Bass at their best

As predicted last week the Bass fishing was pretty good.  No sooner had I put the forecast up and when my friend Paul Black called me to say he had managed 3 Bass the night before, with the biggest going 7lb. They were tiddlers compared to the 13.5lb Bass that Paul Stewart had from Abbotsbury

I am out with Paul Whittal on Offshore Rebel today, in the hope of a Bass from the boat. If I can get a signal I will do a live fishing stream on my Facebook page.

August is the start of the really good fishing and one of my favourite months. A lot of Scad have moved in close to the shore. Whilst not great eating fish, they make brilliant bait for Bass.

Sea Conditions: Water temperature 16°c

Chesil Beach:  A small chop, with lightly coloured water

Portland: small swell with lightly coloured clear water

Portland Harbour:Wavelets and clear

Weymouth Bay: Calm and clear

Chesil Beach forecast:

I am really looking forward to the next few days. We can look forward to Mackerel, Scad, Rays, Plaice, Bream, Red Mullet and Bass. What more could you want? How about some hard fighting Smoothound. I love it that the Smoothound are around in decent numbers now.

Best baits for Smoothound are live Peeler or Hermit Crabs. Now that the Mackerel are in then either use Mackerel Heads close in, or a live small Mackerel to target Bass. If you are after Rays, then a Mackerel Fillet, whole squid, Pout or Sandeel are all excellent baits.

Portland: The Island is where I am going to be spending most of my time over the next few days. I will be in search of Pollock, Wrasse and Bass, in an attempt to get them all on lures and claim a Grand Slam. Marks, such as Chesil Cove and Church Ope Cove will be good for all those species. As will Portland Bill, however that is guaranteed to be busy.

I will be exclusively using lures or flies, however bait will work, either float fished or hard on the bottom. Ragworm or Mackerel strip fished at dusk under a float set to around 3m in depth will get you Pollock.

Portland Harbour: I expect to see small Bass and Flounder, along with a few Pollock and small Wrasse from the harbour. Bream should now be moving in close around Sandsfoot Castle and along the Rodwell trail area.

Weymouth Bay: 

The piers will produce loads of different species to very simple tactics. A Ragworm dropped straight down the side of the pier will have loads of fish attacking it instantly. This is a brilliant mark to introduce your kids to fishing this summer. Scad are plentiful at dawn and dusk and Garfish should be around in good numbers. 

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]