You know the saying, “big or small we love them all”, well this is my philosophy when it comes to sea angling, there are so many species out there on the UK coastline from the tiniest of Blennies up to the largest of the Porbeagle and Mako sharks and targeting this whole variety of fish should be on every anglers mind. A good way to do this is to make a fishing session with your mates a species hunt it’s a fun way to pass the time and it makes things a bit more interesting as you will have to have make different rigs up with different sized hooks for the variety of species you could find and a friendly £2 bet for the most species caught adds a little bit of fun to it as well With the warmer weather approaching I decided to organise a road trip from East Anglia down to the mighty Chesil beach to target the vast array of summer species that appear on the 18 mile long shingle bank, I put the word out on social media via the East Coast TSF Facebook page that we would be heading down and that everybody was welcome to join us for what would primarily be a species hunt but also a social gathering at the same time. Now I chose Chesil as in my eyes there is no other venue in the country that has the capability to produce the fish that this place does, on a good day in the summer the waters within casting range for even the most novice angler can be like an aquarium with every cast being a lucky dip, one minute you could have a little red mullet on your hooks, the next you could have a large undulate ray tugging your lines and putting a smile on your face.
The morning of the trip arrived and we started making the 4 hour journey from Ipswich to Chesil, the weather reports weren’t looking too great though, strong south westerlies had whipped up and this would mean the sea would have a nice swell but the wind would reduce casting distance, another downside of this would be that as it was going to be a lumpy sea the possibility of finding certain species with the feather method of fishing was dramatically reduced.

Arriving at the Ferrybridge end of Chesil beach we soon unloaded the vehicles, paid the £8 for 24 hours car park fee and started the yomp across the shingle to where we would be fishing, we opted to head right a few hundred yards to an area with a more clay bottom and ledges that would hopefully hold more fish. Walking for around 20 mins we reached the spots we would be fishing and made our way down the shingle ridge and started setting up our camps for the next few hours, the wind was blowing straight in our faces and the sea had a lumpy swell, this scuppered the plans to hit the mackerel, garfish and scad on feathers leaving just the bottom bait fishing to hopefully produce the goods. Taking my rig winders out of my seat box I started picking through my rigs trying to work out a plan of attack, for this trip I had tied up 2 hook flappers and up and over wishbones for the smaller species and pulley droppers and long up and overs for the larger species, my flapper rigs consisted of 80lb Varivas rig body, 20lb Asso Oblivion snoods to size 4 owner pint hooks, above these hooks were some coloured beads and then directly above the eye was a Bonebass lumi attractor for added appeal, my wishbones were the same make up of components just with different coloured Bonebass attractors above the hook. The droppers and the up and overs also had 8Olb Varivas rig body but these then had 30lb amnesia snoods to size 3/0 Varivas big mouth extra hooks for peace of mind if I pick up a big fish.

My buffet selection for the fish consisted of some fresh peeler crabs for if the smooth hounds were about, some absolutely cracking fresh black lug from internet bait company http://www.crabnlug.co.uk, fresh raw jumbo king prawns from the local super market, unwashed dirty squid, fresh mackerel and some lovely ragworm dug by my fishing partner in crime Scott Lewin. I opted to fish with the flappers to start with, loaded up with a 2 inch segment of black lug on each hook and tipped off with a sliver of squid, I sent the rig over the foamy breakers into the slightly calmer sea but with the wind pushing hard straight in our faces casting distance was dramatically reduced, the thing with Chesil is its deep very close in so finding fish shouldn’t have been an issue.

With the rig on the seabed I placed the first rod into the rest and sat back, the weather predictions had been saying on and off rain all day but they couldn’t have been more wrong, the sun was beaming and the hoodies had been thrown down, this was t shirt weather and fishing on the mighty Chesil in this was total bliss. Looking out to sea I sat watching terns working beyond the breakers, diving into the churning sea, picking out all the tiny tit bits of shellfish and other food items that the waves were dislodging and scattering about in the surf, this boded well for us as these little birds are a great visual aid to the angler, seeing these birds working is a sure fire sign the food is about and where there is food there will be fish!!
It didn’t take long to see the first bite, a nice solid rattle followed by a few thumps was all I needed to see before I wound down into the weight and started retrieving, getting closer to the beach I could feel a fish was definitely on the hook but now I had the churning breakers to contend with that could easily tear any fish off the hook if they wanted to, with the leader now visible I waited until I could see a wave then forming and as it pushed up the beach I wound quickly making the fish ride the wave as it broke and could see it flapping about on the shingle out of the danger area, as I got closer I could see it was a lovely little tub gurnard, one of my personal targets for the day so this put a grin on my face, these are beautiful fish and the fact they croak at you once caught makes them even more appealing in my eyes. With the small bait rod back out with the same bait on word soon reached me that a smooth hound had been caught further up the line, this quickly fired me into action with getting the second rod set up with a pulley dropper and loaded with a whole small fresh peeler bait. Making sure the drag was set slightly loose it was a case of sit back and wait for the pack to reach me, it didn’t take long for the rod to arch over and for line to start stripping from the reel, the fish flew up tide and snapped off in the blink of an eye, after a few choice words I was soon back in business and this rod was back on full hound alert!!! Yet again it walloped over and this time I got the fish in and a nice pup of about 5-6lb was on the beach, a few pics and I sent it off on its merry way back into the clear blue sea.
Sitting back enjoying the sun the tip on my flapper rod gave a couple of solid thumps and then pulled over and stayed there, picking it up I could feel the weight of a nice fish that was pulling like a species I had recently encountered out on the boat, after a spirited little scrap a chunky little Black Bream was soon flapping on the shingle. Next up and into the hounds was Scott Lewin with another fish of the same stamp as mine, in fact that was the average stamp all day, 5-6lb with a handful of larger hounds scattered between us. After returning from a chat with Devon lads Kyle Blackmore and Ian Hooper my flapper rod was slack and after catching up with the weight it was apparent another fish was hooked and within a minute the fish appeared through the surf, it was a flatfish and upon closer inspection the bright orange spots gave the game away, it was a plaice and a chunky one at that. As the day progressed everybody was catching, it wasn’t fast and furious on the species count but the hounds kept us all entertained, Kyle had a beautiful little red gurnard and a chunky plaice and I was picking gurnards and bass off with pieces of prawn on the flapper rod, I tried feathering but to no avail, this just wasn’t going to be a viable method today.

As the sun started setting we were joined by top Dorset rod John Bentley who was trying for rays and tope and hopefully was going to get a fish for the camera, switching tactics for darkness I opted to keep the crab rod going for hounds which were still frequently hitting and the other one was going to be mackerel, prawn and squid wraps in the hope that an undulate was hungry, one had come out in the daytime that weighed 9.6lb to Ipswich angler Matty Andrews so we knew they were about. As the light slowly faded away we were treated to a beautiful Chesil sunset and as the light fell the hounds returned with me and Scott both picking up 2 hounds each in the space of 5 minutes, great fun and it certainly kept us all on our toes though the night, unfortunately for me though all my fish baits produced were dog fish, with the crab also producing pout and poor cod. Around midnight I heard a shout coming from john and I knew that could only mean 1 thing, he must have had a good fish and he most certainly did, a lovely Thornback ray of 14lb 4 oz lay on the shingle, he was chuffed and so was I for him, what a cracker and what a way to finish the night, with Bass, Tub Gurnard, Red Gurnard, Herring, Black Bream, Pout, Plaice, Poor Cod, Smooth Hound, Dog Fish, Common Eel, strap Conger Eel, Undulate Ray and Thornback Ray caught between us it was not a bad session hunting the species at all, if the winds would’ve been in our favour we would have easily racked up a few more different types but that’s mother nature for you, she doesn’t hold back for anybody, and as we pulled out of the car park it was agreed that we would be back later in the year for some of what Chesil is most famous for, its cracking winter cod fishing.