Catch Report - Burnham-On-Sea - 12th December 2020 (4)

Date From: 12/12/2020 14:15:00

Date To: 12/12/2020 19:15:00

Time of day: Afternoon - evening

Location: Burnham-On-Sea

Mark: Burnham Sea Wall

Tide Times:

Moon Phase:

Weather: Fairly strong wind, overcast and feeling cold, wind dying down a bit later.

Sunrise/Sunset:

Sea: Murky, not as fast a flow as expected.

Method: Ledger (shop bought 2 hook flapper) | Ledger (shop bought up and over rig)

Bait: Live Ragworm, frozen black lugworm | Whole Frozen loligo squid, squid and frozen black lugworm, squid and razor clam

Caught:

Session and Lifetime Statistics:

The Session:

This was a session I fished with two other anglers, Bob and John. We were all hoping for cod and big ones if possible and then Ray and possible flounder or sole. We needed a mark that was fairly easy access and clean with a chance of those species and this seemed a good place to try. The original plan was to fish on the Sunday but due to the weather forecast being unfavourable we swapped to the Saturday. The tide height was lower which meant it would not be ideal according to some articles and conversations I;d had with people but we were looking forward to going anyway.

I arrived in the area at low tide and parked up in the town to get to the recently re-opened tackle shop to pick up some frozen lugworm. When I got out of the car I immediately noticed that the weather was much worse than was forecast. The wind to me was almost gale force and I had moments when walking to the tackle shop that a gust prevented me from walking. I sent a text to the others telling them what it was like.

I then drove along the Esplanade down to the far southern end, parked up and took a walk along the wall to survey the mud and sand. It was clear that fishing was not possible at this time, not just because the flow would have been so strong but also because the mud and wind would have both been a problem. I decided to sit in the car for an hour and check again. This turned into well over two hours until I was about to get ready when my phone rang from Bob telling me they had arrived.

In the short time from us checking the area again from the wall to getting ready, other anglers had began setting up where I had hoped to start so we just set up in the next 150 yards of sand and all put out our rods so they were anywhere in the water. John had asked how far out we needed to cast and as I knew the fast pace in which the tide came in I advised just to get it in the water, knowing within minutes it would already be 20 yards out.

The intent for me was to have a big bait cast out and left as long as I felt I could and to keep casting regularly, assuming there would be some crabs around, with a flapper rig and worm baits. To begin with I opted for a 7oz weight on the Up and Over Rig rod and 6oz on the Flapper Rig rod. These held bottom just fine and as the tide began rushing in we knew we had timed it about right, though maybe half an hour earlier would have been spot on.

Bob was the first to land a fish and he brought in someones lost rig at the same time. At least we knew cod were around even if they might be small. It wasn't long before myself and John landed Cod too, and then John had a Whiting. We had to move back a few times within the next hour or so as the tide rushed in. When I fish a bit further down stream in the Bristol Channel I would count 20 to 30 paces back and know that can give me 15-20 minutes before needing to move again. Here it was more like 10 minutes so it was a relief once we got to the steps. There was a small shallow gulley right in front of the steps and it filled up with water which made casting from there a little difficult because I was wearing wellies instead of waders because of the cold but the gulley was too deep to walk over in wellies so for maybe half an hour there was just an inch or two of water where I was needing to cast.

That didn't seem to stop John though as he had a good number of bites and as I looked around at all the other anglers there no-one seemed to be catching as many as John. Neither was Bob and I. Oddly, once darkness fell the bites slowed and then stopped which was the opposite to what I expected to happen. By that time though John had a nice tally, with myself and Bob only managing as many between us, but at least Bob managed to add another fish to his species hunt tally and I was happy with a few cod which meant I had caught some this year.

John packed up around an hour and a half after high tide and myself and Bob followed shorty after when we realised how quickly the tide was going out again. We had a couple of casts when we were able to walk back down onto sand but we had no noticable bites. Packing up here was easy being on concrete and the walk back to the car was also ok which means that this is a mark I would consider again in future if I was in the same position of just wanting cod to see the year out, or for a session during summer when it might be worth trying again for some Ray.

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