Sunday 4 February 2007

Chesil Beach, Burton Bradstock

Burton Bradstock, looking west.
Burton Bradstock is a small village to the east of Bridport, on the western end of Chesil Beach in Dorset. The beach, Hive Beach, is signposted from the B3157 as you leave the village going east. Look for the café sign. There is a car park adjacent to the beach, a café which is open all year round and a toilet block. The car park is run by The National Trust, members can park for free if displaying a current member badge.
The beach is child friendly, fine shingle giving way to sand at low tide. To the right of the car park, the sea bed is rocky, weedy and snaggy and you will loose tackle but stand a chance of catching a big wrasse or bass. Be aware that cliff falls have occurred recently and are always possible after periods of heavy rain.  Early morning spinning or plugging in this area will often produce some good bass. In front of the car park and to the left you will be fishing onto fairly clean ground. The beach is not as steep as it is further east and there is not the same depth of water.

Techniques and catches will be broadly similar to Cogden, but without the walk and with the facilities.

Burton Bradstock, looking east.
The beaches along Chesil are not bathing beaches, people are drowned along this part of the coast almost every year.

Tide times for next seven days

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi,

Am off to Dorset this weekend, and have been recommended Burton Bradstock. I've a couple of quick questions though:

1) Can you wade safely in the water here?
2) outside of Bass and Wrasse, are there plenty of Macks around?
3) HAve you or have you known of anyone trying to fly fish at this beach (hence Q on waders)?
4) Is lure fishing worth a pop (bass poppers especially)
5) what baits would you recommend.

Apologies if all these questions seem a bit cheeky!! I just want to safeguard from blanking on the day...I gotta get a BBQ going too...with a fish on it.

Cheers,

J

haddock said...

Hi J,
Wading is safe enough in a calm sea....but not if there is any surf running.... deaths due to drowning are quite common on Chesil.
The mackerel come and go to their own timetable but there are usually a few stragglers about even if there is no large shoal working the beach. The rough at the western end of the beach could be worth a try for bass/mackerel on the fly if the wind is not against you.... or with poppers.
The bass on Chesil have learned that fish guts etc are available and cruise close to the beach.
For bait fishing.... fresh mackerel is always good on Chesil, ragworm on size 2 or 4 hooks for most species.... squid and bigger baits for dogfish/bass etc at night.
Call in to West Coast Tackle in West Bay and talk to Les ( the smaller of the 2 guys that work there).... I'm sure he could put you onto marks where you could fly fish for mullet.

have a good weekend !