Mr Fish
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2020
- Messages
- 21,367
- Reaction score
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- Points
- 116
- Location
- North Devon
- Favourite Fishing
- Shore
Two trips in the last couple of days, neither too thrilling so I’ve combined the two.
Friday I went down to Portland for an attempt at the wrasse with @Challenge_fish
By all accounts Chesil is spidered out and we need to meet halfway as he comes from the south east direction, so it was as much an opportunity to meet up as a serious fishing session.
We both pulled up on the car park at the same time and after a quick coffee from the cafe, headed down to the left.
Had thought maybe to fish the first crane but there was a guy on there so we mooched down further looking for a decent ledge.
The first one we tried looked like a good platform but was shallow and gnarly so we moved up a bit and tried another spot.
That wasn’t much better but a few openings between the reefs to cast towards deeper water or trot a float.
I started off with two crab baits on the ledger - ordinary peeler and spider peeler.
Very little happening so we unlimbered the floats and ragworm.
Instant bites then but it was all small stuff. Challengy got the first, a palm sized fish, and eventually I managed one, also very small.
He lost a better fish very close in by fishing in a tiny gap between the weed.
I also managed to lose one a bit better by getting my float snagged and losing that as well ?
The flooding tide was starting to come over our ledge so we upped sticks and headed towards the crane.
It was empty by then but silly high up and we were concerned dropping any fish back would kill them, so climbed down on to the ledge next to it. A bit awkward for a stumpy short arse like me, but I got down there in the end.
First cast I had a cracking bite and briefly connected with, then lost, a much better fish.
It appeared things were looking up but after that the bites dried up, apart from a few pecks from clearly tiny fish.
My companion opted to focus on the float and was soon swearing as he missed bite after bite.
I joined him with a float too and also managed to do the same ?
You could see the bites were from very small wrasse though and indeed, he finally hooked one, as did I, but they were all palm sized things.
He had to go at 6 but I wanted to stay on a bit and persevere with the ledgered crab.
Had to move quite a way back from the edge as the swell was trying to come over…
Still, a nice spot to fish
No more action for me either so about 45 minutes after he left, I followed suit.
Today, Sunday, I had a comp on but decided to stay very local and fish a gnarly low tide spot with gullies for either a hound or bass.
I wasn’t exactly feeling in top form and took my time getting out, so instead of the usual four hours down there I knew I was only going to get three.
You won’t be getting any pictures of this mark, by the way!
It’s a right old climb down and up and down bloody awkward rocks and wading through gullies.
I’d opted to try a different spot to my usual location there, but on getting there I realised I’d fecked up as the rocks in front of me made life awkward, to say the least!
Eventually I had a spider crab out at a bit of range for hopefully a smoothie and used my uptide rod to fish a similar bait much closer in the surf for bass.
The beachcaster had bites from the off and I knew what they looked like.
Yup, dog.
And another. And another. And one on the close in rod just to rub it in.
As the tide flooded I had to do a fair bit but of light footed moving around to keep ahead of the surging surf.
A slightly better bite and fight on the beachcaster resulted in a huss about 3lb…
I probably had another dog or two, or three, after that ?
In the end I was running out of higher spots to put my rucksack so had to pick everything up and reset.
Snagged and snapped off the distance rod so left that and focused on touch ledgering with the lighter rod for the last half hour.
No bites and I moved back once more but could see my time left was measured in about 10 minutes as the gully behind was about to fill.
One last cast resulted in a three bearded rocking that looked fairly chunky but only went 12.5oz, so no good for the comp.
There wasn’t time to pack up there so I picked up everything and hiked back down the gully to temporarily drier ground while I quickly packed away.
Even then I had to wade through up to my thighs (wearing waders so no drama) to get back to the exit.
Smoothies were caught locally today so they’re about and I was quite surprised I didn’t see one, but that’s hounds for you.
So not the most exciting trips for the bank holiday weekend but I gave it a go!
Friday I went down to Portland for an attempt at the wrasse with @Challenge_fish
By all accounts Chesil is spidered out and we need to meet halfway as he comes from the south east direction, so it was as much an opportunity to meet up as a serious fishing session.
We both pulled up on the car park at the same time and after a quick coffee from the cafe, headed down to the left.
Had thought maybe to fish the first crane but there was a guy on there so we mooched down further looking for a decent ledge.
The first one we tried looked like a good platform but was shallow and gnarly so we moved up a bit and tried another spot.
That wasn’t much better but a few openings between the reefs to cast towards deeper water or trot a float.
I started off with two crab baits on the ledger - ordinary peeler and spider peeler.
Very little happening so we unlimbered the floats and ragworm.
Instant bites then but it was all small stuff. Challengy got the first, a palm sized fish, and eventually I managed one, also very small.
He lost a better fish very close in by fishing in a tiny gap between the weed.
I also managed to lose one a bit better by getting my float snagged and losing that as well ?
The flooding tide was starting to come over our ledge so we upped sticks and headed towards the crane.
It was empty by then but silly high up and we were concerned dropping any fish back would kill them, so climbed down on to the ledge next to it. A bit awkward for a stumpy short arse like me, but I got down there in the end.
First cast I had a cracking bite and briefly connected with, then lost, a much better fish.
It appeared things were looking up but after that the bites dried up, apart from a few pecks from clearly tiny fish.
My companion opted to focus on the float and was soon swearing as he missed bite after bite.
I joined him with a float too and also managed to do the same ?
You could see the bites were from very small wrasse though and indeed, he finally hooked one, as did I, but they were all palm sized things.
He had to go at 6 but I wanted to stay on a bit and persevere with the ledgered crab.
Had to move quite a way back from the edge as the swell was trying to come over…
Still, a nice spot to fish
No more action for me either so about 45 minutes after he left, I followed suit.
Today, Sunday, I had a comp on but decided to stay very local and fish a gnarly low tide spot with gullies for either a hound or bass.
I wasn’t exactly feeling in top form and took my time getting out, so instead of the usual four hours down there I knew I was only going to get three.
You won’t be getting any pictures of this mark, by the way!
It’s a right old climb down and up and down bloody awkward rocks and wading through gullies.
I’d opted to try a different spot to my usual location there, but on getting there I realised I’d fecked up as the rocks in front of me made life awkward, to say the least!
Eventually I had a spider crab out at a bit of range for hopefully a smoothie and used my uptide rod to fish a similar bait much closer in the surf for bass.
The beachcaster had bites from the off and I knew what they looked like.
Yup, dog.
And another. And another. And one on the close in rod just to rub it in.
As the tide flooded I had to do a fair bit but of light footed moving around to keep ahead of the surging surf.
A slightly better bite and fight on the beachcaster resulted in a huss about 3lb…
I probably had another dog or two, or three, after that ?
In the end I was running out of higher spots to put my rucksack so had to pick everything up and reset.
Snagged and snapped off the distance rod so left that and focused on touch ledgering with the lighter rod for the last half hour.
No bites and I moved back once more but could see my time left was measured in about 10 minutes as the gully behind was about to fill.
One last cast resulted in a three bearded rocking that looked fairly chunky but only went 12.5oz, so no good for the comp.
There wasn’t time to pack up there so I picked up everything and hiked back down the gully to temporarily drier ground while I quickly packed away.
Even then I had to wade through up to my thighs (wearing waders so no drama) to get back to the exit.
Smoothies were caught locally today so they’re about and I was quite surprised I didn’t see one, but that’s hounds for you.
So not the most exciting trips for the bank holiday weekend but I gave it a go!
