Mr Fish
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- Joined
- Oct 4, 2020
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- Location
- North Devon
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A mate and I decided to meet up at Ferrybridge on Chesil yesterday - he travels from the Surrey direction so it’s about mid way for us.
@Tatunka joe gave me lots of good advice, especially on rigs, but work and a busy few days meant all I really had time to do was throw the basics in my seatbox and figure it out down there.
I did have to strip off brand new 15lb line from a reel and replace as there was a knot 100 yards plus into the reel, caused during the last surf beach trip and I couldn’t shift it, very annoying.
I had a blood test in the morning and a bit more work so didn’t leave home until 1pm, destination Ferrybridge.
Well, there was pretty much every annoyance known to man on the roads and for the record of total numpties per mile, I think the A35 to Dorset holds the prize.
It’s actually not a bad road but my god you get some clueless slow morons on there.
What really took the prize was what I assume was a cyclist who held up a half mile long traffic queue for 2-3 miles at speeds of 10-15mph.
Half way between Abbotsbury and Weymouth we were back up to 50mph, so I assume they turned off, which was a shame as I had quite a few things I’d wanted to say to them when I got past them.
Oh, at West Bay I did something I haven’t done for decades - bought a ready made rig.
Sheer laziness but Tat had suggested loop rigs or at least very long traces. Unfortunately the choice was it seemed two hook clipped down, or one hook clipped down.
I bought a two hook as didn’t even think I had any of those pre tied.
ANYWAY, finally met my mate in the car park at 4pm and we trudged up the mountain high bank.
We couldn’t go where I’d been directed as it was tent city and plenty of fluff chuckers, so trudged a few hundred yards down the bank to a good sized gap. Neither of us like people close if we can help it!
I put out the two hook clipped rig with rag and squid on to start, plus a home made up n over pop up affair with mackerel strip, targets being bream, gurnards, triggers, mackerel, scad, whatever really.
It was intended as a meet up and social rather than a serious fishing trip, and Tat had warned the small tides wouldn’t be great, but it was nice to get out after a shitty couple of weeks.
My mate can cast a fair distance, me not so much, but between us we covered the ranges.
There were birds working when we arrived and I got some feathers on as quickly as I could, but it yielded nothing.
I usually keep a third rod set up with feathers on Chesil in the summer and just have a few chucks for 10 minutes here and there, especially if I spot any fish jumping and solely to get fresh bait.
Anyway, very little happened for the first three hours. My mate had a few nibbles and stripped bait, I wasn’t really concentrating too hard on fishing and it was nice just to be out in the sun again.
I’m did unearth the Holy Stone, to which I prayed to fervently hoping our luck would change
As dusk approached, he had a twatfish, my new name for tiny bootlace congers and then finally I had a decent bite on the pop up mackerel strip and brought in…. a mackerel.
Unfortunately forget to take a pic but it was a pretty chunky one, over a pound and fat - fresh bait at least.
That was reserved for fresh ray baits after dark and I tried the feathers in earnest to get a bit more bait.
I hooked one or two at range but they dropped off halfway to shore, so that was that.
As the light went I finally had one small bream on the rag worm…
Maybe the Holy Stone was working! But he giveth, and he taketh away, so the next fish on that rig was a twatfish and the rig was dead.
A few words on the shop bought rig - it was okay, seemed reasonably well made, but overly fussy with crimps, springs and sliding stops for my liking. My own version is a lot more agricultural.
Plus I use Amnesia for all of my trace line and even the worst eel tangle can be unraveled - this one was wanked, I could see that after a minute trying to untangle it.
I’ll replace the hook traces when I have time, but it was done for the day.
The pop up mackerel rig was also starting to attract twatfish, so both rods went over to bigger mackerel baits or whole squid, including the fresh mackerel.
Oh, when we walked down I saw bike tyre tracks and did wonder at the point, because you might get down shingle with the help of gravity, but you’ve still got to get back up.
Sure enough, we saw this prize plum very slowly pushing his bike back up the shingle mountain towards dusk.
Easier just to walk, surely?
Darkness descended… and so did the twatfish hordes - fawsands of ‘em!
Mackerel strip close in had been suggested for scad and I tried but the twats found it first.
Then they found the fresh mackerel, whole squid, fresh mackerel head in the gutter, oh yes, they enjoyed it all.
Any bait sent out soon developed the tell tale jerking rattling bites and resulted in either a tiny eel, or a slimy messy ball of line and rig components.
I couldn’t get the camera to focus while holding one handed, but you get the idea.
However, this rig included Amnesia and was untangled in two minutes and fishing again two minutes after that.
My mate persevered with worm and had a few pout too, but the eel fest was soul destroying.
We gave it until 12.30am then packed up.
Yet another successful Chesil trip
It was good to meet up and always good company but I freely admit I didn’t really follow the good local advice I’d been given, mainly just down to not having time to prepare anything, so it was very much a chuck it and chance it trip.
Unrelated to the fishing but I’d felt okay all day - on the way back up the shingle all my energy disappeared in one go, it was a huge struggle just to get back to the car.
The joys of weird health conditions
More worrying, by the time I was on the outskirts of Weymouth I had a pounding headache, felt nauseous, woozy and tired as hell.
I struggled on to Honiton then had to find a lay-by and shut my eyes for an hour.
After that I was more alert and able to continue, though it returned as I neared home, but I eventually got back at 5.15am.
Needless to say I hadn’t driven very fast at all, more Miss Daisy then the blitz back I’d intended.
First time this has happened. Very similar symptoms to when I used to get vertigo attacks, but without the actual world spinning part.
However… I hadn’t eaten since the night before, so probably about 30 hours by then (!) plus my other condition makes me liable to fatigue anyway, so I think I literally pushed things too far and my body was letting me know about it.
I ate a reasonable snack when I got home and almost instantly felt better, so definitely need to make sure I eat next time!
@Tatunka joe gave me lots of good advice, especially on rigs, but work and a busy few days meant all I really had time to do was throw the basics in my seatbox and figure it out down there.
I did have to strip off brand new 15lb line from a reel and replace as there was a knot 100 yards plus into the reel, caused during the last surf beach trip and I couldn’t shift it, very annoying.
I had a blood test in the morning and a bit more work so didn’t leave home until 1pm, destination Ferrybridge.
Well, there was pretty much every annoyance known to man on the roads and for the record of total numpties per mile, I think the A35 to Dorset holds the prize.
It’s actually not a bad road but my god you get some clueless slow morons on there.
What really took the prize was what I assume was a cyclist who held up a half mile long traffic queue for 2-3 miles at speeds of 10-15mph.
Half way between Abbotsbury and Weymouth we were back up to 50mph, so I assume they turned off, which was a shame as I had quite a few things I’d wanted to say to them when I got past them.
Oh, at West Bay I did something I haven’t done for decades - bought a ready made rig.
Sheer laziness but Tat had suggested loop rigs or at least very long traces. Unfortunately the choice was it seemed two hook clipped down, or one hook clipped down.
I bought a two hook as didn’t even think I had any of those pre tied.
ANYWAY, finally met my mate in the car park at 4pm and we trudged up the mountain high bank.
We couldn’t go where I’d been directed as it was tent city and plenty of fluff chuckers, so trudged a few hundred yards down the bank to a good sized gap. Neither of us like people close if we can help it!
I put out the two hook clipped rig with rag and squid on to start, plus a home made up n over pop up affair with mackerel strip, targets being bream, gurnards, triggers, mackerel, scad, whatever really.
It was intended as a meet up and social rather than a serious fishing trip, and Tat had warned the small tides wouldn’t be great, but it was nice to get out after a shitty couple of weeks.
My mate can cast a fair distance, me not so much, but between us we covered the ranges.
There were birds working when we arrived and I got some feathers on as quickly as I could, but it yielded nothing.
I usually keep a third rod set up with feathers on Chesil in the summer and just have a few chucks for 10 minutes here and there, especially if I spot any fish jumping and solely to get fresh bait.
Anyway, very little happened for the first three hours. My mate had a few nibbles and stripped bait, I wasn’t really concentrating too hard on fishing and it was nice just to be out in the sun again.
I’m did unearth the Holy Stone, to which I prayed to fervently hoping our luck would change
As dusk approached, he had a twatfish, my new name for tiny bootlace congers and then finally I had a decent bite on the pop up mackerel strip and brought in…. a mackerel.
Unfortunately forget to take a pic but it was a pretty chunky one, over a pound and fat - fresh bait at least.
That was reserved for fresh ray baits after dark and I tried the feathers in earnest to get a bit more bait.
I hooked one or two at range but they dropped off halfway to shore, so that was that.
As the light went I finally had one small bream on the rag worm…
Maybe the Holy Stone was working! But he giveth, and he taketh away, so the next fish on that rig was a twatfish and the rig was dead.
A few words on the shop bought rig - it was okay, seemed reasonably well made, but overly fussy with crimps, springs and sliding stops for my liking. My own version is a lot more agricultural.
Plus I use Amnesia for all of my trace line and even the worst eel tangle can be unraveled - this one was wanked, I could see that after a minute trying to untangle it.
I’ll replace the hook traces when I have time, but it was done for the day.
The pop up mackerel rig was also starting to attract twatfish, so both rods went over to bigger mackerel baits or whole squid, including the fresh mackerel.
Oh, when we walked down I saw bike tyre tracks and did wonder at the point, because you might get down shingle with the help of gravity, but you’ve still got to get back up.
Sure enough, we saw this prize plum very slowly pushing his bike back up the shingle mountain towards dusk.
Easier just to walk, surely?
Darkness descended… and so did the twatfish hordes - fawsands of ‘em!
Mackerel strip close in had been suggested for scad and I tried but the twats found it first.
Then they found the fresh mackerel, whole squid, fresh mackerel head in the gutter, oh yes, they enjoyed it all.
Any bait sent out soon developed the tell tale jerking rattling bites and resulted in either a tiny eel, or a slimy messy ball of line and rig components.
I couldn’t get the camera to focus while holding one handed, but you get the idea.
However, this rig included Amnesia and was untangled in two minutes and fishing again two minutes after that.
My mate persevered with worm and had a few pout too, but the eel fest was soul destroying.
We gave it until 12.30am then packed up.
Yet another successful Chesil trip
It was good to meet up and always good company but I freely admit I didn’t really follow the good local advice I’d been given, mainly just down to not having time to prepare anything, so it was very much a chuck it and chance it trip.
Unrelated to the fishing but I’d felt okay all day - on the way back up the shingle all my energy disappeared in one go, it was a huge struggle just to get back to the car.
The joys of weird health conditions
More worrying, by the time I was on the outskirts of Weymouth I had a pounding headache, felt nauseous, woozy and tired as hell.
I struggled on to Honiton then had to find a lay-by and shut my eyes for an hour.
After that I was more alert and able to continue, though it returned as I neared home, but I eventually got back at 5.15am.
Needless to say I hadn’t driven very fast at all, more Miss Daisy then the blitz back I’d intended.
First time this has happened. Very similar symptoms to when I used to get vertigo attacks, but without the actual world spinning part.
However… I hadn’t eaten since the night before, so probably about 30 hours by then (!) plus my other condition makes me liable to fatigue anyway, so I think I literally pushed things too far and my body was letting me know about it.
I ate a reasonable snack when I got home and almost instantly felt better, so definitely need to make sure I eat next time!
