Abbotsbury,Dorset 29th Sept 2010

scottish_and_mental · #1 09-30-2010, 07:29 PM

Drove down to Dorset after picking up the little un from school and even as far as Dorchester was undecided as to where to actually fish.. my head was saying Chesil cove and my heart Abbotsbury

( plus a little voice in my head saying head for the bird sanctuary

).
Anyway , arrived at Abottsbury village and the sun was splitting the trees - a welcome after driving all the way down in the rain

.
6 15 pm - Set up just to the right of the wooden ramp and got chattin to a guy who'd walked up from my left and had been there since 3 . he'd only had dogs and looked lika a pretty experienced angler ( he also informed me of some cod he had had the week before up at the teeth )

Looking out to sea it was fairly calm and i could see the odd glisten of silver so decided to whack some feathers out for 10 minutes - one to try for a new species ( my whole purpose for fishing Chesil ) and two , to add to my fresh bait.
First cast and a mackerel on one hook plus my first scad on another - job done

decided that would do as i wanted to get my gear set up and everything in the beach buddy incase the rain came back.

By 8 it was pitch black and i set out with rag and squid on a 2 hook rig plus a larger fillet of mackerel on the other rod ..
Almost immediatley the rods were knocking and it was non stop action with whiting and pout on the worm plus doggies ( not everyones favourite , but i happen to quite like them ) on the 3/0 pennel..
for the next 2 hours right up to high water and for the 2 hours after that i never finished one coffee as the rods were going everytime fresh bait hit the water

It was a strange 4 hours - the moon had not appeared and the sky was full of stars like i've never seen before ( If you aint done Chesil on a summers night - you will have no idea just how spectacular it is ! )

The whiting were all sizeable with the average being around 29cm - they were thin but full of appetite and thought nothing of hitting two 3/0 big mouths ..

as the tide started to ebb i lost a set of gear just below the low water mark and managed to hit into the same section 3 times - adding to the tackle mountain, no doubt caused by the summers idiots

At midnight the moon had come round from behind the hills and the fishing died down - not a single dog to be seen and only the whiting still eager to feed .. was it the moon ? the ebbing tide ? a combination of both i reckon.
2 am and a group of 5 turkish lads set up camp to my left and one came over for a chat bearing gifts of some sort of turkish spirits - eager to please i sampled both boozy gifts and could feel my body temperature rising by the second ! christ knows what it was but it was strong in flavour and ruddy potent !

Called it a day at 5.30 as i had to get the car back - the boys had just started to see a bit of action from scad and mackerel as i headed over the bank..
No sign of a monster but a great night at a venue i hold dear - one which owes me a decent specimen big time

i better add that i had my pennel bitten right in half around midnight while reeling in after 4 or 5 big knocks on whole squid and mackerel wrap

was raging but tried to convince myself it was a hairy big spider crab - i've never known your rod to shake like mad just from a crab but it made me feel better

Crabs did strip any fish bait that they could get there claws into - if they could beat the whiting and dogs ...