Catch Report - West Bexington - 25th July 2019 (5)

Date From: 25/07/2019 18:30:00

Date To: 25/07/2019 20:30:00

Time of day: Evening

Location: West Bexington

Mark: Main Beach

Tides:

Moon Phase:

Weather: Cloudy but sunny and some wind from behind.

Sea: Clear with waves up to 5 feet high and rolling for up to 40 yards

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

Bait: Frozen whole small sandeel, fresh large mackerel strips | frozen whole peeler crab | 5 hook purple hokkai rig

Caught:

The Session:

After trying Abbostbury a couple of sessions ago I decided to give West Bexington a go to see if I could do better there. I set up over to the right hand side of the car park and decided to have some casts with the mackerel feathers first to see if I could catch some for bait. I didn't see anyone catch any while I set up so I was pleasantly surprised to hook one on my first cast. I then had 3 more around 20 minutes later and then I set up my two ledger rods.

While casting out the feathers I couldn't get near the shoreline because the waves were rolling in quite far and receeding back far aswell. Any time I let the sea run past my feet I could feel the shingle giving way under foot and so I didn't want to risk getting down too close because I could fall over. I noticed that there was a pattern of numerous small waves after each larger one and I took those as the opportunity to get a bit closer to cast before retreating quickly as the feathers were still yet to land. When I had my ledger rods set up I walked down the shingle bank and waited for a large wave as I did with my feathers and cast them out. I was quite a few yards short of the distance I would have liked, probably about 50 yards out and this didn't give me much confidence.

I tried with the mackerel feathers again and a couple of times mis-timed my casts and ended up getting wet jeans and water in my wellies. Even within a couple of hours it looked like the sea was about to come over the top of the steep shingle back I was set up on so I moved my tackle even further back, up the next bank. Not long after, the sea did begin coming over so I was right to move.

The fishing was poor here. I was almost certain I needed to cast further than I could and I thought about what I would do if I did hook a big fish. While some people might risk the sea and others might drag the fish up the shingle, I am not comfortable doing either of those, the former is obviously because of the danger, the latter is because I feel it could harm the fish and possible result in losing it along with my terminal tackle.

Eventually, after having several casts where my bait came back almost gone, I was convinced there was nothing but crabs close in and I decided to pack up and go somewhere where the sea would be less rough. Typically, as I reeled in the rod baited with crab I found a small Smoothound to be hooked. I almost decided to stay but then opted to go to West Bay.

If the shingle wasn't so steep here today I would have stayed but I doubted I could get down there and back up with a fish with the size of the surge the sea was doing.

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