Davemc

A couple of recent bass on topwaters: 53cm on a Patchinko 140 and a 55cm on a Spittin' Wire.
Fine fat fish carefully returned. 

It's exciting and addictive! The bass in my profile pic took a patch II 140 fished dead drift in the current over a sand bar. I was wading waist high in water at the time. In my opinion one of the best ways to fish lures for bass.

Yes it was a concern that he would have to put up with it for a while. Hopefully the hook rusts through quick or he/she manages to throw it. 

Ouch! Schoolboy error but fair play for fessing up on here. Gutted for you. And a shame that the bass now has some new lip jewellery to put up with for a while, but it will likely drop out before long. Better luck next time 👍

We got back from a long weekend on the boat this afternoon. 
As I’m doing the last of the bbq food (whilst Mrs cleaned), the family of swans paid a visit. They always hang around waiting for scraps. Only this time they had some friends in tow. I just happened to look down to the water and noticed circling under the swans, 4 or 5 LARGE bass. And when I say large I mean big. I’d say 9-10lb easily. Things always look a bit smaller when in the water until you lift them out, and these looked large IN the water. 
I quickly grabbed my new spinning rod which normally will have a small Jelly or mackerel feathers on for running under the pontoon as the ebb gets going. Only this time I’d been using it in bembridge harbour and had a patchinko 125 rigged. 
So I quickly deployed the lure with a lazy Chuck just 2m to the right of the bbq area, and it hit the water, quickly to disappear as fast as it had surfaced from the drop. Fish on, my rod bent over and I thought the “not breakable” boast was about to be put to the test. 
But, in my rush and the excitement I forgot to set the FS reels clutch and yes, the 8lb line snapped without effort. 
Bang goes the bass and bang goes my prized 125 ☹️
School boy error of the highest type! 
Gutted on two/2 fronts…

Good work the pair of you! Those Fiiish Black Minnows are killers for bass. Well done 🎣👍

Leo and I just took the tender up the river for a bit of jelly lure fishing under the solent university life boat training station. 40 casts or so in a drifting tender caught us one bass around 6lb and a few nibbles. Just heading back now for some mullet fishing, read watching!! 

 

 

Seeing as i had a fishing mad friend (and his son) down for a week - and its been windy all week - on his last day we had to get the boat out - I was working from home so couldn't get out until the evening - 5pm was around 15mph Westerly - the lightest its been all week - but with a confused sea (wind over tide, SW swell, and Westerly wind) we set off for a mixed ground mark that i knew would at least hold a dogfish or two. (also hoping for conger, smoothies, bream or gurnard)
We anchored up in a rolling swell, wind seeemd to hold us almost broadside the swell - just off portlands east entrance - didn't want to waste unnecessary time travelling too far as we only had a few hours until sunset.
with fresh mackerel from the other day and frozen squid as bait it wasn't long before we were into the doggies!
switching to squid did indeed immediately find the smoothies - although small. 
we finished the day with a conger of a couple pound.
Me - 4 doggies (including a very pale, non spotted one which i first thought was a smoothie) 
Shane - 3 doggies and the small smoothie
the teenager out-fished us again....... 5 doggies, the decent smoothie and the conger
enough to put a smile on the faces of my visitors!
the teenager who at the beginning of the week hadn't touched a fish was now outfishing us and dreaming of catching something huge!
 

 


 

I had friends coming to stay for a week and while he loves to fish his step son is squeemish but keen - so I took thursday and friday off to give myself a nice long weekend to get out fishing with them - however the weather looked terrible - 20-25mph winds with 30mph+ gusts from the west and SW. and prolonged heavy rain thrown in too.
Thursday afternoon we went for a sheltered shore session at Newtons cove - we got into the wrasse - with a number of Corkies and ballans
Friday night we did a night session also at Newtons cove and had Pout after pout - (double shots too) also saw a decent eel chasing in one of the hooked the pout.... but sadly nothing bigger. 
Saturday the rain cleared and the wind seemed to ease up a bit, so we ventured out on the boat for mackerel - hoping the lee of the land would offer shelter from the fresh SWs. 
as it happened the wind kept us on the fish..... we drifted nicely under the shelter of Portland harbour wall, and at 0.5-0.8mph covered a fair bit of ground at a nice speed
finding the fish was hard - the sounder was showing lots of fish but we weren't getting any - we were however foul hooking pin whiting, and it wasn't long before it dawned on us that this was what was showing on the sounder, however - where there are bait fish, there will be bigger fish - perseverance paid off and not long until the first mackerel started hitting..... find the bait fish - find the mackerel. Not many, but some absolute monsters.... one went over 1lb
over the course of 5 or so drifts, over a few hours, we managed 9 mackerel between us, and I bagged a Tub Gurnard - very happy to have dinner, fresh bait and to of been able to show the guys a tub gurnard - we called it a day to be treated to a lovely sunset on the way back in.  pics below


1lb+ beast on a standard size chopping board!

first time holding a fish! - very keen to eat it later too!

My Tub Gurnard

Treated to a lovely sunset on the way back in.......
 
Last night we hit the stone pier for a bit of night fishing and only managed Pout - except for the teenager who bagged a Scorpion fish and was delighted!
writing this from work pains me as the wind has died and the sun is out.....typical
all in all we made the best of the bad weather - the young lad had a great time and first Pout, first mackerel, first whiting, first Scorpion fish! - and us grown ups had a great time and added to our tally - Hoping to get out Tuesday evening to anchor up for something bigger!
 

Fished Burnham yesterday at Lower Light for a few hours up
1 ray and a strap, dropped another ray and missed a slack liner, probably an eel. Managed to miss the showers so not to bad at all.

Very nice…. Good times with family. 
I notice too2 things. …. 
1. Holly dog ready to belly flop on any crabs. 
2. you chose the crab with no claws to hold! 🐈

Took middle daughter crabbing along the embankment in Dartmouth this afternoon. Brilliant fun for the pair of us 🤣. We tried two spots; our usual mark wasn't firing and only produced four average sized hardback, so we took a short stroll up river and tried a new one by the hire boats which offered up a further ten crabs.
We also lost a whopper of an edible brown crab that made it half way up before skydiving back to the river. 😖


Great way to spend some family time together 👍

Emily and I hit the Embankment again this morning for an early crabbing session to beat the crowds. Em beat her previous bucket count by three for a new personal best of 17 crabs.
In our excitement to tally up our total I forgot to take a pic of the PB bucket, so this'll have to do, about half full.

And as usual, Holly kept an eagle eye out for anything vaguely fishy...

We also spotted a small compass jellyfish drifting down river, which Em found fascinating.
All in all a good way to start the day.

not sure my 5knt boat should be going round the bill - but i will try from the shore - chance of bass, wrasse or pollock from there!

There are loads of pout about at the moment. When we were trolling for mackerel yesterday I kept seeing large shoals of ‘something ‘ on the sounder, but it was obvious they were not Mack.
We stopped over one of the shoals and dropped the tinsels (size 6 hooks) to jig off the bottom, and both of us were pulling up full strings of mini pout  (about 2” long). Also the inshore wrecks are brim full with pout and they jump on the lures like piranhas. 

had to get out the house and get some fresh air - decided i couldn't be arsed to get the boat out so went to the pier with 2 spinning rods -

had nothing in 3hrs on the float - no one else did either, and when the 2nd spinning rod produced nothing on the lures i switched to scratching to save the blank - simple 2 hook flapper, size 6 hooks, and squid strips produced the results - I was getting small pout on every drop - (much tot he amusement of passers by and tourists that wished they had been allowed to bring their rods) - great sport on very light gear - especially the 4 or 5 double shots i had! must been at least 30 of them in total!

was lovely to get a break from the pout and bag my first ever Scorpion fish - what a lovely (spikey) little fella!


everyones evening was spoilt by the incessant jet skier who insisted we wanted to watch him blast up and down just yards from the pier - i mean, its busy with boat traffic, swimmers, kayaks and paddle boarders - nothing against jet skiers - but you have hundreds and hundreds of miles of coastline and open sea to enjoy - why be 5 yds from the pier - perhaps he couldn't swim or was scared to go out of his depth....... I only hope he impressed who ever it was with his bunny hops and fast turns.

Well done Dave. 10 out of 10 for effort and dedication. And some nice fish too!

I’m not sure where you are from Dave but I guess either the M3 or M27 gave you troubles? Or both! 

Finally Some suitable weather that coincided with my day off meant  I could take advantage of my  yak .
I had planned the early morning tide but as it takes me 2hrs to drive to the coast plus a good half hour loading up the 3 am departure deadline was dismissed as I poured a large glass of wine on the evening prior to my planned assault . 
As I woke the following morning I kicked myself for giving in too easily and hatched a plan  for the evening tide .
Later That the Afternoon once on  the road south  I remembered what a pain it can be in rush hour to get to the coast ...the trip worked out as follows :
6 hours commute and two hours fishing .
It was a tad choppier than expected and a weak tide seemed to bring nothing but tiddlers but I can't complain as I caught 12 of these little fiesty blighters .
I was also very happy to see that on returning to the slip my car was still in one piece and catalytic converter still attached ....Thank you Hampshire travellers!

Finally Some suitable weather that coincided with my day off meant  I could take advantage of my  yak .
I had planned the early morning tide but as it takes me 2hrs to drive to the coast plus a good half hour loading up the 3 am departure deadline was dismissed as I poured a large glass of wine on the evening prior to my planned assault . 
As I woke the following morning I kicked myself for giving in too easily and hatched a plan  for the evening tide .
Later That the Afternoon once on  the road south  I remembered what a pain it can be in rush hour to get to the coast ...the trip worked out as follows :
6 hours commute and two hours fishing .
It was a tad choppier than expected and a weak tide seemed to bring nothing but tiddlers but I can't complain as I caught 12 of these little fiesty blighters .
I was also very happy to see that on returning to the slip my car was still in one piece and catalytic converter still attached ....Thank you Hampshire travellers!

Just have to watch the nets out there recently ...

Evening all 
I've not ventured west for a while but the weather forecast was too good to miss a trip today ....
Tough start to the day in the main spot with just 1 lure caught wrasse .
So I moved on after a few hours  and managed 5 nice bass 55/60 in a quiet corner of the coast  & christen the new reel too .
 
 
 
 

Can't be certain where Dave's bass came from, but my very first lure caught bass from shore came from the rocks by the Portland light. That area is a well-known bass mark, so you could try trolling a lure at slow speed behind your boat (well, in your case just try it at speed 😉). Fish black minnows, redgills, sidewinders etc should all do the trick.

The bonus Wrasse chased down a feed shallow 

nice fish!