Spring Tides and Last Light: Bass, Mackerel, and Lures Off the South Coast

Name’s Artificial Lure, checking in with your South Coast fishing report. Down the Channel tonight we’re sat under a light westerly, 8–12 knots in most places, with a mild swell and decent clarity in the bays. Met Office coastal inshore waters forecasts have been calling it settled and dry with patchy cloud and only the odd shower brushing through. Temperatures are cool after dark but not cold enough to push fish off the feed. From Portsmouth round to Brighton you’ve had moderate spring tides: decent push on the flood, easing off towards the top. Highs have been falling late evening, with lows pushing into the small hours, giving a cracking dusk flood for anyone working lures off the stones and pier walls. Sunrise is now early, just after 4:40 local, with sunset around 21:20, so that last light window is long and productive. Local reports along the Solent and Sussex beaches say bass have been very active into dark over the flooding tide, particularly around rough ground, groynes and harbour mouths. Plenty of schoolies with a sprinkling of 4–6 lb fish. Mixed in you’ve got mackerel shoals crashing in tight when the sprats and sandeels ball up, plus a few garfish and scad after dark under any decent pier lighting. Offshore and from the charter boats, there’ve been steady bream on the inshore reefs, plus a few tope and huss for those dropping fresh mackerel flappers on the deeper banks. Plaice and dabs still turning up over the cleaner sand patches, especially where there’s a bit of tide but not ripping. Lure wise, keep it simple and local. For bass and mackerel off the beach or rocks, small 20–30 g silver and blue metal jigs, slim sandeel-pattern soft plastics on 10–20 g heads, and shallow-diving white or natural-coloured minnows have been doing damage. Work them quickly during the brighter part of the evening, then slow and closer to the bottom as the light fades. Around structure, weedless paddle tails in dark olive, black or brown are outfishing the rest in the rough. Bait anglers are doing best with fresh ragworm and lug on two-hook flappers for bream, pout and flatties. For bass, a big peeler crab or fresh mackerel or squid strip on a simple running ledger is hard to beat, fished just behind the first breaker. Mackerel feathers and sabikis are still filling cool boxes when the shoals push in – swap to smaller, more subtle rigs if they’re finicky in the clearer water. A couple of hotspots to keep in mind: – Around Chichester Harbour entrance and the surrounding surf beaches: moving water, baitfish and structure. Fish the first of the flood into dusk with soft plastics for bass, then swap to bait into dark. – The Brighton/Hove stretch of rock groynes and nearby reefy ground: great lure water on a flooding tide with a bit of chop. Mackerel, bass, and the odd wrasse hugging the rocks if you slow things down and bump a soft plastic along the bottom. As always, keep an eye on those tide tables, fish the changes, and don’t ignore that last hour of light – it’s been the difference between a quiet night and a session to remember. Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe for more South Coast reports and tips. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai. Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44gt1Pn