What effect will the May water have on fishing

Unfortunately the May water is back with us, but how much will this effect fishing as a whole? Without a doubt it does have a negative effect on a lot of fishing, and if you want to continue to successfully catch fish whilst it is around, you will most likely need to be more specific in which species you target.

One of the most obvious effects of the May water is it colours the water up. This means that fish that are more dependant on site for finding their food are the most effected. Mackerel and PLaice being two of the main ones. If the Mackerel are not around then other predators that feed on them such as Bass tend to move with the Mackerel shoals, so they stay away as well.

Species like Dogfish and Smoothounds don’t seem to be effected by May water. Targeting Smoothounds can be great fun and they certainly give you a fight. Wrasse are another species that are happy to continue to feed when the May water is about. However it is much more difficult to catch them on lures.

Sea Conditions: 

Water temperature 11.1°c.

Chesil Beach: Calm with a green colour towards Portland and brown towards Abbotsbury.

Portland: Calm with  coloured water

Portland Harbour: Calm with lightly coloured water

Weymouth Bay: Calm with  coloured water.

Chesil Beach forecast: I wish I could say it will be a great weekends fishing on Chesil this weekend, but I don’t think it will be. The combination of small tides and May water normally do not produce much during the day. Mackerel are more likely to stay in the clearer deeper water. However night sessions will produce Dogfish and Pout, with the chance of a Ray and the odd small Bass.

Portland: Wrasse fishing should be good around the Island. I will be down the Bill tomorrow at some stage to take some pictures, but I don’t think I will get a chance to fish. The poor water clarity has knocked the Pollock fishing on the head for a bit on lures. There is always the chance to pick some up on Ragworm or Mackerel strip.

Portland Harbour: This is one area that doesn’t seem to get effected by the May water as much as other marks. You will be able to pick up Flounder and there is always the chance of a Bass from now until October. As usual I prefer to use lures to target Bass, but in the past I have found Peeler Crab and Lugworm do very well this month.

Weymouth Bay: Preston fished well at the weekend when there was a lot of surf running up the beach. It has died off now, with very little surf and coloured water. Dabs and Flounder will be in close to the shore.

Boat & Kayak fishing: Light winds over the weekend will make it ideal for boat & Kayak fishing. I will be fishing the Weymouth Angling Society monthly boat, so I hope to have as good a time as I did a few weeks ago. We wont be heading out ofter the Plaice this trip, but there has been some nice ones landed from the Shambles, but again water clarity is effecting catch rates. A few Bass are showing on the boats now. Lyle skipper of Supanova managed to get his customers into some nice ones like this beauty.

Guiding & Lessons: With the fishing season well under way I am taking bookings for lure and bait fishing guided sessions. I am also offering 2 hour long fishing workshops, for those wanting to learn some of the basic techniques.  Have a look on the guiding link at the top of the page or drop me an email for more details to [email protected]