Catch Report - Ilfracombe - 13th June 2021 (10)

Date From: 13/06/2021 14:47:20

Date To: 13/06/2021 20:20:00

Time of day: Afternoon - evening

Location: Ilfracombe

Mark: Capstone Rocks

Tide Times:

Moon Phase:

Weather: Warm and sunny with clear skies. Some wind from right to left

Sunrise/Sunset:

Sea: Very clear with a varying swell of up to 5 feet ans lots of white surf.

Method: Ledger (shop bought pulley rig with rotten bottom) | Float | Lure

Bait: Frozen Launce | Live King Ragworm | 5 Hook Purple Hokkai Heads

Caught:

Session and Lifetime Statistics:

The Session:

After not using up ragworm I bought yesterday when I went to Minehead I thought I'd go to my local rock mark and try using them for some wrasse, and I'd probably catch some Pollock aswell.

I parked in the Theatre car park and paid for 4 hours parking, which was £4.40. As I walked around the path and looked into the water at the town beach I was amazed at how clear it was and how much of the rocks I could see underwater quite far from the shore. As it was near the low tide time it gave a good indication of what snags might prevent comfortable fishing there. I have meant to try the beach one day but it can get busy with people in the warm months, can be rough in the winter months and then there would be the guilt I'd feel if I did lose tackle in a snag in sych a popular location with swimmers, so I'd need to be confident I was hitting sand each cast to be sure I wouldn't lose any rigs.

I looked over the wall as I arrived at the top of the hill and saw someone to the right hand side of the rocks and so I set up on the left hand side. The left hand side can be fishable all round the tide, though it is still open to the very strong tidal pull once high tide passes and for an hour or two afterwards. I had never ledgered from this side so it would be a new experience for me. Once I was over the railings, I shuffled to the steps and once down a few made my way left and was able to get right down the barnacle covered rocks quite close to the water in a fairly open area which made casting quite easy, and moving around as safe as could be on rocks.

So I decided to try the ledger rod in a bit of a different spot each time if I had no bites on each cast and first I cast it so it was going straight across the beach bay. The weight landed around 80 yards or so, helped a bit by the wind, and I prepared to wait until the weight hit the bottom but was a little surprised how quick it happened. clearly over this side the water was not very deep on a big low tide, probably deepeer than most marks still but less than I had imagined.

Then I set about putting a float rod out with the ragworm on which I also began fishing in the same direction I cast the ledger rod, set at around 12 feet deep first and cast around 20 yards out but I adjusted the depth to go a bit shallower after I hooked the kelp a couple of times. Finally I set up a feathing rod and cast that the same direction too, as I alternated between that and the float rod.

It wasn't very eventful to begin with and I changed where I cast by turning round to my right a bit each time but I eventually had a bite on the ledger rod. I wasn't able to determine what fish it might be and after giving it some time to take the bait properly I lifted the rod into the fish and tried to keep pressure on to get the fish up in the water quickly so as to avoid getting the weight snagged. It felt quite big but I knew the failry strong flow of the tide would be causing that and so I expected a dogfish and sure enough it was, but it fell off right down the edge.

I rebaited and recast in the same spot and soon enough had another bite but this time the weight was stuck so I left the rod in the tripod for a bit until the fish freed the weight and then I went to reel it in but it came off. A few casts later I was unfortunate enough to lose a weight, rig and shockleader and had to set-up again. While doing so I noticed the float dipping down and so I grabbed that rod and wasn't surprised at all to find a small Pollock on the end.

A few more dogfish bites later, but with none successfully landed the bites stopped. I moved up the rocks a few times as the sea level rose and another angler arrived and set up a ledger rod but I didn't see him catch anything. I was casting north instead of west now as I had to change my facing direction due to the rising tide and position of the sun. After one cast and just as I was tightening I looked up for my float which I had put out a bit further than previous casts, around 30 yards and now around 14 feet deep. It had gone. I checked closer in feeling quite sure it had drifted in because the white syrf had pulled my line in close and dragged the float with it. I still couldn't see it though so it was time to grab the rod.

There was some slack line but then as I pulled it tight I felt a pull back as the fish that had taken the bait immediately responded to my reaction. It pulled hard enough for me to need to turn off the anti reverse and allow it to take a bit of line and I could feel the fish shake its head and lunge as I tried to keep the rod tip high and keep the fish up in the water. I do this rather than using the drag because I believe it is possible to stop the fish running by giving it a sudden feeling that the pressure on them has stopped much like if you push or pull with another person doing so against you and one of you just stops, the other will stumble or fall forwards or backwards and your body tries to change its balance to keep still.

Just as I felt I was about to get a glimpse of what it was it threw the hook and my float came flying up the rocks at me. I hadn't felt anything pull like that on the float for a while and I couldn't help but think that it was a Wrasse equal to or bigger than my current personal best.

Best just get the bait back out there than ponder over what could have been though. So I replaced the ragworm with another whole one and swung the float out around 30 yards again but held the rod for a while to be ready for another take. The float drifted left slowly in the tow and eventually it went under steadily and kept on going until it disappeared out of view in the fairly clear water. I lifted the rod and it first felt like I was snagged on a rock until the fish began to fight and I made sure I didn't give it any chance to dive for the kelp I was fishing over, so I was soon lifting a small Wrasse out of the water. Despite me fishing these rocks a lot I rarely catch Wrasse, possibly because I tend to use mackerel strips for bait or because other areas of the rocks where I usually fish have less kelp in front of them.

After putting this fish back I put the float out in the same area again and it wasn't too long before it went under again but this time the fish let go and the float came back to the surface before I could respond. The float then drifted in the tow again and also began to move further out indicating the direction of flow was changing again. I checked the bait and felt it was ok to put out again and again I didn't have to wait long until it went under. This time it was another Pollock and before I could put it back the ledger rod showed another dogfish bite, which I didn't give long before I struck at it because of the bites I was getting on the float rod. I felt the fish for a few moments before it came off. Without wasting time I rebaited and cast it back where it was and went straight back to the float rod. I had another couple of bites that I missed and then the ledger rod showed anotehr bite. This time when I struck I was snagged and I left it for a bit until I was sure no fish was hooked and then I had to walk back with the rod. After a lot of pulling the mainline gave way, indicating that either the hook or leader knot was snagged, or the weight never released from the bait clip.

I didn't bother setting up this rod again as I favoured getting some more wrasse and I hoped I could get another that I felt was as big as the one I lost earlier.

The tide was begining to come in faster now aswell so I needed to move up and along the rocks a bit.

As soon as the float was back out it went under and A better sized Pollock gave a good fight but was soon being photographed and released. I was having to watch how much bait I was using now as I had used up most of the Ragworm and was happy to fish for another hour at least. The bites were happening more often and despite most of them resulting in the float going under so fast and disappearing from view I was unable to hook several of them. Sometimes it seemed they were just not taking the who ragworm and so didn't have the hook in their mouth and other times the surf that was being created by the rising tide as the swell increased at bit seemed to be pulling my line around everywhere so it was hard to lift the rod quick enough and far enough to take up all the slack line, so I could have just been pulling the hook out of the fishes mouth by not making a sudden enough pull on the hook.

I had A Corkwing Wrasse, a Ballan Wrasse and another Corkwing Wrasse in around the next 20 minutes but probably should have had more than twice as many (I couldn't be sure because as I wasn't hooking any fish, these fish could have been taking the bait on successive casts rather than each fish being spooked by the strike) and then after I missed several more and was wondering if I should risk moving along a bit so I wasn't in a spot with as much surf messing my line around when the float dipped a bit and moved around against the direction of the tow so I checked the slack line as much as I could and as I saw the bow mostly going to my left I struck over to my left and felt a very nice fish on. At first I let the fish pull and I tried to guess the size by the strength of the pulls that caused the rod tip to bend right over several times but then I had a moment of panic as I realised the fish was shaking its head and perhaps with the swirling water close in it would throw the hook. I at least needed to get a look at the fish so I put pressure on, had to give a little mid fight, but then brought it to the surface in the surf where I saw it was a nice size and nicely marked. I had to time my attempts to get it to a place I could lift it out with the swell helping me get the fish into a small rock pool and then I had a chance to pick it up and luckily it didn't struggle so I was able to get it up to my tackle without getting wet or losing the fish by dropping it back in. I had to weigh it as it was the biggest fish of the day and I was pleased and surprised when the scales showed 2lb 7oz which would have meant it weighed 2lb 3oz after I deducted 4oz for my weigh sling. This equalled my personal best Wrasse I caught only a few weeks ago.

It was as if this fish signalled the end of the bites. I had no more for a while and ended up getting just one more wrasse before I decided to pack up and go home. This was a brilliant end to the weekend after a dissapointing session the day before and not getting on the area of rocks I expected to get when I arrived here earlier and I should probably learn to not get too used to fishing the same spot and just try even just a bit further along the coast and it could pay off well.

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