Catch Report - Burnham-On-Sea - 5th December 2020 (1)

Date From: 05/12/2020 16:30:00

Date To: 05/12/2020 22:30:00

Time of day: Afternoon - evening

Location: Burnham-On-Sea

Mark: Lower Light

Tide Times:

Moon Phase:

Weather: Variable wind from very calm to fairly strong gusts from behind and the right.

Sunrise/Sunset:

Sea: Murky with just tiny waves to begin with and increasing in size a little and rolling for around 15 yards.

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

Bait: Live King Ragworm | Frozen whole loligo squid, frozen mackerel segments

Caught:

The Session:

I returned to Burnham on Sea for a third time to try and catch a cod and Thornback Ray. I arrived at low tide and this time wearing my oldest flotation suit and wellies I made my way down the sand and mud, keeping as much as possible to the ripples in the mud that gave away the precense of sand immediately underneath, though there was the occasional aread where my foot sank a few inches. I put this down to it being holes that had been dug by people looking for lugworm and then being lightly filled back in by the water as it covered them.

I was around 200 yards to the left of the structure and the ground was ok here at low tide. I managed to put my seat box down on solid ground and never got mud up too high on my trousers.

I cast my first rod upstream around 30 yards and out around 40 yards and it settled quite quickly almost in front of me, so I did the same with the next rod and waited for the water to creep in towards me which would start the beginning of the great retreat!

As I walked back 30 paces or more each time the sea reached me I sometimes recast the rods after moving and sometimes left them out. I counted the turns of the handle that were required to get the bait back to me with the highest number being 150. The reels are both around 95-100cm per turn.

Despite me varying the distance a lot by doing this I could not get a bite and it seemed the other anglers who were already there and who turned up afterwards were struggling to get anything too, though I couldn't be sure. It was around halfway up the beach almost 3 and a half hours in to the session when I noticed my flapper rig rod tip shake and bend a little but then didn't move again. I was sure it was a fish and not the crabs that were managing to take most of my ragworm each cast this evening and after leaving it for 5 minutes I struck and reeled in to feel something on the end but first assumed it was weed, so when I saw a small fish on the end I was quite pleased and then when I saw it was a cod, even more so. It wasn't huge, barely the size of the Pollock I catch from my local pier but I didn't care. I hoped it would signal the beginning of lots more bites but it didn't and I couldn't be sure how far out it was either so getting the same distance was going to be down to luck.

Unfortunately that was the only noticable bite and so I could only assume it was crabs taking the bait when the hooks came back almost stripped. Although I was in a bit of a better spot here than last week, so I wasn't hindered as much by the dips in the sand that could cause someone to get cut off if they weren't careful, It didn't make any difference over high tide as the hooks began coming back with the ragworm and squid still on, untouched so even the crabs weren't taking it in the last hour, possibly because I was still fishing in some shallow water as I couldn't wade out to cast with only wearing wellies.

II plan to give Burnham on Sea at least one more go this year so there is still chance I could catch other species I was hoping for.

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