Date: 19-05-2017
Time of day: Evening
Location: Chesil-Beach
Mark: Abbotsbury
Low Tide: 05:58(1.34m) 18:20(1.51m)
High Tide: 00:12(3.37m) 12:54(3.14m)
Time fished from: 17:45
Time fished to: 22:30
Weather: Cloudy. Windy to begin with but dying down after around an hour with moments of strong breezes from right to left. A couple of periods of light rain and black clouds overhead.
Sea: Clear with a small swell and waves up to four foot. A slight tow.
Method: Ledger (homemade pulley rig) | Ledger (running ledger)
Bait: Frozen loligo squid, frozen black lugworm, frozen prawn, frozen mackerel segments | frozen peeler crab
Caught (weight): 2 Dogfish (1lbs 0oz, Guessed), 1 Dogfish (1lbs 8oz, Guessed) | 1 Smoothhound (4lbs 0oz, Guessed), 1 Smoothhound (3lbs 9oz, Weighed)
The Session: On arrival there were several other groups of anglers there. I set up in a convenient spot, leaving a good hundred yards to the nearest group and my first rod I set up, baited with a squid, and cast as far as I could in the wind. It fell about 40 yards and I had to deal with a lot of line that bowed in the wind. The second rod I cast about the same distance, baited with two small peeler crabs. These were crabs I bought from a supplier I hadn't used before (Baits R Us) and the first couple looked poor quality, in fact the first was not a peeler, but the rest were ok. Things began slowly and I had plenty of time to look around, and take photographs of the scenery and also look to see if anyone else was catching. It didn't look like they were. It was about 45 minutes before I had a bite and it came on the crab bait. A fish first cast, and it was a smoothound I guessed at around 4lb. I quickly released the fish, almost losing my footing as I timed it with an average wave. I made sure I was extra careful from then on. The next bite was almost two hours and several casts of each rod later. I had switched from squid to lugworm and then to a prawn on the pulley rig. I didn't have too much hope that the prawn would get anything because it had gone very dark coloured after being frozen for a long time. I had only just sat down after casting though and the tip began moving and quickly pulled down sharply. I lifted into the fish and watched my rod tip arch round before I looked at my other rod and saw the tip pull right over. I picked up that rod in my other hand and pulled it as far back as I could. It felt like the fish was not hooked so I replaced it in the rest and continued playing the fish on the other rod. The rod in the rest soon bent over again and I switched rods, believing I was in to another smoothound and surely enough after a few minutes of playing it, it was ready for me to pick up from the edge of the surf and I took it back to my tackle and then took up the other rod and found out this fish was a dogfish. I took a photo of both fish together and released them in a suitable wave. I changed baits on the pulley rig again over the next hour and a half and upon changing to a large segment of mackerel, immediately had a bite. It turned out to be another dogfish which wasn't even hooked but due to the large bait and elastic around it, it probably couldn't manage to spit the bait out until I landed it. Not long after, with the same piece of mackerel another dogfish did the same. I missed the next bite and then gave lugworm and squid another go before packing up and going home, vowing to return again very soon.
Tackle used (price) [ time since first used ]:
Set up 1: Rod: Daiwa Seahunter X 14ft 3 piece Fixed spool £64.07 [ > 3 years 0 months ] Reel: Daiwa Crosscast S 5000 Fixed spool £48.99 [ > 2 years 2 months ] Line: Maxima Chameleon 20lb 600m £17.99 Hook: Sakuma Manta 2/0 10 £2.35 Hooklength: Maxima Clear 15lb 100m £4.00
Set up 2: Rod: Shakespeare Omni Beachcaster 14ft 3 piece Fixed Spool £26.95 [ > 0 years 10 months ] Reel: Mitchell 667FG Fixed spool £23.90 [ > 3 years 9 months ] Line: Maxima Chameleon 20lb 600m £17.99 Hook: Unbranded Baitholder 4/0 50 £3.99 Hooklength: Ultima Memorex 40lb 50m £5.95
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