I had the day off work today as I was supposed to be going on a boat trip but it was called off, so I decided to go to Chesil Beach to try for a cod. The alarm went off at 5:30am and I excitedly jumped out of bed, loaded my gear into the car and began the drive down to Dorset. I arrived at the ferry bridge car park at 7:30am. After paying a small fortune for parking I began the long walk down to the Bridging Camp the wind was not ideal at 17mph westerly’s but the sea was the perfect chocolate brown colour.
I opted for my favourite Pulley Rig, one with a Squid and Lugworm fitted to a 6/0 Pennell hook set up , and the other had Blow Lug on 4/0’s. I started the ball rolling with a couple of good sized whiting around the 1lb 8oz mark, a good start I thought. I then reeled in a Hermit Crab, which when I cracked the shell had the biggest white Ragworm I have ever seen, living at the back of its shell!
The Hermit Crab I caught went straight back out as cocktail bait with the Black Lugworm. As I sat down in my shelter and began to eat a pasty, I noticed a couple of hard bangs on the Hermit Crab baited rod, as I got up to check the rod, the line went completely slack. I thought to myself COD! After tightening down and catching up with the fish I could feel slow heavy lunges all the way in.
As I got it into the surf it turned into a bit of a tug of war, I won, and beached the fish. As I ran down and grabbed it a massive wave soaked me. I dragged the fish up the shingle beach and the hooks fell out, I was lucky that I didn’t lose it! The fish weighed 8lb 12ozs and had 3 whiting in its guts.
After that Cod I had a number of decent sized Whiting. I left the beach at 3pm with a bag much heavier then when I set off, which isn’t that much fun along the shingle, but I’m not complaining!
Thanks For Reading, Adam Fadli.
