Solent & Portland dawn bass briefing
Solent & Portland: dawn bass shoals, 7 May 2026
Charters out of Lymington and Portland Bill are reporting renewed dawn sea bass activity, with shoals pushing along the eastern Solent and the Chesil Beach edge. Skippers note surface explosions at first light and tight tide-line feeding that favours fast presentations.
Where it's working
Best pockets this morning lie off Hurst and along the lee of the Isle of Wight, with Portland harbour mouths and the western approaches by Chesil holding larger, moving fish. Anglers watching gulls and slicks are consistently finding the shoals.
Tactics for early trips are blunt: topwater lures and small metal plugs for noisy attraction, soft plastics on light jigheads for follow-up. Long casts across the tide lines and quick snap-and-walk retrieves trigger reaction strikes when bass hunt sandeels in shallow runs.
Water clarity varies after recent swell; clearer cuts favour sight fishing, murkier patches demand vibration and profile. Tide windows to target are the first two hours of the flood and the last hour of the ebb when bass compress into predictable lanes.
Seasonal trend holds steady—mobile bass through the week, concentrated around structure and headlands. Boats at dawn, sky paling, bass tearing the surface along a slick of sandeels — that is the picture skippers are filing tonight.