Beach Fishing, Hayling Island

Who Hit The Chaos Switch?

Inn on the Beach, Hayling Island PO11, UK

daytime recon

With one fish still eluding me, the humble Black Bream, a difficult catch around my fishing area, but with a visit to family who live at the beach on Hayling Island, which is further west around the coast and offers the chance to fish well known Black Bream holding areas. I just couldn't help myself, but have a go to catch them. I visited the beach during the day for a scout around, and with a few fruitless casts with a rod, just in case. Having got there a little later than planned, I didn't get to see the lay of the beach properly as the tide was half way in, but what I did see was the beach where I planned to fish was a fairly shallow and sandy beach, which didn't bode too well with me, remembering disastrous fishing trips on shallow sandy beaches before. but none the less, armed with 1lb of live Ragworm and with the spare time, I decided to return later for the flooding tide during the cover of darkness.

tiny hooks and bait for tiny mouths, what could go wrong?

My target was Black Bream having never caught any before, my plan was to fish 2 rods, both identical rigs and baits, but at different ranges to help locate the fish. the rigs I choose were boomed rigs with  2 x size 6 short shanked Aberdeen hooks baited with 1" sections of Ragworm, not a bad choice to cover a few other species as well if the Bream wernt about, because the venue screamed flat fish to me, and the small hooks and baits would also do well for flat fish, especially if any Dover Sole were about, as the hot humid stormy weather is always good for bringing them onto the beaches to feed. I cast out 1 rod as far as I could, and the other rod I literally dropped 10 meters out. conditions were calm, the sea was flat and clearing. with a clear starry sky, but with dark stormy sky's in the far distance, maybe a sign of things to come?

Hey they cute, new species the Black bream

With virtually no tide run or weed both my rods sat motionless in the stands, and it wasn't long before the close in rod rattled away, I lifted into the fish and landed would you believe it, my first Black Bream all 8" of it! lol it may have been small but it was a new species for myself and the target fish, I was over the moon, all the bites were coming from the close in rod, not lots but every 15mins or so, so I bought the other rod and cast at the same range to increase my catch rate, I had landed 4 Black Bream now, all about the same size, it was a lovely easy fish in perfect conditions, all alone on a empty beach, I was happy as Larry and could of sat there all night totally unaware that the fishing gods had other plans for me, and had unleashed something that was going to test my skill, rig components, sheer agility and luck with a tornado of chaos.

With both rods out with tiny hooks and baits at about 10 meters out, I happily sat on my box waiting for a little rattle rattle on either of the rod tips, it never happened, one rod got pulled down so fast and hard it ripped the rod rest out the ground, forcing a running dive from myself where I had to catch some seriously nice rods and a rod stand, 1 from getting dragged into the sea and the other from smashing into the shingle. I caught all! and all at the same time, I adjusted the drag on the rod with a fish on, re stood up and re positioned the rod stand and placed the second rod back on it. accident adverted! Now to get playing the fish! and boy did it just scream off, tearing line off the drag at a ferocious speed, Bass 1 thought to myself, and a seriously strong and powerful fish, now I was playing a big fish on a tiny flimsy size 6 hook on 10lb snod, the chances were well in the fishes favour, although one thing in my favour was a nice softer continental rod to help play the fish bending into the fish unlike a stiffer rod, I couldn't pull hard at all, the hook would of just bent straight or pulled out! run, after run, after run, but the fish was still hooked and I had gained back all the line it had taken.

This is when the fishing gods turned up the chaos level, the other rod tore off, again I caught it before it catapulted itself into the sea, I now had a rod in each arm with big powerful fish hooked with tiny hooks tearing around the shallow beach in front of me!!! I was playing the fish like this for about 3 minutes before after a few powerful lounges the fish freed himself off the second rod, I was glad if I'm honest, I rested the rod back onto the rod stand and preceded to play the first fish, it must of took another 5 minutes to gently tease the fish close enough to land, I could of guessed what they were, and wasn't surprised to see a dorsal fin sticking out the water in the surf, Smoothhound! a lively starry! I grabbed the fish, it was a beast possessed, with one hand I could not control the fish so I had to put the rod up on the rod rest and preceded to unhook and weight the fish which came in at 9lb 6oz!

A beautiful chaotic starry smooth hound 9lb 6oz

Then again the fishing gods were being mischievous and again turned the chaos level up anther notch!! what did I do? all of a sudden whilst trying my up most to get a nice picture of the fish, crash bang wallop!!! my rod stand smashed into my head! and yet again for a third time I caught both my rods before they either got dragged out to sea or smashed onto the shingle!!! dam another hound must of picked up the second hook bait as each rig had 2 hooks! I now had a angry hound in one hand with its tail under my armpit, and clinging on to a rod for dear life with the other hand as another fish tore off stripping braid off the spool, unable to reel in I walked out into the surf and put the hound in the water, now I was soaking wet to my knees, but I was able to keep the fish upright and between my legs whilst I played the other fish to give it time to recover to release safely, Again this fight was long winded due to end tackle, but slowly I gained on the fish till the tapered leader was on the reel, I saw the fish, another big hound, it swam straight across in front of me, then the hound between my legs kicked off with a ginormous splash as he powered off actually joining his hooked friend who then spat the hook, I watched with relief and exhaustion, wet and in pain as the two dorsal fins sticking out the water swam side by side together back out into the sea!!!!

What the hell just happened! from calm tranquil perfect fishing to absolute chaos in a millisecond that lasted 30 minutes, as quick as the hounds arrived they left, even the Bream left, hardly surprising considering the commotion. I never had a bite for the next hour of the rest of the session lol. What went wrong? well, nothing to be honest, I'd caught my target tiny Bream, I'd saved the rods 3 times, I'd landed a large hound on ridiculously light tackle, and safely unhooked, photoed weighed and released him, I'd only ever purposely fish one rod for hounds by myself for this reason as they patrol in packs, and double hook up are common, also fishing at such close range with braid the takes were so ferocious as there was no stretch, They just took me by surprise, like a hit and run attack this time, but no harm done, You know noone ever says whilst your tidler bashing remember to set the drag. But one thing I will take from this is I will always loosen the drags regardless of target species being fished from now on, I had just gotten complaicent and you just never know! This is certainly going to be a trip I don't forget!

Beach Fishing Chesil Beach

Birthday Surprises

Chesil Beach, Dorset. UK

Yuki taylor Q7 is a casting dream

Having survived to the ripe old age of 40, I had a plan to go away for a few days and enjoy some birthday fishing. Having been to beautiful Weymouth before when Chesil Beach was unfishable due to horrendous weather, this was a chance to return and hopefully get my chance to fish this iconic venue. And as it turned out, the wind was slightly breezy with white clouds dotting a blue sky, it was absolutely beautiful! But how would it fish? I wasn't really sure what to target, and the rigs I had made in preparation were as varied as the bait I bought, Squid, Ragworm, Hermit Crab, Sand Eel and Mackerel would give me many options, maybe a few too many to all try properly, but I felt confident, and although I was told Ray and Hounds were around, all I really wanted was to catch some new species, and my thoughts were for the humble Black Bream possibly a Gilt Head or even a Trigger Fish. All species that are very rare around my bit of coast back home.

Spider Crab!!!

I turned up at low water, and made my way onto the beach from the visitors center, my god this beach is big and long! A man made spit of epic proportions that dived deep down into the sea at a very steep angle, but the sea state was fairly calm and clear. I had bought 2 rods to fish a Yuki Taylor Q7, a powerful continental rod excellent for lighter lines, I had a 3 hook clipped down flapper with size 4 chinu hooks more suited to hooking fish with small hard mouths such as Bream, baited with half a Ragworm. My second rod would be an experimental rod, a brand new birthday present, a Tronix Pro Cobra GT, I started off with a pulley pennel with 2/0 manta hooks baited with mackerel. With both rods cast out and fishing, I excitedly sat on the beach waiting with anticipation. Within minutes gentle tugs showed to both rods, with the braid I instantly recognised it as crab tugging, and I wasn't wrong, finding a small spider crab tangled in the flapper rigs, with bare hooks, these crabs can be a problem! Even snipping off 5 hooks through out the day, but worst still they were stripping my baits off the hooks in minutes if not seconds.

Perfectly presented Squid on pennel

Although I was willing to work hard with the Yuki rod for Bream, I was unwilling to work hard with both rods, so I decided to bait the Cobra rod, with a whole 6" squid, a tougher bait wrapped in elastic which hopefully would keep the crabs away for longer. I also had another small obstacle to overcome, floating weed was constantly floating along the shore line which over 5 to 10 minutes collected around the line in sufficient quantities to pull your rod tip down and bounce up and down in the surf. Normally this weed would be well underneath your line if fishing anywhere else that I could think of, but the beach being as steep as Chesil is, the line seemed to dart straight down into the surf and weed, distance casting was essential here, as the further out you fished the less weed collected on the line and the longer the baits would stay out, luckily holding bottom wasn't a issue the whole of the flooding tide and a 6 oz breakaway with braid main line, tapered leader with clipped down rigs were the order of the day.

Undulate Ray, new species and PB 10lb 12oz

A grunting Red Gurnard

Whilst literally feeding the crabs with the Ragwom on the Yuki, the Cobra held still for at least 20mins, maybe the crabs didn't like squid or I was just lucky, but then a the tip gave a big wobble, I thought here we go again more crabs or weed, but the wobbles got bigger and were more frequent than the crabs, I readied myself at the rod, the tip was definitely bouncing around due to a fish. Then a massive pull down! I grabbed the rod as the line went slack, I held the rod still for about 30 seconds, then reeled in slowly taking up the slack, the rod bent over again, and I raised the rod to set the hook, It was fish on!! and immediately I knew it was a big fish, the Cobra handled it perfectly, I could feel every lung and knock down the braid and the rod tip was fast enough to keep in constant contact with the fish and more than enough power to pull back when needed. After a good old fight I saw a Ray pop up on the shingle ridge the incoming tide was making, as I climbed down and dragged the fish onto the shingle out the water, I realised just how big it was, and not only that it was a species of Ray I'd never caught before, a Undulate Ray!! It was lightly hooked in the lip, and the hook came out easy, I weighed the fish in a sling and it came in at 10lb 12oz!!! Whatever happened now, this one fish had made my day! A new species, a double and on my new rod, all on my 40th birthday, I couldn't have been happier!!!!

All Bass are beautiful even the small ones

Bites were few and far, I had 2 bites and hooked and landed 2 fish so far, the second coming on the Yuki rod with Ragworm, another new species for me a Red Gurnard! The weather had turned from good to absolutely glorious! The wind even died down to a gentle breeze, what was Chesil going to throw at me next? I stuck to the plan, one small hooks and bait and the other big baits and hooks, although I tried many combinations of baits, I was struggling to get bites. Coming close to high water, the weed died down enough not to be a nuisance and even the crabs seemed to have disappeared, with the rods cast out and staying out longer than they had all day, I really hoped for more! And I wasn't disappointed, a last final bite on the Yuki before packing up saw me land a very welcome and beautiful small Bass. I never found my Bream, but what a day! The Ray was an awesome catch, if unexpected. I knew this was a fish of a lifetime for me, as the chances of me even fishing areas where they could be caught were slim if not non existent, and the fact it was a double too was the icing on the birthday cake! I thoroughly loved fishing Chesil, the contrast from when I was last here was immense, from a very dangerously angry and swollen white sea in 50mph winds throwing sea spray and cargo from a overturned ship for at least 100 meters over the high shingle bank, to blue sky, blue sea, and the gentle lapping of wavelets on the shingle. Thank you to the fishing gods! Chesil Beach is truly a unique place to fish, and hopefully our paths will cross again.

Chesil Beach, the first section of 18miles of awsome beach