LAST-MINUTE ADVENTURE
How a short-notice trip out of Weymouth in the dark depths of winter proves an unexpected success
O ften while planning various fishing trips with charter skippers, I get told “Lets pick a date when the weather is good”. Unfortunately, it is impossible to select dates some months in advance and expect perfect conditions.
Certainly, I have had countless trips blown off each and every month of the year as a result of bad weather. In theory, our spring and summer should offer the best weather but, as all boat anglers know only too well, increasingly, this is not the case.
There simply is no way to beat the weather when planning trips – unless you are able to drop everything and jump aboard a charter boat at short notice. For many, this is not an option, but with an increasing number of charter skippers offering ‘individual days’, it is worth letting it be known among charter boat circles that, in the event of such opportunities, you would like to be considered for a lastminute place – and there are several excellent groups on Facebook that are perfect for this.
Here in the Northern Hemisphere, the weeks around Christmas and the New Year are the darkest of winter. In theory, at that time of year our weather will be at its most wild and unpredictable, and often it is – but not always.
The recent festive season was a good example, with much of the country experiencing a prolonged spell of fine, cold and extremely settled weather; perfect conditions for offshore angling. Social media was full of catch reports, illustrated by anglers holding some fine fish.
When Weymouth charter skipper Colin Penny got in touch to invite me down for a day’s winter species hunting just a day shy of the New Year, a quick glance at XC Weather confirmed I really should drop everything and go.
A FEW SURPRISES
Weymouth is the busiest and most popular charter port anywhere in the UK, and, over the years, I have experienced many fine days afloat here, fishing from various different charter boats based at this Dorset port.
Never, though, have I fished here in the middle of winter, and while I was confident
“An increasing number of skippers offer ‘individual days’”
about some of the species we would likely see, I was in for a few surprises. The crew consisted of 10 of Colin’s regulars, anglers who often take advantage of short-notice trips for individual days aboard Flamer IV.
In order to add an element of fun to the day, Colin often runs a species competition, with a prize being awarded to the top anglers; my invitation coincided with one of those days.
After a short run across a mirror-calm sea, we arrived at the Adamant Bank, and anchored in just under 100ft of water. Colin had already stoked our enthusiasm by telling us that the mark had fished extremely well just the day before, producing lots of big whiting, with other species adding variety.
There is absolutely no way that whiting can be classified as a sporting species of saltwater fish, but they are fun to catch, often plentiful, and taste good when fresh. Furthermore, there is no need to invest in expensive baits to catch whiting, as long, thin strips of frozen mackerel or squid tick all the boxes for these voracious little fish.
Our day’s crew had come well prepared, with plenty of bait and pre-tied, two-hook paternoster rigs, many of which were heavily adorned with coloured beads and other attractors. I remain unconvinced as to whether or not these actually make a difference for species such as whiting, but certainly they can do no harm. The first whiting were soon hoisted aboard in single and double shots, which consisted of numerous individuals weighing over 2lb.
We fished the Adamant Bank for around a couple of hours, during which time it became apparent that very few species were likely to beat the whiting to our baits. A few dogfish, pouting, a strap conger eel and a very nice spotted ray were caught, before Colin fired up Flamer IV’s 450 hp turbo charged CAT diesel engine, retrieved the anchor and took us to our second mark.
PRIME GROUND
This time the sounder showed that beneath us the seabed consisted of a series of humps in just over 100ft of water, due south of Lulworth Cove, prime ground for the big blonde and undulate rays. Five species of rays are commonly caught off the Dorset coast – blonde, thornback, spotted, small-eyed and undulate – and whereas in many areas they are only caught from spring through until the autumn, here they are caught year-round.
Fish and squid are key baits for rays, and within minutes of our first baits hitting the bottom, nodding rod tips showed that, once again, Colin had put us bang on the money.
The first decent fish Colin netted was a near double-figure common smoothhound for Phil Harrison. Standing at the transom with my camera, when I first glimpsed the fish in the clear water I assumed it would be a spurdog, and expressed surprise when it proved to be a smoothhound. Colin and several of our experienced crew were quick to confirm that hounds are commonly caught off Weymouth year round, a fact that was confirmed by the capture of several other decent examples.
The big rays we hoped to catch failed to show, but we did manage a few small blondes and spotteds, along with some better-quality conger eels, whiting and a few other species, including a garfish, which was a surprise to all on board.
BROKEN GROUND
By now the tide was starting to run extremely hard, and maintaining bottom contact with our baits meant using around 2lb of lead weight. It was time for a move to our third and final mark, a patch of broken ground a short distance offshore.
Thornback rays were one of several likely species here, Colin had advised, and Kevin Clark was soon boating the first one. For the last hour of our trip, the fishing slowed, with just an occasional strap eel, dogfish or pouting showing any interest in our baits.
It had been an extremely pleasant day’s fishing, with a calm and settled sea, and for the most part blue skies, and surprisingly warm winter sunshine.
Throughout the day we had watched an especially dense fog bank holding off a few miles to our east, but, finally, it caught up with us, causing the air temperature to crash. Thankfully, our day was done, everyone had caught plenty of fish, and Phil Harrison claimed the most species with a very respectable seven.
All in all, not a bad day’s fishing for the dark depths of winter.