BRIGHTON MARINA FISHING for the East and West breakwaters

BRIGHTON MARINA FISHING for the East and West breakwaters

Spiders

well, IMO they are about due rather than late. I have said it loads in the past but will repeat it anyway that the global surveys done to asses world fish stocks some 15-20 years ago claimed that the biomass of mackerel fry was good…but…… they have started to go further north under the ice to breed. This means a delay from past seasonal timings. By time they swim further north they then have to return to European waters adding 2-3 extra days to the migration routes the fish take. This means that the traditional summer arrival gas slowly got later on the calendars.
Spread over 10-15 years this I think has added easily a month to when the mackerel would or could be expected to arrive in the channel meaning that the end of June standards in the past have become the end of July.
another downer (im full of em eh) is that last year it was announced for the first time ever that mackerel stocks are “at risk” due to over fishing. Norway, the Faeroes Islands and Iceland some years back announced they would add 500mil tons to their mackerel quotas due to lack of Atlantic “Blueys”, tie this in with super trawlers at sea constantly and we have a situation that I feel will in time collapse mackerel stocks.
I have been on or around the marina for 25+ years and definitely seen a drop in the size of shoals in & around the marina as well as the seasonal arrival of them becoming later & later in the year! its not a great picture overall.
So to counter the doom feeling for mackerel I will say that being later in the year the mackies may be but it does seem that the length of time they stick around has changed very little meaning that with a late arrival they can stick about shoaling longer in the year also and can hang about almost into November when the weather holds so, for the average angler who fishes on their own there is the benefit of mackerel catches without hoards of families all getting in on the easy fish crowding out beaches and piers šŸ™‚

I’m not sure how much longer the crabs will remain inshore but hopefully they will clear off very soon as it does seem that other species are somewhat reluctant to come inshore foraging amongst all them pincer claws. We are seeing fish, plaice, bream, wrasse even a mullet or 2 being reported as well as rays, hounds , yes and doggies and at night there have been horse mac although like the mackies no signs of shoals as yet.
I have been saying to many that end of July the last weekends tides look useful for mackerel and that weekend is now almost here so will be interesting to see if we get extra anglers this weekend or not. Red mullet & gurnards are v thin on the ground but have been reported and the boat skippers tell me that there are mackerel off shore with numbers climbing as are the average water temps (all be it quite slowly) so hopefully with a bit of decent weather this weekend things will start to kick off & YES, Im aware I said that not too long ago but it is due.

Ok ,I think that is enough of myy waffle for today, so until next time I will, as usual bid you all ADIEU
F

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