Popular Post mike farrants Posted July 31, 2023 Popular Post Share Posted July 31, 2023 I took a week off and had the father in law down for a few days to get as much fishing in as possible - typically mother nature didn't want us fishing for some reason - so i have combined all 3 days onto one rather disappointing report. things that slowed our fishing down - Wind, Rain, Tides, Yachties, Seals, Dolphins and some dam right stubborn fish! With the forecast showing +20mph SSW or SW winds for most of the week and neap tides we knew we had to grab our moments. Wednesday looked the best day - little or no wind in the morning - building to 20mph SSW from lunchtime we decided to head straight out to the Mark to anchor up as might be the only chance - taking frozen mackerel instead of wasting time trying to find fresh. dropped the hook before 9am in near glass conditions - and we both opted to go small baits for gurnards/bream etc - very quiet with only one dog so i upped the bait size - and found myself a few more dogs and straps. I picked up my rod to check the bait and found a heavy weight on it - no fight - I though maybe a bull huss, but turned out to be a huge lazy conger - easily over 20lb - maybe more - didn't get it in the boat for obvious reasons. Phil had a few congers and dogs too. I wanted a ray so switched to a bunch of sand eels bound together and sure enough pulled up a lovely spotty ray - with an interesting black face and chunk taken out its wing. (by my right hand) the wind soon got up around 2pm and it got uncomfortable so we pulled the anchor and headed for Portland's entrances to try for mackerel - found them easily enough to top up the bait freezer and some big enough for dinner too. total of around 20. we tried a different area drifting with baited feathers and all i managed was a pin whiting. the rain came in heavy around 3pm so we called it and went to the pub to dry out. Thursdays forecast was awful - wind and rain all morning - so we went to the D-Day museum in Portland instead - from there we could see the sea state wasn't too bad inside Portland harbour so decided to poke our bow out in the afternoon and find some shelter in newtons cove - visibility was improving - we couldn't see the top of Portland all day - but the cloud broke up for a bit. - got a great pic of Portland with a cloud hat on.. we drifted a small inshore reef and i managed a pollock and a Sea Scorpion we moved to a close in wreck to try for wrasse and all i got was pout - phil blanked. Thursday is race night at Weymouth sailing club and they all decided to race around us so we called it and went to the pub. Fridays forecast was similar to Wed - light wind in the morning building to 20-25mph from lunch. plan was to target Gilt heads in Portland harbour on the drift (can also get Bass and mullet here) - didn't work out - nothing - so we moved to a new area where we were greeted with a playful dolphin - think he was slapping a dead fish with his tail for laughs. this area only produced a couple of pin Whiting for me. as all other fish had seen the dolphin carnage! next spot we drifted was one dog and a small Ballan wrasse for me. 2 inquisitive seals scared off all the other fish & the wind picked up so we returned to the reef and I managed a corkwing wrasse - that's all - nothing for phil all day. we went to the pub. Saturday was forecast 30mph so we binned it off altogether. not a very successful few days but way better than being at work! and i ticked off 4 more species for the hunt- whiting, Ballan, Corkwing and pollock. Malc, suzook12, JonC and 7 others 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odyssey Posted July 31, 2023 Share Posted July 31, 2023 (edited) Great report and pics 🙂 plus points for balancing fishing and pub, sounds like a good few days 😁 Edited July 31, 2023 by Odyssey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daio web Posted July 31, 2023 Share Posted July 31, 2023 great report mike as always keep it up son 👍 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy135 Posted July 31, 2023 Share Posted July 31, 2023 Nice one @mike farrants 👍. You got out, you caught some fish, you went to the pub. Sounds like a result to me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saintly Fish Posted August 1, 2023 Share Posted August 1, 2023 16 hours ago, mike farrants said: things that slowed our fishing down - Wind, Rain, Tides, Yachties, Seals, Dolphins and some dam right stubborn fish! Well done Mike. I like the way that as you get better as a fisherperson so do your excuses!! mike farrants 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy135 Posted August 1, 2023 Share Posted August 1, 2023 1 hour ago, Saintly Fish said: Well done Mike. I like the way that as you get better as a fisherperson so do your excuses!! That must be why your excuses are still rubbish... mike farrants and Geoff 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saintly Fish Posted August 1, 2023 Share Posted August 1, 2023 47 minutes ago, Andy135 said: That must be why your excuses are still rubbish... That's a bit bitchy for a Tuesday morning!! suzook12 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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