September is a time of plenty and certainly one of my favourite months for saltwater fishing. All the summer species are present and the winter species are also starting to show. Generally speaking, there are a lot of fish around.
With the settled weather we've been having, the water clarity has been very good inshore. To me, this means one thing and one thing only......it's time to get the lures and flies out. The reefs to the East of Brighton tend to be plagued with dirty water most of the year thanks to the chalk on which they sit. It's often like a milky pea soup down there. We really have to make the most of those times when the fish are tuned in to hunting by sight. I particularly enjoy catching Bass along there and even more so using lure or fly tackle. You never know what else can turn up either!
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| Nice Bass on a top water lure |
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| My selection of lures, poppers, flies, metals and plastics |
My buddy Paul Harman has a boat based in Brighton Marina and he loves to get out after the Bass whenever he can. For him it's all about fly fishing, if the conditions will allow. There's not really much to beat catching a nice Bass on the fly from our Sussex waters in my opinion.
I have been out with Paul a couple of times just recently with the lure and fly gear and we've had some reasonable success. Drifting close inshore over the reef systems is always fun with the fly rod. An 8 or 9wt set up with a sinking line is required to get the fly down where the fish are. We've always found a simple clouser fly to be more than effective in a white, white and green or white and olive pattern. The heavy dumbell eyes on these flies are just what you need to keep it down in the bite zone. Very effective!
For lure fishing, a 10 - 40g spinning rod with a small fixed spool reel loaded with braid is all you need. A fluorocarbon leader and spinlink clip finish it off nicely. Successful lures for us have been Fiish Minnows, Savage Gear Sandeels, Rapala X-raps, Yozuri Crystal Minnows, Sammy Top Waters etc....
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| Pollock, Wrasse and Gurnard all taken on lures inshore |
Inshore over shallow water, we like to cast away from the boat as we drift, covering specific marks or hot spots. For hard baits, then a straight retrieve with the odd pause or twitch thrown in is just fine. If I'm fishing the Savage Gear Eels or Fiish Minnows it's a bit different. I find jigging/bouncing the lures back to the boat along the bottom to be very attractive to the fish. The bites nearly always come as the lure is dropping on a tight line.
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| Greedy Bass - 2 x fish on 1 lure!! |
In deeper water, over reefs or wrecks, then jigging the plastics vertically on heavier jig heads is the way to go. A nice fine braid is essential for this, especially if there's a good tide run. Your lure needs to be working directly beneath you in the bite zone, down near the reef or wreck. It's no good if you're getting 'strung out' with your line streaming out behind the boat as the lure is then working where the fish are not.
This technique of fishing the plastics vertically can be very effective. It's successful for Bass and Paul's had a few Cod later in the year doing this as well. Over the reefs then Pollock, Wrasse and Gurnard will often oblige too. To prove that you never quite know what to expect when fishing lures, Jeff Smith had a Bonito in his boat off Littlehampton last month too! Who'd have thought it! Global warming? Either way......a nice catch for Sussex!
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