Catch Report - Ilfracombe - 18th January 2020 (6)

Date From: 18/01/2020 14:30:00

Date To: 18/01/2020 19:30:00

Time of day: Afternoon - evening

Location: Ilfracombe

Mark: The Pier

Low Tide:

Moon Phase:

Weather: Sunny and cloudy with cold wind from the left increasing in strength over the session

Sunrise/Sunset:

Sea: Murky and choppy with a swell of up to 3 feet.

Method: Ledger (shop bought pulley rig) | Ledger (running ledger with rotten bottom) | Float | Prawn trap

Bait: Frozen whole loligo squid and frozen black lugworm, frozen mackerel segments | frozen half mackerel | frozen mackerel strips, live ragworm | frozen loligo squid, frozen mackerel pieces, frozen mackerel head

Caught:

The Session:

It looked like a good day to try my local pier so I got there to fish it over low tide and set up to the left of the lower part. I began setting up 3 rods, a distance ledger with a pulley rig and fiarly large bait on, a close in ledger with a very large bait on and a float rod with small bait.

There were other anglers there when I arrived and I had a good chat with a couple of them as we fished. They are both still fairly new to sea fishing so I hoped they would catch more than I did myself.

Before I had all my rods set up a Cormorant came up onto the pier and I think it is one that comes around each year and is use to being near humans. I have been wearing the same clothing each time it has seen me and it certainly looked like it recognised me as it immediately came close and was watching me reach into my bag, expecting to see food at any time. There is a little dilemma hear because feeding the bird would cause it to come back for more food, but putting quite large baits out when they are around could result in one of them taking it and becoming hooked and injured. I often haave plenty of old bait with me here so I fed it some sandeel and squid to begin with and then bits of mackeral over the rest of the session. It will take freely from my hand and does sometimes catch my finger causing it to bleed so I try to make sure I only just have a hold on the bait. Then it usually walks back to the edge of the pier somewhere probably where it feels it can go at any time it feels. It doesn't seem to be scared or worried when I go near to bring my prawn trap of float in and when it does see the bait on the hook it appears to understand that isn't food for it to eat because it doesn't jump in the water after it when I drop the float down.

Eventually, after what seemed like the longest time I have ever taken to set up I settle down, chatting and sharing a few experiences with the others which was agood way to pass the time considering the lack of fish. The others had occasional bites on the smaller baits but I had none for a couple of hours. during this time I had filled the prawn trap with quite a bit of old bait and dropped it down the edge

I had begaun with my float rod at around 14 feet deep and had just changed the depth to around 10 foot when I had the first bite. I had my float rod resting on the stabilising bar of my tripod and the railing of the pier so I was just waiting for a fish to take the float down, hopefully hook itself and then pull the rod tip. This fish did just that and I quickly grabbed the rod and looked down for the float. It was visible so I waited a moment and I suspected a fish still had the bait as the float was not behaving like it should have been in the choppy swell. I lifted the rod, and felt the pull of a small fish. It was the Pollock I was after. A small one of a couple of ounces.

Then I had nothing for almost an hour. I checked the Prawn trap to find it empty once and then on the next check found there to be a small Shore Rockling inside. No prawns though which was a bit of a disapointment as one of the other anglers wanted to try one for bait.

Not long after I had another bite on the float, this time it pulled the rod so hard the butt lifted and hit the top of my tripod, which prevented the rod from tipping completely, as I has planned and also acted as a way of setting the circle hook. It was a bit bigger than the other one and I began to hope the bait in the prawn trap was begiining to draw fish in from a scent trail. The delay until the next bite happening showed it wasn't so though. The other anglers I was chatting to had packed up and two more had moved nearer but were also fishless to this point. When I did have the next bite, which again was on the float it was even more aggressive than the last one and as I lifted the rod I could feel a bigger fish on the end. It was one of those ones that fights so well it felt a lot bigger and I endged along the pier a bit so I had space in front of me to get the fish ober the edge as quick as possible. As I started to lift it I felt it wasn't as big as I first thought but once I put it on my seat box to unhook I was pleased to see it was actually a Coalfish and possibly my biggest one at what looked just under a pound.

A little later I checked the prawn trap again. It felt heavy but I'm still not used to the weight because it is a bigger one than I have used before and I have a lot of bait in it. Something told me there was something else in there though. As I finally got the net to the edge I saw there was a small Conger Eel inside which made me very pleased because although it wasn't as big as the one I had in my prawn trap a coupld of years ago, that fell out as I lifted it, it was now another species I have had in there and verified for sure. It began ejecting some bits of squid and mackerel when I put it on by box to photograph and as I was taking the photos I heard a noise which signalled my float rod being pulled violently again and I quickly grabbed the rod to reel in another pollock a little bigger than the last one.

Once both of those fish were put back I put the float rod out again and as I checked my distance ledger rod something didn't look right alhtough I didn't suspect a bite. The tip was bent around further that I had set it and it wasn't moving back and forth in the tow and wind. I lifted the rod and began to reel in but hit a snag after a couple of turns of the reel handle. After a few quick pulls I decided I needed to walk straight back and probably snap the line but as I did so, just as I expected the line to snap I felt movement and began reeling in. I couldn't tell what was on the end and when it wasn't visible even when my leader was entering the water below me I had a brief moment where I hoped it would be a fish but them I saw a tangle of line and I pulled in someones lost rig. That was around 60-70 yards out, demonstrating how far out the snaggy ground goes from this end of the pier. Before I could lift it up fully my float rod jumped as another pollock hooked itself and I grabbed the rod to steady it, then swung the tangled rig over the pier and then lifted the pollock up. This fish was the biggest of the night, possibly just over a pound.

Not long after, I decided to check the close in rod with the largest bait on. It was snagged and so I had to pull for a break. It took a lot to snap the 50lb line and when I did I decided to not set it up again but to begin packing everything else up. It wasn't a brilliant session but I manged to get something out in the end I suppose.

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