During the first comp of 2009, despite the horrendous weather, lots of fish were caught, 17 anglers weighed in 61 sizeable fish, mainly Channel Whiting. Fishing at Newhaven anglers split into three groups, some fished the West Beach Car Park, some fished the river, and those who braved the uncomfortable conditions and fished the "wooden" arm did the best, the latter producing first second and third places.The winners were:-
1st R Trott 4lb 8.5ozs
2nd L Moran 3lb 14 ozs
3rd R Etherton 2lb 7.5ozs
The best roundfish prize went to R Wells for his 1lb Channel Whiting, no sizeable flat fish were caught.
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On a very calm and mild Febuary evening 23/02/09 our second match of the year was attended by 11 anglers who fished Hove beaches spread out from Holland Road to the back of the King Alfred Leisure Centre. Mostly Rockling were caught along with the odd Channel Whiting. Don Jones weighed in a very respectable Dover Sole of 1lb 2.5ozs.
1st D Jones 1lb 6.25ozs
2nd R Punter 1lb 5ozs
3rd M Trott 11ozs
The Dover Sole won the flat fish prize and the best roundfish was a humble Rockling of 4.75ozs caught by Brandon Wells on his first outing with the Club.
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Following a couple of weeks of warm for the time of year and settled weather, on Monday evening 23/03/09, Sod's Law prevailed and so did the strong winds, which meant the intended venue for our third competition of the year, Brighton Marina West Arm, was closed for safety's sake, forcing us TOSSA's once again to head for the relative shelter and safety of Newhaven Harbour. Again, as was the situation on the first comp of the year 15 anglers split into three groups, fishing the West Beach Car Park, the river and the "wooden" arm, the latter produced the winner and the best round fish a 1lb 9.5ozs dogfish, while second and third places and the heaviest flatfish a 1lb 5.75ozs flounder, came from the river opposite The Hope Inn. In total 44 sizeable fish were weighed, consisting of mixed bags of Rocking, Pouting, Flounder,Sole and Dogfish, most of which were returned to the water alive. The results were as follows:
1st Russell Trott 2lb 13.75ozs
2nd Darren Morley 2lb 5ozs
3rd Rod Punter 1lb 15.5ozs
The best roundfish was caught by Russell Trott and the best flattie by Rod Punter.
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Yet another venue and date change! Once again because of what seems like our bad weather "curse" we had to retreat to Newhaven. Originally set for two weeks earlier, because of, among other things, the fishing holiday, this comp was delayed until 27/04/09, and moved from Shoreham Beach, because of very high tides and strong southerly winds. Four of ten anglers caught sizeable fish, the best bag again landed by he who braved the weather to fish on the "wooden arm"
1st Danny Bianciardi 2lb
2nd Rod Punter 14.75ozs
3rd Don Jones 4.50ozs
The best roudfish was one of the seven pouting caught by Danny Bianciardi at 6.25ozs and the best flat fish was a 11ozs flounder caught by Rod Punter.
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Monday 11/05/09 brings more bad weather, high winds, only this time they are coming from a north easterly direction meaning the sea remained fairly flat and calm despite gusts of up to about 45mph. Everyone opted to fish the two arms of Brighton Marina for this years "Rover".
Despite an abundance of undersized fish, mainly Pouting, only six of thirteen anglers weighed in 11 sizeable fish, consisting of Garfish, Black Bream and Ballan Wrasse.
The results were:
1st Don Jones 1lb 3ozs
2nd Mick Baldey 1lb 2ozs
3rd Lee Moran 1lb 1ozs
The best roundfish was Mick Baldey's 1lb 2ozs Black Bream which is a new club best fish record, previously held by Scott Bishop who caught a 1lb fish on Brighton Marina during 1999. The flat fish pool carries over to the next comp.
A special mention to our guest angler Carol Vivien who normally fishes with The Palace Pier Club who caught 4 Wrasse totalling 2lb 8.5ozs, make way for the ladies!
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On Monday 2nd June, fifeteen anglers fished a six hour match on the East Breakwater at Shoreham Harbour. Only three sizeable fish were caught all day, two obstacles made the fishing extremely difficult, first was the May bloom, the surface was covered with this algae like growth, and second was the huge amount of misbehaving kids. There were literally hundreds of kids all around us jumping off the breakwater into the sea. Nobody begrudges kids having fun in the summer though what they were doing was both very dangerous with all the boats, jet ski's and shipping entering and leaving the harbour, and against the rules. I am very surprised Shoreham Port Authority allow this to happen! Who will be held responsible when a kid is seriously injured or killed? We do plan our summer fishing away from beach users and swimmers so we didn't expect this level of interference. Two Black Bream and one Flounder were weighed in and the results were as follows.
1st Oliver Blackmore (Jnr) 9.25ozs Flounder
2nd Darren Morley 8.25ozs Bream
3rd Luke Morley (Jnr) 7ozs Bream
Last time it was the ladies, this time the Juniors showed us the way.
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Can you believe it? Following a month of hot sunny settled weather the conditions change right on cue. Our July 6th night comp and the met office forecast 25-40mph winds, so once again we had to abandon our planned venue, Brighton Marina, and head off to Newhaven. The evening was well attended by 15 adult members, 2 Juniors and 1 guest angler. A total of 26 six sizeable fish were weighed in, mainly pouting, eels and one rather large rockling 14ozs rockling. As usual, and these pages must be becoming boring to read, the top three anglers fished on the wooden arm, fish were caught opposite The Hope while the West Beach Car Park was very quiet. The designated specimen size of a rockling in this region is 8ozs, so the 14ozs fish caught by guest angler Malcolm Brain weighs in at approximately 175%. To give you an idea of how this equates to other species; for a Bass to score 175% it would have to weigh in at approximately 17lb!
1st Lee Moran 2lb 8ozs
2nd Russell Trott 2lb 1oz
3rd Mark Trott 2lb .5oz
The best roundfish was an eel weighing in at 1lb .75ozs caught by Mark, no sizeable flatties were caught. All the eels caught were returned to the sea alive.
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On Tuesday August 4th, fourteen anglers fished the scheduled Brighton Marina West comp between 6pm and midnight. At last we had some decent weather so we were able to fish the end section of the breakwater which was unlocked especially for us, thank you to Dave Grinham, proprietor of The Tackle Box, for allowing us this privilage.
Anglers fishing on the end section of the West Arm do suffer tackle loss because there are some patches of "rotten bottom", however eight of us weighed in a total of 19 sizeable fish, the catches being mainly bream with flouder, sole and pout also caught.
1st Don Jones 3lb 6.75ozs
2nd Darren Morley 2lb 3.25ozs
3rd Mark Trott 1lb 6.5ozs
The best flat fish was a nice healthy Dover Sole weighing 15.5ozs, caught by Club Chairman Lee Moran, and the best roundfish was a 1lb.25ozs Black Bream caught by Rick Etherton. Darren Morley was very unlucky, he caught a Bass at the very end of the evening which turned out to be less than half an inch undersize.
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Only six members turned up for the Shoreham West competition 31/8/09. The venue was extremely busy plus there was masses of weed everywhere which made fishing very difficult. Lee Moran and Luke Morley managed to catch a Gurnard and an Eel respectively.
1st Lee Moran 6.25ozs
2nd Luke Morley 6ozs
Lots of people Mackerel bashing, weed and stuff everywhere, however a Chinese fellow managed to catch a fairly nice Sole, when asked what bait he was using he enthusiastically replied "ret rat" not some secret misfortunate retarded rodent bait, Red Rag!
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Tuesday 29/09/09 found the TOSSA's fishing an evening match on Hove Beaches. Finally a really lovely end of summer evening with a gentle breeze. Following a struggle to get some decent bait enthusiasm was running high. However, which not much of a tide running and gin clear water the event soon proved to be very "scratchy". Various undersized fish were landed and returned, these included, Sole, Flounder, Pouting and Thornback Ray, eventually only three of the eleven participating anglers weighed in sizeable fish.
1st Peter Martin 13.25ozs Sole
2nd Luke Morley 5ozs Sole
Guest angler Malcolm "Wolfie" Brain caught a 6.75ozs Sole. With just 2 matches to go, competition is hot with at least six anglers who could possibly win the championship.
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Tuesday evening 13/10/09 the TOSSA's fished our pen-ultimate match on Brighton Beach. Despite a lot of this year's venues having been interupted by unfavourable weather conditions 2009 is drawing to a close with some very interesting conclusions, with just one comp left everything is still to fish for. Last night's weather was wonderful, a calm clear evening, albeit a bit chilly, showing signs Summer 09 has been and gone "The nights are drawing in" as your old granny used to say as she cracked open her second bottle of gin. Having spent most of the year complaining about the unusal and constant strong winds, a stiff breeze may have improved things a bit, however some nice fish were brought to the scales including an Eel weighing 1lb 7ozs and a Sole of 1lb 2.25ozs caught by Lee Moran and Malcolm Brain respectively.
1st Don Jones 2lb 1.25ozs
2nd Luke Morley 1lb 13.75ozs
3rd Lee Moran 1lb 12.5ozs
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Mother Nature rounded off her year with one final assault against the TOSSA's. With high winds making the beaches almost unfishable a dozen anglers once again retreated to the shelter of Newhaven Harbour where 178 fish, mainly whiting, were weighed in. The last competition of 2009 was exceptional, because unlike any previous year everything was still to play for, at the start of the evening not a single Club trophy winner had been decided, which is very unusual. Having shown us the way this year, and catching the only fish at Dover to win us the coveted Interclub Shield from the Eastbourne Nomads, Don Jones, who finished second on the night, did enough to win the 2009 Club Championship.
1st Mark Trott 12lb 8.5ozs
2nd Don Jones 11lb 11ozs
3rd Lee Moran 10lb 9ozs
The heaviest roundfish prize went to Mark Trott, who fulfilled two ambitions last night, one, to catch a sizeable Codling, it's unthinkable our resident Bass king had never caught a sizeble Codling, and two, to win the May McNeill Knockout Shield, the only trophy to have eluded him. So well done Don and Mark, and especially well done to Lee Moran who came many second places, and well done and thank you to everyone who has supported the Club with their participation throughout 2009. Rod.