Things deffo a bit weird of late. September is a month of plenty. But it also seems to be the month that the bait is hiding anywhere it can. Brighton marina rammed with both bass and bait this morning, but the open coast, barren of both. Joining me for a terribly gruelling session, Chris, Bruno, Loz and Liam.
Chris was top rod. He got all three of the finned fish landed in this session. Both tiny schoolies, and the smallest cod of the year so far. Bruno had a squid, and that was that. And then, after saying goodbye to the guys, I filmed 300 quality bass smashing whitebait in the marina. Reel can be seen here... https://www.facebook.com/reel/1943069919470013
I say whitebait, but the size and behaviour, suggesting perhaps anchovies.
Harris, Lewis, Sam and Toby were next on board. Exiting the mouth of the marina, it was surprisingly bumpy. I began heading East, but quickly realised it was getting heavier the further we went, so I spun around for west. Settling on a reliable early flood mark it was indeed reliable. Three fish, with one for the table, on the first drift. Except the first drift did not really drift. The ever increasing Easterly wind acting as a break.
Then, swell once more as the wind swung to the SE. Being a fair way from the marina, and with the sea building quickly, I elected to push back and abandon the session, at no charge to the guys. Never a decision I take lightly, something was telling me it was only going to worsen, and with quite heavy rain also it simply wasnt pleasant. Sam and Toby did message later, to see if there was anything available as the wind had indeed swung back to the North. Best I could offer was a bespoke 1 hour squid session, 1830 to 1930. They were both happy for that. I then found 2 other squidders, including Ben who took some pictures that explained perhaps why all the bait and bass had been hiding in the marina that morning.
Before that though, the 1500 sailing, with Daniele (STREET FISHING LONDON on INSTAGRAM) and Laars, both of whom were filming a podcast for their lure dedicated channel @Lure_fishing_tv And a good sailing it turned out to be. A couple of gurnard got the ball rolling, but after a bit of poking around, I found some ground with some mid 50's milling around. Final tally was 12 bass landed, mostly quality. If you want to get a sense of BIF1 fun, the lead time to release of the podcast is about three weeks. Lots of other excellent lure based content can also be found there.
Joining Sam and Toby for the squid fishing, Ben and Garry. Bens pictures of a Blue fin tuna smashing a bass in the swim buoys on Brighton shingle have been widely circulated on social media today. Very exciting except... Thats a big eating machine. I am glad the bass were stacked up on the inside today. This is becoming regular when the garfish are schooling up in Brighton bay. While the boat fishing for tuna is spending fortunes on fuel trolling the mid channel, the tuna are actually 500 meters from its home port. These are the games Neptune thrives upon.
As for the squid fishing, quite slow by BIF1 standards, although other vessels would have liked the pace tonight. Just 11 landed in the hour, with the same again bumped or dropping off at the surface, and no double shots at all. Perhaps the squid are also a little wobbled by the presence of the giant mackerel. Certainly, if they are going to invade my territory, I will have no choice but to register for a ticket for 2025.
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