Plaice invasion
The Plaice fishing started very early on Chesil this year, with a reasonable number of fish showing from mid February, but the the weekend just gone seen a large number show all along the South Coast.
Ian Hooper managed a nice plaice despite the rest of the fishing being quite hard going, with most of the rest of his catch made up of pin Whiting. However his smile shows he was happy getting his target species.
Mike Carter had a very productive short session, when he landed 6 Plaice and a couple of Mackerel. That would make me happy all day long.
Chris Buxton and Richard Dean also took a trip to Chesil in search of Plaice and Rays. On Richard’s second cast he managed to pull in a fish that has always eluded me, a cracking 17lb 6oz. Undulate Ray.
Chris then went on to catch several lovely Plaice with the biggest weighing 2lb 6oz. They also had a great variety of species including Dogfish, Rockling, Thornback Ray and Mackerel.
Chesil Beach: Calm with almost clear water, but more coloured towards West Bexington.
Portland: calm with clear water
Portland Harbour: calm and clear water
Weymouth Bay: Calm with clear water
Chesil Beach forecast: Conditions look great for the rest of the week with light winds. The water clarity should improve at West Bexington towards the end of the week, making Plaice and Mackerel fishing even better.
With the tides building towards springs at the weekend, this is one of the best times for Rays. Sandeel baits fished on an up and over rig or a Pulley rig will work well.
Portland: Wrasse and Pollock fishing will continue to improve whilst the win stays light. A lot of Wrasse will start to move inshore now. They will be hungry and competing for territory. This is a great time to try for them on Lures. Soft plastics such as 4 inch paddle tails work really well. It is normally a case of trying different colours until you find the right one. I normally start with a blue, or water melon colour.
Portland Harbour: Flounder fishing has gone very quite in the harbour, and it is still too early for the Bass. However I will be looking out for reports of the first Mullet returning.
Weymouth Bay: Wrasse fishing will improve on the pier and there is a good chance of Herring and Pollock. It can only be a matter of weeks before the Squid make an appearance for their spring run. I am monitoring the reports from Brighton and Plymouth.
Guiding: With winter well and truly here the guiding for the next couple of months will be concentrated on Flounder, Wrasse and Whiting. However it wont be long before the Plaice return again and the first of the Mullet. It is advisable to book early for a guiding session this year. I am limiting my guides to 100 this year, which is a 30% drop from last year. I want to concentrate more on creating videos. However we can offer guided services in Poole and Plymouth, as well as the North East of England. If you would like to be a Fishing Tails guide then please contact us for more details.
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Hi I just had a weekend at chesil trying for a plaice. on Saturday I fished West bexington fished to the left of the car park for 10 hrs and caught 1 dogfish and a pin whiting. As far as I’m aware most people struggled to catch any plaice. Some people I spoke to never even had a bite. On Sunday fished the bird sanctuary at Ferrybridge was the only one on the beach may be because of the race that was on. Fished for 8hrs caught 2 dogs a wrasse 6 herring and 6 mackerel so was a bit better. Cheers scott from Portsmouth
After a successful session in October,I left a sunny Plymouth behind and returned to Freshwater Beach. I had my own bit of Chesil from Friday afternoon to Sunday night with only me on the beach fishing. I spent 3 sessions in daylight totalling 10 hours without a bite and on Friday night I had a few pouting, 2 dogfish and 2 small rays, which I thought were thornbacks but have since been told they were small eyed rays. Saturday and Sunday night I once again hit doggies and pouting. I had some great ragworm, lug, prawn, sandeel and razor but all that caught was frozen mackerel. Still the wind was at my back the whole time and I had a great time in lovely Dorset once again.
Fished cogden from 7am until 6pm on Friday the 25th only had pin whiteing rocking and dog fish no plaice and none caught to the left or right hardly a plaice invasion
It is very typical of Chesil to have areas where the fish are holding and even larger areas where they are not. Those that can cast a long distance almost always do better for Plaice than those that hit 70yds. More importantly you need to find the holing spots. I know of two good ones at Cogden that always produce fish for me, but if someone is on them, then I struggle.
Traveled down again today from south Wales with good sun and northaly light winds and fished 10hrs at West bexington 5 hrs at 2 different spots a mile apart without a bite or seeing anyone land anything at all fished short pullys with ragworm and lug two rods one at around 80yds and the other at my max 100yds water was slightly coloured , but this was off the scale poor , anglers left ,anglers right did see a fish of anykind landed ,won’t be back for a while I stay at home catching in the Bristol channel
Chesil can certainly be a bitch at times Leon. Thanks for your input, even reports of no fish being caught helps make up the bigger picture. Hopefully you will have more success the next time you are down.