"Chilled" in-shore action

Having lost last week-end's trip to the weather I watched the forecast for this Saturday with interest. With a settled chart and a forecast of smooth to slight seas I made a last minute booking with Dave Pitman, skipper of Atlanta, to have a crack at some Bream which have just started to show. The prolonged cold weather this year has played havoc with the fishing and the Bream are very late and the Plaice have hardly showed at all in Weymouth. Despite this, Pops and I were optimistic for a good day on the water and a chance to catch some fish, whatever they might end up being!

We arrived at the quay in Weymouth in perfect late Spring weather conditions with four of the rest of the crew already aboard. A further 3 anglers did not show up (and people wonder why skippers want deposits?) and this meant we had acres of space to spread out and try some different methods throughout the day.

Dave and his crew (Dee) manoeuvred the boat away from the mooring and we were off. First stop was to try for some Mackerel at the Portland Harbour sea wall. There had been plenty the previous week apparently but we didn't manage to catch a single one! In fact Dave and Dee would try to catch Mackerel for the boat all day and only managed three or four between them.

With the Mackerel not playing, we were quickly off to fish in to a rocky ledge in search of Bream but also to give one of the anglers a chance to try and catch a Conger Eel. This angler was called Peter (Peta? Petr?) and he is a builder and part time angling journalist / photographer from Pilsen in the Czech Republic.

I rigged up with a 3 hook Wessex rig from Moonfleet angling. This had size 4 hooks on the top two snoods and I replaced the bottom snood with a 2/0 pennel rig in the hope I may find a ray or a huss on the sand adjacent to the ledge. Bait for me was rag worm and half a squid head on the small hooks and a frozen mackerel fillet on the pennel.

We were quickly at anchor and all of us in to fish! There was no mistaking where the bites were coming from however, this was a plague of Pouts! They came aboard on every drop, one, two or three at a time. Now the Pout is no-one's first choice of fish to catch but in glorious sunshine and flat calm conditions we were mostly just pleased to be catching and the skippers' banter was up to its usual high quality to keep us entertained.

Pops "at the double"

With some fresh Pouts on board, Peter changed over to his heavy gear and went in search of a Conger.

We all continued to catch Pout and of course some dog fish which started to become more persistent. I decided to sacrifice a whole frozen mackerel to make a Flapper and also tried for a Conger. The bites were instantaneous but sadly from dogs not eels! These dog fish would hang on to the flapper bait and stay with it all the way to the surface without ever getting near the hook. They would continue to eat the bait at the surface until you lifted it clear of the water and then they would lazily swim back to the sea bed!

Pops also rigged a fillet to see if he could entice a ray but was simply plagued with Pouts and Dogs. Deciding it was a waste of frozen Mackerel I switched back to my Wessex rig (now a two hook version) and baited with small squid head and worm baits. Whilst buying some bits and pieces at Weymouth Angling Centre in the morning, my eye was drawn to some very small yellow muppets and, as a "tackle tart", I had to acquire them. I added one to each snood above the hook to try and give it a little extra appeal.

A couple more Pouts followed but as we swung closer to the ledge they disappeared. My next bite was very different. A rattling, jagging peck rather than a suicidal lunge. It had to be a bream. I let the bite develop. A couple more pecks and then a more persistent rattle followed. I wound into the fish and raised the rod - it was on. The fish gave me a smashing battle to the surface and Dave had spotted this and brought the net. A Bream! Not a large one but an excellent table sized fish. You can see the yellow muppet in the picture below - I have ordered some more of these!

My first Bream of the season - do I look pleased!?!

This was the last of the sport at this mark and we were soon on the move to another patch of rocky ground. Here we had more Pouts and Dogs but no Bream. Peter continued to try and catch a Conger and whilst he didn't manage one he did get a Bull Huss. Now this fish behaved in exactly the same way as the dog fish I had caught at the previous mark. The Huss hung on to a Mackerel flapper that Peter wound slowly to the surface, but was at no point hooked! Peter left the bait in the water and, as the Huss merrily munched on the Mackerel, Dee sneaked up behind it with the net and it was aboard!

"Czech Mate" for this Huss

With no Conger at this mark we pulled the hook and headed in to Warrbarrow Bay for a more serious look for a Bream. Initially we were in to another run of dog fish. Dave repositioned the boat as he said we must be on a patch of sand between the ledges and the dogs disappeared, but so did everything else!

After a quiet half an hour and me messing about with some feathers I got the shout that I had a bite on my Bream rod. The bite developed well and I leaned in to what was definitely Bream, and maybe two. I retrieved around 20 yards of line and then "snap". I lost not only the fish but all my gear as well. The mono leader had snapped just below the knot. Now I had trotted back a long way behind the boat to try and find a fish and I can only think that the line snagged on a rock or sharp shell fish. Whilst this was disappointing, it suggested there were Bream here and the boat perked up.

I attached another Wessex rig and adorned it with mini-muppets and went back down for another. I didn't have to wait long and I was in to another fish. Another Bream around the same size as the first one. Another angler called Ian quickly followed this up with a small bream which was released.

Then it was Pops turn. He reeled in to a number of bites without hooking up but by immediately dropping back down he stayed in touch with the fish. Finally he hooked it (or them?). The fish put a really good bend in to a 20lb class rod and I was sure it or they would be good keepers. Then the fight stopped. The fish were gone. Had Pops been snagged? Had the hooks been thrown? No, Pops knots had given out on the snoods! Not one hook, but two, were missing from the end of the snoods with tell tale curly ends where the knot should have been. Pops was gutted and, as you can imagine, the skipper was characteristically sympathetic (as he laughed like a drain!).

That marked the end of the day's sport and we headed home. Conditions were tough today and the very cold water temperatures played their part. Dave pointed out that the fish were very cold to the touch when they were coming out of the water and this was indicative of a sea that was several degrees cooler than it should be at this time of year. That said there is something very satisfying about catching a target species when things are difficult, makes you think you are doing something right (well, some of the time!). Despite not catching significant number of Bream we accounted for 8 species in the day (Mackerel, Bream, Cuckoo Wrasse, Corkwing Wrasse, Lesser Spotted Dogfish, Bull Huss, Pouting and Poor Cod) and the sport was fairly consistent with everyone catching fish all day long.

The beautiful weather conditions also gave me the opportunity to snap some general shots, so here they are.

The Jurassic Coast

Dramatic Sky

Blue Yacht

contact - steve@madpolka.co.uk

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