Weymouth 22/04/07 The report

[Greenheart]

Got up Sunday morning at 4am & was picked up by Richard (Lionhart) at 4.50am. Loaded the gear & set off for Weymouth. I'd gone along to fill a spare place on a boat that Richard had booked for a few of his work colleagues. Daylight soon arrived to reveal a beautiful misty spring morning & by the time we arrived at Weymouth, the harbour was already busy as all the Charter boats loaded up. We were booked on Josh Simmonds boat Revolution.

We called by Weymouth angling centre to stock up on some bait & tackle etc & I could'nt resist a new Fladen Maximus 12lb class boat rod that was reduced to half price
We loaded the boat & were heading out of the harbour by 7.30.

We headed to a reef off Worbarrow bay to try for some black Bream which had been showing recently & arrived there about 20 minutes later to discover that the word had got out. Most of the Weymouth charter fleet & several private boats were already there. Never mind, there was plenty of room for everybody. I set up a rig with a 4oz weight, long flowing trace & a size 2 hook baited with ragworm & tipped with squid. The first half hour or so produced no bites at all, so we up anchored & moved a few hundred yards & were soon into a few fish. Good size Black Bream & Wrasse.

[center]

But the fishing was slow, so we decided to head back to Portland to try for some Bass & Turbot. Josh is a top skipper who works hard to locate the fish & is always happy to help novices. He also keeps the Tea & Coffee on the boil too.
Once we reached the Portland area, Josh & his crewman put out a small trawl net to catch some live Sand Eel. First drift, we had 2 Sand Eels. Second drift, we had thousands of em... So we rigged up with long flowing traces & freelined live eels. It was'nt long before one of the lads was into a good fish. But it was'nt the expected Bass. It turned out to be a nice cod of about 6-7lb. We tried a few more drifts, but only had a couple of Doggies...

So we headed off to the Shambles bank to try for some Turbot. The larger eels (Launce) were filleted to make nice juicy flapper baits & these were fished on four foot traces. On the secong drift, another guy hooked a good fish & after a hard fight a beautiful 12lb Turbot was netted. (Sorry no pics. Camera battery went flat) . I also noticed a nearby boat landing another one at the same time. We were also hoping for some plaice, & did manage a small one of about 1.5lb, but no more fish were caught. All too soon it was time to call it a day & head back to port. The Weather had been fantastic & the sea flat calm, with just a touch of sea mist. We had'nt caught as many fish as we had hoped, but had had a great day none the less, with good company & great banter, & i'd managed to christen my new rod.....

[fishypaul]

great report and pics ian,well done mate

[Fishing Forum Admin]

Great read mate and you just cannot beat being out on a boat

[Norfolkboy]

Well done Ian, some nice fish landed by the sounds of things.

[pingu]

nice one ian sounds a top day

[Twiddler]

Great report/pic Ian, well done mate....how did the stomach survive?

[Greenheart]

Sealegs pills did the trick mate. I did'nt feel queasy once. Mind you I starved myself all day, which was difficult when I could smell the bacon & eggs cooking in the harbourside cafe's when we arrived ay Weymouth.....

[tonybolton]

Originally Posted by Greenheart

Sealegs pills did the trick mate. I did'nt feel queasy once. Mind you I starved myself all day, which was difficult when I could smell the bacon & eggs cooking in the harbourside cafe's when we arrived ay Weymouth.....

Use to have a complete allergy to boats until I discovered those pills, bloomin marvellous things.

[Greenheart]

What did nearly make me sick was seeing a Ballan Wrasse of about 6lb being used for crab pot bait....