Fishing forecast for Chesil Beach, Portland & Weymouth. 18th August 2012

I dragged myself out of bed for 5am this morning to go and try and catch myself a birthday Bass down the Bill. I had a quick look down the Bill last night and it looked set to be perfect this morning. When I arrived I was greeted with grey water and a large and dangerous swell. Within minutes I knew I was wasting my time fishing here. So after a few more casts and a bit of a saltwater shower I headed to Castletown, where I had seen a lot of bait fish activity the other evening. Conditions were so much nicer and sure enough when I got there and cast to my left with a Seaspin Pro-Q 120, I could see fish smashing into a shoal of bait fish. They got nearer and nearer my surface lure and I thought to myself anytime now! Bang swirl in the water and fish on. Unfortunately it wasn’t a Bass, but it was grabbed by a large Mackerel.

I fished for about an hour and moved around the area and on towards Portland Marina. I hoked several more Mackerel and was hit a couple of times by Bass right under my feet, but failed to hook any of the Bass. Still I have a good short session and proved the point that by lure fishing you can quickly move from an unproductive area and catch fish quickly.

I had a nice surprise for my Birthday. My wife and kids bought me an LRF set up, which I will go out and play with later this afternoon or tomorrow down at the Stone Pier. If you don’t know what LRF fishing is all about then you will find out a lot more about it in the next few weeks. You could also have a look at my friend Will Harding’s site http://ngangling.blogspot.co.uk/ he really is pushing the Weymouth LRF scene.

Water Temperature: 17.3*c             Weymouth High Tide: 8.19pm, 2.35m

Wind: SW 10mph

Sea Conditions:

Chesil Beach: Calm with a large and long swell. The water has a lot of silt in it from the past few days rough conditions.

Portland: Calm with a 2m swell that could easily catch an unaware angler, so be carefull. The water is grey in colour.

Portland Harbour: Calm with clear water,.

Weymouth Bay: Calm with clear water.

Chesil Beach forecast: The silted up water is not going to be good for mackerel fishing today. However if you are after Bass or Smoothound or Rays then conditions are pretty good. Very little wind will allow anglers of all ability the chance to cast to a lot of the species. Gurnard and Bream should be prevalent around the Portland end of the beach. Plaice and Dabs at the Western end. Big tides so feeding times may be brief for the Plaice.

Portland: The coloured water has basically killed any chance for lure fishing. That should not stop people fishing for Pollock and Garfish on float fished Mackerel strip. After a big blow with dirty water is always a good time for Bul Huss around Blacknor.

Portland Harbour: Sandsfoot Castle and the sailing club will provide sheltered marks, that should produce fish. Main species are likely to be Flounder, Garfish, Wrasse and small Bass. Ragworm baits will tempt most of the species except Garfish. Use flaot fished Mackerel strip for them.

Weymouth Bay: Stone Pier is where I will be heading to try out my new LRF gear today.

Boat & Kayak fishing: Portland Harbour is really going to be the only option for small boats and kayak fishing today. You could try going for Bass around the drop off marks on live prawn or lures. I have heard of a couple of Gilthead Bream and some Black Bream being caught by anglers fishing from a Kayak in the past couple of days. I might give a couple of marks that I used to fish from my boat a try from the Kayak. The next boat trip that I am organising is on Tuesday the 21^st of August. It will be a morning start for a 5 hour trip on the local banks and reefs for only £25. Email me if you are interested [email protected]