Mr Fish
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- Joined
- Oct 4, 2020
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- Location
- North Devon
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- Shore
Fishing competition weekend and I dragged my mate down to Burton Bradstock, or Hive Beach, an underestimated end of Chesil but also a relatively short walk and without the steep shingle banks.
I’m sure there are better parts of Chesil but I like this beach - free parking if you’re a National Trust member and more importantly, no back breaking hikes over shingle.
We arrived mid afternoon and it was warm and sunny so I expected plenty of beach goers and dog walkers - and so there was.
A couple of hardy souls were attempting to fish right in front of the car park while surrounded by sunbathers, dogs and people swimming in the sea directly in front of them
Unless you can’t walk more than 50 yards - and maybe they couldn’t, why knows - why would you inflict that upon yourself?
We trudged down the beach and set up in a fairly decent gap with a few sunbathers dotted around and people with dogs but there was still plenty of space so that would do.
To be fair, I have to say the people around us were no hassle at all. The older chap in the distance played with his dog in the sea but they were no bother, all the dogs we met were friendly and well behaved. I made sure no bait was left out or baited hooks hanging from the tripod within reach, everyone did their own thing with no issues at all.
My targets realistically were mackerel on pop up rigs (thanks for introducing me to this @Tatunka joe !) and perhaps scad towards dusk, then hopefully ray on fresh mackerel after dark.
More in hope than expectation, also had ragworm to try for plaice in the day and sole after dark, as well as fresh black lug.
It was bought from up my way as nowhere down Dorset had any left and have to say the black lug seemed very dead to me.
The ragworm also died very quickly despite being okay to start with and it was kept in my cool bag but in newspaper, with a layer between it and the ice blocks.
No idea why. Maybe it wasn’t great when purchased, but I’ve had this before in warmer weather and despite all best efforts, the worm perishes quickly.
Anyway… things were slow for an hour or two, by which I mean we caught nothing. My pop up mackerel strips were coming back a bit ragged so I think something was hitting it, but I wasn’t seeing bites.
The worm was coming back untouched.
Then I finally had a small mackerel on the pop up, followed shortly after by a tub gurnard. Not huge, maybe 10-12oz but nice to see.
This was followed shortly after by another smaller tub, then it went a bit quiet again.
I tried feathering here and there with just two feathers (to keep within competition hook limit rules) but nothing.
A few others were feathering and spinning and I didn’t see anything caught.
Mackerel had been around as semi fresh white bait were washing up here and there.
As dusk approached, the birds started wheeling and diving out to sea - probably 150 to 200 yards off and further than I can cast, that’s for sure.
The water was a little choppy and a bit coloured too, so I hadn’t expected any plaice and gave up on that idea, putting pop up mackerel strip out on both rods.
Sure enough a decent bite soon yielded a good bait sized mackie of about 12-14oz, followed by a slightly smaller one.
A serious amount of bird activity continued out at sea but the shoal moved off something like 300-400 yards and wasn’t coming inshore.
There was some close in activity about a quarter mile down the beach - I considered taking a rod down there but then Sod’s Law they’d probably have gone by the time I arrived.
My mate stuck with worm, despite me nagging him and when he did eventually change rigs, he’d missed the boat. You can lead a horse to water…
He said he was stubborn and wanted to hold out for a plaice.
I pointed out if something was working - I had five fish to his zero, it was silly to ignore it, but hey ho
Anyhoo, darkness arrived and the beach emptied out pretty fast - by about 9.30 we were the only ones there, apart from the distant lighthouses up at cogden.
Now we had space I moved down a bit from my mate, to avoid tangles in darkness and also to get away from his headlight a bit
Without much hope I put worm baits back out to try for sole, but the result was pouting after pouting, sometimes double shots and all about the 6-8oz range.
As low tide approached, I finally prepped my carefully hoarded fresh mackerel, having given my mate the second of the two bigger ones.
They never look happy!
Well, if they weren’t, the straps were
Didn’t actually hook any for a while but I could see they were munching on the fresh baits and they were coming back pretty screwed.
I put the fresh mackerel head and guts a few yards up the shingle away from me and in the gutter.
A decent bite on the other rod looked decidedly eelish and indeed was, but at 3-4lb it at least pulled back a bit.
Interest was waning but I wanted to use up the fresh bait at least, the mackerel anyway, the worm I’d thrown to the sand hoppers long ago.
I did also turn one pouting I’d kept into a flapper. The straps loved that too…
Finally, a good couple of pulls on the mackerel half fillet and then a steady taking of line screamed ray at last!
It seemed to have a decent bit of weight and was giving a good account of itself, so I carefully nursed it towards shore and slid my prize of the night up the shingle…
All 2lbs or so of it as it turned out
But it was nice to catch the target at least, even if it was only a small small eyed and not the double figure undulate I’d had in my head.
I’m not sure what he’d been doing all evening, though to be fair he’d had some bad news from home and had been on the phone a lot, but my mate had finally got into the pout in earnest and also plenty of bootlace congers that I had managed to avoid for once.
We stayed a bit longer but finally packed up about 1am. The drive back was okay and I didn’t have any repeat of the funny turn from the previous trip, probably because I’d made sure I ate something.
The competition was won by a cracking 11lb odd bass with two 13lb plus smoothies coming second and third, so we’d have needed a bloody good fish to beat those, as it turned out.
I was fairly pleased with the trip though. The targets I’d aimed at I’d got, albeit nothing to write home about, but it’s nice when what you do actually works, even if it isn’t earth shaking.
I’m sure there are better parts of Chesil but I like this beach - free parking if you’re a National Trust member and more importantly, no back breaking hikes over shingle.
We arrived mid afternoon and it was warm and sunny so I expected plenty of beach goers and dog walkers - and so there was.
A couple of hardy souls were attempting to fish right in front of the car park while surrounded by sunbathers, dogs and people swimming in the sea directly in front of them
Unless you can’t walk more than 50 yards - and maybe they couldn’t, why knows - why would you inflict that upon yourself?
We trudged down the beach and set up in a fairly decent gap with a few sunbathers dotted around and people with dogs but there was still plenty of space so that would do.
To be fair, I have to say the people around us were no hassle at all. The older chap in the distance played with his dog in the sea but they were no bother, all the dogs we met were friendly and well behaved. I made sure no bait was left out or baited hooks hanging from the tripod within reach, everyone did their own thing with no issues at all.
My targets realistically were mackerel on pop up rigs (thanks for introducing me to this @Tatunka joe !) and perhaps scad towards dusk, then hopefully ray on fresh mackerel after dark.
More in hope than expectation, also had ragworm to try for plaice in the day and sole after dark, as well as fresh black lug.
It was bought from up my way as nowhere down Dorset had any left and have to say the black lug seemed very dead to me.
The ragworm also died very quickly despite being okay to start with and it was kept in my cool bag but in newspaper, with a layer between it and the ice blocks.
No idea why. Maybe it wasn’t great when purchased, but I’ve had this before in warmer weather and despite all best efforts, the worm perishes quickly.
Anyway… things were slow for an hour or two, by which I mean we caught nothing. My pop up mackerel strips were coming back a bit ragged so I think something was hitting it, but I wasn’t seeing bites.
The worm was coming back untouched.
Then I finally had a small mackerel on the pop up, followed shortly after by a tub gurnard. Not huge, maybe 10-12oz but nice to see.
This was followed shortly after by another smaller tub, then it went a bit quiet again.
I tried feathering here and there with just two feathers (to keep within competition hook limit rules) but nothing.
A few others were feathering and spinning and I didn’t see anything caught.
Mackerel had been around as semi fresh white bait were washing up here and there.
As dusk approached, the birds started wheeling and diving out to sea - probably 150 to 200 yards off and further than I can cast, that’s for sure.
The water was a little choppy and a bit coloured too, so I hadn’t expected any plaice and gave up on that idea, putting pop up mackerel strip out on both rods.
Sure enough a decent bite soon yielded a good bait sized mackie of about 12-14oz, followed by a slightly smaller one.
A serious amount of bird activity continued out at sea but the shoal moved off something like 300-400 yards and wasn’t coming inshore.
There was some close in activity about a quarter mile down the beach - I considered taking a rod down there but then Sod’s Law they’d probably have gone by the time I arrived.
My mate stuck with worm, despite me nagging him and when he did eventually change rigs, he’d missed the boat. You can lead a horse to water…
He said he was stubborn and wanted to hold out for a plaice.
I pointed out if something was working - I had five fish to his zero, it was silly to ignore it, but hey ho
Anyhoo, darkness arrived and the beach emptied out pretty fast - by about 9.30 we were the only ones there, apart from the distant lighthouses up at cogden.
Now we had space I moved down a bit from my mate, to avoid tangles in darkness and also to get away from his headlight a bit
Without much hope I put worm baits back out to try for sole, but the result was pouting after pouting, sometimes double shots and all about the 6-8oz range.
As low tide approached, I finally prepped my carefully hoarded fresh mackerel, having given my mate the second of the two bigger ones.
They never look happy!
Well, if they weren’t, the straps were
Didn’t actually hook any for a while but I could see they were munching on the fresh baits and they were coming back pretty screwed.
I put the fresh mackerel head and guts a few yards up the shingle away from me and in the gutter.
A decent bite on the other rod looked decidedly eelish and indeed was, but at 3-4lb it at least pulled back a bit.
Interest was waning but I wanted to use up the fresh bait at least, the mackerel anyway, the worm I’d thrown to the sand hoppers long ago.
I did also turn one pouting I’d kept into a flapper. The straps loved that too…
Finally, a good couple of pulls on the mackerel half fillet and then a steady taking of line screamed ray at last!
It seemed to have a decent bit of weight and was giving a good account of itself, so I carefully nursed it towards shore and slid my prize of the night up the shingle…
All 2lbs or so of it as it turned out
But it was nice to catch the target at least, even if it was only a small small eyed and not the double figure undulate I’d had in my head.
I’m not sure what he’d been doing all evening, though to be fair he’d had some bad news from home and had been on the phone a lot, but my mate had finally got into the pout in earnest and also plenty of bootlace congers that I had managed to avoid for once.
We stayed a bit longer but finally packed up about 1am. The drive back was okay and I didn’t have any repeat of the funny turn from the previous trip, probably because I’d made sure I ate something.
The competition was won by a cracking 11lb odd bass with two 13lb plus smoothies coming second and third, so we’d have needed a bloody good fish to beat those, as it turned out.
I was fairly pleased with the trip though. The targets I’d aimed at I’d got, albeit nothing to write home about, but it’s nice when what you do actually works, even if it isn’t earth shaking.
