'Wedding Dodgers' Day Out

Right about now I'm definitely an ardent royalist.  Not because of any strong attachment to the monarchy but because the royal wedding gave me an extra day holiday and that means an extra day's fishing!

As soon as the date was announced I phoned Dave Pitamn, skipper of Atlanta out of Weymouth, and booked spaces for Pops and I to spend the day at sea.  The original plan had been to try for Plaice on the Shambles bank but this had not been fishing well so Dave organised a trip to the East to fish the various rocky ledges near Lulworth Cove.

A very bleak Jurassic coast on a cool April morning

The weather forecast was for a North Easterly 4-5 early in the morning, dropping all day, with smooth or slight seas.  Despite this benign forecast there was very chilly breeze first thing and Dave took the boat in under the lee of the Eastern shore so we had a very comfortable cruise to our first chosen mark. 

Our fist stop was to have a drift to catch some fresh Mackerel for bait.  We all rigged with a variety of feathers and started to work the water column to try and contact the targets.  Initially we had nothing despite there being good 'sign' on the echo sounder.  Then the odd fish started to come aboard, but not for me.  Then Pops had a fish, but still not me.  A touch on the throttle and Dave jogged us a couple of hundred yards down the coast.  The next drop and I was in and the fish really came on.  Everyone round the boat was contacting mackerel and in no time at all we had a box full on ice to use both as baits and also a few for supper!  We moved on to start the proper fishing.

When we arrived at the area we wanted to fish we discovered we weren't the first and the 'Yakkers' were out in force taking full advantage of the very calm seas.

Kayaks look cold to me!

Dave set the anchor and we swung round into position holding slightly off the tide due to the stiff breeze.  I set up my lightest rod for Bream using a 2 hook Wessex Rig with size 4 hooks and a small yellow muppet above each of the hooks.  The water at this mark is not very deep and is outside of the main tidal flow so 4 oz proved to be enough weight for my Berkley Whiplash braid.  I baited my hooks with small mackerel chunks tipped with half a small squid head.

I dropped to the bottom and waited.  Geoff who was next to me at the back of the boat immediately started to get unmistakable sharp rattling bites, followed by Mick who was the other side of him.  Geoff resisted the temptation to reel and let the bite develop.  Eventually, when he was confident the fish had taken the bait, he started to wind.  There was a very good bend in his rod and after a spirited fight he landed his first Bream of the season - an excellent fish in excess of 2lbs.

Geoff bags a nice Bream

Another Bream came quickly to a holiday angler at the front of the boat (sorry I didn't get his name but he was a very nice chap!).  Mick continued to try and illicit a firm take from his bites.  Eventually the fish took the bait and it put up a real scrap on Mick's spinning rod and fixed spool reel.  Despite being camera shy, Mick is always a fantastic photo subject as he always manages to be doing something dynamic when the shutter opens!

Mick holds a Bream displaying full breeding 'plumage'

At this time of year the breeding males display beautiful blue colour around their eyes and heads which was perfectly demonstrated on Mick's fish.  Mick landed one fish that had a patch of damaged scales on it's flank.  He asked Dave if this would have been caused by a brush with a predator but Dave explained that at this time of year it was the fishy equivalent to 'carpet burns'.  I nearly fell over the side laughing!

After this I started to get bites.  I had a couple of baits robbed but the culprit stayed around and I finally hooked it, landing a nice pan sized fish in the region of 1.5 lbs.

From this point only Mick, Geoff and I registered more Bream.  I ended up with three, all about the same size.  Mick had six, some large and some smaller.  Geoff had a couple but it was noticeable that they were easily the biggest we had on the day.  Pops, who was stood next to me, had bites but no hook ups, as did Dave the Skipper.  For the rest of the boat this mark was a blank.

As the Bream were not prolific Dave decided on a move to try and find some reef Pollack and Wrasse.  It was only a few minutes back towards Lulworth and we were again at anchor.  I tried initially with a set of blue coloured 'hokkai' style lures which I worked / jigged close to the bottom.  Most opted for similar tactics but didn't find any Pollack. I was impatient and switched back to a flowing trace with a strong 1/0 hook.  I baited this with rag worm and went in search of a Wrasse.  Mick also baited his lures with worm and was the first to find a Wrasse, a stunningly coloured male Cuckoo.

Mick snags a nice Cuckoo Wrasse

I received a number of rattling bites which robbed baits until I managed a very unsatisfactory Pouting!  Pops wasn't getting any action at all but this was true of half the boat so he was in good company.

Next up was Dave the skipper.  He bent his rod in to a better fish and found the first Ballan Wrasse of the day.  He must have hauled him through the weed as the fish was blindfolded with kelp when he came to the surface!

The Skipper shows us how it's done.

I added a small female Cuckoo Wrasse to my species count for the day before Peter, who was hiding from the lens, captured another good Ballan (modelled by Dee's hands in the photo!).

Another nice Ballan

With four members of the crew still to register a fish other than Mackerel, Dave called for lines up and we would try a different tactic.

Again we took a short steam to a patch of sand between two rock ledges where we would try for rays.  I switched to a flowing trace which Dave advised I terminate with a 2/0 hook and bait with a strip of fresh mackerel hooked once through one end plus a strip of squid mounted the same way.  I accepted the advice and lowered away.

I placed my rod in the rod holder and settled down to tidy up some of the gear I had strewn around my feet.  Pops called that I had a bite and I picked up my rod and gave it some line.  At the same time Mick had a bite and did the same.  We both started to wind.  It was clear that we had each other but it was also clear that there was a fish involved as well.

The fish was landed.  A very nice 4.5lb Spotted Ray.  The call was made that it was on Mick's trace and Dee set about untangling the lines.  Whilst Dee was doing this I took a photo of Mick and was quite jealous of this very nice fish.  Dee unclipped Mick's trace to separate it from my line and disentangled it from my end gear.  Each of his three hooks came away and then we noticed none of them were in the fish but the fish was still hooked.  It was my fish! I handed the camera to Pops who took my photo before I returned the fish to the water and watched it swim away strongly.  This was a first for me and I am pleased as both my wife and my eldest Daughter have had spotted Rays in the past but it was a blank entry in my species tally.

A new Magic Hat does the trick!

No more skate showed at this mark and the only other fish caught were a couple of dog fish.  Pops, Tina, Dee and Andy remained fishless.  Dave decided on one more move to a spot where they had taken Spurdogs and rays earlier in the week. 

The wind had dropped to nothing by this stage and the sun was out making it very pleasant to be out on the water.  At the next mark I stayed with the same tactics but failed to register a bite.  Pops however, having had no interest all day, started to catch dogfish - one after the other!  Dee and Andy also broke their ducks with dogfish whilst Tina perpetuated her blank right to the end of the day.

It had been a tough day's fishing in many respects which is fairly typical of this time of year.  With the winter fish gone and the summer one's not quite started it is often hit and miss, particularly if the Plaice aren't showing.  That said, today was unusual, as despite the lack of numbers we did catch a few very nice fish.  It is always very satisfying to catch a variety of different species and one or two good fish when conditions are difficult.  It is strange however that it is possible for a group of people to use similar tactics and the same bait in the same place and have such a disparity in the number of bites received - I guess that's just fishin'! 

Contact - steve@madpolka.co.uk