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A Dabble in Lyme Bay

The original plan for the start of the new year was to have a pioneering trip to try out some new offshore grounds. A change of date to get the party together meant that the tides were wrong for this attempt so we would spend the day chasing the traditional inshore species such as Whiting, with the chance of the odd Codling or Ray thrown in for good measure. Check back in February when, weather permitting, we may be trying that new ground out!

The crew assembled typically early (well, most of us!) and we started to fix our tackle for the day. Our endeavours were briefly interrupted when Skipper Dave and first mate Dee made a birthday presentation to Geraint. You can see in the photo he is wearing his gift - a T-shirt with a sheep and a slogan on the front hinting at his Welsh ancestry I believe!

"Baaaaaaa means no Geraint!"

When the crew were assembled we slipped our moorings and headed out to the Adamant Bank, a short steam from Weymouth harbour. The weather was very cold and we were all glad of the efficiency of modern day fishing clothing and the hot tea provided by Dee.

Bob & Gerald try to keep warm

I decided a try a new rig that Ian Houlton of Moonfleet angling had sent me. This is something he developed for one of the armed forces boat fishing teams, specifically for tackling whiting as well as other smaller species when trying to rack up points in a species competition. The rig is built in a "3 down" configuration with a 5 foot long snood terminating in a 1/0 hook and then 2 other dropper snoods, with similar hooks, at even intervals along the length of the first. Each hook was adorned with a luminous "needle fish" which is like a small muppet and glows, even without charging in day light. I fished this below a 10" boom to keep it away from my mainline whilst on the drop to the sea bed.

We were soon on the mark and I baited each of my hooks with a different bait to see what would work. I had a strip of squid, a chunk of Mackerel and a small rag worm.

It took a good 10 minutes for the first bite to come to the boat but most of us then registered the small rattling bites of poor cod. Over the next half hour I managed to catch a couple of poor cod, a small whiting, a table sized whiting and a dog fish. It was interesting that this was a significantly higher hit rate than the rest of the crew who were mostly fishing baited hokkais / feathers in a "3 up" configuration. The Moonfleet rig seemed to work!

The fishing here was tough though, and even as the tide pciked up there were no signs of the numbers and quality of fish we had enjoyed in December. Dave was decisive and called for lines in, we would go west in to Lyme Bay in search of better sport - less chance of a Codling but a better chance of greater numbers of Whiting and maybe the odd Dab. Now bear in mind that the mark we were going to would require another hour and half of steaming and with today's fuel prices that is no trivial decision for a charter business. Coupled with this, Dave gave us an extra hour and a half at sea to make up for the steaming time - this really does go beyond the call of duty!

On the way west we enjoyed a spell of brighter weather which gave me the chance to try out my new polarising filter for my camera. I was very pleased with results on this hermit crab snap.

A hermit crab "reflects" on the prospects of becoming a bait!

We arrived on the mark and were soon fishing again. The bites came much quicker this time and were far more aggressive. A steady stream of "keepers" started to come aboard with everyone getting in on the act. The fish were a mixed bag in terms of size. Many smaller fish were returned but there were some good eating size fish amongst them and a fair number of larger fish in the 3lb range.

Neil bags the first of the better fish

At this point in time I continued to use my "3 down" Moonfleet rig. This proved that it was capable of catching as many fish as the baited feathers but on average I was definitely catching smaller fish than the rest of the crew. Conversely I was picking up a greater variety of species with Dog Fish and Poor Cod coming to me but not to the feathers. I was just considering a change of tactic when up popped this nice surprise. A small Dab that gave an infinitely better account of himself than his size suggested!

Jamie Oliver says they taste like Turbot!

I decided to swap my "3 down" rig for another of Ian's rigs - my favourite 2 hook Wessex rig. On the "up" snood I attached a red and white muppet and fished exclusively with Mackerel chunk to attract the Whiting. On the "down" snood I tried rag worm and hermit crab. The crab bait only produced dog fish. I found that the "up" snood produced a consistently better sized Whiting than the "down" snood and I think this may have been why the feathers produced larger fish than my first rig. The rag worm however seemed to produce a much more aggressive bight than the Mackerel - even producing fish on the drop and on the retrieve.

There were many good fish taken in the day and everyone got in on the act.

Another good fish for Gerald

We finished up at around a quarter to four in the afternoon and set off for the long steam back with a nice full box of fish for the table. As usual, Dee set about gutting these for us and helping some of the guys take the fillets of their larger fish.

A box of super tasty sustainably fished Whiting - Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall would be proud of us!

Dee guts the fish whilst the crew try for one last whopper!

Today we had another terrific day's inshore sport on Atlanta. Dave really pushed the boat out (excuse the pun!) to make sure we got in to the fish.

The late afternoon run back to port provided some smashing light conditions to snap the greedy gulls snatching the discarded fish guts with a back drop of a threatening Winter sun set.

"Coming back for more"

Contact - steve@madpolka.co.uk

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