Second trip of the Spring down to Dorset yesterday – more, as it turned out, for a recce and refresh of what this particular area was looking like after the Winter break. It was a solo trip with my pal Nobby deciding against it after looking at the benign weather and in fairness, in that respect, he was 100% right! Still, I had the opportunity so wasn’t going to waste the chance of having a go and at the very least having a stroll along the coast checking things out.
The first thing to get back used to was the alarm going off early and dragging myself out of my pit at 2:45 am! Once I’m up I’m OK it’s just that initial step of pulling the covers back that’s the hard part – madly I do love being up this time of day and it’s great for getting anywhere quickly with no one else on the road.
Arrived, kitted up and set off just as the light was beginning to change. Unfortunately, the short cut to the place where I would normally have made my way down to the coast had the gate closed off due to land slippage…. luckily I was aware of this before I set off so had already resigned myself to taking the tougher shoreline route round. Only a minor inconvenience and it wasn’t long before I was fishing though the conditions were not encouraging – as forecast it was fairly flat and water was almost aquarium-like in clarity.
Nothing was happening early doors with little sign of life in the water if I’m perfectly honest but nevertheless I continued to walk and fish. What was noticeable was the amount of land slippage and cliff fall there has been over the Winter in this area of Dorset – parts of the cliff do look a lot more precarious in places than I’ve seen before so something I’ll be aware of when fishing here over the rest of the year.
There were some decent, fairly fresh clumps of kelp washed up underneath the cliffs but there were no flies present so no maggots either….
Moved on further round the coast with not a sniff on either the hard or soft plastics I tried ranging from Feed Shallows, Gunfish, Komonos to Sluggos, Wave worms, Flash J Shads or the Black Minnows. One good thing about the clear water on these early season sessions is it gives you an opportunity to see the action of the lures underwater which was great for me with some of the new soft plastics I’ve acquired recently. In particular I like the colour and action of the Flash J Shads – hopefully they’ll be fish catchers – they look like they should be…
I’d almost given up on the fact there were any fish in the sea when I had a knock on the Black Minnow which had the tell tale signs of a wrasse. Next cast out confirmed it with this small fish…
It saved a blank I guess but whilst I always respect them they just don’t give me the buzz that catching a bass does! Returned safely I moved on and cast out again and immediately got hit again by a wrasse…this one could have been the twin brother of the one I’d just caught…
At this point I decided to turn and fish my way back. The tide was turning and the wind had swung around a bit creating a nice chop on the surface but it was still very clear water. This did look slightly better though and encouragingly I started to notice the odd mullet or two cruising around so no doubt there would be a few bass in amongst them I suspect. Alas, there was no further fish action to report though and by lunchtime I was back at the car ready to head home.
We could do with a run of south westerly winds now in this part of the world just to create a bit of swell and fizz the water up a bit… might get those bass moving inshore? Hopefully, after the next set of spring tides they will be there!
Finally, this was a second outing for the Maxpedition Sitka sling bag which you’ll notice I’ve ‘pimped’ with a pouch and Hampshire badge!! I’m liking this bit of kit a lot – plenty of storage, comfortable, doesn’t feel bulky with easy, quick access to everything I need when fishing. Thumbs up so far!
Until next time…
Hooks, Lines & Sinkers 