Chesil Cod Fever

Anyone who keeps half an eye on the various sources of catch reports for the famous Chesil Beach, cannot failed to have noticed that it’s been fishing really well for the last few months and in particular the last month, when the number of codling that have been coming off beach has been astronomical with people taking bags of 30 + fish in a session.

These are not big fish generally, being around 2.5lbs on average but what they are lacking in size they are making up in numbers.

So with this in mind I headed down to the Eastern end of the beach on Saturday morning, I went for the early morning shift arriving at around 6:30 am as I knew it would get very busy later in the day. Even at this early hour though, there were lots of anglers on the beach and I still had to hike for 30 mins or so to find a bit of space.

Conditions were pretty good with a nice sea running, although the water was clearer that I would have liked. To be honest it actually looked more bassy than Coddy and I found myself wishing I’d bought my lure gear! Still the clear water didn’t affect the fishing that much and I had bites from the off. The codling were soon coming ashore, fish typical of this year’s class, at around 2-3lbs each. I think I ended up with around 10 or so in total, most coming on fresh blow lug. Not bad for a few hours fishing but quite quiet compared to some of the bags that have been taken here recently.

Amongst the codling though I managed a lovely black bream which was a PB by a mile, weighing in at around 2lb 10oz. I have tried for years to catch a decent bream from Chesil so to get one at last was a real bonus and left me feeling pretty chuffed with the session.

I packed up around mid-day, content with my mornings work and having kept 3 cod and the bream, I had enough fish to weigh me down for that horrible hike back across the shingle to the car park (anyone who has fished Chesil will understand!)

There’s a couple of pics below, I’m loving my DSLR camera but there is so much to learn, I’m taking it one step at a time however but am determined to improve my fishy photography!

So that’s it for now, hoping to get a few more trips in before Xmas, maybe the weather will settle down again and these will be bass trips!

 

 

Back in the room......

OK, one year on from my last post so thought it was time to re-launch my blog! Why? Well mainly because I have just been given a new DSLR camera and I want somewhere to showcase my amazing fishy photos that I’m no doubt going to be taking with it…however, in the meantime you’ll have to make do with all sorts of rubbish while I get used to it!

Over the last year my fishing has focus has changed a little, not massively but I have done a little more bait fishing over the course of this year compared to the last few. That’s mainly perhaps because the bass fishing has been hard on one hand, and the other Chesil beach, has been fishing incredibly well over the course of the summer.

The bass fishing has been tough for some reason, so far this year I have caught 32 lure caught bass in 20 trip, numbers way down on previous years on a fish per trip basis. I have no idea why this should be, but I am not the only one struggling. I’m not convinced there are any less bass this year than normal though, I just think that their habits have changed a little. Maybe that’s down to the great weather we’ve been having, or the mild winter with all the storms, who knows? What I do know though is I have fished a few marks several times in spot on condition in which I would have bet my mortgage on catching and have not seen a sign of a fish, bass or otherwise. Other marks, though, have produced as normal.

Just to fill you in on some of the sessions I’ve had over the last year though….2013 finished with a flourish, then a whimper. I had a blinding session down in Cornwall catching 40 bass in the space of a couple of hours, it was absolute carnage with virtually a fish a chuck and if I had the time to stay on that day I think I could have doubled that figure! Then the season finished abruptly and I didn’t catch another fish!

This year got going in early May and it started pretty well to be honest, but things have slowed down over the summer and almost ground to a halt now, in what should be the best time of year, still with this good weather there is still plenty of time to get in a good session or two.

Bait wise, as I mentioned Chesil beach has been fishing well, particularly for the summer species at the Portland end of the beach, with lots of Bream and Gurnards and a good run of codling to around 3lb to which is always a bonus. I’ve had a few trips down here over the last couple of months and done pretty well. I’ve also caught quite a few Gurnards on lures (or power isome to be specific), bounced around on a jig head or drop shotted at 30/40 yards out. It turns out this is a very effective way of catching them and I’m sure would account for a few other species with a bit more time and effort put in.

Anyway, that’s it for now, here’s a few pics (from the old camera) of stuff I’ve caught over the last 12 months and here’s to more regular updates moving forward!