Catch report - Brixham - 25th June 2017 (6)

Date: 25-06-2017

Time of day: Afternoon - evening

Location: Brixham

Mark: The breakwater

Low Tide: 01:22(0.62m) 13:44(0.64m)

High Tide: 07:57(4.99m) 20:16(5.20m)

Time fished from: 17:30

Time fished to: 22:00

Weather: Windy, cloudy with sunshine

Sea: Clear and choppy with a swell of a couple of feet

Method: Ledger (Homemade 2 hook flapper rig) | float

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

Caught (weight): 1 Ballan Wrasse (0lbs 8oz, Guessed), 1 Ballan Wrasse (1lbs 00oz, Guessed), 2 Tompot Blenny (0lbs 1oz, Guessed), 1 Pouting (0lbs 6oz, Guessed) | 1 Corkwing Wrasse (0lbs 6oz, Guessed)

The Session: I arrived at 17:30 a little dissapointed by the strong wind. I walked as far as the structure on the right where there is a step to access the higher wall and arranged my tackle as best I could so as not to prevent anyone else doing so. There was a long line of pots out only around 20 yards out and so my casting was restricted but I could also use the markers as a way of holding the lead back before it sank. I set up one rod with a ledger and cast it between two of these markers and pulled the rig back until it appeared level with them and let it sank. I was pleasantly surprised to get a bite within moments, on the hook that I had put ragworm on. The ragworm was given to me on a previous session but was mostly dead. A nice wrasse came to the edge and was very welcome as it was just my second session where I expected my setup to catch one. I recast and again had a bite quickly. The lead lifted as I struck but became snagged and I lost the rig. I finished setting up my float rig before re-doing my ledger rod and cast the float around the 20 yards and let it drift with the tow and wind. The depth was set to around 15ft. As I was attatching another rig to my ledger rod I turned to check my float and couldn't see it. I struck and reeled in a nice corkwing wrasse that was typically coloured and very pretty. I recast my float and then the ledger and after missing a gentle bite the next cast produced another nice ballan wrasse. Sucessive casts produced bites but I was unable to connect to them. I think the reason became clear when two casts resulted in some tiny blennies. Not long after the bites slowed right down and a change in casting direction resulted in a single bite from a small pouting. As I reeled this fish in a local angler commented on it being a rare sight for him this year as he hasn't seen it fishing well. That was about it for the day. I packed up at almost 9:45pm having not had a bite for over an hour, and running out of live bait. I was pleased with the session and considered it a huge improvement on my only other trip there over a year ago where I caught just one mackerel. This session was pleasing though considering I had been given the Ragworm.

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

Set up 1: Rod: Daiwa Seahunter X 14ft 3 piece Fixed spool £64.07 [ > 3 years 2 months ] Reel: Daiwa Crosscast S 5000 Fixed spool £48.99 [ > 2 years 4 months ] Line: Maxima Chameleon 20lb 600m £17.99 Hook: Sakuma Circle 440 4 30 £5.05 Tackle: Maxima Clear 15lb 100m £4.00

Set up 2: Rod: Shakespeare Omni Mackerel 10ft 2 piece Fixed spool £16.95 Reel: Lineaffe Carp 60 Baitrunner Fixed Spool £12.00 Line: Maxima Chameleon 20lb 600m £17.99 Hook: Mustad Aberdeen 4 8 £1.99 Tackle: Maxima Clear 15lb 100m £4.00