Saturday 29 September 2018

Portland Bill excursion for Bass and Wrasse

Light winds and last of the summer sun had encouraged a long day trip to Portland Bill. A bit of old rag still left from a previous south coast trip but the focus was on lure fishing for Bass and Wrasse. First stop was the far end of Chesil where it met the Bill. My son and I traversed some impressive boulder fields to make our way down to an idyllic spot sheltered from the light easterlies. Loads of Gar were showing but we did not have the hooks or lures small enough to connect. After an hour or so I hooked a nice Bass of about 40cm on the Black Minnow and then the Wrasse started hitting the lures. The neap tide was on its way out mid way between high and low. After several bitten off lures we finally landed a nice Wrasse.



Time for change in scenery and we headed off for Pulpit rock at the end of the Bill. It frustrates me greatly when you can't pay for parking on your card. An app later and 30 minutes of faffing on the phone and finally we could park - is this meant to be easy arghhh? Pulpit rock was busy with sightseers and fisherman but we managed to slot in amongst them. After a few hours of fishing across low we managed a small Pollack and Wrasse but not easy fishing although we were distracted by the impressive scenery. We ended up back on Chesil to see the sunset. A long beautiful day and well worth the trip.


Friday 28 September 2018

If only I had found this place sooner, Bitterwell a great introduction to my son for Carp on fly

Last few weeks of summer have seen my son and I re-invigorating the Friday fish. I having been dashing home at school exit time and with a quick turn we were fishing for Carp on the fly at Bitterwell Lake near Bristol by 16:30. This nice little lake is not picky about fly fishermen using artificial flies and it is a great venue for late evening sport. Both James and I have landed some good double figure fish. The only difficulty is the ducks and swans competing with the carp for your floating bait. After I while I realised liberal amounts were required to cause distraction and subdue appetites! To my surprise there are a few other regular carp fly enthusiasts joining us.