Date: 02-08-2018
Time of day: Afternoon - night
Location: Chesil-Beach
Mark: Abbotsbury
Low Tide: 03:55(0.98m) 16:07(1.05m) 04:33(0.99m) 16:47(1.06m)
High Tide: 10:40(3.60m) 22:52(3.72m) 11:15(3.54m) 23:33(3.61m)
Time fished from: 16:00
Time fished to: 01:45
Weather: cloudy with little wind to begin with but increasing to a strong wind from behind later on.
Sea: Fairly clear with lots of weed drifing left and right and a swell and waves of up to 3 feet.
Method: Ledger (homemade pulley rig) | Ledger (homemade pulley rig) | Ledger (Homemade 2 hook flapper rig)
Bait: Frozen peeler crab, frozen whole loligo squid | frozen sandeel, frozen whole loligo squid | live ragworm, dead black lugworm
Caught (weight): 7 Scad (0lbs 3oz, Guessed), 7 Scad (0lbs 5oz, Guessed), 5 Mackerel (0lbs 8oz, Guessed), 1 mackerel (0lbs 12oz, Guessed)
The Session: I returned to Dorset for another attempt fishing Chesil and this time opted for Abottsbury towards the cottages. I took a lot of food and iced water in a cool box because I would be fishing for quite a long time in the sun.
This time I set up 3 ledger rods and a mackerel feathering rod, which I had a few casts with inbetween setting up each ledger rod in the hope of catching some for bait and to take home.
I cast the two ledger rods I hoped to catch big fish on around 80 yards and the rod for smaller species ariound 60 yards then continues to use the feathers.
On two casts, right on the first pull of the retrieve I managed to hook some mackerel and so I had 5 which I put straight in the cool box. I then checked all my ledger rods and found them all to have weed caught arou nd the leader knot, weight and bait. The baits all showed signs of being taken by something which I put down to crabs. I recast them all and when I reeled them in again they were covered in weed. This pretty much continued for a while and I quickly lost any hope of catching anything on these rods, certainly as far as I could see the weed floating for. Once it looked like it was clearing, the tow changed directiuon and the rafts of weed came back from the other direction.
It was a shame that I began to get a headache during thhis session and I ended up trying different things to stop it progressing, including eating earlier than planned, drinking cold water and closing my eyes while lying down for a bit. Nothing really worked and save for a half an hour or so when I decided to try feathering as the light faded I caught some Scad and a couple more mackerel, I tucked myself behind my seat box and cool box and tried to get a couple of hours sleep before continuing fishing. I couldn''t get to sleep though and to my surprise the wind began to increase in force until it became quite strong. I again tried fishing at around 1am but the first cast again came back with weed on after only 5 minutes in the sea and after spening several more minutes removing it I decided things were just not going right and I packed up and drove home, hoping I''d feel more well tomorrow.
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 piece Fixed Spool (£17.95) [ > 4 years 1 months ]
Reel: Leeda Icon 5000 Fixed spool (£35.18) [ > 4 years 7 months ]
Line: Maxima Chameleon 20lb (£17.99) 600m
Lure: Mackerel feathers (4 hook flasher rig)
Shockleader: Sunset Amnesia 40lb (£4.50) 100m
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