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My m8 Ray and I decided to give Brighton beach a go the other night primarilly in search of a sole. We arrived just before High water to be met with a very slight sea gently rolling onto the shingle. Perfect we thought except for the 20 yards of thick weed, the horrible spaghetti stuff with patches of brown moss like weed mixed in with it that was wallowing in the margins. Yuk!
Anyway the lines went out, each of us with a 2 hook bomber with Size 6 Aberdeens, baited with harbour rag and lobbed out in a mini DVice about 80 yds. Our other rods were fitted with 3 hook size 6 'flat out' rigs (the ones with the two weights to keep the hooks pinned down on the bottom). These rigs were baited with lugworm tipped of with a sliver of squid. We were hoping for a stray black bream whilst it was still light.
We lobbed these rigs about 40 yds, just beyond the weed and waited and waited. For 2 hours we waited. Every cast brought up masses of weed, we could just not get back through it without pounds of the stuff getting tangled in the grip wires.
We were now well into the ebb and a miscast on one of the flat out rigs landed about 20 yds out, right in the middle of the heaving weed, the rod slowly pulled down with the weight of the weed and then Wallop! the carp rod just hammered over. A minute later a nice plump bass around 41cm (covered in spaghetti weed) was landed.
Worth another try we thought, 2 minutes later another savage bite and another identical bass. In the next hour we landed 5 bass, 3 sizeable and 2 just undersized plus a very nice black bream. All the fish were close in amongst the worst of the floating weed. We lost several other fish that pulled off the hooks as they got tangled up in the weed.
The rods that remained out at distance produced only a small silver eel and a mini flounder, not a sign of a sole.
So next time you see all the weed in the margins, why not just drop a couple of hooks right into the middle of it. The two leads on the flat out rig seem to help avoid some of the weed. Its not easy fishing but it worked for us.
Anyway the lines went out, each of us with a 2 hook bomber with Size 6 Aberdeens, baited with harbour rag and lobbed out in a mini DVice about 80 yds. Our other rods were fitted with 3 hook size 6 'flat out' rigs (the ones with the two weights to keep the hooks pinned down on the bottom). These rigs were baited with lugworm tipped of with a sliver of squid. We were hoping for a stray black bream whilst it was still light.
We lobbed these rigs about 40 yds, just beyond the weed and waited and waited. For 2 hours we waited. Every cast brought up masses of weed, we could just not get back through it without pounds of the stuff getting tangled in the grip wires.
We were now well into the ebb and a miscast on one of the flat out rigs landed about 20 yds out, right in the middle of the heaving weed, the rod slowly pulled down with the weight of the weed and then Wallop! the carp rod just hammered over. A minute later a nice plump bass around 41cm (covered in spaghetti weed) was landed.
Worth another try we thought, 2 minutes later another savage bite and another identical bass. In the next hour we landed 5 bass, 3 sizeable and 2 just undersized plus a very nice black bream. All the fish were close in amongst the worst of the floating weed. We lost several other fish that pulled off the hooks as they got tangled up in the weed.
The rods that remained out at distance produced only a small silver eel and a mini flounder, not a sign of a sole.
So next time you see all the weed in the margins, why not just drop a couple of hooks right into the middle of it. The two leads on the flat out rig seem to help avoid some of the weed. Its not easy fishing but it worked for us.
