Being a fishing guide in Dorset can certainly have its rewards. If you are one of the readers that log on nice and early, then  you will be reading this whilst I am huddled in my beach buddy out on Chesil beach, fishing for a monster Bass or Cod. Hopefully tomorrow, I will be telling you about the best days shore fishing I have had on Chesil beach this year. The conditions are set to be almost perfect. Yesterday was the peak of the storm and conditions on the beach were incredible. As the pictures and video shows the waves were huge, sometimes exceeding 5m. The wind was driving spray over the top of Chesil and into Portland harbour.

 

 

 

 

 

 


That was yesterday! Today the wind has died right back. There is a big swell and lots of disturbed, coloured water. The tide is dropping away from a big spring tide, and we are in the middle of the best month for shore fishing in Dorset. The exact mix of conditions that don’t happen too often. Being a fishing guide I am extremely lucky that I can go fishing when ever I want. If I wasn’t a guide, I would be pulling a sicky today to fish what could easily be one of the best fishing days of the year.On the other hand I might have got it all wrong and I end up blanking, but I don’t think that is going to happen. I am almost certain that there will be double figure fish caught today. The most likely species are Bass, Cod, Undulate Ray and Conger.

With coloured water, there is likely to be plenty of Dogfish and Pout around. If you catch yourself a Pout, think about using it as a live bait. You can slide it down the line as a flyer, or set up a Pennel rig with  much smaller hook  baited with worm, above a 4/0 main hook to attract a small Pout or Whitting. Once hooked it will hopefully be tracked down by one of the larger predators  that will engulf the bait fish and the large 4/0 hook.

I will keep you up to date today via Facebook if I catch any decent fish.

 

Sea Conditions: 

Water temperature 15.4*c.

Chesil Beach:  Rough with a 2m swell, with very coloured water.

Portland: 2m swell with  coloured and weedy water

Portland Harbour: Calm with mostly clear water

Weymouth Bay:  Calm with slightly coloured water

Chesil Beach forecast: It is going to be tough fishing on Chesil today, with a large back wash that will try and suck your rigs into the pebbles. Target fish are Bass, Cod, Rays and Conger. I am going armed with Peeler Crab, Blow Lug and Squid. I will only be using big baits. If you fish Chesil take care, as it is likely to be dangerous.

Portland: The only marks to fish are those well above the water line. Chine is one that can throw up anything in these conditions, including Bass, Bull Huss and Cod. However you will need heavy tackle to compete with the snaggy bottom and the height above water.

Portland Harbour: I went down to Ferrybridge yesterday to take some pictures and I was talking to a couple of guys there that had sensibly kept of Chesil. They were using different techniques to target the fish. One was using float gear and had quite a few Mackerel, Pollock and Scad. The other angler was fishing popped up Mackerel and Ragworm on the bottom. He had quite a few Wrasse and Pollock. 

Weymouth Bay: If you don’t want to risk fishing Chesil, then the Stone Pier is a good safe mark. Lots of small Whitting showing, along with small Black Bream, Wrasse, Pout and Pollock. Float fishing with a strip of Mackerel will still catch you Mackerel and Garfish

Guiding & Lessons: Despite October being one of the best months for lure fishing for Bass, I still have quite a few days left.  Have a look on the guiding link at the top of the page or drop me an email for more details to sean@fishingtails.co.uk

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