Catch report & fishing forecast for Dorset including Chesil Beach, Portland & Weymouth

There was plenty of fish caught over the weekend, but strangely they did not come from the usual marks. Chesil didn’t fish as well as I thought it would. Plenty of Mackerel were caught at times, but even they were a bit thin on the ground.

One beach that fished wel was Preston Beach at the far end of Weymouth Bay. Plenty of Bass showed up giving lure and fly fishing anglers great sport. No fish of any great size were landed but the numbers were encouraging. A few Bass showed up at Portland Bill and plenty of Wrasse.

King Fishers: Another quick plug for the King Fishers series that starts tonight on National Geographic at 8pm. It is repeated several times during the week. Looking at the trailers it looks pretty good, hopefully I wont have made too much of a fool of myself. Find out what the rest of the fish looks like at the end of this tail.

For more details look at the following link King Fishers

Sea Conditions: 

Water temperature 14*c.

Chesil Beach: Flat calm and clear water East of Abbotsbury, but coloured to the west of Abbottsbury.

Portland: Calm with clear  water

Portland Harbour: Calm with clear water.

Weymouth Bay:  Calm with clear water

Chesil Beach forecast: The tides are improving and so should the fishing. Rays and SMoothound like a good bit of tidal flow to help them locate food. With that n mind if you use live Peeler Crab you are in with a very good chance of a Smoothound. They seem to be closer in this year than they have been in previous years. If you are targeting Ras then a good alternative to Peeler are Sandeels. Bream and Gurnard have been caught in Chesil Cove area. Ragworm tipped with Squid for the Bream or small sections of Mackerel for the Gurnard. Baited mackerel feathers with Squid or Mackerel are another good way of targeting Gurnard.

Portland: Wrasse and Pollock are around in good numbers from marks all around Portland. If you want to avoid heavy tackle losses then lure of float fishing will be your best bet. Soft plastics such as Xlayers work well for both species.

Portland Harbour: There should be plenty of Bass and Flounder in the harbour and decent Mullet around Portland Marina.

Weymouth Bay: Weymouth harbour is full of Mullet and a few Bass. Both have been caught on bread, but if you want Bass then Sandeel work well in the harbour.

Whilst we waded  up and down Weymouth beach in the search of the hundreds of Bass, sorry Mullet my mate seen we did disturb loads of Flounder. A lot of them were small, but others were well worth catching. Further along towards Bowleaze Cove you have a good chance of a Bass, Ray or Sole.

Guiding & Lessons: If you are looking for Bass guiding in Dorset or any other guiding, then I am opening up the diary again for the next 6 months. Now that they fish have started to show, I should have some good sessions.  Have a look on the guiding link at the top of the page or drop me an email for more details to [email protected]