Brighton Marina

This was the first trip to the Brighton Marina of the year. I hadn’t fished here since October last year when I caught mainly whiting. Now, about 8 months on, I’d be expecting to catch the summer species of Mackerel and Bream.




European Pilchard - Sardina pilchardus #128

As with most occasions, I started fished around peg 40 on the Eastern Arm of the Marina. The seas where pretty rough and there was quite a lot of weed about, but I decided to fish two rods on the bottom with rag. Nothing much was happening, so I decided to fish down the side and got my self a few little shannies.




Shanny - Lipophrys pholis



Looking around, a few of the nearby anglers started getting some mackerel on feathers, so I feathered up some of my rods and started some fluff chucking. On the first cast, I got myself a nice mackerel and got a few of them during the day. On one cast, I looked up right up near the surface, but it wasn’t kicking as much as a mackerel would and as I got it in, I had a little silver fish hanging off one of my feathers. I knew it was something in the herring family, i.e., a herring, sprat or pilchard but didn’t know couldn’t tell which. I was only able to identify it when I got home though examination of the photographs, and it was a Pilchard [#128]. You quite easily identify a pilchard because it is the only species in Britain that has radiating grooves on its gill plate. It is smooth in the sprat and herring.



Atlantic Mackerel - Scomber scombrus



European Pilchard - Sardina pilchardus

It got a little rough later one, so I fished in the one of first few pegs. I always seem to loses quite a bit of tackle here as there is a mussel bed about 20 metres out. This is actually a good spot for ballan wrasse and I managed to get a few of them out of the water. I also got a bullhead has well.






Ballan Wrasse - Labrus bergylta




Ballan Wrasse - Labrus bergylta



Ballan Wrasse - Labrus bergylta



Longspined Bullhead - Taurulus bubalis



Longspined Bullhead - Taurulus bubalis

Brighton Marina

Fished the Marina with my mate John. The weather was horrible and it was a force 7 with waves of about 10', but we still gave it a try. We started at my usual, the East Arm. We managed to catch a Bullhead, Pout, Shannies and a Wrasse, it got extremely bad and we had to retreat to the West Arm.



Longspined Bullhead - Taurulus bubalis



Longspined Bullhead - Taurulus bubalis



Pouting - Trisopterus luscus



Ballan Wrasse - Labrus bergylta

I had never fished the West Arm before, but it was pretty calm compared to the other side. Fish cast I got a shanny, but after half and hour and after the sun came down, I started to get Whiting. I ended up catching about half a dozen up to about a pound.



Shanny - Lipophrys pholis



Whiting - Merlangius merlangus

Brighton Marina

Been planning a fishing trip to brighton for a while looking for some new species. Likely targets were Gurnards, Weaver, Red or Grey Mullet and Gar, but none of these appeared on this trip.

It took me almost 5 hours to get to the Marina from my front door, tube closures, no First Captial Connect from London Bridge and trains to Brighton diverting to Hove first. When I finally arrived at half two, I found the marina completely packed with every bay full. I had to fish between anglers which had already settled into their own bays. It was high tide and I think it was a 7m spring tide.


Black Sea-Bream - Spondyliosoma cantharus


Tompot Blenny - Parablennius gattorugine


Shanny - Lipophrys pholis


Atlantic Mackerel - Scomber scombrus

Fished black lug to start off and had a nice bream on after a little while, my first for the year. It was really quiet though, I was told there was a lot of mackerel caught early on but didn't get anything on feathers. Later in the afternoon, I did get a single smallish mackerel on tiny hokkai feathers. There was nothing much except for usual shannies and tompots close in until about 7ish and when I started to get a few Pouting. Then a Sand Smelt on baited hokkais with the glowing bits charged with my head lamp. This was species number 101. A few more Pouting and then a good take, it was a Scad on the baited hokkais again, species number 102. I've only every caught Yellow-tail Scad back in Australia which looks pretty much the same, but this was a nice suprise. I left at about 8:30pm after about and hour of catching dozens of tiny Pout.



Pouting - Trisopterus luscus


Sand Smelt - Atherina presbyter #101



Atlantic Horse Mackerel - Trachurus trachurus #102

Life - 102
2010 - 41
English - 34

Brighton Marina

I'm trying to blog all of my fishing trips from now on.

Got to the marina about 1pm, fished the East Arm bay 28. 2 Rods. Started with one baited with rag/squid cocktail and the other with feathers. Caught loads of mackerel and got tired of it, so decided to go for mini-species down the wall using very small hooks and rag. First foul hooked a Pouting or Poorcod, cant tell at that size. Then got a Ballan, then Bullhead, several shannys and a Corkwing. Decided to try baited size 6 Hokkais to get something different, but got more mackerel. Left at about 6pm. Nothing wanted my rag/squid at range all day.

Species count for the 2010 is now 25.
See them all here


My first mackerel for the year.


First Ballan Wrasse for 2010


First Corkwing Wrasse for 2010


First Shanny for 2010. (Black form)


Another Shanny (Standard form)


First Bullhead for the year.