Catch report & fishing forecast for Dorset including Chesil Beach, Portland & Weymouth. 1st January 2013

Happy New Year to all of you. I hope this year your fishing will be better than ever. It starts off with a bit of good news at least. Chesil Beach is finally fishable after what seems like weeks. However you will need to take great care as it is still rough with waves of 2m with the odd larger one.

Water Temperature: 10.2*c             Weymouth High Tide: 9.21pm, 1.92m

Wind: NW 19mph

Sea Conditions:

Chesil Beach: Rough with waves exceeding 2m, the water is heavily coloured. Rafts of weed may cause problems, but they are more concentrated in Chesil Cove.

Portland: The West side of the island and the Bill are very rough. The East side is more sheltered with a swell of 2m.

Portland Harbour: Wavelets with slightly coloured water.

Weymouth Bay: Calm but coloured and lots of freshwater coming out of the harbour.

Chesil Beach forecast: The beach just screams Cod at the moment. I am pretty certain you are likely to pick up a Bass as well if you fish in close. Large baits are essential in the heavily coloured water. The best baits will be live Peeler or Hermit if you can get it, closely followed by Lugworm and Squid cocktails.

Portland: Fishing on the West side of the island and around the Bill is still going to be difficult, but with care you should be able to fish from some of the higher ledges for Bass, Pollock and Bull Huss. Big baits and rotten bottom rigs are essential.

Portland Harbour: Flounder and Bass are likely to be in the harbour, but as the tide starts to head towards neap’s the Bass will disappear.

Weymouth Bay: Preston has to be a good back up mark again today, at least it will provide shelter and hopefully some Whiting. It is more than possible that a few Bass will show there again today.

The Purbecks: A few hardy anglers took my advice and headed to Ringstead and Osmington Mills, for a shot at a few fish. Reports coming back show that the Bass are still around in fairly good numbers, as they seem to have figured in most peoples catch.

Poole Harbour: Leo who is one of my main contributors in the Poole area, took his kids to Holton Lee in Poole harbour to brave the elements in search of a Flounder. When they arrived at what they thought would be a sheltered spot, they were faced with a strong wind blowing right into their face. They decided to give it an hour and were rewarded with a nice Flounder for their efforts.

Fish of the month or week competition! I am going to start running a fish of the month competition and if I can get a sponsor or two interested, I will run a weekly competition. I will release more details of the prizes in the next couple of days. The competition will be for what myself and the sponsor think is the best fish for that period. It may not be the largest fish, as all factors including location and tackle will be taken into account. The fish must have been caught from the waters of Dorset or Devon and have been caught during the period of the competition. You need to email me a picture and give details of where, when and how it was caught. To ensure your secret spots are kept secret I only need to know the rough location so get sending your pictures in now to [email protected]

Guiding: Due to the Bass fishing falling off I am only taking bookings for traditional bait fishing sessions for January, I will be targeting Cod, and Whiting from the beach and large Wrasse and Pollock from the shore. I am happy to fit in a few short Pollock and Wrasse lure sessions from the rocks, but these will be limited to 1/2 day or 2 to 3 hour sessions. These can be tailored to your requirements. Drop me an email for more details [email protected]