Emmcee75
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2021
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As the title suggests I decided to give chesil beach a go last week. I know I could have and probably should have asked for advice but I watched a few YouTube videos and kind of wanted to see how I got on with what limited knowledge I had of the place on my own. I was booked on to a campsite from Tuesday to Saturday so a 4 night stay. As it was my first time fishing it I had decided that I would fish a few different venues over the course of my stay, with no real targets other than to catch anything that came along and just wanted to experience fishing chesil beach.
So the first evening I headed to ferrybridge. As I parked up a few anglers came over the shingle bank from the left as you look at it back to their cars so I headed in that direction guessing there would be space to fish to which there was and I had myself a good 50metres of beach. One rod with a 2 hooked clipped rig baited with ragworm tipped with squid and the other rod a pulley dropper with whole squid. I had bites from the off landing a couple of bream in the last of the light as the sun was setting and once darkness came I was inundated with pouting, one of which was a pb pouting of 32cm, all on the scratching rod. At one point I was just about to wind the scratching rod in when it slammed over only for the weight on the end to drop off after a few seconds and a disembodied pouting to come up the shingle. The whole squid had one clonking bite all evening/night which resulted in a feisty hound of just over 3lb.
The next evening I decided to fish abbotsbury. On arrival I was welcomed to a site of tents and what not straight over from the wooden path so headed left to the end of the anglers giving myself some space. Once again as with every session, 1 rod scratching with 2 hooked clipped rig and the other rod the pulley dropper with whole squid. A very quiet night ensued though I did manage one bite which resulted in a tub gurnard. Also on retrieval of the pulley dropper rod on one occasion a sudden weight put a bend in the rod and a lively fish on the end giving me a decent fight. Up the shingle came a mullet that had a line of feathers hanging off it with one of Said feathers in its mouth. So uncooked and returned safely minus the tangled mess.
The next day (Thursday)I decided to fish west bexington for a few hours over low during daylight to use up some bait and just for something to do before going to the tackle shop to pick up my fresh bait for the evening. Nothing at all happened so I headed to the tackle shop and whilst in there got chatting to a few anglers who had fished hive beach the previous evening and they said they had caught a few small undulates , pouting, conger etc so decided to head there for my evening session. Now a bit of a blow picked up during the day with some rain which brought in some weed on the surf. So fished hive that evening and got pestered by pouting from the off, all small. Also took a few straps, well boot lace congers and the smallest dogfish I've ever seen. No pictures from this session apart from the sunset.
For my final evening (friday) I decided to once again go to ferrybridge. A very busy beach was in front of me so I followed a couple of anglers who walked right along the fleet and onto a wooden path of sorts which saved the legs I must say. These fellas marched on past the end of these wooden planks but me I was cooked so fished where the little wooden path/planks ended. I really need to lighten my load when fishing this beach again. Another quiet ish nights fishing with a couple of bream, a doggy , a tub gurnard and pouting coming up the shingle.
I enjoyed the fishing, catching every evening so happy with that and only blanking when fished during the day. Will definitely be back but this time with a lighter load as I feel walking away from the crowds is the way to go, this definitely seems to be the case when I've watched chesil fishing on YouTube etc. Sorry it's a bit long winded Haha.
So the first evening I headed to ferrybridge. As I parked up a few anglers came over the shingle bank from the left as you look at it back to their cars so I headed in that direction guessing there would be space to fish to which there was and I had myself a good 50metres of beach. One rod with a 2 hooked clipped rig baited with ragworm tipped with squid and the other rod a pulley dropper with whole squid. I had bites from the off landing a couple of bream in the last of the light as the sun was setting and once darkness came I was inundated with pouting, one of which was a pb pouting of 32cm, all on the scratching rod. At one point I was just about to wind the scratching rod in when it slammed over only for the weight on the end to drop off after a few seconds and a disembodied pouting to come up the shingle. The whole squid had one clonking bite all evening/night which resulted in a feisty hound of just over 3lb.
The next evening I decided to fish abbotsbury. On arrival I was welcomed to a site of tents and what not straight over from the wooden path so headed left to the end of the anglers giving myself some space. Once again as with every session, 1 rod scratching with 2 hooked clipped rig and the other rod the pulley dropper with whole squid. A very quiet night ensued though I did manage one bite which resulted in a tub gurnard. Also on retrieval of the pulley dropper rod on one occasion a sudden weight put a bend in the rod and a lively fish on the end giving me a decent fight. Up the shingle came a mullet that had a line of feathers hanging off it with one of Said feathers in its mouth. So uncooked and returned safely minus the tangled mess.
The next day (Thursday)I decided to fish west bexington for a few hours over low during daylight to use up some bait and just for something to do before going to the tackle shop to pick up my fresh bait for the evening. Nothing at all happened so I headed to the tackle shop and whilst in there got chatting to a few anglers who had fished hive beach the previous evening and they said they had caught a few small undulates , pouting, conger etc so decided to head there for my evening session. Now a bit of a blow picked up during the day with some rain which brought in some weed on the surf. So fished hive that evening and got pestered by pouting from the off, all small. Also took a few straps, well boot lace congers and the smallest dogfish I've ever seen. No pictures from this session apart from the sunset.
For my final evening (friday) I decided to once again go to ferrybridge. A very busy beach was in front of me so I followed a couple of anglers who walked right along the fleet and onto a wooden path of sorts which saved the legs I must say. These fellas marched on past the end of these wooden planks but me I was cooked so fished where the little wooden path/planks ended. I really need to lighten my load when fishing this beach again. Another quiet ish nights fishing with a couple of bream, a doggy , a tub gurnard and pouting coming up the shingle.
I enjoyed the fishing, catching every evening so happy with that and only blanking when fished during the day. Will definitely be back but this time with a lighter load as I feel walking away from the crowds is the way to go, this definitely seems to be the case when I've watched chesil fishing on YouTube etc. Sorry it's a bit long winded Haha.
