Date: 16-11-2018
Time of day: Afternoon - night
Location: Chesil-Beach
Mark: Abbotsbury
Low Tide: 04:37(1.87m) 17:23(1.79m) 05:42(2.01m) 18:50(1.84m)
High Tide: 11:40(3.08m) 00:44(2.89m) 13:04(3.00m)
Time fished from: 12:00
Time fished to: 00:30
Weather: A fairly strong wind from left to right. Cloudy.
Sea: Fairly murky with a small swell but large waves sometimes reaching far up the shingle.
Method: Ledger (homemade pulley rig) | Ledger (homemade pulley rig) | Ledger (running ledger) | lure
Bait: Frozen whole launce, frozen whole loligo squid and black lugworm, frozen peeler crab | frozen half launce, frozen peeler crab, frozen mackerel segments | frozen mackerel head
Caught (weight): 1 Pouting (0lbs 2oz, Guessed), 1 Whiting (0lbs 4oz, Guessed), 1 Whiting (0lbs 5oz, Guessed), 1 Conger Eel (2lbs 5oz, Guessed), 1 Whiting (0lbs 7oz, Guessed), 2 Whiting (0lbs 1oz, Guessed), 8 dogfish (1lbs 8oz, Guessed), 1 Pouting (0lbs 2oz, Guessed), 1 Pouting (0lbs 3oz, Guessed), 1 Conger Eel (1lbs 8oz, Guessed), 1 Whiting (0lbs 8oz, Guessed)
The Session: I fished Abbotsbury with other anglers I have fished with before. We had arranged to have a long session with some of us beginning around midday and others joining us later.
I arrived after getting some live ragworm from the tackle shop in the town. There were other anglers there and they were spread out in both directions along the beach with the right hand side ending around where the cottages were. This was ideal in a way because we had said we would fish at the cottages so a bit of an extra walk just past them into an area where we had several hundred yards of beach was ideal.
The sea was rough and the wind quite strong. All of the other anglers were set up well back from where the sea level was and I could see the line of weed which I assumed was from the reach of the last big high tide. I set up both of my main ledger rods before casting any out, beginning with launce and squid and trying crab and mackerel later in the session.
My first casts didn''t go very far but were still way beyond where the surf was beginning to break. I estimated around 40 yards. This was because it was too risky to walk down the shingle slope to get near the sea because some waves were stretching up and over the slope. Still, it wasn''t very long before one rod tip showed a series of rattles and in no time I hooked and landed a small pouting. This fish looked odd with big eyes. They looked like they had been inflated. I''d had one fish like this before in Ilfracombe and I wondered what could cause it. As I was putting the fish back, two others, John and Mick arrived and I was pleased they saw me with the fish and saw me catch the next one shortly after as it should have given them hope for a good session despite the difficult conditions.
After catching another whiting the next bite was very much the same but when I struck I felt a bigger weight on the end. I shouted over to one of the others because it did feel very big and the line on my other rod was close by and also slack so I needed someone ready to help me. It was a little dissapointing when the weight suddenly decreased which was because the fish was now not being pulled down by the force of the sea, and a small conger eel came out. Still, another species and the session was looking more promising.
I had more Whiting and then began catching dogfish too. Most fish were taking the Launce but some took the squid, including another Conger Eel. There were a couple of bites that I thought were from bigger fish and different species but all the ones I hooked from now on were Whiting, Pouting and Dogfish. Another Pouting had these weird inflated eyes again. The others were catching too so we were all having a good session so far. It was still not possible to get near the water to cast out at low tide so by then I was losing around 20 yards of distance due to casting from the top of the shingle, as well as the distance lost from the wind.
As light faded I set up a rod baited with a mackerel head but as I forgot my homemade rod rest I had to lay the rod on the shingle and the sea kept pulling the grip lead, presumably because of the amount of line entering the water and because I had to leave some slack in it. After a few casts I decided to pack it away because of this problem.
We were joined by another angler late in the afternoon, Paul, who also began catching fish soon after casting out. I had a feeling one of us would, sooner or later, get a bonus big specimen. Finally while still catching regularly we were joined by Terry who also caught the same species we were catching. Aside from wandering around to have a couple of chats we all stayed near our rods because we were getting bites so regularly, though mine began sloing in regularity until late on I had none in the last hour. Mick hooked a Whiting which came in bitten in half and later on he caught the bonus fish of the session, a cod around 2.5lb. He caught it on a third rod which he had close in on a worm bait. Even later while we were all chatting Mick noticed a bite on oen of his rods and went over to grab his rod. He brought in a Pouting which had a bite taken out of its belly and gills. We all pondered over what it could be and I still had a hope we would see a huge fish before the end of the session. Unfortunately we didn''t though. Bites slowed down for all of us and we agreed to call an end at half past midnight. I believed this to be the most successful meet up we have had so far as we all caught quite a few fish.
I took a lot of ragworm home with me and it was still lively enough to do me for a session the next day. This was the second time I''ve bought live ragworm from the shop in Abbotsbury and it is probably the best I''ve bought.
Tackle used (price) [ time since first used ]:
Set up 1: Rod: Daiwa Seahunter X 14ft 3 piece Fixed Spool (£60.00) [ > 0 years 6 months ]
Reel: Shakespeare Agility Surf 70FD Fixed Spool (£39.99) [ > 4 years 6 months ]
Line: Maxima Hi-Viz 20lb (£15.42) 550m
Hooks: Sakuma Manta 2/0 (£13.05) 100
Shockleader: Gardner Slinky 60lb (£6.99) 100M
Hooklength: Sunset Amnesia 40lb (£4.50) 100m
Set up 2: Rod: Daiwa seahunter Z 13ft 2 piece MFS (£42.99) [ > 0 years 11 months ]
Reel: Daiwa Crosscast S 5000 Fixed spool (£48.99) [ > 3 years 8 months ]
Line: Maxima Chameleon 20lb (£17.99) 600m
Hooks: Sakuma Manta 2/0 (£5.78) 30
Shockleader: Gardner Slinky 60lb (£6.99) 100M
Hooklength: Sunset Amnesia 40lb (£4.50) 100m
Set up 3: Rod: Daiwa Crosscast 13ft 3 piece Fixed Spool (£60.00) [ > 1 years 0 months ]
Reel: Daiwa Crosscast S 5000 Fixed spool (£48.99) [ > 3 years 8 months ]
Line: Maxima Chameleon 20lb (£17.99) 600m
Hooks: Sakuma Manta 2/0 (£13.05) 100
Shockleader: Gardner Slinky 60lb (£6.99) 100M
Hooklength: Sunset Amnesia 40lb (£4.50) 100m
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