Catch Report - Chesil Beach - 20th April 2018 (3)

Date: 20-04-2018

Time of day: Afternoon - Evening

Location: Chesil-Beach

Mark: West Bexington

Low Tide: 03:38(0.56m) 16:00(0.70m)

High Tide: 10:34(3.72m) 22:48(3.72m)

Time fished from: 15:10

Time fished to: 21:30

Weather: Sunny and beginning with no wind but becoming windy from behind later in the session.

Sea: Fairly clear with variable waves up to 3 feet and some reaching 20 yards up the shingle

Method: Ledger (homemade pulley rig) | Ledger (homemade 2 hook flapper)

Bait: Frozen loligo squid, frozen mackerel, frozen sandeel | frozen black lugworm, frozen squid pieces, frozen mackerel strips.

Caught (weight): 1 Dogfish (1lbs 5oz, Guessed), 1 Whiting (1lbs 15oz, Weighed) | 1 Smoothound (1lbs 12oz, Guessed)

The Session: I walked to the left of the car park and set up around 200 yards from it, keeping my shelter and tackle on the higher bank of shingle. Once I had set up both of my rods and beginning with a while squid on the pulley rig and a lugworm and pieces of squid on the flapper. I cast both baits around 80 yards and sat with the sun to my right so I could see my rod tips better.

Nothing much happened for the first 3 hours. I recast both rods a few times and each time the baits had been completely or partially eaten by crabs. This dappened my spirits a bit because it seemed similar to two sessions I had here last year, when I didn't do very well either. The first bit of activity was when I saw the line of the flapper rig go a bit slack and as I watched it I suspected the waves and two of the sea weren't to blame. the bow in the line was moving around too much, so I decided to grab the rod and strike.

I could feel something on and I suspected it to be a dogfish. It fought a little bit and was surely helped by the strong drag backwards as each wave receeded. Once it was lifted and beached by a wave I was very surprised to see it was a small smoothound. It had taken the small piece of squid on the top hook.

My hopes increased a bit and I began checking my baits a bit more often to make sure crabs didn't have too much chance to eat the bait. It was only a couple more casts and I thought I saw the rod tip of the pulley rig move but wasn't sure. I left it anyway and when I went to reel it in I could feel a weight on the end but assumed it was weed as some casts had brought small amounts of weed back with them. It turned out to be a dogfish which had taken the whole squid.

With things looking like they will be better than I first thought I began trying some mackerel on both rods. None of them resulted in a fish but there were a few casts of the flapper rig where bites showed but were only one or two short sharp pulls. One of these I struck at and did briefly feel the fish wriggle on the end but I was quickly off.

Not long after that, after I had put squid back on the pulley rig this rod showed a gentle bite as I stood up and close to the rod the tip stopped moving and showed no more signs of a fish. I struck asfter a couple more minutes and felt something on the end. The fish came in like it wanted to meet me and I hadn't any idea of it's size until it was left on the shingle by a wave. I first thought it was a cod but As I picked it up I saw it was a big whiting, certainly the biggest I've caught. It weighed 1.97lb so I recorded it at 1lb 15oz.

That was about all the action for the session. I changed baits around a bit more and had noticeable bites on the flapper rig again but none worth striking at or I did and missed them. None were bold bites so it was difficult to pick the right time to strike at them.

I had another trip planned so I decided to pack up at 21:30 as the next trip was going to be early afternoon the next day and a long session. This session at least kept me interested in trying West Bexington again.

Tackle used (price) [ time since first used ]:

Set up 1: Rod: Daiwa seahunter Z 13ft 2 piece MFS (£42.99) [ > 0 years 4 months ]

Reel: Daiwa Crosscast S 5000 Fixed spool (£48.99) [ > 3 years 1 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 2: Rod: Vercelli Outlander KW 13.5ft 3 Fixed Spool (£33.75) [ > 0 years 1 months ]

Reel: Shakespeare Agility Surf 70FD Fixed Spool (£39.99) [ > 3 years 11 months ]

Line: Maxima Hi-Viz 20lb (£15.42) 550m

Hooks: Sakuma Stinger Size 2 (£15.00) 100

Shockleader: Gardner Slinky 60lb (£6.99) 100M

Hooklength: Sunset Amnesia 40lb (£4.50) 100m