Four years of hunting come to an undulating end

by **BigBadCol** » 24 Aug 2018, 12:06

Weymouth & the ‘Big’ Beach 20th-22nd August 2018

Due to shift changes @ work I no longer have my 8 days off every 3 weeks, making going fishing difficult. So when I saw I’d a few days off & the fact that the good weather is rapidly running out I decided on a road trip. I’d no idea where I wanted to go so I put 4 destinations in a hat 1. Oban, 2. Mull of Galloway, 3. North Wales, 4. The’BIG’ beach that is Chesil.

As you can see from the section I’ve posted in the ‘BIG’ beach was drawn.

So with the car packed I set off in the hope to hit Weymouth at around 1700hrs. This would give me time to pick a few bits up from a tackle shop. However with the route I take (through Salisbury) I found out when it was too late to change that the great Dorset steam fair was on this coming bank holiday weekend. Don’t get me wrong I love seeing these fantastic beasts but getting stuck behind, I think I counted 30+ on the road was not good for my travelling time. I managed to hit Abbotsbury tackle shop at 1755hrs with 5 mins to spare. I had planned to hit the beach at Ferrybridge end however seeing as I didn’t make it in time to Chesil Bait N Tackle I decided to head to West Bexington.

The sea was lovely and flat with hardly any wind. I parked up in the west end of the car park & walked just 200m to the West. With the hi tide @ 0200hrs I was in the water for 1930hrs.
Seeing as I’ve been trying to actively catch one for 4 years the plan was to put 1 rod out to specifically target my nemesis ‘the undulate ray’ and the other rod alternating between scratching & big baits. Oh and seeing as there were 1000’s to my East fluff chucking (with no success) I thought I’d try myself for some fresh bait. I get board fluff chucking so had about 10 chucks n ended up with about 10, so enough for bait.

The pouting as ever were out in force to keep me busy. The weed was ok but I bet every time I reeled in for the 1st 5 casts I brought in some fluff chucking rigs and leads.
What I will say after dark as soon as I put the head torch on my face was attacked by little beasties, getting bloody everywhere, in my eyes, mouth, nose the lot. So I ended up setting up a stage light to work in lol.
I then had a better bite on the ‘Undulate’ rod on reeling it in a nice conger of 5lb was landed. I then started alternating the Undie rod with sand eel & squid wraps, and a live bait rig. I was soon rewarded on the live bait rig with a conger just a few ozs under 10lb.

I ended up with I think 3 congers in the end this being the biggest. I had a couple of hours sleep on the beach and ended up calling it a day @ 0700hrs. I had a clean up n had some breakfast.

Tuesdays plan, the weather was going to be nice so I planned to fish the stone pier for Gars & mackerel on the float with a scratching rod out to keep me busy. Sun cream applied I hit the pier for around 1100hrs. I was soon into all kinds of wrasse, with the odd little pollack thrown in on the scratcher.

I was struggling to find the gars but as ever I kept altering the depth of the float until I eventually found them just 2ft under the surface.

I bagged myself a couple for bait for the night time session & called it a day around 1700hrs.
After a little picnic up at the Nothe forte I headed off to fish the FerryBridge end for the night.

I’d decided to fish the Tern Sanctuary tonight. For those that need to know where this is;
Park by the café, walk over the little bridge, turn too 2 o’clock and you will see a concrete structure in the distance poking out the back of the shingle, start walking towards it until you reach the walking boards. Then just walk the boards up to the top of the shingle. To your right at the top is the sanctuary. I walked about 4 posts to the West & hit the beach in front of there. All this took about 13 mins.

Hi tide was due 0404hrs, I was set up & ready to go for 1900hrs. I was soon into the fish and to be honest the bloody bream became a pest, with them taking the bait as the rigs hit the floor. If it wasn’t them it was pouting.

Not that I’m complaining as I love catching bream. I would have taken a few for the table but had no cool place to keep them so they all went back.

Again there was weed but it was easily removed & did not hinder the fishing. I decided to try a new type of rig I’d made. There’s a picture below, I actually reeled one in the last time I fished down here so thought I’d copy it and make a couple of my own. Basically from what I can see & did it allows you to have as long a trace as you wish and have it floating or on the deck. I’m sure one of you knowledgeable people will know the proper name & use but I’ve no idea all I know is it worked quite well tonight & landed me my first ever red gurnard of 1lb.

The wire bar thingy ma jig rig.

As darkness approached so did the pouting & straps I stopped counting the straps at 10, they were all between 3-6lb so all gave a good account of themselves. Then on the floating rig thingy ma jig I landed a horse mackerel.

I then found some frozen peeler I’d brought so thought I’d swop out the sand eel squid wraps I had out for my nemesis to peeler squid wraps, to see if I couldn’t winkle a smoothie or 2 out. I cast out, tightened up & began to reel the 2nd rod back in. I then looked over at the rod I’d just cast out and watched it bend down (I thought weed) but then it sprang back up and started bouncing away, as the ratchet on my Penn Fathom screamed off. I put the other rod down once I landed the strap and left it just above the surf line. I picked the other rod up and engaged the clutch. It felt like a good smoothie and I was enjoying the fight on the Spyra Nero Power+ I was fishing 80lb braid straight through so I wasn’t worried about a parting of line, so I tightened down more and began to win the fight. It fought every step of the way I’d say it was up there with the biggest smoothie I’ve caught, and as I walked down the shingle to meet this ‘smoothie’ I could see it wasn’t a smoothie but a ray. Was it my nemesis? I was now shaking like a sh1ting dog with anticipation, and waiting for a little help from the surf to shove it up the shingle a bit more. YESSS a nice bigger wave dumped my first ever & my nemesis of 4 years, a lovely undulate ray onto the shingle. She was perfectly hooked and I was soon running back up the shingle for a quick kiss a few photos and that all important weigh in. She took the scales to reputable 11lb7oz. So my first ever shore caught undulate ray was in the bag. I was so chuffed as you can imagine. The joy of finally nailing a fish you’ve been after for 4 years.

Selfie

Having nailed 1 obviously I went out for more, however it was not meant to be. I did keep catching the straps & pout. The dog fish were no where. I pulled both rods in around 0100hrs n had a kip. I woke up about 0300hrs n fished the last hour of the flood. As light appeared so did the bream.

I called it a day around 0500hrs, walked back to the car & broke my fast before the 5hrs drive back home to sheffield.

Bait used, sand eels, squid, rag, mackerel, Gar chunks & frozen peeler.

Rigs, the bar thingy ma jig, long fixed pats & long pulley, pulley droppers.

I had a count back of species over the 2 nights & 1 day session & I think I landed 11 different species. Which in my book is a blummin damned good count for me.

Here’s a little video of some of them I remembered to photograph.

https://youtu.be/Z1vD7WNjT1I

I know it’s a bit of a long one but thanks for sticking with it till the end.

Tight lines

Big Col.