Catch Report - Brixham - 24th July 2019 (14)

Date From: 24/07/2019 16:45:00

Date To: 24/07/2019 22:20:00

Time of day: Afternoon - Evening

Location: Brixham

Mark: The Breakwater

Tides:

Moon Phase:

Weather: Sunny with some wind from behind.

Sea: Clear and fairly flat with just a small swell of around a foot.

Method: Ledger (shop bought 2 hook flapper with rotten bottom) | Ledger (shop bought clipped down rig with rotten bottom) | Float

Bait: Live ragworm, live lugworm | live lugworm | live ragworm

Caught:

The Session:

I usually just focus on the session itself in my reports but I might begin commenting on the moments before that are relevant to any decision making, and I'll begin with this one and see how it goes.

The car park at the beginning of the breakwater was pretty much full bar for one space and I parked and went to the machine. As I notcided the previous year, there are two parking rates for parking before and after 6pm with the after 6pm rate being just £3.00 for the night. Unfortunately you cannot get seperate tickets for both tarrifs at the same time. If you park before 6pm and want to stay afterwards you either pay for the full rate or you have to return to your car at 6pm to pay for overnight parking at the reduced rate.

So I decided to unload the car and fish until 6pm before leaving all my tackle and walking back to the car park to pay for more parking. My first ticket luckily ran until 18:02pm so I could try and time it right so I got there being able to pay immediately while not overstaying my initial time. Oh, and the toilets are 30p.

As I went to walk off after unloading my tackle I then noticed a sign which had some peoples wet clothes drying on and I then realised I had accidentally parked in a disabled spot. It was lucky that there was one other space by now and I was able to move just before another car was able to grab it. Apart from the sign, which was partially covered there was no clear indication that they were disabled spaces, the lines were no maintained and so they were barely visible. This is poor and could catch people out, like it nearly did me.

Now I was able to go and fish but I was further dissapointed by the buoys that were strung along the edge of the breakwater just a few yards out, initially as far as I could see and so I thought I'd have to go right to the end. I hadn't seen it since the work was carried out so I'd have to just see what it was like as I went along.

It turned out that the buoys ended before the newly raised and protected area with just enough room to fish in so I decided I'd have to go there. As it was around low tide, fishing was not possible at all over the rocks that were now there. I'd emailed the harbourmaster a while back and they had told me that it would still be possible to fish, but unless anyone wanted to ignore the signs prohibiting walking on the rocks I doubt it would be possible to fish over them in anything but the 3 hours over the top of a very big tide, and even then the chance of bringing in a big Conger Eel without it getting in the rocks must be slim. Later on in my session another angler was talking to me and they commented that further up there used to be an area which was pretty much snag free and it turned out it was the bit we both liked to fish from.

So I settled on just one rod to begin with because by now I only had just over an hour to fish. I wasn't sure if I'd lose a rig every cast and end up packing up either so I just put on a 2 hook flapper and cast it around 60 yards with a ragworm on the upper hook and lugworm on the lower one. I used a plain lead as I was sure any spikes on a grip lead would become stuck somewhere. As with every other session I've had here on my own, I had a bite within seconds of casting. It was a typical Wrasse bite, just a shake of the rod tip and then nothing for a minute and then another shake. When I went to reel in to check my bait I was snagged but it pulled free. A check of the lead as I rebaited showed me that the lead weight was stuck but the pulling managed to strip some lead from the sides which freed it. When I went to reel in the second cast after not getting a bite after 10 minutes the lead weight snagged again and I lost it as well as a hook.

I had brought some pop up beads with me so I put a couple on the line before tying a new hook, thinking it may at least hold the bait over the bottom snags. I had a few more casts and it seemed like I found that the snag was right in front of me so by casting to either side by 20 yards I managed to avoid it for the rest of the session. My casting distance did increase by up to 20 yards though with the extra power I put in the cast.

At 6pm I went back to the car park to pay for more parking and left my tackle where it couldn't be blown, or knocked in and would not make anyone thing I had fallen over the edge. Then it was time to set up another ledger and a float rod. The ledger was a shop bought rig. I fished lugworm on this one. I used ragworm on the float rod and fished it as far as I could cast at around 8feet deep.

I reeled in the flapper rig at 18:30 and found a small Goby foulhooked on it. It was dead unfortunately. I assumed I just hooked it as I reeled it, maybe because it was sat by the lower hook, rather than it was taking the last of the lugworm from the now bare hook. With no bites on the next few casts I tried float fishing on the inner side of the breakwater for a few casts but had no bites. It was after 7pm when I had the first proper bite. It was from the hook that I had put beads on and was a small wrasse. I was almost praying that this wasn't going to be the only fish I caught and I thought it was going to be through the next, biteless hour.

But then it was surprise time. I had thought earlier that I noticed a bite on the flapper rig that I had tried lugworm on again but I left it because the rod tip didn't move again. When I reeled in I found that a small Dragonet had taken the lugworm. It was the first one I'd caught. Like most anglers, I think, when you catch the first of a species you almost stop caring if you catch any more and just enjoy the rest of the session regardless.

Once I returned it the float went under. I missed the bite but cast straight back out with half the ragworm left and it wasn't long before it went under a few more times and I hooked a Wrasse and reeled in quickly to avoid it swimming into the kelp close in. Then a Seal showed up and probably was the explanation as to why I had no bites in 15 minutes. It hung around for a bit, looking at me, expecting me to feed it.

Once it swam off I had another Wrasse on the float and then a Poorcod. They both took the float under the same way, a quick pull and then let go before doing the same seconds later. Then I had a Pouting, also on the float and very quickly on the next cast it shot under and carried on going down until it disappeared. I struck and knew I had to pull this up hard to get it in. When it surfaced, its bright colouration told me it was a Cuckoo Wrasse and despite getting in a bit of weed I was able to land it and confirm for sure it was.

As the light faded I couldn't decide if I was happiest with the Cuckoo Wrasse or the Dragonet. Lucky for me I had caught them both and didn;t have to choose to catch just one of them. Over the hour into darkness I kept getting bites on the ledger rod with the flapper rig and I had a few Pouting. When I ran out of ragworm I contemplated fishing with lugworm further into the dark but eventually settled on packing up and going out again the next day to use them.

Overall, despite the slow start I was happy with what I caught but the parking awkwardness, the string of buoys and the new breakwater protection work have put me off visiting often, because they limit the fishable areas and it would be a long way to travel and pay for parking to find out there is no where fishable.

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

Set up 1:

Rod: Daiwa Seahunter X 14ft 3 piece Fixed Spool (£60.00) [ > 1 years 3 months ] Reel: Wychwood Riot Fixed Spool (£39.99) [ > 1 years 1 months ] Line: Maxima Chameleon 20lb (£17.99) 600m Hooks: Sakuma Stinger 2 (£15.00) 100 Shockleader: Rovex Surf clear 60lb (£7.99) Hooklength: 30lb, shop bought rig (£2.50)

Set up 2:

Rod: Daiwa Seahunter Z 12ft 2 piece Fixed Spool (£37.99) [ > 0 years 5 months ] Reel: Shakespeare Agility Surf 70FD Fixed Spool (£39.99) [ > 5 years 3 months ] Line: Maxima Crystal Ivory 20lb (£14.08) 651 yards Hooks: Sakuma Stinger 2 (£15.00) 100 Shockleader: Rovex Surf clear 60lb (£7.99) Hooklength: 30lb, shop bought rig (£2.50)

Set up 3:

Rod: Shakespeare Omni Mackerel 10ft 2 piece Fixed Spool (£17.95) [ > 5 years 1 months ] Reel: Lineaffe Carp 60 Baitrunner Fixed Spool (£12.00) [ > 3 years 0 months ] Line: Maxima Chameleon 20lb (£17.99) 600m Hooks: Sakuma Stinger 2 (£15.00) 100 Hooklength: Maxima Clear 15lb (£4.00) 100m