Fishing forecast for Chesil Beach, Portland & Weymouth. 30th August 2012

We still have strong winds today with a change in direction from SW to W then through to NW later this afternoon. By tomorrow the winds will have dropped off a lot and are forecast to remain light for a good few days. This should make fishing this weekend a bit more pleasant

Water Temperature: 17.7*c             Weymouth High Tide: 6.53pm, 2.2m

Wind: NW 21mph gusting 25mph

Sea Conditions:

Chesil Beach: Rough with 3m waves. There is a long surf run of and lots of rafts of weed all along the beach. the water is carrying a fair amount of silt creating a milky green colour.

Portland: Rough on the West side , with a large swell exceeding 2m at times pushing down the East side. Plenty of weed in the coves and a fair bit of colour in the water.

Portland Harbour: Wavelets with almost clear water except Ferrybridge where some dirty water is coming out of the Fleet.

Weymouth Bay: Wavelets with clear water.

Chesil Beach forecast: With huge rafts of weed and a long surf run off you wont be able to get on the beach for some mackerel fishing. You might want to brave it and try for a Bass in the surf, but I for one wont be taking that chance. Tomorrow is another day and the water should clear pretty quickly.

Portland: Not ideal conditions for fishing the rocks. The Wrasse will move out into deeper water but you should still be able to catch Pollock and Garfish on a float fished strip of Mackerel. I like lure fishing for Bass when the conditions are rough like today. Choice of lure is very important as you need something that will bight in hard when you are fishing the higher ledges. I have been using the Seaspin Buginu which has a good weight to it and the lip would normally make it dive to around 1m, but fishing from a height reduces its normal swimming depth to around 10-15cm making it ideal for the rocky marks around the Bill. Do not fish the ledges close to the water, you will get washed off.

Portland Harbour: This is a good mark if you fancy some shelter. Both bait and lure fishing will produce Bass from all along the area from Ferrybridge to Sandsfot sailing club. Peeler Crab will be the best bait, but Ragworm will take fish. If you want to lure fish then you need to use either a Savage Gear Cannibal Shad or Sandeel and fish them just fast enough so that they don’t hit the bottom. Alternativly and my favourite lure for the shallow water around there is an IMA Komomo II which has a wonderful wiggle even when fished slowly. It fishes just under the surface making it an ideal lure where the water is shallow and there is a lot of weed. A simple straight forward retrieve is all you need to make this lure work.

Weymouth Bay: Preston Beach is a good mark if you want to get out of the wind and have some comfortable fishing. However due to the numbers of holiday makers on the beach this is a night time only venue at the moment. Some nice Bass and Rays have been landed from it this week.

Both the Stone Pier and the Pleasure Pier will produce fish today. Float fish Mackerel or Ragworm for Wrasse, Pollock Garfish and Mackerel.

Boat & Kayak fishing: The charter fleet will be staying in port today, but the forecast for the next few days looks good. When they do get out again, I am sure they will be back into the good numbers of Bream that are around at the moment. The commercial boats have been catching a lot of Bass in the Race at the start of the flood. They have now switched to joey Mackerel as their main bait. I am organising a 5 hour boat trip on Tuesday the 4^th of September so if you want to join me then drop me an email to [email protected] The cost is £25 for the trip. Rods and Reels can be hired for £10 if you don’t have your own, but numbers are limited for the tackle.

It is a bit too windy for the Kayak today, even in the confines of Portland Harbour, though die hard Kayakers could take advantage of the shelter offered around Sandsfoot Castle.

I have a few slots available in September for guiding and one to one sessions. These can be tailored to your requirements including mixed days of bait and lure fishing. Drop me an email for more details [email protected]

Weymouth fishing festival this weekend. Weymouth Angling Society are hosting the annual Weymouth fishing festival over the next two weekends. This weekend is the shore festival. Fishing is on Saturday and Sunday, though these are separate competitions so it is not necessary to fish both days. Fishing is from 4pm-10pm on each day. Sign on is in the Weymouth Angling Society club house. For more details look at the following link http://www.weymouthanglingsociety.com/festival.html