Spring Fishing

With the first May bank holiday upon us, I am sure you have been looking at the wind forecast as keenly as I have. To say that it is going to be changeable over the weekend is an understatement. Fresh to strong Easterlies for the next couple of days, then switching to a strong SW on Sunday, before dying off to leave fairly calm conditions on Monday. It can make your head ache thinking about where to go, if anywhere at all in those winds.

Well don’t be put off by the wind at all, as there are very few wind conditions that we cant fish in, somewhere in Dorset. I know Leo, our east Dorset reporter, abides by the saying “When the winds in the East, the fish bite the least”. Well that may be true for Poole and Sandbanks, but I love it when there is an Easterly blowing at this time of year on Chesil. When you are targeting those Plaice at distance a strong easterly wind can add 20 or even 30yds. to your cast, and get you amongst the fish.

Today I will be heading down to West Bexington for the first of this years River Cottage Shoreline courses that I run. I am pretty excited as I have a couple of new Trabucco rods and reels to try out, as well as some of the latest ultra thin lines, that are very popular on the continent. I have loaded the Trabucco Maxxis Pro Surf  reel with 10lb line to try and get that extra distance. I will let you know how I get on with them in typical Chesil conditions, and give you more details on these lovely bits of kit.

I hope to kick off my lure fishing season this weekend, if the Bass turn up. I have heard reports of Bass being caught at a number of marks along the South coast, and I can contain myself no longer. I am looking at using the surf that will be kicked up by the Easterly winds, to find a couple of rock marks that should produce a Bass or two on lures. 

 

After weeks of delays I finally managed to finish editing the “finding and collecting Peeler Crab”, video I have been promising for some time. The video is below, but if you want to read the full article just take a look at yesterdays post.

I am sorry if the report is a bit rushed today, but I am on an early start for todays course. Hope you have a great bank holiday weekend.

Sea Conditions: Water temperature 10.8°c

Chesil Beach:  1m swell with almost clear water

Portland:  1.5m swell on the East side, calmer on the West with clear water

Portland Harbour: SMall choppy waves and clear water

Weymouth Bay: 1m surf with the surf line extending to 70m, with lightly coloured water

Chesil Beach forecast: Good sized tides should produce Plaice and Mackerel today and Saturday. I am hoping to get one of the first Smoothounds of the year. I have quite a few Peeler Crabs in reserve 🙂

These tides often produce the spring run of Rays, from both ends of Chesil. I am still after my first Undulate. Best bait and rigs for those are long flowing Pulley rig with two Sandeels mounted on  4/0 Pennel.

Portland: Conditions are pretty much perfect for Wrasse and Pollock fishing on Portland. As the week progresses the tide will increase in strength, and high water will be around dusk, giving you by far the best chance of catching some hard fishing Pollock on lures and float fished Mackerel strips.

Portland Harbour: I have spotted some huge Mullet at Castletown, the sailing academy and Sandsfoot sailing club. Combine this with Bass starting to show in the harbour, and you could be looking at a very good mark to fish over the next few days.

Weymouth Bay: The Easterly wind should produce some nice Bass from Preston. Use light tackle in the surf. Ragworm and Peeler Crab will be the best baits

As usual the piers are still fishing well for small fish, but expect better sized Pollock at night, as well as Wrasse during the day.

Guiding: I am now taking bookings for plaice trips as well as some basic fishing workshops for the next month. In the workshops I teach all sorts of skills, that will give you a good grounding for your fishing adventures for the rest 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]