Brighton Inshore Fishing - Catch report 26th May 2026

JP and Billy returning, Lee and his lad Ralph new to BIF1, and off out to yet more dreamy flat seas. And immediately (and as it turned out thankfully) into a flock of seagulls. Not the rock group that came from Canvey Island, but the real deal. Feathers and everything. Why are they important? Well, there are brit shoals everywhere just now. Football field sized shoals of everything that has hatched just recently swimming around eating the decaying may bloom. It all ties in and as much as May bloom (rot... weed.. but actually an algal bloom that feeds just about everything from tiny planktons to tiny fishes. And with so many tiny fishes, bass are spread about all over the place. However, often when they chase the brit, it breaks the surface, and the gulls know about this. It really is as easy as find the gulls, find the fish just now. Final tally, 12 landed, 4 killed. plus bonus mackerel, including jumbos.

Second sailing, Nick and Andrew, plus the other Andrew and his son Oscar. Far more action on this one, chasing the birds once more. Regular blog readers will recall me complaining about the curse of pre-occupation. You can be in a shoal of a thousand bass just now, but getting them to commit fully to eating a shad is hard. They are obsessed with tiny tiny things. A fly would be better than a shad at the moment But with the breeze pushing us on the gently ebb tide, results picked up. 26 bass landed, 6 killed, plus bonus mackerel.

Third sailing, and Richard, formerly a shore client, bought along his friend John, and super regular Kas made up the rest of the crew. But with the heat of the day at its peak, the sun high, the water clear, the tide low... it was super tough. We persevered for just 4 bass, with 2 for the table, and one plump mackerel. Signs of improvement happening as the flooding tide gathered pace, but the day was done, and we headed back in. Looking like a couple of days off now, with wind, but June availability now up on the home page on this site.