WINTER WARMERS
Winter reef fishing can keep your rod tips nodding
When the cod aren’t biting, try the reefs.
When the cod fishing doesn’t quite go according to plan along the South Coast, as has been the case for the past few years, you can still have some excellent sport with a host of other species.
I’ve always said that Weymouth is one of the UK’s premier ports, purely for the fact that there’s something decent to target during every month of the year, weather permitting – and that includes throughout the winter.
For this particular trip I was out on Snapper, skippered by Luke Pettis. I’ve fished with Luke a few times in recent years, and I can tell you that being in his early twenties, he has a bright future ahead of him, even though it’s certainly not easy out there in the world of charter skippering.
Luke, like many of the other younger skippers in the area, has spent most of his life working at sea from the Dorset port. He knows where the fish live and how to target them. You really can’t put a price on local knowledge like that.
BOAT AND SKIPPER
Snapper is a 10m Blyth catamaran, stateof-the-art charter fishing boat. Based in Weymouth harbour, she is licensed to carry 12 people and fitted with the latest safety equipment and fish-finding technology.
With a 16ft beam, she offers one of the largest deck spaces in the port, providing lots of space when fishing. The twin Doosan 8L turbo diesel engines that power Snapper make her a very fast and reliable vessel, putting you on the fish in no time at all.
Luke Pettis has fished from a young age. He learned the ropes aboard the family boat and crewing for other charter vessels in the port before buying the original Snapper, an Offshore 32, at the age of 18. After two years Luke purchased a larger Blyth catamaran, which he completely refitted. He is an experienced and qualified skipper with a vast knowledge of the waters around Weymouth and Portland.
Luke has also worked in the commercial fishing industry, crab and rod-and-line bass fishing, as well as on wind farm survey boats.
WINTER REEFS
There are loads of banks, wrecks and other ground marks you can fish throughout the year off Weymouth, but Luke’s winter favourites are the inshore reefs. The ground here holds good numbers of a variety of species, as our day was to prove.
The reefs fish all year round, but they’re particularly good for a bite from January to March when most other fishing goes off the boil along the South Coast.
The ground here is snaggy, but not so tackle-hungry that you’re losing gear every chuck. In fact, if you have a really bad day you might lose four sets of tackle, and for the most part, one or two snap-offs in a day is about the average.
You never really know what you’re going to
encounter on these reefs. You may have set your sights on catching a 20lb-plus spurdog during the trip, but may end up with bull huss, rays and conger eels. I’ve even caught smoothhounds and tope off these reefs in the depths of winter, so it’s advisable to gear up heavy. I’m not talking rods and reels, just terminal gear.
As far as these go, you can get away with a heavy uptide rod or a 20lb-class boat rod and a mulitplier reel loaded with 30lb braid. I would advise using a 50lb mono leader, though, to protect your braid from the rocks beneath.
When it comes to rigs, it’s best to play it safe. I usually opt for a heavy trace line, like 80lb clear fluorocarbon, along with a single size 6/0 or 8/0 hook on the end. A simple 3ftlong running leger is all you need, with a small boom or link swivel running on your leader to carry your lead – which could be anything from 6oz to 2lb, depending on the size and state of the tide.
OUR SESSION
We got lucky on our last trip, with the air temperature unseasonably warm at a roasting 5°C. The plan for the day was to search out a big spurdog, which Luke had been putting his anglers on for a few weeks prior to our session.
Baits were kept simple, too, with either a couple of whole squid or a head and guts or tail fillet of mackerel doing the business.
As Luke dropped the anchor, we all prepared our baits and got ready to drop down. There’s no real need for casting when fishing on top of a reef. In fact, doing so can often lead to more snagged gear.
Within five minutes one of the lads fishing on the stern hooked into something huge on his half mackerel bait. It took loads of line and he just couldn’t stop it, then it all went solid. I have my suspicions that it was a decent conger eel, but we’ll never know.
Shortly afterwards, one of the other lads hooked into a double-figure bull huss, which put up a great scrap in the tide, and so the action continued.
We caught a steady stream of huss, strap congers, dogfish and the occasional smoothhound throughout the course of the morning session, until the tide died away and we had lunch.
As the tide began to flood, Luke upped anchor and repositioned the boat to keep us on the reef, and as the tide began to push harder, the fish came back on the feed. I managed a couple of huss and a conger, while the lads on the stern took more eels, a small spurdog and a rather nice undulate ray.
It was a great day afloat, with plenty of hot drinks, food and banter, with more rodnodding action than I actually thought we were going to get. Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to latch into any of the big spurdogs, but we’d all caught fish weighing over 10lb on the day, and it was just nice to get some blood pumping and some rods bent over.
If you find yourself wondering what to go and fish for over the winter, you really can’t do better than have a day on the reefs – it’s a real winter warmer session! ■
NEED TO KNOW
■ Contact skipper Luke Pettis, tel: 07833 492948.
Website: www.snapperweymouth.com