mike farrants

Have friends staying for the week from land locked Buckinghamshire - and wanted to fish as much as possible this week - following the 35mph winds of Thursday and Friday we chose to stick to beach fishing and having had a look at the swell pounding chesil we chose the more sheltered Preston beach - the east end of Weymouth bay. Armed with ragworm and bling for plaice (or anything flat) and a 2 hook flapper for anything else. We weren't expecting great things (although have caught rays, whiting, eels, and dogs here)- plus knowing its better at night we opted for the afternoon/evening. first cast at 3pm just as the sun came out - very slow but enjoyable afternoon - we fished until dark and i blanked - my mate however caught a lovely bass on rag and a spider crab! went home at 9pm to bangers and mash - a thoroughly enjoyable blank on a spring day!

looks like a good trip! nice one!

I always use zip sliders for all big baits!

Sadly no anchor ball - just a big old anchor buoy off the bow - but nonetheless - he shoudn't have been dropping pots that close to us if we were drifting or under way - he would have even less clue about our course/intentions. they knew full well we were anchored.

I like it - i'll put on facache that the mackerel are in lol

Yes I certainly don't want to upset anyone when my boats in the same marina and we see them all the time. My mate knows one of the charter skippers so might see if its worth having a polite word. the annoying thing is its put us off anchoring there again - and i suspect that was their plan!

welcome!

no it was a pick up astern off us and then he re-dropped them infront

Here his track from yesterday - its likely the top of the middle one circled as there is a slight deviation - (more than the other 2 as he perhaps came round us - but really no need to cut in close to our bow when you have that much space

Was out yesterday on Tims boat - decided the mackerel had gone so steamed straight out to Lulworth banks (7nm) with frozen bait in search of bream - light tides but a fresh wind against it - forecast 10mph off the land but was well over 15Mph+ - made it quite uncomfortable. and cold. As we were set to be swinging around we went with 1 rod each - me and tim on small stuff for the bream - jason on a big bait for rays and conger Tim was straight into the bream - but it was a tough day - Tim had 5 bream (up to 2lb) and a pout, jason had a dog and a conger i had only 2 pout. no pics - nothing worthy a tough day made very tough by what happened next..... A local (very well known) commercial pot boat (assume Whelks) was hauling pots near us - we anchored away from any markers - the area is well known for commercial gear so you have to anchor carefully. this baot finished pulling their string not too far from us and was obviously emptying and re-baiting as they went, he then towed his marker buoy around our stern, and proceeded to start dropping his string less than 50yd from our port side (inland of us) and then steamed straight over where our anchor rode would be (75m as were in 60ft water) dropping his pots - quite clearly over our anchor line - with no concern or care for us whatsoever. He would have know we were clearly at anchor, and was operating far to close to us - wish i had pics/video, but it wasn't until he motored off that we realised what he had just done We know full well his string of pots is now laid over our anchor rope at almost 90 degs When we pulled the anchor the inevitable happened and we hooked up his gear - a lot of driving around, swearing, sweating, risking going over and 3 busted backs later we did manage to hand haul the anchor to the boat with his line clearly across it - we had to (chose to) cut ourselves free, the anchor chain damaged the wooden gunwhales and stainless rails, but we didn't lose the anchor. Its a local Weymouth boat so we will be filing a complaint to the harbour master for what its worth. all he had to do was start his drop 100 yards the other side or ahead of us pic shows how close he dropped his first pot. we could of cast to it i know commercials are just doing their job - and probably get f'ed off with pleasure boaters, but we weren't in their way, we weren't doing any harm, and quite frankly they did this on purpose with total disregard for us and our safety. anyone else we should report to?

yeah if i hit 6.5 knots i want to know about it!

I use navionics on phone and a tablet. to search out ground, plot all my fishy hotspots, measure my speed accurately etc but its most useful for checking the anchor is holding! i also us it to position myself on chesil beach exactly where the fish arent......

hi - welcome back although i suspect you left before i joined - what boat do you have and where do you fish from?

nice one!

I know where he lives, and what he likes for breakfast!

Hoodie arrived today thanks SF - great quality, amazing spec - didn't expect embroidery logo on front and back! expect to see in a catch report soon!

Another weekend another trip out - on Tims boat seadog. Met at the marina at 7am, loaded up and off out under the bridge. tried for mackerel in all the usual spots but only found 2 - compared to last weeks 40...... (turns out they were on the wreck of the Hood - bit of a steam in the wrong direction for us) never mind we had plenty of frozen bait with us and the 2 we had were decent size. We decided to try a new mark, 80ft of water, in the middle of the bay around 5miles out - the areas of ground looked interesting so we dropped the hook. wind over tide made for a lively day - with the WNW fresher than forecast - lively but bearable Tim went small rigs on both rods and was straight into the whiting I went one big one small. Not long into the session i get a faint bite on the big rod (fresh mackerel fillet) and sure enough fish on - however it got heavy, it got light, it took line it went slack - it didn't really fight and soon enough a big conger surfaces - easily +20lb - but with a strange but very distinctive pink scar on its head. Quick pic and he's T barred off at the side. fresh bait and back down the other mackerel fillet - within a few minutes i get another bite - very similar soft bite but heavy weight - up comes another big conger.... THE SAME CONGER!!! with the same pink scar on its head - what are the chances - of catching the same fish twice? i understand in a pond - but in the sea at anchor in 80ft of water? anyway down goes the mackerel head this time...... another bite..... and you guessed it - Mr Conger again - the same one! I caught the same conger 3 times in a row. what are the chances...... I must be putting my bait right at his front door - he had all 3 bits of the same mackerel too! We both got bored of that so luckily he or we moved on! Next up was a couple of spotted rays followed by a couple of thornies. I had a steady run of Whiting on the small rod but Tim had whiting and plenty of small Bream too - only one bream of size, and not the usual stamp of whiting. the wind took control of the tide as we approached low water and we started drifting back over our anchor warp so we upped anchor a bit earlier than usual at 2.30. A cracking day and a story to tell that no one but Tim will truly believe!

I keep seeing our own feathers or hokais too!

I have to admit i'm a complete novice on that sort of thing - any links to good tutorials would be great?

thanks - it was a ferrybridge - near the Adelaide - was a complete surprise!

out on the boat Saturday, but sunday looked like the SE wind might be too much for weymouth bay - so we decide to hit chesil and have the wind off our back - we arrived at high tide (lunchtime) and intended to fish till dusk= a very slow day, only one other fishermen could be seen, a cool wind, a variety of baits, inc fresh mackerel, 2 rods each, big and small baits were coming back untouched, we stuck it out till dusk when i had the only fish of the day - my fist ever dab - i cant say it put up a fight, i didnt even see the bite, just reeled in on a bait check and noticed the weight - i was delighted to be surprised by a fish appearing. and a first for me! it was caught on a strip of mackerel belly, on the top hook of a 2 hook flapper with pop up glow beads. It spurred us both on to get the tip lights out and fish into the darkness - sadly no more fish and we called it at 7pm chesil is a tough beach to fish - but it does throw up a nice surprise now and again!

yeah spotted - lovely looking fish!

Had a mate staying down and the weather looked perfect for a trip out in pugwash on saturday. Light winds off the land all day. the plan was to get bait first in portland entrances then go and anchor up on the Hotspot - for whiting and rays. the trip almost didn't go to plan as leaving the pontoon there was a grumbling/vibration from the prop = quickly into reverse and it stopped - so a bit of forward and backward and it seemed to clear - having not moved the boat for a few months we put it down to crud on the prop - and continued out of the marina cautiously - by the time we passed under the bridge it had stopped. and during the day it didnt come back, even at full chat 6knots (can i assume it was crud on prop? not worse?) We made our way out to portlands North entrance - in search of mackerel - and wow! bang straight into them - full strings - it was bonkers - they were right under the boat at one point and you could see them hitting the feathers as we dipped them in - not sure how many we had but we came home with 35 after a days fishing with them! so easily had 40-50. we quickly moved on to the hotspot and anchored up - slightly early as the tide hadn't quite started to drop - the light wind pushed us round a bit and held us off the mark for the first hour - we chose to fish only one rod each with a whole flappered mackerel until the tide picked up and put us on the mark - didnt seem to matter as shane was almost straight into a 12lb thornie - poss his biggest ever fish - deffo his PB ray. he soon had another Ray and a couple of conger one was double figures = i had a smaller conger = we both had dogs. as the tide turned we dropped a 2nd rod each with smaller baits for the whiting and they obliged in numbers - but not size - nothing over 1lb Shane had a 3rd Thornback, and was beginning to rub it in when i pulled into a big ray myself - im guessing double figure! as the light started to fade we called it a day and pulled the anchor - headed back in under a beautiful sky - all told it must have been over 70 fish to the boat! lets say 45 mackerel, 20 whiting, 4 rays, 3 conger, and a few dogs

nice one Ian - looked like a cracking morning!

Nice one awesome Fishing for all by the looks of it - but that's not a thornie - its a spotted ray!