Fishing for Bream and Plaice - May 2016

Beautiful Brighton Black Bream

It's early May now and things are warming up nicely, it definitely feels like summer has finally arrived and there have been reports of some good bream and plaice fishing off of Brighton. My buddy Paul Harman invited me out on his small boat the other day to see if the reports were true.

We headed out of Brighton Marina just before 6 am and were greeted by a perfect sea, calm and clear. Perfect conditions for the species we were looking for. Paul took us to a nice bit of reef about a mile or so out and we dropped the anchor just uptide of the structure. The plan was to spend the morning targeting the bream and then after the tide turned head west a little and do some drifting for plaice.

One of my better bream from the day

For the bream, we use small squid baits on size 4 hooks which is perfect for the small mouths these fish have. There wasn't much tide run so we fished 2 hook paternosters which enabled us to fish up in the water column a little. When the tide run is less I find the fish are more inclined to move up in the water a bit.

Bream can respond very well to the use of groundbait which is a tip Paul introduced to me on this day. We do it all the time in freshwater fishing so why not in the sea? He freezes down fish scraps, prawn shells and left over bait scraps mixed up with some bran in small plastic take-away containers. These then have holes punched in them and are lowered down to the sea bed in an onion sack with a lead weight in it to defrost and disperse down the tide. It gives off a wonderful trail of scent and small morsels that the bream love to home in on.

A garfish that we caught as bycatch

It proved a very effective technique on the day as bites were pretty instant from the very first drop. They continued right through until the top of the tide when the action died off. We must have had in excess of 20 bream a couple of dabs, some garfish, a mackerel, a pouting and a whiting. A great and varied catch  that shows what a difference a little groundbait can make.

Paul with a very pretty fish

After the tide turned we moved a little closer in to around 20 feet of water and set a up a drift to target the plaice. Simple rigs are the order of the day here and I opted for a simple running ledger with a 3 foot trace, a few colourful attractor beads and a size 1 hook baited with lugworm and a tip of squid.

Drifting for plaice is lovely and relaxing, slowly ambling down the tide watching the rod tip for the rattling bites of the plaice. It didn't take long before we got some action and a few small plaice were swung aboard. They are such lovely fish with their orange spots and incredibly good to eat but these were a little on the small size and returned.

A double shot of plaice and bream

The bites came in flurry's, which must have been when we drifted over some particularly tasty ground - maybe some sandbanks or mussel beds. Each time we got a few bites we would make a mark on the plotter for future reference. You never know, they may just be plaice hotspots!

Paul with a nice 'Spotty'

We did eventually find some better fish....and I manged to get an absolute belter, easily the biggest plaice I have ever caught! I have to say I was totally over the moon with it. They really are very impressive creatures when they get to that size and actually it fought very well on the light spinning gear I was using which was also a pleasant surprise.

A new personal best Plaice for me! Very happy with this one :)

It was a marvellous day's fishing in wonderful weather and with great company. It's amazing what a difference it can make just getting a mile or so offshore. it's hard to find fishing as good as that from the beach that's for sure. Tight Lines!