South Coast What a difference a few years makes!

[fishybuisness]

Over the years ive always witnessed a little excitement on here for the chesil beach cod hunt. The passion seams to have died a bit! Is there less of us now or just a lack of fish?
I haven’t been frequenting the beach this last year or two as much as i used to, purely as im starting to feel older and crashing out on the shingle in cold temps or rough weather hasnt suited. I did go out just before xmas and bagged up on a few plumps, the spark had gone, the air of excitement had disappeared and a session that should of elated me was somewhat unrelieved.

What really caught others and myself last year was the unrelenting squid bashing ! Pure fun with friends with a few months of laughs and giggles. They make great dinner and the skate seam to like to eat it up north.

Coming to our skate fishing, its noticeable that the amount anglers targeting these fish are increasing and the impact on certain marks is noticeable. From rubbish left all around, a standard affair from the weapons angling attracts but the worst and most worrying thing is people snapping 100lb all over the place because they have set the drag to high and break off. The result is skate that get hung up on features and can find it hard to escape death! These flapper skate can be over 80yrs old! They need a little more respect than whats being shown currently. Skate can be worked out of most snags as long as you dont snap the line, an old saying comes to mind “gentle not mental”

Best of luck to you all for this season
i will leave you with a nice shot of a thresher just before it whacks the hell out of me!

 

[Kine262]

Superb pics Fishy and great post!

 

[chesilpete]

I completely agree with how you feel.... I could have fished Chesil more although I am incredibly busy.
I think sometimes the bug bites and it's irresistible, I think i just have to fall back in love with it....
I have a box prepped to the max, new rods, reels all tweaked and ready to roll even got some really good blacks n crabs vac packed in the freezer.
So it's just failure to launch.....

 

[fishybuisness]

I completely agree with how you feel.... I could have fished Chesil more although I am incredibly busy.
I think sometimes the bug bites and it's irresistible, I think i just have to fall back in love with it....
I have a box prepped to the max, new rods, reels all tweaked and ready to roll even got some really good blacks n crabs vac packed in the freezer.
So it's just failure to launch.....

Its like the lights on but dim, im not sure whats changed but it could go one way or the other for me really. Always look forward to a session when imagining when and where to go but this year its not got past the development stage. Ive been quite happy going out and catching bait in short local sessions instead of a number of hours on the big beach. Good to hear from you, you know its nearly turbot time!

 

[Trampster]

I didn't get out to wet a line once last year. I had a shoulder injury Christmas 2023 which lasted 8 months, two weeks in hospital in November, and also just didn't have any motivation for it. Plus my fishing buddy has been out of circulation for personal reasons.
Hoping to make more of an effort this year when the weather improves a bit. Cold/damp air is not good for my breathing problems.

 

[chesilpete]

Its like the lights on but dim, im not sure whats changed but it could go one way or the other for me really. Always look forward to a session when imagining when and where to go but this year its not got past the development stage. Ive been quite happy going out and catching bait in short local sessions instead of a number of hours on the big beach. Good to hear from you, you know its nearly turbot time!

Turbots.... love em, luck or skill?
Had a lot of fun in Norway taking big plaice and small butt's on a light jigging rod in deep water.
I reckon I had an edge because of the "early warning" using light gear.
It made me think it could be interesting on uk turbos, I am convinced we don't hook 40% of the bites we get......
Great to see you back online awesome to see the thresher alongside.

 

[squidword]

Regarding the codling, I'm old enough to remember when the fishing was good. Bags of quality codling, numbers of 7,8,9lbers. Those years on chesil when you could literally catch as many as you wanted. Same in the BC come spring you would be sick of catching them. Nowadays the thought of freezing my knackers off for a couple of 2lb codling really doesn't float my boat anymore, maybe I getting old! If there were decent numbers of 5 or 6lb fish I'd definitely be out more, but the planning, digging 3lb of blow lug, drive, parking charges plus the constant trawling of chesil really puts me off.

 

[crablante]

...plus the constant trawling of chesil...

What this not the case back in the days?

 

[crablante]

Squid and Wayne - you're living the life

 

[chesilpete]

Regarding the codling, I'm old enough to remember when the fishing was good. Bags of quality codling, numbers of 7,8,9lbers. Those years on chesil when you could literally catch as many as you wanted. Same in the BC come spring you would be sick of catching them. Nowadays the thought of freezing my knackers off for a couple of 2lb codling really doesn't float my boat anymore, maybe I getting old! If there were decent numbers of 5 or 6lb fish I'd definitely be out more, but the planning, digging 3lb of blow lug, drive, parking charges plus the constant trawling of chesil really puts me off.

2014 6-11lbers like zulus

 

[squidword]

What this not the case back in the days?

The boats fished more offshore back in the day. Probably more boats and more fish to go around. Nowadays they often trawl close to the beach, catching the last dregs of what fish are left. Probably not worth the fuel to head offshore. I'd imagine technology has improved massively allowing the boats to maximise the catch as well.

 

[squidword]

2014 6-11lbers like zulus

I think 2014 was when we had that mental run of fish 2lb to 3lb? You could get 20 or 30 a session. Was it the following year when they came back 6 to 11lb fish? I'm unsure of the dates but I remember that first stir up in September, I think I had 10 cod over 6lb in a few hours

 

[chesilpete]

The boats fished more offshore back in the day. Probably more boats and more fish to go around. Nowadays they often trawl close to the beach, catching the last dregs of what fish are left. Probably not worth the fuel to head offshore. I'd imagine technology has improved massively allowing the boats to maximise the catch as well.

The Chesil problem seems to be three boats.... although I think it maybe down to two this year.
I personally think it's the big bastards running just offshore. I have seen the landings at Lyme from on of the Chesil boats and it was just about enough to cover costs.
I reckon the only way this changes is if diesel doubles in price then they just can't afford to work.

 

[crablante]

The Chesil problem seems to be three boats.... although I think it maybe down to two this year.
I personally think it's the big bastards running just offshore. I have seen the landings at Lyme from on of the Chesil boats and it was just about enough to cover costs.
I reckon the only way this changes is if diesel doubles in price then they just can't afford to work.

I'm under the impression bass stocks are quite healthy? So maybe "they" could do something similar with cod (as they did with bass) to get back to healthy stocks...one can hope.

 

[chesilpete]

I'm under the impression bass stocks are quite healthy? So maybe "they" could do something similar with cod (as they did with bass) to get back to healthy stocks...one can hope.

They are slaughtering everything here mate.... it's relentless. I thought bass stocks were lower than ever!

 

[squidword]

They are slaughtering everything here mate.... it's relentless. I thought bass stocks were lower than ever!

I have to agree with this sadly. Bass numbers are definitely the lowest I can remember. Not many breeding fish left!

 

[crablante]

I have to agree with this sadly. Bass numbers are definitely the lowest I can remember. Not many breeding fish left!

They are slaughtering everything here mate.... it's relentless. I thought bass stocks were lower than ever!

Shit

 

[chesilpete]

I think 2014 was when we had that mental run of fish 2lb to 3lb? You could get 20 or 30 a session. Was it the following year when they came back 6 to 11lb fish? I'm unsure of the dates but I remember that first stir up in September, I think I had 10 cod over 6lb in a few hours

You could be right about 2015... my mate Brad and I had a session down East which was just bonkers about dozen cods up to 11 an eel 30 plus and a bass of 8. The previous year was the mad year and you could catch as many as you wanted.

 

[crablante]

...They are slaughtering everything here mate...

...Nowadays they often trawl close to the beach, catching the last dregs of what fish are left...

A recent Wayne Hand video (at Chesil with Gem) starts off with a trawler relatively close to the shore, and one of the comments mentions that one boat using gill nets at Christchurch (Hengistbury Head is my "local" fishing spot) has "...cleared out most of the fish..." which if true is so messed up

 

[Mike hemming]

I completely agree with how you feel.... I could have fished Chesil more although I am incredibly busy.
I think sometimes the bug bites and it's irresistible, I think i just have to fall back in love with it....
I have a box prepped to the max, new rods, reels all tweaked and ready to roll even got some really good blacks n crabs vac packed in the freezer.
So it's just failure to launch.....

Same here Pete , work and more work seems to get in the way and when I do get the chance I’m to tired to bother like wise my tackle box is full and ready for the off new rods n reels begging to be used , but hopefully from 1st of feb I’m having more time for my self the love of fishing will creep back in