First fishing session of the New Year

By On · 1 Comment · In Chesil Beach, Reports

For many of you last weekend  would have been your first fishing session of the New Year, and I admire all of you that got out and fished. I have not been feeling to great for a few days, so I could not get motivated to sit in the driving rain to catch a couple of Flounder. Having said that I may well have missed out on some decent fishing, especially in Poole and Portland harbour. It has not just been Flounder, as quite a few Bass were also caught. It seems that there has been Bass showing all along the South West. Most of the Bass have come to bait, with the exception of a few from the Purbecks, including a lovely double figure Bass.

Paul little Bass

double Flounder

When is the next time Chesil will be fishable? It looks like there  may be a break in the wind on Wedneday. If the sea drops a bit then, it will be a great opportunity to get out for a Cod, and maybe a large Bass if they are still around.

Sea Conditions: 

Water temperature 10.1*c.

Chesil Beach:  Unfishable

Portland: Very rough with coloured water and lots of weed

Portland Harbour: Wavelets with lightly coloured water

Weymouth Bay: A long surf line with up to 1m of surf waves. The water is coloured.

Chesil Beach forecast: Unfishable, and looking at Windguru it will remain unfishable for the next week at least.

Portland: It will be rough and dirty around Portland, but at least you will be able to find a few marks to fish, especially on the east side of the island. One of the species that I will be targeting this year is Bull Huss. Very few people bother to fish Portland compared to a lot of other marks, but it can produce some great results. I had a look at Church Ope yesterday and the weed was not too bad. The Wrasse fishing will not be very good until it settles a bit more.

Portland Harbour: A lot of people have been asking about Flounder fishing in Portland Harbour. The fish are fairly evenly distributed in the harbour, but some marks are easier to access than others. Hamm Beach is ideal especially when the wind is straight out of the South. Sandsfoot sailing club beach is also easy to access and offers better protection in a SW wind. Sandsfoot Castle is a very god mark for Bass and Flounder, but now that the steps have been removed it is not easy to access. 

Weymouth Bay: Preston Beach continues to produce all sorts of fish including Rays, Whiting and Bass. Stone Pier is fishing better than the Pleasure Pier due to the fresh water coming out of the harbour.

Guiding & Lessons: Even though the Bass fishing should run all the way through to mid December and maybe even later, depending on the water temperature, I will be mainly switching to guiding for winter species. Most of my trips will be Wrasse fishing for the large fish from rough ground, , or from the beaches for Cod and Whiting.   Have a look on the guiding link at the top of the page or drop me an email for more details to [email protected]

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