Catch Report - Chesil-Beach - 22nd July 2019 (30)

Date From: 22/07/2019 18:15:00

Date To: 23/07/2019 01:00:00

Time of day: Evening - night

Location: Chesil-Beach

Mark: Abbotsbury

Low Tide: 03:56 (1.18m) 16:04 (1.35m) 04:29 (1.24m) 16:39 (1.39m)

High Tide: 10:49 (3.48m) 22:55 (3.62m) 11:19 (3.42m) 23:26 (3.53m)

Weather: Blue skies but also thick fog or mist.

Sea: Clear with waves varying in size from a few inches to a few feet.

Method: Ledger (homemade up and over rig) | Ledger (homemade up and over rig) | Ledger (running ledger) | lure

Bait: Frozen whole extra large sandeel, frozen small sandeel | frozen whole peeler crab | 5 hook purple hokkai heads

Caught:

The Session:

Hoping to better my last session here I fished similar methods to last time, intending to fish until the early hours of the morning. During the car journey I noticed that the weather was not great. At home it was sunny and I xhecked a webcam before I left but still didn't expect it to be as dull as it was. Still the wind was very low so it should be comfortable.

I immediately set up my distance ledger rods and put them both as far as I could, which was around 80 yards out. Then I set up some mackerel feathers ro catch some for bait for this session and to freeze for food and bait. It wasn't long before I had a couple and one of them was noticeably larger than the other. I took regular breaks to recast my ledger rods which were not getting any bites and within 3 hours I had a nice amount of mackerel so I set up a rod and put out half a mackerel about 30 yards out.

Now, as the light faded I began to get noticeable bites on all 3 ledger rods. The ones on the distance rods were quick shakes of the rod tips which I couldn't hook and on the large bait rod I had two bites that peeled line from the reel and took the bait from one side of me to the other but when I struck at both of them I felt nothing at all. I also noticed that the mist or fog was lower and thicker and it was almost like rain.

Then, while I was contemplating packing up my mackerel feathering rod a lot of baitfish began jumping out on to the shingle. There must be a shoal of Mackerel close in so I had another go with the feathers and in a few casts I had some Scad and more Mackerel which took the feathers very close in. That rod them went away while I concentrated on the bites I was still getting on the ledger rods.

I only hooked one fish in the next 3 hours or more. The baits were coming back, clearly chewed by something. One rig was badly twisted, indicating the prescence of Conger Eel and on the large bait I had plenty of pulls on that and the bait would come back as if a small fish had taken a bite out of it. I also got snagged twice and ended up losing two entire rigs and shock leaders. The snag was straight out in front of me so I made sure I cast to me left and right for the rest of the session. I got a little frustrated until I got that one fish, which was a dogfish and my hopes to get something else increased but I eventually packed up when I had ran out of sandeel, which was producing the most bites. Visibility had also dropped and I could barely see the water, not the other anglers a hundred yards away from me, expcept when their headlamps gave them away.

Although I caught plenty of Mackerel which balanced out the cost of fuel with the saving I made not needing to buy them, this was a poor session at Chesil again. Not many people were fishing earlier in the session, perhaps because it was a weekday, but even by last light nearly everyone had gone which I wondered if it was because the fishing was so poor for them too.

Chesil is certainly not living up to its hype for me. I'll keep visiting because it makes a change to be on a part of the coast where the tides are small so there is no need to keep moving my tackle every so often but I am not expecting to have a great session there.

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

Set up 1:

Rod: Daiwa Seahunter X 14ft 3 piece Fixed Spool (£60.00) [ > 1 years 2 months ] Reel: Wychwood Riot Fixed Spool (£39.99) [ > 1 years 0 months ] Line: Maxima Chameleon 20lb (£17.99) 600m Hooks: Sakuma Manta 2/0 (£13.05) 100 Shockleader: Rovex Surf clear 60lb (£7.99) 150m Hooklength: Sunset Amnesia 25lb (£6.25) 100m

Set up 2:

Rod: Daiwa Seahunter Z 12ft 2 piece Fixed Spool (£37.99) [ > 0 years 4 months ] Reel: Shakespeare Agility Surf 70FD Fixed Spool (£39.99) [ > 5 years 2 months ] Line: Maxima Crystal Ivory 20lb (£14.08) 651 yards Hooks: Sakuma Circle 440 3/0 (£19.20) 50 Shockleader: Rovex Surf clear 60lb (£7.99) 150m Hooklength: Sunset Amnesia 25lb (£6.25) 100m

Set up 3:

Rod: Shakespeare Omni Mackerel 10ft 2 piece Fixed Spool (£17.95) [ > 5 years 0 months ] Reel: Leeda Icon 5000 Fixed spool (£35.18) [ > 5 years 6 months ] Line: Maxima Chameleon 20lb (£17.99) 600m Lure: 5 hook Purple Hokkai heads Shockleader: Drennan Greased Weasel 40lb (£7.43) 50m

Set up 4:

Rod: Daiwa seahunter Z 13ft 2 piece MFS (£42.99) [ > 1 years 7 months ] Reel: Lineaeffe Tiger 870 Fixed Spool (£17.00) [ > 0 years 2 months ] Line: Daiwa Sensor 50lb (£6.99) 230m Hooks: Sakuma Circle Extra 8/0 (£8.79) 10 Hooklength: Gardner Slinky 100lb (£7.95) 100m