Weymouth Bassing - 10th Dec

[Adam F]

Well, with the weather holding out so well at the moment, and having done a few cod trips this year - we decided to have a crack at the unusually late bass still showing of Portland.

 

The tides dicated that an early start was not needed, so at 9.00am we met at the slip. Billy very kindly turned up with a bucket of hermits (cheers mate!) and we headed out across a smooth sea round to the Bill.

 

We had intended to fish another reef mark just off the main race, but as we neared the headland a plethora of boats were already drifting the race! - So we joined the que and took our chances!

 

My day wasnt so good. It was 'one of the days' where everything that could snap, tangle, break etc - did! and with having to skipper the boat almost constantly through the turbulant waters it made fishing, very difficult.

 

The wind was a F1-2 if that all day, but the big tides around the race produced some very dramatic water!! BW behaved impecably all day, and I was very impressed we way she handled the waves and swell, she kept up with all the bigger pro bass boats all day!

 

Fishing was hard - drifting at 6 knots at times, with 12oz lead and you HAD to be hard on the deck. Bob was a star and produced 6 cracking fish while loosing a few others. I on the other hand had just a couple and lost most of the gear in my box!!!

 

Storm Sandeels proved to be the tactic - fished on the Portland Rig (which really proved its worth)

 

A surprise catch was a hoard of mackerel! (in Dec!!!!) and a garfish! - Crazy! The water temp was over 10C, while off the needles last week it was barely 8C. Sub tropical weymouth.

 

We had a good 4 hours at the bass before we came in close to have a hot bacon roll and tea. A few decent wrasse on the hermits and it was time to head home.

 

Not a red letter day like last Friday, but a good day non-the-less!

[Bob F]

I know what you mean about a hard day. Adam. It's really great fishing, but you don't get 10 seconds to sit down and relax. You are constantly watching the waves, watching the fish finder and concentrating on keeping the weight on the bottom, but being quick to lift out of snags.

 

Like you said, the Portland rig worked a treat. I only lost one lure all day. If I did get snagged up, the weak link on the bottom snapped off the weight and left the rest of the rig intact.

 

The bass weren't big, with the biggest 3lb, but they fought well on the light tackle,

and played a few tricks like sprinting to the surface to make the line go slack.

 

Some of those waves were a bit daunting, though. Glad we didn't drift through the breakers like the bigger boats. I've still got a bit of Kimmeridge running through my blood!! But once we got up the courage to move down tide of the ridge, we started getting takes on most drifts. Rich and Paul on Neo also got into a bass each when they moved down tide and switched to the Storm Sandeels.

 

We only had a short session on the Wrasse using BB's hermits, but Paul and I did manage a PB Ballan Wrasse each. Both were 3lb 13oz. Boy, do they hit hard!!

 

Thanks for a great day again, Adam. It's tough being the skipper on these trips, but again BW came up trumps.

 

You'd get my vote for Skipper of the Year!!

 

BF

[Afishionado]

Just for Bob

[Paul D]

Bob,

 

The solitary bass I caught, I noticed that it was swimming up at a phenomenal rate. It was a good little scrap. The wrasse, I was well impressed with - particularily the way it decided to make a dive to the bottom when it was half way up. I shall definitely be going back for a spot of Wrassing.

( PS : My wrasse was 3 lb 12 Oz - to within 4 oz. as measured on a spring balance as opposed to Adam's high tech digital scales ) and also is my PB ( as only ever caught one wrasse previously ).