Mr Fish
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2020
- Messages
- 18,906
- Reaction score
- 65,357
- Points
- 116
- Location
- North Devon
- Favourite Fishing
- Shore
I did my first 48 hour comp for a couple of months this weekend but the choices were thin given the tides.
I still don’t have too much stamina to walk too far, or climb rocks etc, so I opted for the western end of Chesil and a minimal walk, relatively speaking.
High was about 10.40pm so the plan was to go a bit later and fish most of the flood and maybe an hour back.
I prefer to target windows even when travelling further afield - I find 12 hours or more on the beach gets a bit tedious. And I refuse to buy a tent!
I got to the West Bay shop just after 5, picked up some squid and hooks then hit the beach.
Initial impressions were the conditions weren’t as choppy as I feared and breezy but not overly windy.
Ray were the target, perhaps with a bonus larger pout for the comp. Or an eel.
As a result I put out half a mackerel fillet on pennell 3/0s for the ray and a single largish sandeel on the other rod.
There was a guy fishing where I’d wanted to go, so walked 200 yards or so past him before setting up.
Well, got to admit it was slow. About an hour before I caught my first fish, a pout on sandeel, which was a good bait size so kept it to throw out in the gutter later in hopes of bass or an eel (or a ray!)
That was followed by a dog, then a while later another, then not much, it was slow.
Matey was reeling in a lot and I saw him chuck things back once or twice, but couldn’t see what.
I assumed he was most likely fishing with worm baits and getting a stream of smaller stuff.
Tbh I had toyed with getting worm, but small pout seemed the most likely outcome of that, so I opted to sit on the larger baits.
There was a bit of excitement as he heaved in some weird black tube object
It obviously wasn’t heavy, relatively speaking, as he pulled it up the shingle, but it looked like a very large log from my distance.
I thought perhaps an inflatable inner tube or something.
Anyway, back to the fishing. I tried the pout, squid, more mackie, double sandeel, was hardly getting any bites.
I did winkle out a tiny huss and another dog.
Matey left at high and I gave it another hour, but it was dead and the threatened rain was starting to settle in, so gave it up.
On the way back I saw his mysterious catch had been a plastic tube with rope attached - some sort of buoy or floatation device for commercial gear? No idea. Should have got a pic but couldn’t be arsed as everything was packed away and zipped up.
It was maybe 4.5 long and 10 inches at least wide.
Probably not a cheap commodity for whatever it was used for, but no good to me.
I tried anyway. For a bonus on the way back I ran over a badger
The comp was won by a 12lb huss caught locally, although I hear that otherwise had tiny dogs all night, but at least someone’s persistence paid off.
I still don’t have too much stamina to walk too far, or climb rocks etc, so I opted for the western end of Chesil and a minimal walk, relatively speaking.
High was about 10.40pm so the plan was to go a bit later and fish most of the flood and maybe an hour back.
I prefer to target windows even when travelling further afield - I find 12 hours or more on the beach gets a bit tedious. And I refuse to buy a tent!
I got to the West Bay shop just after 5, picked up some squid and hooks then hit the beach.
Initial impressions were the conditions weren’t as choppy as I feared and breezy but not overly windy.
Ray were the target, perhaps with a bonus larger pout for the comp. Or an eel.
As a result I put out half a mackerel fillet on pennell 3/0s for the ray and a single largish sandeel on the other rod.
There was a guy fishing where I’d wanted to go, so walked 200 yards or so past him before setting up.
Well, got to admit it was slow. About an hour before I caught my first fish, a pout on sandeel, which was a good bait size so kept it to throw out in the gutter later in hopes of bass or an eel (or a ray!)
That was followed by a dog, then a while later another, then not much, it was slow.
Matey was reeling in a lot and I saw him chuck things back once or twice, but couldn’t see what.
I assumed he was most likely fishing with worm baits and getting a stream of smaller stuff.
Tbh I had toyed with getting worm, but small pout seemed the most likely outcome of that, so I opted to sit on the larger baits.
There was a bit of excitement as he heaved in some weird black tube object
It obviously wasn’t heavy, relatively speaking, as he pulled it up the shingle, but it looked like a very large log from my distance.
I thought perhaps an inflatable inner tube or something.
Anyway, back to the fishing. I tried the pout, squid, more mackie, double sandeel, was hardly getting any bites.
I did winkle out a tiny huss and another dog.
Matey left at high and I gave it another hour, but it was dead and the threatened rain was starting to settle in, so gave it up.
On the way back I saw his mysterious catch had been a plastic tube with rope attached - some sort of buoy or floatation device for commercial gear? No idea. Should have got a pic but couldn’t be arsed as everything was packed away and zipped up.
It was maybe 4.5 long and 10 inches at least wide.
Probably not a cheap commodity for whatever it was used for, but no good to me.
I tried anyway. For a bonus on the way back I ran over a badger
The comp was won by a 12lb huss caught locally, although I hear that otherwise had tiny dogs all night, but at least someone’s persistence paid off.
