Burton Bradstock report

Greenheart · #1 09-27-2006, 05:15 PM

Went down to Burton Bradstock yesterday hoping to catch a Garfish & Scad for the species hunt. Arrived at the beach at about 11am. Only one other fisherman there & he was just packing up. Asked if he had caught anything & he said two mackerel & a Garfish. He also informed me that I would'nt catch anything because it was low water. High tide was at 8.45pm. Set up two beachcasters with 3 hook rigs, & my powerful zipplex rod with a set of feathers to distance cast for the mackerel, Garfish & Scad. Set up about 300yds to the left of the car park. The conditions looked almost perfect, if a little bright.

Baited up the 3 hook rigs with Lug & Ragworm, Cast em out & then chucked out a string of mackie feathers. Crack..... must have had a knot on my reel, as the feathers headed towards the horizon, sadly unattached to my rod. Put on another set of feathers & a new weight, cast out again & was straight into 4 mackerel.

The mackies were there in their millions, but no sign of Garfish or Scad.
Then one of my bait rods started to nod. Struck, reeled in & pulled in a nice little Tub Gurnard on a peice of mackerel fillet. (A few unexpected species points)

Did'nt get much else except for mackies until the tide started to come in.
About 2 hours before high water, I started to get a few bites, catching a snotty eel, who also happened to be an expert on knots & that made a right mess of my rig

A Dab & a small flounder.

Having been trying all day to catch a Scad on feathers, I was also quite chuffed to get one on a lugworm & size 4/0 hook for some more points.

I had one interesting experience when something very big & fast grabbed my mackie feathers in the surf & set off at a great rate of knots with me chasing it down the beach with my zippy bent double. I tried to slacken off the clutch, but was too slow. One good tug & it was gone. Probably a big Bass or possibly a foul hooked smoothound. Never had a sea fish fight like that before.
Some years back a friend of mine took a novice mackie fishing down there & he caught a 9lb bass on feathers. (Beginners Luck)

Also managed to pick up a sprat on a size 14 hook & tiny peice of ragworm that I tied to my rig to see if there was any mini-species about.

Eventually packed up about 10pm. The pouting were becomming too much of a pest. They were comming in 3 at a time!!! Considering it's almost October, it had been really hot & a fantastic days fishing. Managed 6 species hunt points, but still no Garfish......