West Bexington 21st March 2011

[scottish_and_mental]

A day of firsts ... - A mega report

After deciding to watch the cup final ( big mistake ) and not having enough daylight hours left on Sunday i decided i would head to hopefully a more sedate beach at Bexi on the Monday ..

After loading the car at 11.30 it was off to Weymouth to pick up some extra worm to top up the 1/2lb of rag and 1/2 of lug that i had dug on Saturday ..
My first 'first' of the day was to find myself on the newly opened relief road from Dorchester to Weymouth avoiding the bottleneck also known as Upwey . It was odd after some 20 years of driving down the A354 to find myself completely disorientated and without much of a clue where i would end up !
Exactly 1 hour after leaving i was in the town center and looking for a parking space somewhere near Weymouth anglings new bigger premises , where i stopped for a natter with Mark to find out how the move had gone and to check on catch reports form the western end of Chesil .



my second 'first' was actually getting something free from the shop after years of trying to barter, in the form of a brand new 'anyfish anywhere' large rig wallet and my loyaly card - cheers Mark !
reports were of plaice still coming in in numbers but the numbers were varying from 3 fish to 20 fish a tide as the normal fishy grapevine worked its magic ..
The chippy was next on the list , as i was hank marvin and cant resist the smell of chips cooked in beef dripping - i sat on the harbour wall in glorious sunshine and watched people potter about for about half an hour before finally remembering i had somewhere to be .



A word of caution to anyone attempting to drive midweek from Weymouth to Abbotsbury - the road is curently closed for re surfacing and you don't find theis out untill you hit Portesham so a hefty detour is in order ..
Well after ending up in Bridport i had to double back past Hive beach , Burton and all the other delightful venues - the coastal road is spectacular along this stretch ..
2.30 pm and i reach West Bexington to find the car park half full .. those of you who fish here and pay for the pay and display parking need your head examined .. Park anyhere on the right hand side of the approach road for FREE ( as i do every time ) but obviously don't block anyones drive or park like a woman ..
here is the view to the east with the car park visible on the left -



and to the East towards Golden Cap -



Filled with anticipation i was soon deflated by news form the guys tp my right who had been there all day without as much as a bite and a similar tale from the guy to my left who had been fishing since 9 am



The sun was splitting the trees and i was beggining to regret the thermal socks and hot foot boots ( but knew i was gonna need them once the sun dropped )



Armed with a slider wishbone with size 2's and a 2 hook slider on the other rod , half a dozen fresh rag with lug and squid were dispatched as far as my newly cleaned and tuned reels would take it !
Kettle on, more food ( stopping smoking meand im now on 20 bags of crisps a day instead )
Nothing, nada, not a sniff .. no sign of a spotty anywhere along the beach - just a few murmours of ' i bet the boats been up here n cleaned the *** lot up ' ...

Well as the sun began to set the tide was by now well into the flood and i had all but given up on catching a plaice and set my stall up to go for my other target - a small eyed or early spotted ray ..
Ammo eels and and similar sized pieces of bluey were removed from the cool bag and ice blocks ( a must when using frozen bait imho ) and assembled with bait elastic onto a pennel pulley ..

just at the top of the tide the old boy to my left who i'd been chatting to when he arrived at 7 walked over chuffed with his first fish of the evening - a plaice , caught on a small piece of mackerel and squid at 40 yards - i did my best to sound congratulatory

I've never seen Chesil so dark - the fog was thick as anything and visibility was almost nil - then 'blackness' infront of the bank edge here is actually the water at high and about 6 inches below where you can see !



An hour into the ebb and my first rattle resulted in the smallest whiting known to man !



followed by another of the same size and then a tap on the other rod produced what i thought was something reasonably sized - and yet another 'first' of the year - a dogfish weighing in at a hefty 1 lb 13 1/2 ounces , swiftly followed by another , just slightly smaller -





11 pm and 2 hours into the flood and species number 3 appeared - one of four pout caught in a 30 minute period -



by midnight the moon had put in an appearance and the fog had lifted but the tide was quickly pushing the water down the bank and to about 15 foot below the high water mark .. 4 whiting,4 pout and 4 dogs later the fishing died right off and it was just an exercise in using up the rest of the bait i had left ...

No plaice , no sign of an early ray but i really didn't want to pack up as i'd had by far my most enjoyable day of 2011
2 am and the beach was deserted bar the odd couple of foreign lads who'd set up for the night in anticipation of the morning tide and the chance of a flattie .

time for home .....

[blackwater]

Looks a smashing session there Steve, well done.

How was staying to watch the cup final a big mistake? It was fantastic!

[Bluesbro]

Hi mate, great report there, a couple of nice doggies and a few other fish is a good effort for this time of year mate, well done

[billytattoo]

nice session steve well done mate

[Maddison_Twatter]

Great report mate, looked like a tidy session

[pingu]

great report, i need to get to chesil soon

dave

[MRG2000]

Nice variety of fish there Steve ,well angled .......

[Jolly Piscator]

Good read & sounds like a fun session . Well done mate .

[scottish_and_mental]

not sure the bottomn doggie pic is the right one but it took me all afternoon just to get this far ..

[geejayy]

the latest verdict i'm hearing is that the big tides have slowed down the plaice, but there's still the odd one about, with dusk being favorite,
expect/hope for better as the tides get a little smaller.