Brighton Inshore Fishing - Catch report 6th August 2025

A very interesting day. All down to seasonal changes. And a Neptune switch thrown 30 minutes before the second sailing ended. Firmly to off. So, where to begin... Sadly, one of this mornings crew was unable to attend last moment, leaving Nick, David and Rob with a touch more space. And off we set... Now, its often hard to find fish after a big wind like yesterday. Usually, it scatters the baitfish and the predators follow them. Usually. But this morning, there was more micro baitfish than ever before. Curtains of them all across the inshore. Very few predators either. Just happy bait. Initially I though we would be on for some good fishing, until it dawned it was literally, everywhere. Which meant the predators could be ANYWHERE and still access the larder. What to do...?

After an hour and a half of trying stuff I was getting desperate. About to put more time on the engine to bust somewhere a few miles away, I tried one more spot. And... Bingo. It was a place whiting gather, confirmed when one of 16 bass, mostly keeper sized, coughed up a still live whiting. Bingo. And, the bonus ball, both Nick and I managed codling. Mine being hopefully an indicator of the size to come at 4lb, and Nicks being the standard forerunner skinny 1lb fish. With some seal damage under that hand.

2nd sailing, and Nick remained, to be joined by Nick, and Andy, and Ian. All regulars. And all hoping for some repeat action. Which they got. But the original spot had died with the change of tide. Now, we were back on the hunt. A full hour later, we again found some. And thanks to a slight adjustment of tactics, we were really doing well. Eighteen landed, max kill, mostly better fish. No cod this time. And then, 30 minutes before finish, bang. They went off the feed and I couldnt find them. Well, I found them, but they werent opening their mouths.

And very sadly, this theme continued onto the next sailing. With me, Jack, Liam, Samuele and James. Only James a regular, which made this sailing all the more cruel. Just 2 schoolies. That was it. Stacks of fish showing. But they just would not hit a shad. Very strange.

4th sailing was a stock check on the squid and cuttle. But I was horribly disorganised as I could not find my pretied Squid rig bucket, and there was just a bit too much tide at 1 knot, as the wind, supposed to have died, pushed BIF1 along with the tide. No cephalopods were harmed as we canned it after an hour. And now, tomorrow, sailings all cancelled. Maybe 1st sailing Friday will go. I hope so. I am busting to try this different technique.