Catch Report - Brixham - 26th May 2021 (10)

Date From: 26/05/2021 14:30:00

Date To: 26/05/2021 21:55:00

Time of day: Afternoon - evening

Location: Brixham

Mark: The Breakwater

Tide Times:

Moon Phase:

Weather: Beginning with cloudy sky, some wind from behind, and sunshine, but changing to occasional breeze and feeling warmer by late afternoon.

Sunrise/Sunset:

Sea: Clear and mostly flat with a small swell.

Method: Ledger (shop bought 2 hook flapper with rotten bottom) | Ledger (shop bought 2 hook flapper with rotten bottom) | Float | Lure (Feathers)

Bait: Live King Ragworm | Live King Ragworm | Live King Ragworm | 5 hook purple hokkai heads

Caught:

Session and Lifetime Statistics:

The Session:

A friend was visiting me and we decided to go to Brixham for the afternoon and try to catch some Wrasse and Mackerel.

When we arrived I was surprised we were able to park easily because this car park is often quite full when I get here late in the day.

We walked someway along the breakwater and began setting up in an aread with no buoys nearby. I fished two flapper rigs on my ledger rods while my friend fished a single hook rig. I also set up a float rod as usual and got a Mackerel feather rod ready after fishing for a while.

We cast the ledger rods around 30-40 yards out and I put the float rod about 15 yards out about 10 feet deep. The float kept drifing in quite quickly so it was hard to concentrate on stopping that from drifting into the close in kelp and watch the tips of the ledger rods but I wanted to maximise the chance of catching a fish so I kept at it except for the odd time when I gave Mackerel feathering a go on another rod.

My friend had a bite first and he didn't have to wait too long for it. It turned out to be a nicely marked Ballan Wrasse of just under a pound. I'd warned my friend about the need to just winch the fish up so as to not give them any time to dive into the kelp and he managed to do that just fine. It gave a bit of hope for a good session as there were still a few hours until high tide but it still took a while before we got some more bites.

By half past five we had a few more fish which now included a Corkwing Wrasse. That first Ballan Wrasse was still just the biggest. Each fish came to the ledgered King Ragworm and all the bites were quite gentle. We missed one or two each two and my friend had one bite that really pulled the tip round but he wasn't quite ready for it and the bite never developed so it looked like the fish was spooked by the resistance it felt. 

Another friend, Bob turned up to fish with us for a bit but struggled to get much too. He tried a bit further up the breakwater but it seemed the species we were after were not around in great numbers today. By the time he got back to where we were I had had the two Wrasse but then followed almost two hours of almost no bites. I had an occasional dip of the float but nothing that was worth striking at. It seemed odd that around this point in the tide, mid tide to high, the fish often started biting but it seemed it was not going to happen today. But then the float went under and came back up but dipped again and stayed under long enough for me to decided to lift the rod firmly and sure enough it was from a nice Corkwing Wrasse and this was followed by a couple of missed bites before I hooked a small Ballan Wrasse.

Strangely, that was the end of the Wrasse bites, it was quite odd. I had been giving the feathers a go every now and again still but despite seeing other anglers pulling a few in I only managed the one from possiblty 50 casts or more over the evening. Again, there was a long period of not catching anything, nor getting a single bite but eventually the float again dipped under and kept going as if the fish was heading for the bottom of the sea to which I lifted the rod and reeled in a smallish Pollock, but bigger than the usual stamp of fish I catch in North Devon. It was a pleasant surprise but even better was still to come as a very gentle bite came half an hour later which pulled the float just enough to make it stand still against the tow and it was from a 5 Bearded Rockling.

We were running low on ragworm now and we were discussing packing up, having stayed a bit longer than we anticipated already and as my friend began too I couldn't resist having a few quick last casts to get one last fish for another to add to the species count. I was expecting the Pouting to start showing and as reliably as they do here once the light begins to fade one did and I joined my friend in packing up.

It wasn't the best of sessions here but certainly not the worst either. I was more glad that my friend caught than I had because he doesn't fish very often and so it is good he catches when he does fish.

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