Well dang it, as it says I seem to have done it again and got lazy with the blog page, my apologies to all and also to “Dezzyeleven” who emailed me about when the west was open at night, I have been a bit remiss again (or forgetful) and left the blog posts a bit overlong so I will deal with my email to “dezzy” in that I will post here a reminder about opening/closings when the weather is poor.

Obviously Mark and the wardens by choice will keep the wall open as much as possible, if they dont simply put, you people cant fish and no money is made as the wardens cant work. As a result usually Mark or a duty warden will contact me with updates on weather situations usually the day b4 things crap up but sometimes the forecast is so balanced its hard to call and its left to the duty warden on the wall if they need to shut one or both down. Clearly they would prefer to be open, but, we are dealing with UK weather and not all the forecasts are accurate so they take the chance and run with “stay open” for as long as sensible. Night predictions tend to be a bit harder as once dark its is much harder to judge wave and wind and if its say a FRI night the wall can fill quite fast after 7pm so should things crap up it would take longer for ppl to pack & clear the wall so the warden has to be over careful. Lets face it Anglers can be a tough breed and want to fish in all conditions but the wardens are restricted to venue/people safety, insurance conditions etc so do need to err on the side of caution.

So after all that guff, how does that effect the casual angler that wants to pop down on the off from London or elsewhere,
well 1st is it worth traveling 40+ miles? 1st check the local forecast, if its showing 19mph+ for the Sussex coast from the south or southwest there a decent chance that the west wall may close, with the east you can add winds from the south east.
If that is the case check the website home page or if you have access to it the facebook page for the marina fishing.
I update the website , especially the homepage, either under the weather alert heading at the top or a bit further down the boxes showing if the walls are open….or not. I update as often as I get any news or changes such as weather updates. I will if obvious post a warning of obvious issues ahead but I can only post what I know , or am told so please, keep a general Idea or eye on local weather for BTN and check for updates on the home page. I do occasionally put a mention up on the blog but you will always find a weather alert on the home page. THIS WEEK the WEST will be open at night ALL WEEK as things stand.

So whats happened on the marina this last 10 days or so ?
Well the rot finally looks like its burgered off, hopefully the weather stays decent and keeps warming up so we dont have a slide back to rot reforming.

The dredger is now active within the marina and for those in the know and like a go at bass, when the dredger is working in the entrance it has a way of stirring up loads of sand eels that the bass are rather partial for and will chase them from the harbour entrance either left to the east or right to the west, especially on them low tides. High EAST or extension west is then the place to be !. So bass are doing well, (low tides in particular) plaice as slowly starting to pick up, bream have been quite tough going this week and reports of hounds up to 7-9lb are on the increase as are undulate & thornback rays. There have been a few sole on the east below the bend although I had a fruitless day on east 15 yesterday, tbh I should have known better and followed my gut feeling and fishing up about bay 25ish but hey, fishing isnt always catching and I defo didnt yesterday!. the lasst 3-4 days have been very slugghish on both walls although there are decent species numbers etc the catch rate is a little poor. Yesterday I saw a mackerel caught on east 10 a few silver eels(protected and should be returned) and was told of some rays & plaice as well as the usual bass takes but all in all it was tough going and congers sort of dominated the chatter this week more than ,most and the water didnt really clear until almost on top of the high tide.

Water quality is rapidly improving in spite of my comments, now the rot is gone/done after the last blow it does look like we are about to see some very clear water conditions so I expect the fishing to pick up accordingly (famous last words eh). The boat fishing from what I have been seeing has been excellent, deep water is see producing congers and some v nice pollack and Brigand had a cracking tub gurnard of 7lb+ this week. The bream fishing from the boats has also been decent, mackerel “out there” has been slow so I dont really expect BTN to get inshore (on the walls) shoals of mackerel until late July or even the 1st week of August but I have been wrong in the past and it may happen sooner on the higher tides set around the w/end of 6/7th July but I suspect end of july as the water around the marina is generally shallower than the likes of Portsmouth or Dover/Folkstone areas who near always see them in numbers a couple of weeks b4 Brighton does. Yes ppl catch mackerel here & there, thats not unusual but the numbers that attract the feathering hoards are IMO still a few weeks away.

I could explain my reasoning but today I doubt ppl will want to read more of my waffling today so I will leve you with this little gem, The weather for the coming week (when no rain) looks flipping wonderful with plenty of sunshine days so plenty of time to get out there and enjoy the June sunshine and have a dabble. Aaaannnnd with that I will bid you all ADIEU until next time.
regards
F