Mr Fish
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2020
- Messages
- 22,626
- Reaction score
- 78,505
- Points
- 116
- Location
- North Devon
- Favourite Fishing
- Shore
There was a 48 hour comp this weekend and I knew most of the club would be fishing the local flounder turkey open (usually anything over 1lb 4 gets you a turkey and all the trimmings).
I don’t like Sunday flounder comps - it’s an early start, you have to dig bait the day before and with my current winter aches and pains I didn’t fancy it (lack of sunlight equals lack of decent natural vitamin D equals Fishy doesn’t feel great, I’ve probably bored you with it before).
So with a bigger tide and high water well after dark at 9.20pm, it seemed the perfect time to nip down the western end of Chesil and target the big whiting.
I know some might think me daft for driving for two hours to target whiting but we don’t get huge ones up here as a rule and if I stayed local it would mean a longer walk, climbing coast paths etc, whereas this spot meant sitting in the car for two hours then a pretty short walk. No contest in my mind.
The only slight fly in the ointment was the forecast, SW 12-14 and picking up later in the night.
Fishable but not far off my personal limit for Chesil, don’t really like fishing with a strong wind blowing in my face.
I arrived to an almost empty car park and on getting out the car it didn’t feel too pleasant, but the sea wasn’t huge and I clambered into my floatation suit and slid down to an empty beach.
It’s an easy spot and was quite surprised no one was there, but hey ho!
I walked about 300 yards down to a spot that’s thrown up big whiting for me before and quickly tackled up.
Also pleasantly surprising was the angle of the wind meant I wasn’t really in much wind at all, result!
Tactics weren’t fancy - I don’t see the need to waste expensive worms on whiting or pout so one rod had a two hook clipped down flapper with size 1 hooks and various strips of squid, cuttle and mackerel, the other had a whole squid on a 3/0 pennell. Not particularly large squid but that was okay as a better whiting or pout would take that in easily enough.
There was enough wind to make spotting bites a little difficult on the somewhat lighter rods I’d chosen (a Century Carbon Metal Express and Abu Suveran Sport if anyone cares lol) but the whiting rod was rattling almost from the off.
I left it a bit and attended to a bite on the other that turned out to be a tiny huss.
Barely had the whole squid gone out again when I had a dog on it.
Finally getting to the other rod I discovered it was snagged solid. WTF? As far as I knew it was just sand and some fine pea shingle here so I couldn’t see that I’d been ‘shingled’. In fact I didn’t think it was rough enough for that either.
But snagged it was and despite steady careful pressure, the line snapped.
Oh well.
Oh well indeed - someone had forgotten their spool of shockleader
I had to use some 40lb Amnesia but I didn’t have a huge amount of that, nor loads of weights either - it is Chesil after all!
Couldn’t be helped so out went the spare rig I’d already rebaited and that had a bite almost as soon as it went out.
I gave it a minute or so then it screamed over - whoa! Whatever this was, it wasn’t a dog or a ting!
It wasn’t huge but it wasn’t small either.
About 10 yards it went light. I hoped it was coming in with a wave, but no it was gone, however I did slide a dogfish up the beach.
I can only assume whatever it was had grabbed a pout or ting on the other hook.
It all became a bit busy then. I had a middling pout, then quite a chunky pout (but not the comp minimum of 1lb 1) and a few dogs plus a dildo fish (strap) on the other rod.
Hitting another bite, I missed it but became snagged again on the retrieve. It came free but this worried me as I had about six weights and very minimal ‘shockleader’.
Normally I’d have fished through it and accepted any losses but I wasn’t going to fish 18lb line without leader and the 40 I had was only meant as trace line, and there wasn’t so much of that either.
So I picked everything up and moved down 30-40 yards. For a time this was a bit slower. I had a small pout, but then a double shot of a bigger pout and a dog.
This pout looked promising and turned out to be the comp minimum of 1lb 1 ie 70%.
Not earthshaking but something to weigh in at least. I say ‘weigh’ we take pics of the fish and the weight on scales checked against the calibrated club scales.
I didn’t think it would do much, but who knows? At least I had something to put forward.
It was definitely slower at this new spot, or the fish had switched off, one or the other.
I had a few much smaller pout and a couple of dogs.
As high tide came and went, I was beginning to calculate how much longer I could be bothered with it. When suddenly I was aware of a weird noise and realised the ratchet had been screaming constantly on my other rod for several seconds.
Grabbed that and… whoa! Whatever it was wasn’t happy and didn’t want to move at first, with much head shaking.
Surely it couldn’t be that rarest of beasts, a double unicorn?
I coaxed the fish in, slackened the drag a bit and let it take a little line when needed.
As it got into the surf I had a slight suspicion but I let it take line in the backwash and timed my retrieves on the incoming waves.
That part worked but my dreams of a double cod or bass waned.
Yes, it was a double for sure.
A double snake
Still a fish is a fish in a comp and at first glance it looked mid late teens to me, which isn’t bad with a 20lb specimen rating.
I was a bit surprised then when the scales went 15lb 12. Weighing the sling and crap after made it 14lb 5. Minimum was 14 so I guess that made it just marginally better than the pout.
Just to point out by the way, I hadn’t seen a whiting all night
Two anglers much further up were walking towards me so I guessed the other car in the car park had been theirs.
They reported quite a slow night, one said they hadn’t had a bite for three hours.
They’d caught whiting, but only in about a 10 minute window as they came through, and no particularly great size either.
They headed off and I said I’d have a couple more chucks, which I did, but it yielded two more small pout and a dog, plus the water was getting further away and my aches and pains were really letting me know about it as the codeine wore off.
So I packed up and shuffled down the beach back to the car, if not broken at least fairly battered!
Also soaked. Not from the light rain all night but my suit is a bit too warm - when I peeled it off my clothes were soaked
An enjoyable busy session even if the tings plaguing everywhere else seemed to have had a night off, but I’d had a few fish.
As it turned out, apparently the flounder fishing was dire, with only six fish weighed in and the remaining four turkeys had to be drawn from a hat
My eel came second and the pout third, with a 2lb 7 dog taking first place, so worth the drive!
I don’t like Sunday flounder comps - it’s an early start, you have to dig bait the day before and with my current winter aches and pains I didn’t fancy it (lack of sunlight equals lack of decent natural vitamin D equals Fishy doesn’t feel great, I’ve probably bored you with it before).
So with a bigger tide and high water well after dark at 9.20pm, it seemed the perfect time to nip down the western end of Chesil and target the big whiting.
I know some might think me daft for driving for two hours to target whiting but we don’t get huge ones up here as a rule and if I stayed local it would mean a longer walk, climbing coast paths etc, whereas this spot meant sitting in the car for two hours then a pretty short walk. No contest in my mind.
The only slight fly in the ointment was the forecast, SW 12-14 and picking up later in the night.
Fishable but not far off my personal limit for Chesil, don’t really like fishing with a strong wind blowing in my face.
I arrived to an almost empty car park and on getting out the car it didn’t feel too pleasant, but the sea wasn’t huge and I clambered into my floatation suit and slid down to an empty beach.
It’s an easy spot and was quite surprised no one was there, but hey ho!
I walked about 300 yards down to a spot that’s thrown up big whiting for me before and quickly tackled up.
Also pleasantly surprising was the angle of the wind meant I wasn’t really in much wind at all, result!
Tactics weren’t fancy - I don’t see the need to waste expensive worms on whiting or pout so one rod had a two hook clipped down flapper with size 1 hooks and various strips of squid, cuttle and mackerel, the other had a whole squid on a 3/0 pennell. Not particularly large squid but that was okay as a better whiting or pout would take that in easily enough.
There was enough wind to make spotting bites a little difficult on the somewhat lighter rods I’d chosen (a Century Carbon Metal Express and Abu Suveran Sport if anyone cares lol) but the whiting rod was rattling almost from the off.
I left it a bit and attended to a bite on the other that turned out to be a tiny huss.
Barely had the whole squid gone out again when I had a dog on it.
Finally getting to the other rod I discovered it was snagged solid. WTF? As far as I knew it was just sand and some fine pea shingle here so I couldn’t see that I’d been ‘shingled’. In fact I didn’t think it was rough enough for that either.
But snagged it was and despite steady careful pressure, the line snapped.
Oh well.
Oh well indeed - someone had forgotten their spool of shockleader
I had to use some 40lb Amnesia but I didn’t have a huge amount of that, nor loads of weights either - it is Chesil after all!
Couldn’t be helped so out went the spare rig I’d already rebaited and that had a bite almost as soon as it went out.
I gave it a minute or so then it screamed over - whoa! Whatever this was, it wasn’t a dog or a ting!
It wasn’t huge but it wasn’t small either.
About 10 yards it went light. I hoped it was coming in with a wave, but no it was gone, however I did slide a dogfish up the beach.
I can only assume whatever it was had grabbed a pout or ting on the other hook.
It all became a bit busy then. I had a middling pout, then quite a chunky pout (but not the comp minimum of 1lb 1) and a few dogs plus a dildo fish (strap) on the other rod.
Hitting another bite, I missed it but became snagged again on the retrieve. It came free but this worried me as I had about six weights and very minimal ‘shockleader’.
Normally I’d have fished through it and accepted any losses but I wasn’t going to fish 18lb line without leader and the 40 I had was only meant as trace line, and there wasn’t so much of that either.
So I picked everything up and moved down 30-40 yards. For a time this was a bit slower. I had a small pout, but then a double shot of a bigger pout and a dog.
This pout looked promising and turned out to be the comp minimum of 1lb 1 ie 70%.
Not earthshaking but something to weigh in at least. I say ‘weigh’ we take pics of the fish and the weight on scales checked against the calibrated club scales.
I didn’t think it would do much, but who knows? At least I had something to put forward.
It was definitely slower at this new spot, or the fish had switched off, one or the other.
I had a few much smaller pout and a couple of dogs.
As high tide came and went, I was beginning to calculate how much longer I could be bothered with it. When suddenly I was aware of a weird noise and realised the ratchet had been screaming constantly on my other rod for several seconds.
Grabbed that and… whoa! Whatever it was wasn’t happy and didn’t want to move at first, with much head shaking.
Surely it couldn’t be that rarest of beasts, a double unicorn?
I coaxed the fish in, slackened the drag a bit and let it take a little line when needed.
As it got into the surf I had a slight suspicion but I let it take line in the backwash and timed my retrieves on the incoming waves.
That part worked but my dreams of a double cod or bass waned.
Yes, it was a double for sure.
A double snake
Still a fish is a fish in a comp and at first glance it looked mid late teens to me, which isn’t bad with a 20lb specimen rating.
I was a bit surprised then when the scales went 15lb 12. Weighing the sling and crap after made it 14lb 5. Minimum was 14 so I guess that made it just marginally better than the pout.
Just to point out by the way, I hadn’t seen a whiting all night
Two anglers much further up were walking towards me so I guessed the other car in the car park had been theirs.
They reported quite a slow night, one said they hadn’t had a bite for three hours.
They’d caught whiting, but only in about a 10 minute window as they came through, and no particularly great size either.
They headed off and I said I’d have a couple more chucks, which I did, but it yielded two more small pout and a dog, plus the water was getting further away and my aches and pains were really letting me know about it as the codeine wore off.
So I packed up and shuffled down the beach back to the car, if not broken at least fairly battered!
Also soaked. Not from the light rain all night but my suit is a bit too warm - when I peeled it off my clothes were soaked
An enjoyable busy session even if the tings plaguing everywhere else seemed to have had a night off, but I’d had a few fish.
As it turned out, apparently the flounder fishing was dire, with only six fish weighed in and the remaining four turkeys had to be drawn from a hat
My eel came second and the pout third, with a 2lb 7 dog taking first place, so worth the drive!
