Today is a not so mackerel-ey report, since Thursdays report mackerel have ticked over for many (thurs pm to Sat morning) doing well for many on both arms. Bream numbers have increased to the degree that you would think the small bream are more like piranha than fish on a gentle feed !.

Bait of the day it seems was black lug, & having had a dabble Thurs & even a little Sat afternoon they totally ignored the squid I was putting on hooks. Lightening reactions are almost needed as these little blighters are so fast at sucking the black of the hooks even when you try to hide it wrapped in squid!

Saturday afternoon changed the pattern somewhat and while the bream were biting over the high it was quite a narrower window than previous days with a ratio of about 9 to 1 little rather than larger keeper bream (min size 23cm please).

Both walls have been busy , with many coming purely for mackerel but the mood the last few days despite the heat has been good and I must say that on going to clear the rubbish from the extension the ppl fishing had cleared all their rubbish and thus there was nothing to do other than lock the gate.

The extension stayed open longer than the usual 6pm Sat night as with me being there fishing meant the wardens could get on with normal jobs like tickets and I kept an eye on the extension with a pack up at 8.30pm.

The west was very busy Sat evening more so than normal and as a result from about 7.30 pm Nick closed the gate to new anglers allowing the wall to thin enough to allow us to close the extension and move those back onto the main wall and have a bit of a clean up on the west (5 black bags of litter mostly already bagged and ready for the bins)yes the leaving ppl should have taken it with them :).
Once the ext was cleared and everyone settled the queue on the gate was very quickly sorted with everyone settled and fishing by 9pm.

Now if you have read and reached this part you may have noticed I have made no mention of MACKEREL for Sat evening!.
Simply put, they never happened on the west and i’m told likewise none on the East Sat evening. From 4pm I think maybe 10 to a dozen large mackies were caught and that was it running up to 10pm.
Unusual as every day since last weekend has seen loads of mackerel early in the morning before 7am and then a run on the evening tides as things cool.. well yesterday it didn’t happen and I suspect a similar story will happen this evening.
Bass it seems also took the evening off on the west and as far as the EAST wall catch report for Saturday eve goes it was a very similar story as had gone on the west wall.

Is there any good news for Sat evening I hear asked ?
Well in a way yes 🙂 There are loads of smaller species right down the sides that on small hooks will keep the kids entertained and likely as not give them a better catch rate than most of the adults with them.
A small light rod , even a hand line, or, at its most basic some line wrapped around a pen or pencil with size #4 or #6 with a scrap of food or bait on the hooks should entertain the younger ones that want to have a go for themselves. So while Sat wasn’t a great day for “decent” fish there was plenty out there to do & catch.

Water state over the last 2 days has been ok to decent but there is a fair bit of long string weed running through over the high tide. and still some spider crabs lurking although they are mostly done now in Brighton.

Elsewhere, the images being posted from St Ives bay in Cornwall where they have come in in their thousands to shed their old smaller shells in the shallow warm waters prior to going back out into deeper water ..
Is it unusual ?, no its been happening for decades and the numbers go up n down depending on their food availability, no doubt they will continue for decades.

For those that know me, yes I’m a bit surprised that I have actually managed to get onto the walls twice in 3 days! granted this morning i’ve paid a price that is not too much fun but getting out is a great mood improver and something Ive missed. Granted I was only dabbling with a very light spin rod and not paying too much attention to bites(busy gossiping) but its always nice to chat with many of the regulars whom seem to make a point of when the see me they come over and say Hi 🙂 while i’m there and have a chat.
Its good for my ego I guess that so many still find time to come and say hi, So if you do see me on the wall pop over & please say hi, but please be aware , I’m getting worse with name memory. I may recognise your face, but more often than not I forget the 1000’s of ppl I’ve met on the wall over the last 20 years.

well thats it for today, signing out as usual
F