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INTRODUCTION

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Hello and welcome to my fishing blog , My name is Nicholas Barsby and fishing is a big part of my life , I have been fishing Chesil beach for 24 years and started blogging my reports mainly so I can look back at the previous years catches and keep all my photos in one place. But from next year '2017' as well as my reports I will be going in to more detail when it comes to the rigs and bait I use and why . Hopefully this will help a few of you beginner's catch a fish or two! Fishing is not only a hobby for me it is also work as I have designed many rigs for various Fishing Brands and have made around 40'000 rigs to date !! If you are fishing chesil for the first time but unsure on anything just get in touch and I will try and point you in the right direction stay safe!! Tight lines

Catch Up Report !!

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OK guys and girls I apologise for the lack of reports on here!  I haven't been out very often and I am computer-less so I have only been able to post up on facebook . But I will give a brief summary of the year and an out look for the months ahead !! I will start with my favourite species plaice of which it has been a great year yet again only failing to catch on a few trips , I'm always trying to improve when it comes to catching flatties and I have to say the new glow conti pyramid weights really do seem to find the bigger fish TRY THEM!! The average length of the fish has been very impressive if they were not so thin earlier in the year I would have had several over 3lbs and a even more over 2lbs .If your looking for a specimen plaice I think you will stand a very good chance on the big tides through August and September we might even here of a few 4lbers this year... Sole numbers have been good for the time of year but the average size has been below last year wh

Plaice Aplenty ,April 2017

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Well folks I know most have been struggling throughout April with spider crabs, far to many dogfish and not a lot else!  But I have to say its been one of my better starts to the year searching for the humble flatfish on Chesil. I'm not sure if being prepared to walk along way every trip gave me a better shot at finding a few as the extra space enabled me to plain lead with some seriously strong tide movement , at times I needed 40 yards either side of me. I'm sure keeping to freshly dug ragworm and not tipping off with squid or fish baits kept the dogs to a minimum!! Its nice to see a few more Dab about this year with some of good size, lets hope the number increase Speaking of size a lot of the plaice I caught were clearly returning from spawning but in fantastic condition with a good bit of  weight on them for the time of year . So I think we will see a good stamp of fish from late August/September around the 2lb mark . I'm not saying all of them but more

First Plaice Hunt Of 2017

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I have finally dusted down the fishing gear guys and wet a line for the first time this year! So with a few days holiday I decided to try each end of Chesil with a walk to the bridging camp first up ! Well I can tell you I clearly didn't think this one through, having gone from walking Chesil every week to not at all for the last 3 months a shorter walk would have been more appropriate!! on arrival to an area i like to fish I noticed  the concrete blocks that were a good marker had been broken up and scattered over the beach during the winter months but I was more or less on the spot . Conditions were ok I expected the water to be coloured slightly but not with the accompanying swell ! Fishing was poor with a constant stream of dog fish and pout but I wasn't to worried I was genuinely happy to be out after my longest break from fishing  in about 15 years And I was treated to a lovely sunset The next venue a couple days later was west bexington , On arrival I was disappoint

2016 Fish Pics

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OOPS!!! Time To Focus On The Cod!

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Arrived at cogden yesterday with an hour of day light left , so had a go for the plaice before sole hunting in the dark . I ended up with 8 plaice with them still feeding for the first couple hours of darkness .I then switched to sole rigs with size 4s and 6s hooks.... these small hooks were my down full on what should have been a big session as I was slack lined about 8 times in a short space of time with the lead being dropped very close to the shore but i didn't want to give up on my target. Then I noticed my line pointing straight down the beach so 100 yard walk down the beach while reeling in the slack I could see in the bright moon light a a nice plump 6lber coming in off the surf on its side happy days on my size #4 hook . Sole fishing went out the window after this and I got out the 6/0 hooks.... I then had a bass of 3lbs and another 6lbs cod and that was that happy with my catch but should have changed hooks much earlier

Sole Searching !!

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Sole is a fish I am always happy to see on the beach as it tastes great so I have put more effort in to finding them over the last couple of years and it is slowly coming together! But I still have room for improvement when it comes to finding the perfect tides ,conditions and tinkering with the rigs a little to improve the catch rate . Having said that I am chuffed with my progress landing some nice fish with the average sole this year being around 1lb 8oz          Most sole this year took lug and rag cocktails on the bottom snoods with 2g shots and glowing attractors , I actually started catching them very early in the year and noticed a pattern in there feeding time which was in the first hours of dark but didn't think much more of it until recently when  large amounts were being caught all along the western end of the beach mainly in the first few hours of dark. So this will hopefully help next year along with increasing the weights on the snoods to 4g to pin

Plaice Return!! 12/08/16

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Plaice fishing on Chesil is fairly predictable with the species returning from spawning around March with numbers increasing throughout April and then numbers decreasing through may when they move off  again for a few months . By August they move back along the beach having put on weight throughout the year so this is the ideal time to start targeting the big ones with September reaching the peak of quality plaice fishing . Then the sequence starts again with the fish moving off to spawning grounds and returning in March .... With this in mind I decided on a last minute plaice session after work for the last few hours of light to use up some bait and also the tide times and sea state looked good. On arrival I was pleased to see plenty of room along the clay beds and managed to set up just as slack water had ended and the tide had turned . Considering I only had half a rap of blacks and about 20 tiny rag I wasn't expecting much so kept baits small to last , As it turned out the fi