We are having a spell of great weather for the time of year and also a great run of fish. Not the Cod that everyone seems desperate to catch, but Plaice, Bream and Gurnard. I had a busy week guiding for most part and I was lucky enough to find a lot of Plaice. Thankfully most of them were not that far out. I met up with Bill Morris the UK distributor for  Trabucco. He had been very keen for me to try out the range of lightweight rods, reels and lines. All I can say is that going light made a huge difference. We were using size 4 hooks and only 0.22mm XPS Velvet Pro mainline. in addition we used 3 red hyper soft beads, which lifted the bait slightly to give it an added attraction. Between us we had over 20 Plaice in a very short afternoon session. I was only there for about 2 hours.

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Bill Morris with a fine catch of Plaice

We did have a Gurnard as well, but Ben Stockley managed a far better mixed bag with Gurnard, Bream, Codling, Plaice and even a single dogfish, all during daylight hours.

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Gurnard and Bream are still around

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So does that mean more of the same for the weekend? Highly unlikely, as a it look like we are going to be hit with a fairly stiff South Westerly on Saturday. That should last late into Sunday afternoon, making the beach look good for Bass and Cod once again. The tides are much bigger this weekend, so that should also help bring in more Cod.

One of the goals I set myself this year is to catch a 20lb plus Carp on the fly. So far that has eluded me by a couple of pounds. However one of my friends Leigh Hirst,  has been fishing on the same water as me, on and off for a couple of weeks. On Monday she managed her first ever 20lb fish with this lovely mirror Carp. Not bad considering she has only been fishing for a couple of months.

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Leigh Hirst, with her first ever 20lb fish with this lovely mirror Carp.

Sea Conditions: Water temperature 17°c

Chesil Beach:  calm with clear water. 

Portland: Light swell with clear water

Portland Harbour: wavelets with clear water

Weymouth Bay: Light surf with clear water

Chesil Beach forecast: if you are heading on to Chesil today, then expect fairly calm conditions with the wind behind you. This makes it ideal for Plaice, Dabs and Garfish. Tomorrow and Sunday will be very different. A strong SW will create tough but potentially exciting fishing conditions. Bass and cod are a strong possibility. Use big baits, with Squid and fresh black lugworm my favourite choice at the 

Guiding: The new guiding season is underway once again. Although we can only keep one Bass, we can certainly catch more. I am hoping that the winter fishing ban and the new commercial quotas, combined with an increase in the minimum landing size, will make for some great Bass fishing. I specialize in lure fishing and I am offering Fly fishing this year as well. I am still more than happy to go after the multitude of species in this area with bait, whether that is big Wrasse, explosive Smoothound fishing or targeting the tastier fish such as Plaice and Bream. If you want to book a session or find out more information drop me an email at [email protected]

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