The Phantom Fish of Bexington

[MartynG]

Otherwise entitled "The One That Got Away - Three Times"

Arranging to meet up with some people from the Chesil Beach Forum I arrived at Bexy about 4pm to find Jonny just setting up in the sunshine on a deserted beach. A nice day for fishing, not much breeze, not too cold but a bit more of a swell than I expected after a few days of northerlies. A leisurely set up saw me with both rods in the water (after yet another emergency repair on the old faithful Ian Golds Telescopic Tripod ), buddy up, and kettle on the boil for a coffee, but no sign of bites.

Around sunset the peace of the beach was destroyed by the arrival of a couple of unsavoury-looking ruffians that turned out to be Tom and Aaron... Their arrival brought the fish on the feed though and I started getting mini-bites on a scratching rig until a big pull had me up with rod in hand. After a marathon fight of epic proportions I eventually landed a Whiting that was so small that I first mistook it for a strip of squid I'd been using to tip my other rig.

Along the beach a bit Tom was doing his usual fluking (according to Aaron) and pulling in a few rockling, whiting etc but nothing big was coming out so when it got to HT I decided we needed refreshments and put on the frying pan for bacon butties - naturally this immediately brought about a second bite on the scratching rod, another pin whiting. My gourmet feast of soft white rolls, dry-cured bacon, mushrooms and scallions was served, with a short delay as Aaron brought in a smallish Whiting then we settled back for the traditional Chesil sport of standing around a rod, staring at the tip light, and trying to decide if the vibrations were mini-bites or wave action. We gave Jonny a Masterclass in how not to spot a bite but despite all our advice he still managed to land a couple of Pout and a fairly largish Long-Spined Bullhead (which I forgot to photo for him )

As we hit low water about 11pm something weird started happening - the Phantom Fish came out on the prowl. I'd had a "monster fish" bait out that hadn't been touched all night but it gave a big tug, though had nothing on it when I picked it up. A couple of minutes later the scratching rig started twitching with something bigger than a pin whiting when I started retrieving but about halfway in the line went solid and snapped off Odd...

Jonny was next. He had a good nod bite on one of his rods and picked it up to feel a good fish on. A careful retrieve got it almost to the surfline where Aaron was waiting to beach it. With all the line in, the leader almost in Aaron's hands and the fish splashing just outside the surf, the line went solid and snapped !!! The Phantom Fish of Bexi had claimed another victim.

Tom was the next victim. A slackliner, a good weight fish on and another snap off, yet another victim of the Phantom Fish - the one that got away Number 3 Jonny raised our bruised morale by feeding us flapjack and chocolate cookies, enough to cast out with renewed enthusiasm for the monster hunt but sadly as the tide turned and started on the flood again there were only a few more mini-bites - not enough to keep me interested so soon after Tom and Aaron packed up I followed suit. Jonny decided to stay on to use up his bait and do battle once more with the phantom fish. Sooner him than me - I'm sure I saw in the surf a fish with a long thin neck, dog-like head, triangular-shaped fins, etc. Do Plesiosaurs swim off Chesil?

My total for the night, apart from an evening of good company was a shore rockling and a couple of pin whiting, sadly no Dogfish for lunch However I did find a big ball of lost weights, hooks, line, etc at the low water line that previous fishermen must have lost - so a bonus find for me, makes up for the lack of big fish

The obligatory Chesil Sunset photo (I waited ages for that seagull to fly past)

[geejayy]

sounds very interesting,- were the baits fish/squid ? did the broken snoods look abraded or snipped clean?


, if snipped clean i'll be on the beach asap

[pingu]

mmm intersting
sounds a good session though

dave

[John Marshall]

Great read,

[MartynG]

One snipped clean, 2 broke at leader knot. Hermit on one rig, rag/squid on another, sandeel/squid on the last.

[cuckoo]

Brilliant read martyn and bad luck

[Portland Pirate]

Interesting one Martyn. Personally I give Chesil a miss for the next 6 - 8 weeks at is not worth wasting good bait and time in until mid March at the earliest.

I am fairly certain given the tide time and location, you had hooked into a Conger. There are a couple of rough patches of ground around 150m of the beach at Bexy. When the tide dies down the Congers move off the rough patches and move slightly inshore to try and pick of a few Pout or Poor Cod.

It was a shame you never landed it, but that's fishing.

Portland Pirate.

[Leigh Cocker]

Good report :)

[Sam Fuller]

Excellent report Martyn, must have been some fish to snap your lines like that.

Sam.

[scottish_and_mental]

Excellent read Mart, great report