Catch report & fishing forecast for Dorset including Chesil Beach, Portland & Weymouth. 19th December 2012

Talk about unsettled weather, one day its blowing a gale then its calm like yesterday, then today it kicks off again. Still as the wind is from the South East it makes conditions on Chesil fairly good with nothing other than a bit of a medium swell to contend with. Quite a few people managed to get out on the beach yesterday when it calmed down a bit and some had a couple of nice fish. Gareth Barnes from Bristol fished to the right at Abbotsbury with Lugworm and Squid cocktail and managed to land a 16lb Cod and a monster Whiting of over 3lb also on the cocktail. However most of the fish yesterday were either Pout or Dogfish. It has certainly been a bit quite for fish around Weymouth and Portland. I went out with my friend Roger yesterday on his boat. We couldn’t even manage a bite from our normal guaranteed fish spot the Hood entrance in Portland Harbour.

It might not be fishing so well around Chesil but Exmouth is fishing well for Bass on Squid and Ragworm baits. Poole Harbour is probably enjoying one of its best years for quite a while, with reports of lots of Flounder being caught, with the odd Bass thrown in for good measure. Best baits for those are Ragworm fished very close in. More details on fishing Poole Harbour and Exmouth soon.

Water Temperature: 9.6*c             Weymouth High Tide: 11.22pm, 1.75m

Wind: SE 31mph

Sea Conditions:

Chesil Beach: Surprisingly calm but with a 2m swell, water is lightly coloured

Portland: Very rough on the rock marks on the East of Portland, the Bill and the West side are fishable with care. Waves up to 2m and lightly coloured water.

Portland Harbour: Wavelets with coloured water.

Weymouth Bay: A good bit of surf and coloured water

Chesil Beach forecast: With the water still fairly coloured there is a chance of Cod during the day, especially if you fish to the West at Abbotsbury or even Cogden. I know it is a trek to the beach at Cogden, but it seems to be the better mark this year. There have been some nice fat Plaice caught all along the beach, especially towards the Ferrybridge end. They are feeding up before going of to spawn.

Portland: Coloured water and rough conditions make good conditions for large Bull Huss. A large flank of Mackerel is one of their favourite baits. Make sure you use a rotten bottom to avoid losing a good fish. Fishing will be limited to the East side of the Island until conditions on the West calm down a bit.

Portland Harbour: If yesterday was anything to go by, I would give the harbour a miss at the moment.

Weymouth Bay: Preston Beach will have a good bit of surf on it, so unless you want to chance it for a late Bass I wouldn’t bother here either. The piers are a different matter, Both should produce a variety of fish including Whiting and Pollock.

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 December and 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]