Scratching around for fish

It’s that LRF fishing time of year again. I know when the fishing really slows down, when I start to break out my LRF fishing gear in an attempt to get a fishy fix. But lets be honest, its better to be out fishing than sat at home watching Scotland lose another game of Rugby. I did a bit of LRF last year, but I intend to  to do quite a bit more over the next few weeks, and I wont just be concentrating on salt water species. I know some of you are scratching your heads, thinking what is LRF? In a nutshell it is the use of ultra light tackle to catch mini species. The fun comes from catching lots of different species, and suddenly hooking something that is not as small as you were expecting. I have almost finished writing an article on LRF fishing that explains it in much greater detail, but you will have to wait until next week to read it.

It is not all doom and gloom on the fishing front, as I have heard that there are still a few Codling around and quite a few Thornbacks are showing from Chesil. I am not a Ray expert, but I do remember that the coldest months have produced more Rays for me than any other months. It sounds like I will have to get out there and try and find a few.

Fishing from the boat is still very good, with some nice Whiting still being caught from the inshore marks. We are seeing some good sized Conger on the inshore marks as well, and the present commercial ban on Ray fishing seems to be having a great effect on the stock numbers. Ryan Casey fished from his boat for a couple of hours earlier in the week and landed this nice Blonde Ray, along with a Thornback and several Conger up to 35lb.

If you logged on to the site earlier in the week, you may have noticed that I wrote a review on the Fladen Maxximus 11300 spinning reel well now you have a chance to win that reel and a Seaspin Stria 95, which is the lure that Adrian used to catch this weeks Anglers Mail fish of the week. He has promised me a review of the lure for next week. If you want to try and win those two prizes then click on this competition link

 

Sea Conditions:

Water temperature 7.3 °c.

Chesil Beach: Rough with 2m waves and lightly coloured clear

Portland:  medium swell and almost clear water

Portland Harbour: Wavelets with clear water

Weymouth Bay: Calm  with lightly coloured  water

Chesil Beach forecast: Right now Chesil is being churned over by some fairly stiff southerly winds, making it less than comfortable to fish. However the forecast says that it will be a short lasting front that should pass through later this evening. This should leave a coloured and churned up sea tomorrow (Saturday) that may attract the Codling that are still hanging around. It is probably one of the better chances of catching some fish for the next few weeks. As always when fishing for Cod, use big baits. Peeler Crab, if you can get it, if not Blow and Black Lugworm, and don’t forget the Cuttlefish.

Portland: The rock marks are not going to be the best place to fish today, but when the waves calm down a bit then you will be able to target some Wrasse and Pollock. If the water colours up enough, and I don’t think it will, there is always a good chance of some Bull Huss.

Portland Harbour: A few Flounder may still be hanging around the harbour, but I wont be wasting any time fishing it for a few more weeks.

Weymouth Bay: With the strong southerly wind hitting Chesil today, then Weymouth Bay will provide ample shelter. As usual the piers will produce Pout, Pollock, Wrasse and possibly Herring. This is one mark that I like to target with my LRF gear.

Guiding: At this time of year, the guiding is pretty quite, so I normally use this time to do some basic fishing workshops. In these I teach all sorts of skills, that will give you a good grounding for your fishing adventures for the erst of the year. I am happy to do lure or bait sessions and the workshops are 2 hours lonng and limitied to 3 people. If you are thinking about booking a guided lure or bait session for the later on in the year, then now is the best time to do it, to grab the best tides.

This year we will be offering boat guiding sessions from your own boat, from Weymouth and Portland and shore guiding in the Poole and Purbeck area. If you want more details then drop me an email to [email protected]