Date: 05-08-2018
Time of day: Afternoon - evening
Location: Chesil-Beach
Mark: Abbotsbury
Low Tide: 06:06(1.14m) 18:29(1.23m)
High Tide: 00:23(3.46m) 12:54(3.32m)
Time fished from: 15:00
Time fished to: 22:30
Weather: Very warm and sunny with barely any wind.
Sea: Clear and flat with just tiny waves.
Method: Ledger (homemade pulley rig) | Ledger (homemade pulley rig) | Ledger (homemade 2 hook flapper) | Lure
Bait: Frozen peeler crab, frozen whole loligo squid | Frozen large sandeel | Mackerel feathers
Caught (weight): 102 Scad (0lbs 4oz, Guessed), 3 Mackerel (0lbs 8oz, Guessed), 3 Mackerel (0lbs 12oz, Guessed)
The Session: Back at Abbotsbury for another attempt to cath a variety of species I ended up setting up very near where I was on my previous tri that I abandoned due to feeling ill and poor fishing and weather. This was because the beach was a bit busier and the same area was the first large gap between other anglers.
After I cast my first rod with a whole squid on around 80 yards and picked up my second rod the one I mjust cast out registered a bite. This must have been just 20 seconds after putting the rod in the tripod. There were no tell-tale movements of the tip that I could guess what speciues it might be so I left it to develop but it did just the opposite. After about 2 minutes the tip stopped moving and after waiting for the fish to come back I reeled in to find the squid still on the hook but with a chunk bitten out of it. It gave me hope that I would catch today though so I set up my remaining 3 ledger rods as quick as I could and cast them similar distances with different baits. Then I set about trying to catch some mackerel to use for bait and to take home.
Over the space of a couple of hours I recast the ledger rods and managed to bring in 5 mackerel when a shaol appeared to swim pas and other anglers caught some too, but then everything went quiet for several hours. The ledger rods would sometimes come back with no bait on the hooks and increasingly with weed on the shockleader knot and wround the weight and it slowley became apparent it was going to be a poor day on the ledger rods so I concentrated on trying to catch mackerel to take home.
After someone near me left and their spot was taken by a couple, who tried for some fish for an hour or so before packing up and stopping to chat to me before they left. I said I didn''t want to get their hopes up but I was expecting something to happen as the light began to fade and as if that was a prompt for the fish the sea began bubbling as tiny fish and Scad began swimming up onto the beach. Large areas of the sea for the hundreds of yards infront and around us began moving differently as each part of the shoal scattered, jumped and chased the baitfish. I immediately began pulling in some Scad, 6 per cast and hoped if I kept casting far some mackerel would be out there ready to grab the feathers before the Scad did. The couple set up their rod again and began casting and reeling in Scad too. They even managed a few mackerel whereas I just managed to catch one before I had counted up to 74 Scad I had caught and thrown back, or kept any that were bleeding badly. As I was casting and retrieveing I could see an endless shoal swimming in front of me just a yard out. They quidkly took any baitfish I dropped back in and a couple even took baitfish from my fingers. A couple of times I just dropped the feathers iunder the rod tip and moved it back and forth and was still getting 6 Scad hooked up. This was, I think putting the cheap fibreglass rod through it''s paces and probably up to its absoulte most compressed as I reeled in what at times felt like a dead weight. I decided that if I got to one hundred Scad then I would give up on expecting any more Mackerel and call it a day on the feathers before giving the ledger rods a few more casts into full darkness. So after the 102nd Scad I put the feathering rod away and put out fresh baits on the ledger rods. I finished off my soft drink and the remainder of my flask tea as I had two more casts of each rod before accepting defeat, peeled off the large clumps of weed from my line and rod tips and set off for the car park where evidence of the sheer vastness of the shoal were apparent by a couple of other anglers carrying large containers full of Scad to their cars.
Overall I was pleased to see this great event unfold out of nowhere right in front of where I was standing and it made the journey worthwhile but I felt that over this week, my 3 visits to this area were timed completely wrong as it appeared some good fish were caught on all the days I was not fishing there. Still, with my recent local sessions producing a good number of Smoothounds I suppose I can accept a few less productive sessions as far as large fish goes.
Tackle used (price) [ time since first used ]:
Set up 1: Rod: Daiwa seahunter Z 13ft 2 piece MFS (£42.99) [ > 0 years 8 months ]
Reel: Shakespeare Agility Surf 70FD Fixed Spool (£39.99) [ > 4 years 3 months ]
Line: Maxima Chameleon 20lb (£17.99) 600m
Hooks: Sakuma Manta 545 2/0 (£5.39) 30
Shockleader: Gardner Slinky 60lb (£6.99) 100M
Hooklength: Sunset Amnesia 40lb (£4.50) 100m
Set up 2: Rod: Daiwa Seahunter X 14ft 3 piece Fixed Spool (£60.00) [ > 0 years 2 months ]
Reel: Wychwood Riot Fixed Spool (£39.99) [ > 0 years 1 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 3: Rod: Daiwa Crosscast 13ft 3 piece Fixed Spool (£60.00) [ > 0 years 9 months ]
Reel: Daiwa Crosscast S 5000 Fixed spool (£48.99) [ > 3 years 5 months ]
Line: Maxima Chameleon 20lb (£17.99) 600m
Hooks: Sakuma Stinger 2 (£15.00) 100
Shockleader: Gardner Slinky 60lb (£6.99) 100M
Hooklength: Maxima Clear 15lb (£4.00) 100m
Set up 4: Rod: Shakespeare Omni Mackerel 10ft 2 pieces Fixed Spool (£20) [ > 0 years 1 months ]
Reel: Leeda Icon 5000 Fixed spool (£35.18) [ > 4 years 7 months ]
Line: Daiwa Hyper Sensor 20lb (£12.95) 635m
Lure: Seatech 6 Hook Flasher rig (£1.50)
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