Catch report & fishing forecast for Dorset including Chesil Beach, Portland & Weymouth. 13th January 2013

Just been down and had a look at Chesil and it looks great for fishing. The water is still nice and coloured with a bit of a swell, making it perfect for some winter fishing. There are plenty of Whiting around, especially at night, with a couple of Cod thrown in. Most of the Cod that have been caught have come from Abbotsbury, West bexington and Cogden and mainly during the day. Bass have featured well in catches on Chesil this week. My mate Paul had 3 Bass up to 6lb on Peeler Crab when he fished the visitors centre car park area yesterday.

Water Temperature: 10.3*c             Weymouth High Tide: 8.37pm, 2.29m

Wind: NE 20mph

Sea Conditions:

Chesil Beach: Coloured water but fairly calm with a 1.5m swell.

Portland: Calm with a small swell, the water is  lightly coloured.

Portland Harbour: Calm with clear water.

Weymouth Bay: Calm with a bit of colour in the water.

Chesil Beach forecast: Good tides today will give plenty of tidal movement. Expect lots of Dogfish and Pout during the day and night. Your best chance of a Cod will be during the day, with plenty of Whiting at night. Cogden seems to be the mark to head for at the moment. I had an email from a regular contributor telling me that himself and his wife were catching a fish a cast at Cogden. He had a real mixed bag with Whiting, Pout, Dogfish, Dabs and plenty of Pollock. I have a bit of a suspicion that it is not Pollock he is catching but instead they are Coalfish. Best baits were Mackerel strips and Ragworm.

Portland: These big tides are by far my most favoured when fishing the rock marks. It seems to bring the fish a lot closer in to explore food scources that are not normally available to them. It is one of the rare occasions that hard back crabs fish really well. Velvet Swimmer crabs seem to out fish normal shore crabs. Unless you are lure or float fishing, you have to expect high tackle losses when fishing Portland. However the results can be well worth it. The main species at this time of year are large Wrasse, Pollock, Bull Huss and Rockling, with the odd bonus Bass.

Portland Harbour: Flounder and Bass are in the harbour at the moment. Quite a few people have been fishing the harbour over the past few days and some have had good results. I was chatting to one angler called Dave, who fishes the harbour every couple of months, whilst visiting his family. He caught 3 nice flounder whilst I was with him and one of them was almost 2lb in weight. HE was using two hook flapper rigs baited with Ragworm on size 2 hooks.

Weymouth Bay: Even though we are in the middle of winter both the pleasure and Stone pier are producing fish. Wrasse, pout and Pollock are making regular appearances, with some Flounders fishing from the end of the piers or into the harbour. Small Ragworm baits or small soft plastic grub tails work equally well for the Flounder. Catching them on light line tactics can be a lot of fun.

Poole Harbour: Some great reports from the Rockley area of Poole harbour. Not just flounder but some very nice Bass amongst them. Ragworm worked slowly across the bottom seems to be finding some decent fish.

Boat & Kayak fishing: Another good day to out on the water. Quite a few of the Weymouth and Poole charter fleet are out and about today. Lots of Bass being caught from the comercial boats around St Albans head. I am looking forward to getting out on the boat next week. If I had a dry suit I would be out on my Kayak trying for some Pollock of the Hood entrance and along the breakwater.

I have organised a half day boat trip for Wednesday morning out of Weymouth on Fearless 2, a fully MCA licensed offshore 105 . Target species will be Cod and Whiting. I like to keep numbers low so that everyone has plenty of room on the boat and has a good session. There is one space left. The cost is  going to be £25 per person and gear is available to hire if you don’t have your own. send me an email if you are interested in a trip.

Fish of the month or week competition! I am going to start running a fish of the month competition and if I can get a sponsor or two interested, I will run a weekly competition. I will release more details of the prizes in the next couple of days. The competition will be for what myself and the sponsor think is the best fish for that period. It may not be the largest fish, as all factors including location and tackle will be taken into account. The fish must have been caught from the waters of Dorset or Devon and have been caught during the period of the competition. You need to email me a picture and give details of where, when and how it was caught. To ensure your secret spots are kept secret I only need to know the rough location so get sending your pictures in now to [email protected]

Guiding: Due to the Bass fishing falling off I am only taking bookings for traditional bait fishing sessions for January, I will be targeting Cod, and Whiting from the beach and large Wrasse and Pollock from the shore. I am happy to fit in a few short Pollock and Wrasse lure sessions from the rocks, but these will be limited to 1/2 day or 2 to 3 hour sessions. These can be tailored to your requirements. Drop me an email for more details [email protected]