Whopper Weymouth Whiting

A sudden change in week-end plans saw me making a late Friday evening call To Dave Pitman, skipper of Atlanta out of Weymouth, in search of a days fishing on Saturday 23rd January. Dave had a trip organised and I was able to join two more Daves (Dave 1 and Dave 2), plus Mick, Tina and Geoff for another days Whiting fishing.

The forecast looked excellent with a northerly 3-4 forecast all day although the inshore forecast was still giving a moderate sea. On arriving at Weymouth the wind seemed to be a good deal stronger but over the course of an hour dropped right away. As we left the harbour we noticed that the colour of the water was that of milky coffee and we were concerned that the fishing may be slow; however, as we rounded the end of the stone pier the water colour improved and we set off to our first mark. The sea state was nowhere near moderate in the bay and conditions were comfortable, if a little chilly, all day.

The skipper had asked whether we wanted to concentrate on catching a large volume of fish from the west side of the bill, or to go in search of better specimens which would mean fishing a number of marks in Weymouth Bay itself. We unanimously opted to try for a bigger fish and 30 minutes and one cup of tea later we were at anchor and fishing the first mark in a gentle neap tide.

Rigs

As with my trip on the 28th of December, the crew opted for a variety of different rigs including paternoster rigs, running legers, baited muppets, hokkais and feathers. I would try most of these on the day! I started however with my newly acquired double runner wessex rig from Moonfleet Angling. This is a rig with two hooks "up" and a thrid hook rigged as a running leger to fish hard to the bottom. I selected a size 1 hook version of the rig and baited the hooks (from the top) with mackerel, mackerel / squid cocktail and live hermit crab. More on this rig later.

Instant Success!

Within seconds of hitting the bottom we were in to fish. Dave 2 landed a dogfish whilst I boated a small whiting which I returned. The fish then started to come aboard steadily. There was a mix of whiting, pouts and of course the odd dogfish. The smaller whiting were returned whilst we retained the pouts which make good pot baits and are exchanged with a local boat which provides the live hermits crabs.

As the day proceeded the size of fish started to increase. Mick was the first to register a better fish, this nice Whiting of around 2lbs.

Mick's Whiting

I was finding that my Wessex rig was very effective at catching fish, however I was getting plagued by smaller fish. I was starting to regret not having a 2/0 or 3/0 version of the rig. I switched to a home made 3/0 pennel with attractor beads and a muppet baited with a whole squid (which was not particularly effective!), and then switched to baited 3/0 mackerel feathers which definitely improved the size of fish I was catching.

The next notable specimen was caught by local angler Dave (1). When weighed at the quay, the fish scaled 3.5lbs - an excellent catch.

3.5 lb'er for Dave 1

Change of Venue

As the tide slowed, Dave suggested we moved on to the Shambles bank where we may find a bigger fish and would also have an outside chance of a skate or a cod.

Here the fishing was not so prolific although the average size was much better, with most fish approaching 2lbs as a minimum. I had switched back to a smaller pennel rig which at last saw me catch a couple of better fish.

It was Tina however that once again demonstrated that women have a knack for catching big fish. Tina was fishing pink/purple baited muppets and quietly leaned in to what was clearly a heavier fish. After a couple of minutes the fish was in the boat and was this whiting which was the largest of the species I have ever seen in the flesh.

Whopper Whiting for Tina!

The fish was immediately weighed and registered 4lb 15oz on Daves scales. This would constitute a new club record for Tina's angling club. Calls were hastily made to arrange for a club official to meet the boat on the quay when we returned to witness the weigh in. It was here that disaster struck! Mick, Tina's "significant other", dropped the fish on the way to the fish box. The fish promptly ejected the contents of its stomach having been gorging on sprats all day. Cruelly, at the weigh in on the quay, the fish had lost 7oz and was no longer a club record although still qualified as the largest whiting of the year so far.

Parasites

A number of other good fish were caught on the shambles but none rivalling Tina's monster. Dave (2) seemed to have his eye in an produced a number of decent specimens. This fish came to the surface with a lamprey still attached. In Elizabethan times they made pies from Lampreys, but I'm not sure I fancy it!

A Last Move

As the tide disappeared the fishing slowed to a standstill. Dave moved us on to the Adamant Bank where we could fish the start of the ebb. Here we had a lot of very small bites and after a couple of poor cod were landed it was clear what the source of these were. The Daves managed to boat a few more whiting but my only contribution from this mark was dog fish.

It had been a great day out again. Satisfyingly the plan had worked with a good number of better sized fish landed and one outstanding specimen.

Moonfleet Rigs

The guys at Moonfleet asked me to let them know what I thought of the rigs after I'd used one, so here it is. The first thing to note about the rigs is that they are supplied on a Tronix foam. This means they tend to be in much better shape when they come off the winder than those rigs packaged in bags. I found that the rig stayed straight all day with no tangles. The rig components were excellent quality and my fingers will provide testimony to the sharpness of the hooks! I think I need to invest in a couple of rigs with larger hook sizes, although I am most looking forward to trying my size 4 versions for Bream in the summer. The rigs are designed so that you change the snoods yourself and therefore reuse the rigs over and again. The winders make them very easy to pack away whereas I normally find standard rigs are trashed after they have been stuffed back in the bag and then dumped at the bottom of my hold all!

Moonfleet can be found here - http://www.moonfleet-angling.com/index.html

(note, rig image reproduced from the Moonfleet Angling web site - all copyright remains with Moonfleet Angling)

Naval Manoeuvres

It is a little while since I have managed to snap any photos of interesting shipping whilst at sea. Today however the Royal Navy were very active in the bay. My apologies for the quality of the photos - low light and a lousy camera!). On the way out we saw HMS Liverpool, a type 42 destroyer launched in 1980.

On the way back in however we saw its modern equivalent, HMS Dauntless. This is a state of the art guided missile destroyer launched in 2007.

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