Catch Report - Ilfracombe - 8th November 2020 (13)

Date From: 08/11/2020 13:30:00

Date To: 08/11/2020 20:40:00

Time of day: Afternoon - evening

Location: Ilfracombe

Mark: The Pier

Tide Times:

Moon Phase:

Weather: Sunny and feeling warm with very little wind to begin with but the wind became stronger after dark

Sunrise/Sunset:

Sea: Fairly murky but not very choppy and just a small swell of a couple of feet

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

Bait: Frozen Launce, frozen squid pieces | Frozen Mackerel head, frozen mackerel tail | Frozen black lugworm, frozen Mackerel strips | Frozen black lugworm piece | frozen mackerel pieces, frozen squid pieces

Caught:

Session and Lifetime Statistics:

The Session:

I returned to my local pier to fish a few different methods. Usually I would fish two distance ledgers but today I would just be using one because I hadn't fixed the end eye on my other rod yet.

There was not a lot of boat activity so I cast the distance ledger as far as I could on the first cast, straight out and then set about doing the other rods. The float I put at around 12 feet deep and left it at that depth for the whole session as the tide was small so there would be plenty of water below the rod tip even at low tide. I began with a half length of black lugworm on this rod as I was not really interested in the small Pollock and Smelt unless the other rods didn't fish well.

Once I had the LRF rod set up and the conger rod out down the edge with a mackerel head on I tried the LRF rod in a few places along the pier but had no immediate takes. The first fish catually came to the float rod when I went to check it because the float had drifted in and was touching a wooden strut. somehow a tiny pollock had managed to get the hook in its mouth without doing what they usually manage to do and picking bits from the bait until just a little bit was left. So I unhooked the fish and left on the few inches long worm for the next few casts.

Trying the LRF rod again I began to feel something taking the tiny piece of worm. It seemed to be when I was dropping the bait really close in to the pier wall, so it could have been possible they couldn't see far, or just didn't want to venture far from where they were hanging around. It wasn't long before I had one on this rod then, and it was a Rock Goby, the first of a few I caught over the session.

After a couple of those, I had a bite which gave a good strong pull back when I lifted the rod. It almost felt like I'd hooked the bottom and as soon as I felt it, the fish came off. The bait was still on so I dropped it down again straight away and soon felt something take it again and again as I lifted the rod something pulled back hard. It was on longer this time so I was now pretty certain it was a wrasse but feared that now it had been hooked and pulled up briefly it would be spooked. Still, the next cast after rebaiting was the same brief big pull back as the rod arched over like I had hooked the bottom again. Perhaps there were several of them there because surely the same fish wouldn't stay around after being hooked.

The bites stopped on the LRF rod for a bit then, as if the fish did all just leave so I checked all of my other rods and left the distance ledger rod bait out of the water for a bit as some Jetskiers had turned up and were coming close enough to the pier for other anglers to have to shout to warn them we had our lines out and they were going close to them.

I turned most of my attention back to the LRF rod and immediately had a bite and this time this big feeling fish stayed on. It felt like forever reeling it in with me having to stop doing so a few times as the fish pulled back so much but it finally came out of the water, a nice sized Ballan wrasse for this set up, around 4 oz.

I had more gobies, a Common BlennyCommon Blenny and a small pollock afterwards but the bites slowed and I decided to try smaller bait on the float rod after all and it wasn't long before I had another pollock on a small mackerel strip on that rod. I had left the LRF bait down the edge and soon after the poloock the rod tip began rattling from a small Poorcod taking the bait. Then when I checked the float rod bait again there just happened to be a Sand Smelt on the end. And as it now began getting dark, I was pleasently surprised to have a Tompot Blenny on the LRF rod a little larger than the size that are in abundance around here.

Things went very quiet after dark. I eventually packed the LRF rod away to concentrate on the bigger baits but left the float out and occasionally tried to hook what was now probably more Smelt stripping the bait within minutes of it being in the water. Eventually I just put a big thick strip of mackerel and checked it regulary over the next 2o minutes to see it getting smaller each time but it lasted longer without having to rebait each time. I went to check the conger bait and found it to be snagged and I lost the rid and leader so I had to set that up again and try with a tail this time.

Just as I had dropped that bait out I saw my float rod tip bending down and the butt moved a bit. I grabbed the rod just as the tip straightened and thought I'd missed the fish but it was still on and it just tried to swim straight out away from me and I had to fumble around to feel the anti-reverse switch to switch it off so the fish could run a bit. I don't put pressure on fish unless I really need to so I am just being cautious when I do this and I just let the fish swim around a bit until it looks like it is ready to land and I let the floppyness of the fibreglass rod cushion each pull the fish makes. It was clearly a nice fish and I was glad the small sell made it easy to pick out of the water when I went down the steps.

It weighed a little under 2lb but was the biggest Pollock I'd had in a while so I was very happy with this fish. Once I returned it I expected some more but after an hour of no more bites I packed the float rod up and eventually did the same with the remaining two rods as they showed no activity at all. I've had much worse sessions so I wasn't dissapointed at the lack of activity on the bigger baits but did wonder where the Whiting were. Some are being caught now, I know but I've onle seen a couple caught while I've been there.

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