Bream dream

Black Bream fishing is starting to kick off on Chesil and around Portland now, with some lovely catches over the past few days. Ultima match team angler Danny Woodcock had two cracking Bream from the Ferrybridge end of Chesil. The smaller of the two weighed 3lb and the larger one went 3lb 6oz.

Mike Kempster was also into the Bream this weekend. Although not as big as Danny’s, they go to prove that they have moved into the area in numbers. All in all Mike had a great session with an 11lb Undulate, a 6lb 6oz Bass a few Smoothound and a Codling to top it off.

I have seen pictures of a Gilthead Bream that was caught in Portland Harbour weighing 8 1/2lb. Unfortunately I don’t have permission to use the picture, but I can assure you it was stunning.

Huge numbers of Mackerel have come in all along the coast over the past week. This has brought in the predators and in particular the Bass. Nicola Halliday took advantage of this to land a lovely 6lb Bass from the Western end of Chesil. She has been trying for a Bass for the past 6 months. Many anglers go a lot longer than that to catch a fish that size, well done.

 

Chesil Beach: 1m swell with clear water

Portland: small swell with clear water

Portland harbour: Calm and clear water

Weymouth Bay: 1m surf and lightly coloured water

Chesil Beach forecast: With an amazing few days of fishing behind us, what can we expect for this week? Well we will certainly get plenty of Mackerel and with them come the Bass and Rays. It would not surprise me if someone had a Tope over the next few weeks. There have been plenty caught on the boats, some as close as 400m from the shore. It is always worth trying to use a live Mackerel as bait. I will put up a diagram in the next report, on how to make a long range live bait rig.
If you are after some Black Bream, then the marks towards Portland always produce more fish than those towards West Bexington. I like to use a two hook flapper rig baited with small strips of Squid mounted on a size 4 Chinu hook. If I need to get distance, then I will use a two hook clipped down rig.

Expect Gurnard from all along Chesil and with clear water, there should be Plaice as well. The Plaice are normally in better numbers towards Cogden and West Bexington.

Portland: Once the wind settles down a bit the Pollock fishing should be good. Wrasse are around in numbers and are very easy to catch. They seem pretty aggressive at the moment and are happy to smash soft plastic lures as well as bait. Float fishing with strips of Mackerel will attract more Mackerel and Garfish.

Night fishing will produce decent sized Pollock, Bull Huss and Conger. Church Ope can produce Rays and Smoothound after dark.

Portland Harbour: The fish that everyone is after in the harbour is the elusive Gilthead Bream. If you can locate one Gilthead, you should get a few, as they tend to shoal up around a feature. Everyone has a theory on the best baits for Gilthead, but I like to use Mussels, Peeler Crab and lugworm.

There are several decent sized Bass shoals in the harbour. They move around with the tide all the time, hunting for food and chasing the bait fish. If you find a shoal you can expect some hectic sport, especially using lures.

Weymouth Bay: I spotted some nice Mullet cruising around Weymouth harbour, but there does not seem as many as I would expect. The majority of them are Thick Lipped Mullet, which can be targeted using bread and lots of ground bait.

The piers will be pretty busy now that the school holidays have started. If you are looking to introduce your kids to fishing, then the piers are ideal starting places. They have lots of small fish that are really easy to catch, but you get plenty of decent fish in amongst them. Float fish a strip of Mackerel for Pollock, Garfish and Mackerel.

Guiding: The new guiding season is underway once again. Although we can only keep one Bass, we can certainly catch more. I am hoping that the winter fishing ban and the new commercial quotas, combined with an increase in the minimum landing size, will make for some great Bass fishing. I specialize in lure fishing and I am offering Fly fishing this year as well. I am still more than happy to go after the multitude of species in this area with bait, whether that is big Wrasse, explosive Smoothound fishing or targeting the tastier fish such as Plaice and Bream. If you want to book a session or find out more information drop me an email at [email protected]