Catch Report - Chesil-Beach - 25th June 2019 (13)

Date From: 25/06/2019 16:15:00

Date To: 26/06/2019 01:00:00

Time of day: Afternoon - Night

Location: Chesil-Beach

Mark: Abbotsbury

Low Tide: 05:38 (1.53m) 17:50 (1.73m) 06:30 (1.60m) 18:49 (1.78m)

High Tide: 00:00 (3.35m) 12:40 (3.15m) 00:49 (3.25m) 13:34 (3.12m)

Weather: Sunny and warm with some wind from the right

Sea: clear and flat with just a small swell and small waves.

Method: Ledger (homemade pulley rig) | Ledger (homemade pulley rig) | lure

Bait: Frozen small sandeel | frozen peeler crab, frozen whole loligo squid | 6 hook white feathers

Caught:

The Session:

I walked to the right hand side of the car park for a few hundred yards and set up past the last person already fishing. I put out two ledger rods both at a distance of around 70-60 yards and then I set up a rod to try to catch some mackerel. I've not had many good sessions here so my aim was to at least recoup some fuel costs by catching some mackerel for future bait, which would make the trip worthwhile if I caught no other fish.

It turned out to be a slow session just like most of my other ones. I used the feathers for almost 6 hours with just short breaks. The first few I hooked even came off prompting me to wonder why I lose so many fish lately, and even happening on the feathers. After almost 3 hours I had 7 mackerel which looked about the same as or a little more than others were catching. I decided to take a break then try for a total of 12, whilst using 2 for bait during this session, taking the rest home roughly recouped my fuel costs going by the price of them at my local tackle shop.

The ledger rods had been pretty much motionless and the casts I had done up until now even returned with the baits intact, so I was leaving them out for a long time. Just as I got to them and looked at one rod the tip shook and then bent right down. I could only just get the rod out of the tripod as a Smoothhound pulled it hard after hooking itself.

The Smoothhounds I've caught here previously were small but still fought quite well and this fish certainly did too. It went off to my left quite a way and so much that I began to keep checking if the angler over that way was casting out or not. Eventually I managed to turn it and I intended to get it close in enough to avoid my other lines before it went off to my other side. I failed though and the fish went over then under the line of my other rod. I was lucky to not get too tangled though and I still managed to get it onto the shingle on a wave and got a little wet as I bent down to pick it up. I had to stop halfway back up the shingle both because the fish was flapping so much and because I could not go too far because I was tangled with my other line. I managed to unhook the fish without needing forceps and decided to weigh it. It went 8lb 4oz and was my biggest fish from Chesil. Once it was back in the water I found that the tangle was easy to undo and I cast a crab back out again hoping for another soon.

It didn't happen though and I had to settle for the feathers producing the fish until dark. The Mackerel came steadily in ones and twos and I still lost some more. A couple of Scad took them too and even after it had got quite dark, so I ended up with 13 fish on the feathers.

After dark I switched one rod to squid after running low on sandeel and began to get small bites which were shakes of the rod tip with long moments in between each one. I put it down to being small fish which I would not be able to hook on the size hooks I was using but eventually I hooked one and was a little surprised to see it was a small Pouting. I quickly used up the squid I had trying to hook the fish making these bites and an hour after midnight decided it would be all I would catch if I used up the last two so I decided to pack up.

Chesil still hasn't fished well for me after quite a few sessions now but I will still return now and again because it is nice to fish somewhere where I don't have to move during the session because of the tide sizes, but overall it is not producing as well as some marks closer to my home. I am just hoping for a day when I catch the few species that do not get caught from my local marks.

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: Gardner Slinky 60lb (£6.99) 100M Hooklength: Sunset Amnesia 40lb (£4.50) 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 Manta 2/0 (£13.05) 100 Shockleader: Gardner Slinky 60lb (£6.99) 100M 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: 6 hook, white Mackerel Feathers Shockleader: Sunset Amnesia 40lb (£4.50) 100m