Fishing forecast for Chesil Beach, Portland & Weymouth. 15th September 2012

The hot news today is that the Trigger fish that have been absent for most of the summer seem to have made an appearance in numbers this week. Large catches (15 plus fish in a session) have been reported. Crab and Squid have been the best baits. It looks like the wind is going to be fairly settled for the next few days, that combined with some good tides will keep expectations high for a very good weekend of fishing.

I have noticed that the water temperatures are slowly dropping now. This is the trigger that starts to bring in the trickle of autumn and winter fish. It also prompts the summer fish to feed up for the coming winter. When they get into a feeding frenzy they will happily take anything that is put in front of them.

This is also the start of the Bass season proper. With the fish looking to put on as much weight as possible over the next couple of months the Bass will be feeding very aggressively. Larger fish will move in to feed on the bait fish that are much closer to shore and held up in pockets. Lures are by far the best way to target the bass at this time of year. You can be mobile and move around to find the holding patterns of the Bass. Big tides this weekend will bring a lot of Bass into Portland Harbour and Weymouth Bay.

Water Temperature: 16.9*c             Weymouth High Tide: 7.13pm, 2.33m

Wind: Light winds picking up to a SW 13mph later this evening.

Sea Conditions:

Chesil Beach: A bit of a swell still on the beach with 1m waves, but it has flattened out a lot. The water has a milky tinge to it, but it is surprisingly free of weed.

Portland: 1m swell with a little bit of colour in the water.

Portland Harbour: Calm and clear

Weymouth Bay: Calm and clear

Chesil Beach forecast: It will be a good weekend on the beach for Bream, Trigger, Gurnard and Smoothound. I would expect to see quite  few Bass as well. The one fish that might be a bit harder to find is the Mackerel. They are starting to shoal up again and seem to be a bit further off the beach. Longer casters will be able to pick them up. But if you are not such a great caster you will need to wait a bit longer until they do move close, when you will get large shoals coming through all at once.

The Plaice fishing is on fire down the Western end of the beach. Abbotsbury , West Bexington and Cogden have produced very good numbers the past few days. The only problem is everyone knows about it and the beach is packed. If you do go after them, then Ragworm tipped with Squid will work well. Night sessions have been proving that the Sole are also around. Black Lug on small size 2 hooks work well.

Portland: Wrasse and Pollock in large numbers are being caught from the Bill. A few Bass and Bull Huss have shown in catches last week. Lures for everything except Bull Huss. Or float fished Ragworm.

Portland Harbour: Access all areas again. Happy days. I love targeting the Mullet that swim near Portland Marina. It is also a good spot for a Bass in the evening. Flounder and some small Bream can also be caught from Hamm Beach.

Weymouth Bay: Lots of Mullet in the harbour and some of them are huge. They seem to be feeding quite aggressively before they move off to open water. Lots of different species coming from both piers, with sizeable Wrasse and Pollock on the Stone Pier.

Boat & Kayak fishing: The Shambles is fishing really well for Plaice at the moment and the reefs around it have been producing some really nice big Black Bream. Great conditions for Kayaking this weekend. I am hoping to get into Portland Harbour and get a late season Gilthead Bream and target some of the Bass that will be on a few spots that I have been watching closely during the past month.

I have very limited slots available in September for guiding and one to one sessions., but I still have quite a few for October. Don’t miss out on the best months fishing. These can be tailored to your requirements including mixed days of bait and lure fishing. Drop me an email for more details [email protected]