Brighton Inshore Fishing - Catch report 2nd July 2025

1^st sailing, and lovely calm seas. With me Steve, Mark, Sam and John, all returning. The sea was far less calm however, where the huge shoals of whitebait were being smashed by bass and mackerel. Mostly small bass. A similar story to June, with 25 bass landed, four killed for the table. However, it was noticeable that surface lures were finally worth the arm ache, perhaps for the first time this year. Bass were perhaps happiest to take off the top.

2^nd sailing, friends Mark, Martin and Lee, joined by returnee Bob. And more of the same. But only for 2 hours, as an unforecast SW wind appeared under a cloud head, with the wind increasing a lot. Over the back, white horses galore as some much stronger winds came rushing towards us. It’s a good idea to not take chances with a 22’ boat and five lives on board, and so we cut the trip short. The rain was getting annoying anyhow. Another 4 bass despatched.

By the time of 3^rd sailing, the wind had at least swung to the NW which was forecast, although occasionally it still went W and SW. It was strong, but Ian, Jason and Gus were already in town, so we gave it a go. And for the first half of the sailing, I was thinking a mistake, as the fish were suddenly hard to find. Just a few smalls to the surface lure. But a big move to get out of the wind really paid dividends, as we stumbled across a huge patch of bait fish, accompanied by bass AND jumbo mackerel. By the time of end of play, another 14 bass landed, another 4 killed. In the end, quite q good day DESPITE the very challenging conditions. I also made another observation that, after testing the theory tomorrow, I may be able to share more with you in tomorrows catch report.