Without a doubt today was a tough day's fishing.  Looking back through my diary however it was fairly typical for August - poor weather and relatively few fish!

A week earlier the long range forecasts all suggested that Saturday 7th August would see force 2 winds from the north with clear blue skies and calm/smooth seas.  It is a pity we don't have a "pause button" to secure these forecasts for the actual day because 7 days later we had a 4-5 south westerly with wind over tide for most of the day.  Still, as the adage goes, "a bad days fishing is better than a good day working" - and so it proved to be.  Besides which I had a new Sonik SK4 8-12lb boat rod I was itching to try out.

The venue for the day was Dave Pitman's excellent Atlanta out of Weymouth.  The plan was to try for some Bream which should have returned after their early Summer break.  A call to the skipper the night before confirmed however that the previous week's fishing had been patchy at best although Dave had found a good run of Gurnards on the Bream grounds which were at least providing a culinary bonus if not necessarily a sporting one.

With our crew, and that of Dave's neighbouring boat, turning up with time to spare we were away from the dock very promptly and steamed straight to the "spoil grounds" to the east of Portland Bill.  Dave had explained that they had seen much more success feathering at anchor on these grounds for Mackerel than in some of the usual areas.  It proved to be the same again and we quickly had plenty on ice for bait and one or two for the table.

We stayed at the spoil grounds as the tide was too fierce to move out on to the mussel beds which would be the venue for our "serious" fishing later in the day.

With the wind and tide contesting a battle of strength, the boat swung wildly at anchor (often through over 180 degrees) and we quickly had a couple of tangles which Dee and Dave resolved for us.  Dave called for lines up and we steamed nearer to the bill where there would be more tide to try and keep the boat stationary in water.

Although we continued to swing a little at this mark it was much less than before and we got down to some fishing.  As we swung from our position facing south west at the stern through to north west we hit a shoal of sizeable Pouts. 

Pops with a pair!

For the next hour we continued in this vein, being inundated with large Pouts at the north west extreme of the swing whilst catching little or nothing at the southern extremity.

Now although Pouting are of little culinary or sporting value they still represent a good investment.  All the Pouts are traded with a local pot boat that uses them for baits.  In return they provide a supply of live hermit crabs which will make invaluable baits when we try for a trophy wrasse later in the season.

I should also say that a brace of 2lb Pouts helped me assess the capabilities of my new rod.  I am, to say the least, very pleased.  I was slightly concerned initially as the rod was stiff enough to be very happy controlling a 12oz lead and I thought this may mean it would be too firm for small bite detection and too rigid in the fight.  There are no problems here though, the rod has excellent sensitivity in the tip and a lovely soft action in the fight - even the Pouting were fun on this rod.

Pops registered the only other species at this mark, a Dragonet - the first one either of us had ever seen.

As the tide died away, so the fishing came to a standstill.  I looked at one of Dave's stickers in the wheel house and the prospect of a dose of Rum was seeming quite attractive!

As we neared 12.30 Dave again called for the lines to come up and we were off to the Mussel beds as the tide would have dropped off enough to make it fishable.

When we first arrived the flow was still quite strong and fishing with leads of 12oz to 1lb we struggled to hold bottom.  I was starting to think that this fish might be the best we would see all day.

After around 20 minutes or so the tide started to ease away and we were soon holding well with 6 to 8oz and we started to register bites.

I had a terrific take and a strong run from a fish I assumed to be a very good Bream.  The line suddenly went slack however, and all my nightmares from last month's wrecking trip came back to me - had one of my knots given out again?  When I retrieved my line I found that actually the snood had been severed at the midway point.  I was only using a 20lb snood but surely no Bream would have done this?  I suspect we found the culprit a few minutes later.  A shout from the back of the boat and the net was brought out.  The result - a Bull Huss of 5 or 6 pounds.

A first Huss

The fishing then became steady with a couple of Gurnards turning up in quick succession.

I persevered with my Bream rig.  It proved worthwhile.  A sharp rattling bite suggested I was getting interest.  A stolen bait resulted, but on returning to the sea bed with a freshly baited hook the interest was resumed.  The bite developed, telegraphed in every detail by the new Sonik, and I wound in to what was a very lively but not enormous fish.  The fight was a typical Bream encounter with the fish swimming hard both up and down in the water column.  The result was a modest, but pan sized, Black Bream - mission accomplished.

Pops quickly caught a similar sized Bream of his own and Dee added a third.  We all thought this would be the start of a good session for these fabulous light weight brawlers, but they were the first and last of the day.

We continued to get bites and I had a nice Gurnard.  Pops, not be out done, also bagged a good one for the table.

"Gurnards for tea"

Several more Gurnards were taken before the best fish of the day showed up.  The man with the knack for catching Bull Huss showed us that the first wasn't a fluke by following it up with this nice 8lb example.

"No fluke this one"

I should add that the laughter wasn't caused by delight at capturing the fish but as a result of advice give by Dave as to where you wouldn't want your Bull Huss attached!

As the tide dropped away to nothing, then so the bites dried up.  We tried to the first few minutes of the flood but with no results, so we headed for home.  Whilst today was tough it was quite satisfying to see that by persevering and adapting your tactics to the conditions you can still manage to eek out a few fish and a few photo opportunities.

As we headed back in Dee set about cleaning the fish and there was a good feed of quality fish for all those that wanted it - surely a mark of success!