Catch report - Burnham on Sea - 14th October 2017 (5)

Date: 14-10-2017

Time of day: Evening

Location: Burnham-On-Sea

Mark: Old Lighthouse

Low Tide: 08:54(2.69m) 22:07(2.50m)

High Tide: 02:16(8.08m) 15:00(8.26m) 03:47(8.38m)

Time fished from: 19:35

Time fished to: 00:30

Weather: Overcast with very little wind.

Sea:

Method:

Bait: Frozen mackerel segments, frozen large sandeel | live ragworm, live lugworm

Caught (weight): 1 Conger Eel (3lbs 10oz, Weighed), 1 Dogfish (1lbs 8oz, Guessed) | 1 Thornback Ray (9lbs 11oz, Weighed), 2 Whiting (0lbs 3oz, Guessed)

The Session: Having landed 4 ray species this year I decided to venture out of Devon to increase my chances of catching a Thornback Ray and I settled on the muddy beach at Burnham on Sea. I read up on the venue to ensure I was fully aware of what to expect from the receding and flooding tide and I settled on the right hand side of the beach quite near the lighthouse. It was to be a session mostly in darkness and I arrived as daylight was fading, around 19:15. After a quick walk down on the the beach to check the wind direction, strength and temperature.

I opted to wear my full flotation suit, dsespite the risk of it getting covered in mud over the session. I can be a messy angler at times, especially at night when I can't always be bothered fumbling around in the dark, so getting muddy was almost a cert. As I had read, the beach became more muddy until my feet were sinking a couple of inches in some spots. It also became slippy, which caused me to take baby steps as I was moving around. Right at the waters edge, with around 2 hours to go until the forecast low tide I set up both of my rods and attached a pulley rig to one and 2 hook flapper on the other. The baits began as sandeel and ragworm/lugworm, respectively. I cast both baits quite far, around 70 yards for the pulley rig and 60 for the flapper.

Neither rod showed a bite on the first cast and after around half an hour I rebaited the pulley rig with a mackerel segment and then fresh worm on the flapper rig. This time I cast both rods shorter, around 50 yards. The rod with the flapper rig showed a bite consistent with a small pollock, whiting or pout and as I stood up believing I had time to get to the rod the tip arched over and as I lunged forward to grab the rod I slid on the mud. It was immediately clear the fish was big, even though my gripper lead would not immediately come free of the bottom, but the fish did not fight as hard as other large fish I have caught. I put this down to the water being shallow and so the fish was unable to dive anywhere. Within 3 or 4 minutes the fish left the waters edge and I was able to photgraph and weigh it. The digital scales went 9.83lb. I sacrificed a couple of ounces to allow for the mud on the sling and fish. So 9lb 11oz for my first Thornback Ray and a personal best Ray too. Not bad luck for the second cast. I think from here on my inexperience of the venue caused me to miss fish.

I was getting very gentle bites on the worm and I kept thinking the rod tip on the rod with the pulley rig was straightening because my weight wasn't holding bottom or my line was being pulled and pushed by an erratic tide direction. What it turned out to be, firstly was a typical size dogfish which only just managed to fit the large segment of mackerel in it's mouth and then the next cast, with the same piece of mackerel a surprise conger eel which weight 3lb 10oz. The tide had turned earlier than the forecast and by 21:30 I was moving my rod rest back 20 paces and it also seemed to signal the slow down of activity. I was running out of worm bait by 00:30 and my last cast produced two whiting that, apart from a constant slow pulling of the rod tip, barely registered sas bites to me. They were small but welcome and I decided very shortly after to free the remaining couple of worms and go home.

I was as happy as I have ever been on a session. It was another one I've had where my first chance at a new species was successful. My only regret was not opting for waders instead of my flotation suit trousers as I had managed to get them very muddy. This upper part of the Bristol Channel lived up to the reputation this day and it is definitely a mark I would like to visit again.