Catch Report - Brixham - 15th May 2021 (4)

Date From: 15/05/2021 14:15:00

Date To: 15/05/2021 21:05:00

Time of day: Afternoon - evening

Location: Brixham

Mark: The Breakwater

Tide Times:

Moon Phase:

Weather: Sunny but cloudy with variable wind mostly from behind. Feeling warmer than forecast

Sunrise/Sunset:

Sea: Very clear with just a small swell.

Method: Ledger (shop bought 2 hook flapper) | Float

Bait: Live King ragworm | live king ragwom

Caught:

Session and Lifetime Statistics:

The Session:

This session was from the Breakwater at Brixham and I had hoped that I would get a lot of Wrasse, or at least one of each of the 3 main species that can be caught there.

I began fishing just part way along the breakwater after taking a walk along and seeing that there were pots further up left quite close in. I had planned to fish just a short walk up anyway and this helped to make my decision.

I found an area where it looked like any line that I had to leave trailing down the edge of the breakwater would not snag on rocks or weed and fish would be fairly easy to lift out. I set up my ledger rods first though and put on a 4oz plain lead weight with a rotten bottom and cast it around 30 yards out. Then I set up the float and fished that around 10 yards out with the depth set at around 8 feet deep.

I didn't have a single bite in about an hour so I decided to move up the breakwater to where I often fished and I set up another ledger rod with a flapper rig. Here was pretty much the same, except I kept my confidence having done well at this spot and expected the fish to begin showing within an hour at the latest. Bob was going to be joining me so I hoped to have a few fish before he arrived at around 6pm but as the weather looked like it was going to be better than was forecast I knew I'd be happy just spending the evening here anyway.

With each recast of the ledger rod I tried different distances from around 60 yards down to 30 yards out, I became snagged once and lost my whole rig and shockleader so I had to set up again and from then on I ensured I cast 40 yards at least to try and avoid the snags nearer in.

It was very quiet and I didn't have any bites on either rod until just before 6pm when I missed a short sharp bite on the float rod but after a quick check of the bait to see it was mostly still all on the hook I recast and then had a bite again and struck into a nice little Corkwing Wrasse. The colours on this fish seemed a lot bolder and darker than ones I'd caught before and the fish itself was a little bigger than the common size of them here so it was a pleasing fish, even though it was the only one so far.

Bob arrived after 6 and I was glad to be able to tell him I'd had one fish at least but any hope that it would signal the beginning of a run of bites began to fade as time went on and we both struggled to get anything. The bait on the ledger rods was coming back untouched so I wasn't missing seeing any bites. The hook on the float rod was getting caught in the kelp every so often and at one time I had left the rod lying on the concrete for so ling the rising tide had washed some weed over my line which caused me to be unable to reel my float in and I had to pull as hard as I could which ended up snapping the line and I lost the float.

After setting up with another float I tried different depths but it took ages to get a bite. It was getting on for 8pm by the time I began getting them and even then they would pull the float down quickly and then appear to just let go of the bait giving me no time to react and strike. But then, just after one of the local seals had swum past us close in and I had commented to Bob how it probably ensured the fish wouldn't come around for a while now, on one cast where I had allowed the float to drift in close that I intended the float dipped a few times and began to move to my left a little. It was obviously a fish rather than the tide so I just lifted the rod expecting to reel in a small corkwing wrasse again but as I pulled the weight was much greater than I expected. I knwo you can't give the fish any chance to dive into the kelp here so I just hung on for a few moments making sure it couldn't dive any deeper than it was and lucky it gave up quite quickly and as I told Bob it felt like a good fish he came over to me and was able to grab the line and hand line the fish up. It did look a good fish and I couldn't recall what my personal best Wrasse weighed so I weighed this one and was sure this beat it.

Once it was back I put the float back out where I hooked that fish and it began moving almost immediately. I struck again and this time it was a Corkwing Wrasse. Now the patience was beginning to pay off. I had a few more bites over the next hour but missed them all because they were so quick and just single pulls of the float. We had both commented on the lack of baitfish around earlier aswell, except for a small shoal that went passed earlier but then I saw the beginning of a shoal swim in front of me. They looked like sandeel and they were just swimming very close in, about a foot or two out from the very edge of the water and going down towards the shore. I kept saying how it looked like a big shoal but I never thought we would end up not even seeing the end of it. On one cast I foul hooked one when I reeled in and confirmed they were small Sandeels. We wondered why there was no sign of Mackerel hunting such a big shoal.

I may have not even noticed some bites on the float over the next 20 minutes of so as I was facinated by the sheer number of fish there but I couldn't miss one bite when the float just went under and I lifted the rod and felt something on the end briefly but that I would have put as the same size or bigger than the wrasse I had earlier. But it came off within seconds and I was contemplating packing up along with Bob but had to have one more cast. It paid off and the float went again, this time I hooked the fish firmly and had another Ballan Wrasse, not quite the size of the first but still another one of my biggest from here. I couldn't decide now whether to stay a bit longer or go. The light fading has usually been an indication that the wrasse would stop biting and the Pouting would begin to appear here so I didn;t expect to get a fish this late and something was telling me to stay longer but then I just thought it was a good fish to end on and then packed up and walked back to the car.

On the way back we checked the water a couple of times and saw that the sandeels were now fairly close to the shore, appearing to turn away from the wall about 15 yards before the beach and then as we turned back to walk down the slip way we noticed that there was a large shoal of mackerel chasing baitfish on the inside of the breakwater just in front of the lifeboat slipway, and in the area too was a seal, seemingly trying to catch a Mackerel. It was a sight to see and other people were wondering what was going on. Even the sandeel were getting themselves temporarily stranded on the slipway in their effort to get away from the Mackerel.

That was a good end to the session and a substitute for the lack of quantity of fish that we caught, but I was pleased enough with the fish that could now be my personal best.

Tackle used (price) [ time since first used ]: