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South Coast Chesil, Plaice.

chesilpete

chesilpete

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I was lucky enough to be given leftover bait by Dave @Rapunzel after a tough session on Thursday and Gray the ray and I decided to go down on Saturday for a few hours. Now Gray the ray loves rays so he set up one rod for a ray and I decided to look for flats with both.
The dogfish were no present which at least gave us a chance, I think Dave and I had given them all sore mouths on Thursday, anyway they stayed away. About an hour in I had my first, old blacks on a loop rig worked, it was a keeper but thin so back it went unharmed. A little later I had another just over 2lb which came home for tea, and about an hour after that in dark another and that was my lot.
Gray picked up dogs n bits on fishy baits but the plaice evaded him this time.
I think Chesil will hit some form later this week lets hope I am right.
Its good to be back on the beach post covid.
 

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chesilpete said:
I was lucky enough to be given leftover bait by Dave @Rapunzel after a tough session on Thursday and Gray the ray and I decided to go down on Saturday for a few hours. Now Gray the ray loves rays so he set up one rod for a ray and I decided to look for flats with both.
The dogfish were no present which at least gave us a chance, I think Dave and I had given them all sore mouths on Thursday, anyway they stayed away. About an hour in I had my first, old blacks on a loop rig worked, it was a keeper but thin so back it went unharmed. A little later I had another just over 2lb which came home for tea, and about an hour after that in dark another and that was my lot.
Gray picked up dogs n bits on fishy baits but the plaice evaded him this time.
I think Chesil will hit some form later this week lets hope I am right.
Its good to be back on the beach post covid.
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Nice result mate altho I’m petty sure ted thinks he’s haveing that spottie for his tea herd a few spots come in weekend so looking good well done ?
 
Well done on the plaice! Wouldn't mind trying Chesil again one day, but never had much luck down there myself.
 
Just a note about Chesil to all the nice people who are on here but who were not on the other site...... and to qualify my "beach of broken dreams" comment above.

The only predictable fishing on chesil is the plaice fishing each spring and autumn, if the weather has been settled and the tides are a decent size, you can get some decent worm and can cast a bit then Chesil will yield fish.

I have never had massive bags........ 6 fish is a great session but once they are "in" then when the conditions are right then you have a better than evens chance of getting a couple.

Regarding tides in general the bigger tides the better and if you can get the lead rolling along then that will massively increase your chances.

To bling or not to bling......... always a point we disagree on!. The clearer the water the more I will bling I figure when the waters milky I would rather swap the bling for the extra yards especially when the plaice have to swap sight for smell.
As far as rigs go, loops always work but wishbone droppers also have a place on chesil, in fact anything with a reasonably long hook length......
I am extremely fussy with hooks (possibly without reason) I like a strong offset size 1, but a slightly offset Kamasan B940 will work.

Most of the time yards will equal fish, my personal belief is not that the fish are all further out but that the lateral tide makes your gear move attractively across the bottom, you can induce movement by using a lighter lead and when the tides running really hard you need to control the rate of drift possibly using bucket leads or using a grip lead with trimmed wires.
Anyway the long and short of it is try and get it to move and make sure you can find as many yards as possible.

If you are a short or moderate caster then your chances are still at their highest over the HW and LW periods and the only significant difference on a given day will be which of those tidal periods is closer to dusk.

There are a few sole mixed in with the plaice on chesil again dusk is always the best time I have had a couple this year so far. In the Autumn you can catch a lot of species in a session and its quite common to get up to 7 species in a day including plaice, sole, cod and bass.

Regarding bait, I always make sure I have some fresh blacks and generally you will not be outfished by someone using rag BUT it does happen and if all I could get is rag I would not be put off and would still go, plaice can be greedy and I always make sure theres a lot of bait on there.

Always remember the conditions are the key, if the water is cloudy then switch one rod to rays and or bass theres no point targeting a fish thats sitting a half mile offshore.
 
chesilpete said:
Just a note about Chesil to all the nice people who are on here but who were not on the other site...... and to qualify my "beach of broken dreams" comment above.

The only predictable fishing on chesil is the plaice fishing each spring and autumn, if the weather has been settled and the tides are a decent size, you can get some decent worm and can cast a bit then Chesil will yield fish.

I have never had massive bags........ 6 fish is a great session but once they are "in" then when the conditions are right then you have a better than evens chance of getting a couple.

Regarding tides in general the bigger tides the better and if you can get the lead rolling along then that will massively increase your chances.

To bling or not to bling......... always a point we disagree on!. The clearer the water the more I will bling I figure when the waters milky I would rather swap the bling for the extra yards especially when the plaice have to swap sight for smell.
As far as rigs go, loops always work but wishbone droppers also have a place on chesil, in fact anything with a reasonably long hook length......
I am extremely fussy with hooks (possibly without reason) I like a strong offset size 1, but a slightly offset Kamasan B940 will work.

Most of the time yards will equal fish, my personal belief is not that the fish are all further out but that the lateral tide makes your gear move attractively across the bottom, you can induce movement by using a lighter lead and when the tides running really hard you need to control the rate of drift possibly using bucket leads or using a grip lead with trimmed wires.
Anyway the long and short of it is try and get it to move and make sure you can find as many yards as possible.

If you are a short or moderate caster then your chances are still at their highest over the HW and LW periods and the only significant difference on a given day will be which of those tidal periods is closer to dusk.

There are a few sole mixed in with the plaice on chesil again dusk is always the best time I have had a couple this year so far. In the Autumn you can catch a lot of species in a session and its quite common to get up to 7 species in a day including plaice, sole, cod and bass.

Regarding bait, I always make sure I have some fresh blacks and generally you will not be outfished by someone using rag BUT it does happen and if all I could get is rag I would not be put off and would still go, plaice can be greedy and I always make sure theres a lot of bait on there.

Always remember the conditions are the key, if the water is cloudy then switch one rod to rays and or bass theres no point targeting a fish thats sitting a half mile offshore.
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Great info there thanks Pete, and the beauty is, for those of us that don't travel as far as Chisel (as Tats calls it!) your info probably applies to a lot of other South coast shingle marks. ??
 
It's a shame that the plaice fishing has gone considerably down hill in the last 5 years. During march a bag of 10-15 plaice used to be standard, with a fair few dabs chucked in. With at least one 2lb plus fish in your bag. I would say similar fishing to areas such as Brighton experience now. I don't know what the reason is for the decline? This isn't meant to be a brag but on my best day I've managed 6 plaice over 2lb, in a bag of around 20 fish and been lucky enough to land a 4lb chesil plaice, but nothing of size in the last 3 years, just trying to highlight the decline in numbers and quality. Anyway, nice report Pete and well done on a quality plaice.
 
squidword said:
It's a shame that the plaice fishing has gone considerably down hill in the last 5 years. During march a bag of 10-15 plaice used to be standard, with a fair few dabs chucked in. With at least one 2lb plus fish in your bag. I would say similar fishing to areas such as Brighton experience now. I don't know what the reason is for the decline? This isn't meant to be a brag but on my best day I've managed 6 plaice over 2lb, in a bag of around 20 fish and been lucky enough to land a 4lb chesil plaice, but nothing of size in the last 3 years, just trying to highlight the decline in numbers and quality. Anyway, nice report Pete and well done on a quality plaice.
Click to expand...
Well Perhaps they have gone on Holiday with the Cod?
 
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