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