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