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CHESIL REPORT
by Heggy
The last month proved to be a fairly
productive period, plenty of Plaice to over 3lb with a few Dabs mixed
in, Smooth Hound and the early arrival of the Mackerel kept everyone
happy. The recent " Flattie Only Open" saw 101 flats recorded, with the
individual winner, Saul Page from Deal in Kent taking seven fish, six
Plaice and a Dab. Saul recorded over 2 metres in this measure and return
match. Plenty of Dogs and small Pout after dark with one or two Small
Eyed Ray from the Bexington/Cogden area. The coming weeks should see the
hounds arrive in strength and if things continue as they have over the
last couple of years we could see a fair number of double figure fish
taken. Not all good news though, the Spider Crabs have also turned up
extremely early, these master rig wreckers have already started to do
their thing, with the amount of rigs coming back minus hooks it pays to
carry plenty of spare ones or packets of hooks to carry out running
repairs.
Portland producing plenty of Ballans, but
only fish up to 4 1/2lb, for those more inclined to use a float, now is
the time to look for an early Garfish with specimens up to 1 3/4lb on
the cards. First Conger and Huss tend to show about now although no
reports so far, plenty of Bass in Portland Harbour with fish up to 3-4lb
the norm. The last few days with this hard easterly wind blowing has
been very productive and as I always say light tackle with big baits
seems to do the business. Weymouth Harbour is full of Thin Lipped
Mullet, but with the water temperature still low nobody knows whether
they will take a bait, I suppose I will just have to go and try. Many
appear in extremely poor condition after the winter so I would expect
them to feed ravenously as soon as the water temp rises slightly.
Weymouth Report By Paul Whittall -
Skipper of Offshore Rebel
Click Here
What a massive difference the last two
weeks has made to the fishing! Now the wrecks are fishing very well for
Pollack into double figures with the live Sand Eels available making all
the difference. The most productive time is during the slackening of the
tide, the slack period and the build up of the next tide. Once the tide
speed reaches 2 knots the fishing virtually shuts off. The neap tides
are particularly productive. This will all change of course and probably
be the exact opposite next week! There have been a few ling about but as
yet no Cod or Bass.
The inshore fishing has also improved
greatly with a few good Plaice to 5lb 8oz coming from the Shambles and
the surrounding Mussel beds. There's also been some good Turbot with
Chris Tett's Peace and Plenty landing one of 24lb. The first of the
Bream have shown up at Warbarrow Bay to the east of Weymouth with
several catches of 30 plus fish along with Pollack, Pout, Dogfish and
Wrasse as well as the first Mackerel.
General reef fishing is seeing plenty of
small Smooth Hounds in the 2lb to 4lb range plus Huss, Rays and a few
strap Conger. The Kidney Bank to the west of Portland has fished well on
several occasions with Blonde Rays to 28lb. The Channel Island trips
have also improved after a very slow start and I recommend anyone
interested to look at the excellent Alderney Angling web site for the
latest information. The past week of big tides has seen several of the
charter boats ashore for their annual pre-season clean up but now
everyone is back in the water and raring to go for what we all hope will
be a good year with, hopefully, a lot less wind and better weather than
last year's never ending battle with the elements.
Thank you all for coming to Weymouth
through what has been a quiet period up until the start of April,
fishing will be much better now...we promise!
Alderney Angling Website
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