Kimmeridge Bay, Dorset

[andyg]

Last Thursday Paul (Down South), Portland Jon and I went a fishing to Kimmeridge Bay on the Purbeck peninsula in Dorset. If you've never been, GO. It's found by driving through an army shooting range and there is a good tackle shop in Wareham which is very close (Purbeck Angling).

Once you have found Kimmeridge, park in the carpark and walk 100-200 yards and you are on the rocks. On the day there were very few other anglers there and there is loads of room for spinning and fly fishing if thats your cup of tea.

How did it fish? Pretty well, when we got there the tide was coming in rapidly we had no luck spinning but between 3 of us we had 15-20 wrasse ranging from tiddler to 2lb, all but one were ballan wrasse but Down South got a cuckoo wrasse, the lucky beggar. When the tide went back out we spotted a cracking little gully for float fishing next time we go - looks like a great spot for the plentifull bass to be found in the bay. Loads of bites, loads of lost gear, but fantastic day fishing and another lesson learnt...

What was the lesson learnt? Well there were two or three actually,

1) In these (rocky) conditions, use a 4 or 5oz plain lead so that it stays where you put it. Lighter leads were getting thrown about and continually wedging in the rocks resulting in lots of gear lost.

2) When there are fish a plenty and loads of bites, hold the rod as much as possible to increase the number of hook ups.

3) Hook size of about 4 is big enough for this type of fishing - I was using circle hooks and they outfished traditionals by miles. I bought my circle hooks from Mike at www.uk-hooks.com - I don't want to make this an advert, but Mike is very helpful to less experienced anglers like me and his prices are way under most competitors.

I was using a variety of rigs and it didn't seem to make much difference what I used. Twice when using a 2 hook fixed paternoster I had double hook ups which is always fun, but I also caught on a pulley rig and basic leger. I started off using half a rag worm on each hook, which was catching so I didn't vary it - I could have changed to try and find a bass, but they also take rag and the wrasse were great fun and very obliging.

So, if anybody fancies a day at Kimmeridge Bay, please let me know - I'll be your angling buddy there any time!!!

[Fishing Forum Admin]

Great read , Im in next time - work permiting

[PlanktonBoy]

I had a drive out there Andy just to have a look a few months back glad you all tried it for me. lol
I liked the look also of Mupe Bay gotta go back at somepoint with me gear.
Take plenty of leads though yeah.

[DownSouth]

The gully that Andy mentioned is well worth fishing the tide up. It's about 50m long and 25-30m wide with steep rocky sides. Needs to fished on a big spring tide I think to make the most of it.

Basically, head left of the bay and you will walk past the visitor centre and through a carpark. The gully is directly in front of you on the corner of the headland. Incredibly rocky on the bottom so float fishing or floating/diving lures will probably work best, unless you can afford to lose a lot of gear.

Don't fish too light either. Jon was using 35lb straight through and I had 25lb on. Andy had a lot lighter gear and I think it's fair to say he lost most tackle. If it's not too windy, a bit of fly fishing wouldn't go amiss either.

Great location, I'll definitely go back, and soon too.