Portland Harbour - Breakwater

[SpeciMan]

Zzippy and I launched our kayaks from Castletown slipway, Portland at first light this morning to fish the breakwater area.

 

We headed to the southern entrance first and fished over the wreck, HMS Hood, for a good hour. We only had a few bites despite lots of fish showing on the finder. A ballan wrasse of no great size was all we caught - if we had given it more time perhaps it would have been a different story but the wind had picked up and we decided to try another mark. When we went to up anchor we found they were both stuck. After a lot of pulling and getting no where fast we cut our anchor lines.

 

We then headed off towards the middle entrance of the harbour letting the W/NW wind take us in roughly that direction. We drifted past most of the small wrecks by the breakwater with no noticeable bites.

 

When we arrived at the middle entrance we hooked up to a buoy near there and fished a sheltered spot out of the wind.

 

We caught several dogfish on mackeral strips and ragworm. Three times Zzippy got hooked onto something which gave a decent bend in his rod and each time the line was bit through (this was on one of his rods setup for smaller species - hook baited with ragworm). Our big bait rods remained untouched except for one dogfish deciding it liked Zzippys triple squid offering.

 

Early afternoon we paddled/tootled back to near our launch point and fished by the 'stone block' there for a short while. We caught one goby on ragworm & called it a day

[darnsarf]

Atleast you caught! Sounds like a decent area though.

[SpeciMan]

Atleast you caught! Sounds like a decent area though.

 

 

True - it was a good day & I'd like to think Zzippy hooked into something of reasonable size.

 

Its always nice to try new areas and the Portland Harbour is a place I've only driven by in the past. Castletown launch is fairly close to the breakwater and as well as the wrecks there are a few features around the harbour to try. We hope to spend some time there this summer. Seems to be quite a safe, accessible venue for the kayak fisherman.

Edited January 19, 2006 by SpeciMan

[nifty]

Nice one Speciman,

 

Glad to see your managing to get out and get a few fish as well. What do you think it was that Zippy hooked into? Conger perhaps?

 

Pity about the anchors but I don't think it matters how well we trip them there are going to be some snags that won't let go

 

Stuart.

[SpeciMan]

Thanks Stuart

 

We'd like to think it was a conger which took Zzippys bait - the rod bent over double each time and the fish didn't stay on for long once it knew it was hooked. But, we had bigger baits down near it.. perhaps a conger would have preferred squid or mackeral instead of ragworm.

 

The line kept snapping despite a properly adjusted drag - as Zzippy mentioned whatever it was it had teeth!

[richi]

Nice report Speciman-------I don't think it'll be too long before one of us gets a conger from the yak

[SpeciMan]

Thanks Richi

 

I agree - we can't keep paddling out, dropping big baits down and expect to get away with it . Sooner or later Mr or Mrs Conger is going to pay one of us a visit. Can't wait to see the pics. Catching a large conger on the drift should take us for quite a ride.

[spanner]

aahhhh fond memories....

 

Way back when I was knee high to a very small thing Castletown beach was where we used to go swimming in the summer, and the Hood was where my dad took me to fish for mackerel, fishing from the breakwater. We lived inside the naval base so we used to get to fish off all the jettys and piers, although looking at aerial photos it has changed a lot since then, and the houses are no more either. One of these days I'm going to get back down for a nostalgia trip.

[Starvinmarvin]

Nice report Speciman, losing an anchor is like losing an old friend, I still mourn my loss

 

Conger would have been nice, I believe that there has been one caught off a kayak north of the border, only a small one though. Like you say pictures would be nice.

 

Keep up the good work.

 

SM

[chuggs]

Nice report Speciman

 

Only ever fished from the rocks on the west side of Portland, many years ago now.

 

The locals used live velvet swimmers on 6 0 hooks and pulled out monster wrasse, difficult to land from the shore without using heavy gear.

 

I think the chances of landing some good size Wrasse from a yak on light gear would be quite good , . lots of potential !

Very heavy ground though, there must be some big conger down there. you could say goodbye to more anchors me thinks.

 

Chuggs.