Gray the ray has pretty much been with me on Chesil since day dot but he loves a ray!.
Personally I love the technical fishing for flats and its probably the thing I have put most time into and enjoy most, so given a chance I will happily fish for them all the time!
There are five critical factors.
Bait
Rigs
Range (sometimes like Saturday they were all at 150 plus).
Conditions
Tide/movement
Bait, Always have blacks n rag they always show a preference, if you cant get fresh blacks then just use rag.
Rigs, you want it to go long and allow plenty of movement, so a longish loop, bar rig or an up n over with a bit of bling. With rigs you can get as creative as you like experimentation does work and if you can get 2 baits as far apart as possible then you will catch more fish and a lot more double shots. On Chesil I would always suggest a reasonable hook pattern my choice is Kamasan B940 but in the Autumn I will switch to a size 1 cox n rawle uptide to handle bycatch, its chesil so expect the unexpected more so in the Autumn when I have been plaice fishing and all I have caught is codling a decent small hook will deal with them and smuts easily in a flat sea, 30lb amnesia is the choice of snood. Recently we have seen an influx of small plaice on Chesil and I am tempted to switch to a size 4 pennel this weekend and thread a black up and lash a rag to the side of it and see how that works. Gray commented a couple of times that hes had baits pulled down and no fish. Although I would not deliberately target small fish its useful to know what range they are at, so to even pick up small ones would confirm the range at least.
Range, You do not always need range but your a bit screwed if you turn up and have bought a set of conti gear with you (like me on Saturday) and the fish are just beyond the distance you can get with your conti gear. Whatever you can get furthest is what you want to take on the beach or take 2 sets of gear or at least one light set and one heavy or long set.
If you are a moderate caster then it can pay to have a fs reel with a micro braid on it maybe I reckon anyone with decent timing can bang 5oz with a single hook tucked in behind 135 yards.
Its not always necessary on many occasions I have been smashing it out there and been overcasting all the fish especially in the Autumn.
Conditions, If you arrive to a coloured sea then its going to be tricky, all you can do is get the bait rolling as fast as you can and increase the bling and bait size. The plaice will still be there but you have to get the bait to them rather than wait for them to find it.
Use a bit of common here, get a position on the top of chesil and see if the water is clearer the further East you go, if it is then do it.
Tides and movement. Its common everywhere to hear that the plaice feed best when the tide is running, and I am sure this generalisation is 100% correct. But while you are waiting or on small tides anything you can do to promote movement is worth it, just a couple of turns on the handle every few minutes works. Or drop the lead size a ounce or switch to a more rolling lead as the tide drops off.
Last but by no means least, Chesil can change from one tide to the next and you have to switch it up if your not catching, theres not a lot of point just sitting there fishless. In the end when nothings going on I will switch it all over, a 3 hook pat dumped 40 yards or a big bunch of rag knocked out long. Later in the year a squid in the gutter works wonders........
Sorry Gray for dumping this on your thread, but then you already know all of the above, you have spent 100s of hours with me as we worked it all out........ and what we have learned we have learned together.
@charr
