout of similar sizes to the said horse mac. I guess I only saw about 30-40 in total caught but, the tides are cleaning the water up and come Tuesday the water should be much cleaner and mackerel I recon will be back in numbers come mid week.
there were a couple of eels caught in the coloured water and both walls saw some reasonable bass caught.
Over on the east things were little better and tough going as I understand it but there were bream and wrasse on the rockier bays but the sand on the front of wall was somewhat stubborn for fish although there were plaice, gurnard and again horse mac caught in the coloured water. I didnt hear of any sole caught but would be surprised if non were had. Again mackerel were almost non existent and the water need to clear the silt that is still holding in the water.
Thats it for today

F

A charity bike ride into Brighton will make the city centre busy so best to come in via Falmer exit on the bypass or seafront route from the east of the marina today.
Fishing yesterday on the west was quite tough with a lot of colour and silt still in the water after the wind and rain this week (the rivers flush junk out as well as Southern water !). Weed while there over the high tide is less of an issue and should by this mornings tide be a lot clearer.
While I said the fishing was tough those targeting bream on the extension managed a couple to keep but defo hard work. High tide came with little else caught ad mid day but many persisted with the feathers (west wall) and about 3 hrs after the high the bays above 127 got a small reward of a small shoal flitting in and out for 20 mins. It did surprise me as I seriously didn’t expect any until later tides and those that caught had the reward of some big mackerel that would have easy passed the 1lb mark and about 35-40cm !

It took me till near 4.30pm to convince a couple of blokes fishing bay 5 to put a whole squid out on their right and to rig up for flatfish, water colour looked good for daytime sole and as time ticked on with the low light level I thought it would increase their chances of a catch other than watch all the feathers fly. Ashley also had a chat with them about various rigs and why they would be used and what for which helped them understand the ground and set ups a little more and they seemed keen to learn. I hope they stuck at it and got their reward as the tide turned at 6pm when I left as its rare people arrive and set up for mackerel and ignore what people say about changing things a little to target other species. (they did keep a rod set up with feathers just in case any showed up.

That is almost the entire catch report for the west wall ! but is hardly a shock when people show up determined to only catch one type of fish without being willing to swap things about and open up to fresh Ideas.
How the east fished I dont know but Ashley did go to the east about 6pm to close the wall down so will chat with him later and see if he has any news.

Either the fishing is poor or the wardens at the moment are forgetting to tip me off to what is being caught.
hey ho, til next time eh
final note, Its not definite yet but Dave is very likely to close both walls Monday 19th Sept as a mark of resect for the Queen, after all she did open the marina and while some may think its a silly Idea many will like the idea and that doe’s include myself but I will confirm it asap.
F