Catch Report - Ilfracombe - 21st November 2020 (10)

Date From: 21/11/2020 13:50:00

Date To: 21/11/2020 20:20:00

Time of day: Afternoon - evening

Location: Ilfracombe

Mark: The Pier

Tide Times:

Moon Phase:

Weather: Cloudy with some wind.

Sunrise/Sunset:

Sea: Murky and choppy but with a small swell.

Method: Ledger (shop bought up and over rig) | Ledger (Running Ledger with rotten bottom) | Float | Prawn trap

Bait: Frozen large sandeel | Frozen mackerel head | frozen mackerel strips | Frozen mackerel pieces, frozen squid pieces

Caught:

Session and Lifetime Statistics:

The Session:

My local pier hasn't been fishing well for me recently but I decided to give it another try, hoping for a few whiting at least.

There were a few anglers there already and I set up in the largest gap, checked the other anglers lines to ensure I was ok to cast straight out and began with the first rod at around 70 yards baited with a large sandeel. I then set up a rod for conger eels close in, a float rod also close it set at around 10 feet deep and a prawn trap which I put out as the light began to fade.

It was not really any better than my previous session but I did get some bites on the big baits this time but for the first hour and a half I had no fish but eventually began hooking small Pollock on the float rod and had 8 of them in jst over an hour while noticing a few rattles of my distance ledger rod baited with the sandeel but not anything worth striking at. Once when I reeled in to check the bait the line was all twisted and tangled suggesting a small Conger Eel had tried to take it.

Just as I was getting the prawn trap ready to put down the edge and as I had just said bye to another anglers who I had been chatting to and helped him ID a Long Spined Sea Scorpion and a 3 Bearded Rockling he had caught his first of for each species I noticed the tip of my float rod bent down and shaking a bit. I ran to grab the rod, which I had positioned with the reel handle behind a leg of my tripod to stop any fish pulling it all in, it straightened briefly before I grabbed it but then bent again as the fish tried to swim down again. It was clearly a nice size and the other angler had seen me rush for it so stopped to see what it was. I thought it would be fine to lift out despite seeing it was quite big for this pier and it put a good bend in the rod as I lifted it just enough to place it on the pier and pick it up properly. It was deeply hooked though and so once I weighed it I decided to keep it for food and I knocked it out and put it with my bait to stay cool.

Things were even slower after that, with the prawn trap giving me a few prawns to take home in each lift. There was an occasion where I saw the rod tip of my Conger Rod moving back and forth so I picked it up and for over 5 minutes I could feel something which I believed to be a fish and it took some line now and again, probably a few meters of it by the time I decided to strike. When I did, I felt nothing on the end and once I got the bait to the surface I saw it was nearly all gone. This was a large half of mackerel so I doubt it was crabs taking it but what it was I'll never know. A bit later with another half a mackerel on the rod did show a bite again but stopped after a couple of minutes and when I reeled in there was a clump of weed around the bait.

I only had one more pollock after the large one and the rest of the things I caught were all prawns in the prawn trap. Not a great session but it was good to get a better sized Pollock after all the tiny ones I'd been catching recently.

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