West Sussex Fishing Report - 16th March 2025

Report by David Lewis

Good evening, the fishing locally is still producing some good reports with reasonable catches of Plaice and Herring in the daytime when the conditions are ideal and plenty of other species are worth targeting in darkness so why not get the rods out and give it a try.

Here are Worthing high tides times for the week ahead:

• Monday 17th March: 00:51 (5.9m), 13:01 (5.8m)
• Tuesday 18th March: 01:17 (5.9m), 13:28 (5.7m)
• Wednesday 19th March: 01:41 (5.7m), 13:55 (5.5m)
• Thursday 20th March: 02:08 (5.5m), 14:25 (5.2m)
• Friday 21st March:  02:38 (5.1m), 15:02 (4.8m)
• Saturday 22nd March: 03:18 (4.7m), 15:53 (4.4m)

During the past week the weather has continued to be settled with predominately winds from the northeast and generally dry conditions with some sun. The breeze has picked up over the weekend and the water clarity is not as good as it was at the beginning of the week. 
Dogfish have been one of the most prolific species recently and have been caught in both daylight and darkness with some venues having more Dogs than others. Whiting are still showing but not in big numbers and mostly “pins”. Also a few small Smoothounds have been caught mainly from around Shoreham. 

When the water has been calm and clear, catches of Plaice have been made from the usual venues such as Shoreham, Hove and Brighton with plenty of fish caught. When the water is coloured your chances of Plaice are slightly reduced although still a possible catch, but other species are likely to outnumber the Plaice. At some venues when Plaice fishing, casting at distance can be an advantage for better results and baits to use include black lug or king rag. 

Flounders have shown in reasonable numbers and a match on Worthing Pier saw a dozen or so caught to mainly worm baits caught in darkness. Flounders are also caught by anglers targeting Plaice from venues at Shoreham, Hove and Brighton. A few fish should still be in the local rivers and often in Springtime Kingston beach can produce good catches of Flounders.

Dabs are still a frequent catch from East Sussex beaches and a few early Sole have been caught recently.

Herring have been caught during the past week mainly from Brighton Marina and Shoreham West Arm. 

Thornback Rays are showing in decent numbers and can be caught at many venues in the region with Eastbourne, Seaford, Hove, Bognor and Pagham all likely to produce fish of various sizes. The odd Undulate Ray have been caught although they remain scarce but those caught have been a decent size. 

The Bass ban is still in place, so Bass are still currently catch and release only, see accompanying picture for details. Not many Bass reports now but numbers of fish should increase once the water warms up and a mixture of sized fish should appear from the shore and rivers. 

Other species that could feature in catches will include plenty of Rockling, odd Pout and Silver Eels. Mullet have been spotted in the rivers, and one was seen swimming on the surface around Worthing Pier. Congers are seemingly present one week – gone the next and unpredictable although fishing big baits in darkness is best chance to catch one. 

At this time of year many species will soon start to arrive depending on the sea conditions and late March usually sees the first Garfish turn up with Worthing Pier the venues they seem to be caught at first. It will not be too long before some of the inshore boats start finding a few Black Bream. Squid and Cuttlefish should move inshore anytime soon as long as the seas remain calm, settled and clear.

Prime Angling opening times are 8am till 5pm Monday to Saturday and 8am till 4pm Sundays. We are located at 26 Marine Parade, Worthing, BN11 3PT, just to the east of Worthing Pier with limited customer parking available at the front of the shop. For bait availability it is advisable to phone us on 01903 821594. We also stock a large variety of frozen sea baits as well as a wide range of freshwater baits and tackle. 

Visit our online website at primeangling.co.uk with plenty of new stock regularly added so keep an eye on our Facebook page for updates. 

Please send us pictures of your recent local catches via our Facebook page messenger or email and we will aim to publish them for you in the weekly report. Please note we DO NOT claim ANY FISH used and mentioned in our reports are caught on our baits or tackle, it is a report to show what has and is likely to be caught locally. 

Good luck, Tight Lines!