Another wild weekend

Once again we were battered with another Atlantic gale at the weekend. How come it never seems to blow during the week, then have a lull during the times most of us can fish? It looks like today could be a brilliant day on Chesil. We did have a couple of days this week, where a few lucky anglers were able to take advantage of a break in the weather and head on to Chesil. Bradley Price managed 3 nice Codling as did several other anglers.

Despite such tough conditions the lure fishing for Bass has been on fire. Young Rory Bennett managed this lovely Bass at 4lb 9oz.

Conditions:

Chesil Beach: 11.5°C, 1.5m swell with waves exceeding 2.5m. this makes the beach fishable, but still dangerous.

Portland: 2m swell  The water is coloured

Portland Harbour: calm with clear water

Weymouth Bay: Calm, with lightly coloured water.

Chesil Beach forecast: with the exception of Wednesday, it looks like the beach will be fishable for the most part. Please be very wary of rogue waves. Keep well above the water line.
Conditions today are perfect for Cod. The water is still fairly rough and heavily coloured, but you should be able to cast a good distance. I would expect to see plenty of Whiting, Pout, Dogfish and Conger, with the odd large Ray making an appearance.

Portland Harbour: With building tides and water temperatures still above the 10°C mark, Bass fishing should be very good this week. There are still Garfish around, which will take small lures and float fished Mackerel. Flounders are appearing in better numbers, even if they are smaller than those we often see in Poole.

Portland: As soon as the water starts to clear, the large Wrasse that are still around will be on the feed. Go with hardback velvet swimmer crabs, fished hard on the bottom, for the chance of a specimen fish.

Weymouth Bay: Its going to take a day or so for the water to clear, but once it does, I know a lot of very keen anglers, will be heading out to the piers to try and catch some squid.

Further along the beach towards Bowleaze Cove, you can expect Whiting and decent flounder.

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Shark Fishing Dorset – Talking Tackle!

So maybe you’re thinking of getting out amongst our local sharks? The question is with what? Well there are many different opinions on the best tackle for sharks. Some anglers prefer to tackle up lighter and enjoy the sport of smaller sharks where others prefer to tackle up for the monster from the depths and bide their time. I personally prefer the later because if one day I hook that monster I want to be ready for the battle of my life.

Now if you’re going out on a charter boat most will have the gear suitable for the sharks they are targeting. I personally always like to purchase my own tackle regardless of whether I’m fishing on charters or private boats. After all, if you are thinking of spending some serious time afloat targeting sharks it’s well worth the investment and peace of mind.

Let’s start with rods. A very personal choice, I have always owned the more stout stand up 50lb class rods for all my sharking. This unfortunately means anything small tends to be lost as you do have some serious leverage over the fish. Not saying they won’t run and pull hard but fights tend to be short lived. Have a look at the beautiful Shimano stand up rods you won’t be disappointed.

If you prefer something with less of a “Big Game” look about it, the Penn Regiment II 50lb Class 7ft Roller rod really fits in well at around £110 and will give you enough guts to fight most fish but also not over gunned on smaller sharks. If your happy fishing without a roller ring rod then the 50lb class Shakespeare Ugly Stik with its sensitive glass tip or the Penn Regiment II XT 20-60lb are great for dealing with smaller fish although you may lose the upper hand on a monster.

Whatever rod you choose I believe you should be able to get the fish alongside the boat without it being played half to death. Shark’s should be well looked after and respected, if it does not recover its one less out there for the future.

Having spent a lot of time looking at reels I once again went with a bigger reel, I use the same tackle for all my sharking. I target Blues, Porbeagle and Threshers so I like my tackle to be a “one fits all” variety. my Shimano Tyrnos 50LRSA gives me capacity for long running fish with over 700yrds of 50lb mono, this gives you the ability to clear decks and get ready to start the fight before running out of line!

Again, this is pretty specialist, another recommendation would be the Shimano TLD25, this reel is great value and holds a good amount of line. It has been responsible for landing some seriously large sharks in the UK and aboard. If like me you like the finesse and ease of a 2-speed reel the new Penn Squall 16VS will also fit the bill nicely!

Let’s face it you can have the most expensive or cheapest rod and reel but the two things that connect you to the fish is the hook and the line. Having lost a good fish to cheap line I don’t by cheap anymore. Hi-Seas (AFW), Shimano or Suffix produce some fantastic lines, I like the IGFA types so you know it does what it says on the spool.

There is a debate on the use of Braid or Mono, if you’re going on a group trip or a charter boat mono is the friendliest by far. No one will thank you for wrapping up and cutting through their mono when playing a fish. I also feel mono is much more forgiving on Shark and Angler, that stretch will absorb head shakes and sudden runs. Again, I use 50lb mono for all my sharking, most reels mentioned have a max drag a lot less than this so you’re never going to snap the line through drag. Also, at 50lb it has great abrasion resistance if required.

Hopefully this has helped with your choice of equipment and even added some items to your Xmas lists. There are of course hundreds of brands out there, I only mention the ones I have used or have knowledge of and trust in. On the next article I will go through the terminal tackle, rubbing leaders, hook choices and how to construct your own!

Tight Lines

Paul

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Fishin Impossible

Fishing conditions this week have been brutal to say the least and unfortunately there seems no let up for this weekend, or at least not on Chesil, so if you are in any doubt as to whether the beach is fishable I think you can see from this impressive picture taken this morning by my friend Finn McGuirk, that it isn’t.

For those that are interested, I created a short video a couple of days ago, that is still relevant now.

I was lucky that I did find some Bass in the harbour. Actually I found a lot of Bass in the harbour. They moved around a lot during the tide, but we did seem to be able testy with them, or at least find them again, during the afternoon. Conditions were tough and sometimes it almost felt like we were fishing at night, the clouds and rain made it feel very gloomy, but I loved every minute of it.

It was a great opportunity for me to really put my new Majorcraft Triplecross TCX-902ML/EU, which has been made specifically for the type of lure fishing that seems most prevalent in the UK. It is without a doubt one of the best lure rods I have ever used, and I have used and owned a lot. A full review is on its way.

All the fish were taken on either the Savage Gear Panic Prey popper or the Savage Gear Sandeel in white

Conditions:

Chesil Beach: 11.3°C, 2.5m swell with waves exceeding 4m. this makes the beach dangerous

Portland: 2.5m swell on the West side, that will build over the next two days. The water is coloured

Portland Harbour: Wavelets with clear water

Weymouth Bay: Calm, with lightly coloured water.

Chesil Beach forecast: Forget it, don’t even think that just because there is a small break in the wind tomorrow, that it will be fishable. This week has seen the highest recorded waves on the beach, all year. With one topping out at 7.5m. I was over the other side of Chesil and I could see waves breaking near the top of the bank. The swell will take a good 24 hours to settle, to a safer height.

Portland Harbour: The tide has died off a bit and that normally means that the Bass fishing will as well. Its still worth giving it a go. Sandsfoot Castle area over low and Hamm Beach over high, would be my top choices.

Portland: The West side will be unfishable, but marks such as Church Ope Cove, can be fished with care. Pollock, Wrasse, Garfish and Bass are all possible. Night tides can produce Conger and Whiting.

Weymouth Bay: Always a safe and reliable mark, when we have SW gales. You can almost guarantee fish from the piers, although they may only be Dogfish and Pout. This time of year normally produces some Whiting and even the odd Cod.

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If you want to find out more info about sea fishing reels, check out www.myseareels.com