Date: 10-12-2016
Time of day: Evening
Location: Ilfracombe
Mark: The pier
Low Tide: 08:09(2.37m) 20:42(1.92m)
High Tide: 01:57(7.76m) 14:32(8.22m)
Time fished from: 17:30
Time fished to: 23:15
Weather: Raining and windy at the beginning but both stopping after around 1.5 to 2 hours, then occasional spots and steady gentle wind later on.
Sea: Fairly murky, and choppy with a large swell of 5ft or more, large waves crashing on the opposite side of the harbour mouth.
Method: Ledger (running ledger) | Ledger (running ledger) | trap
Bait: Frozen mackerel segments | frozen squid pieces, frozen black lugworm | frozen mackerel head, frozen mackerel pieces, frozen squid pieces
Caught (weight): 2 Dogfish (0lbs 8oz, Guessed), 2 Dogfish (1lbs 0oz, Guessed), 3 Dogfish (1lbs 5oz, Guessed), 1 Bull Huss (0lbs 8oz, Guessed) | 1 Dogfish (0lbs 8oz, Guessed), 1 Dogfish (1lbs 8oz, Guessed), 2 Pouting (0lbs 2oz, Guessed), 2 Shore Rockling (0lbs 2oz, Guessed), 1 Shore Rockling (0lbs 3oz, Guessed), 2 Shore Rockling (0lbs 5oz, Guessed), 1 3 Bearded Rockling (0lbs 8oz, Guessed), 1 Poorcod (0lbs 2oz, Guessed)
The Session: I set up on the lower part of the pier and baited my first rod with a segment of mackerel that had been refrozen a few times. I gave it a cast of around 70 yards or more and then set up the prawn trap and dropped it over the edge. As I did this I caught a brief sight of a fish around 6 inches long swimming on the surface a yard or two from the edge of the pier. It swam to the pier and around out of sight. My second road was baited with a small piece of squid that had also been refrozen a few times and gave it a shorter cast of around 40 yards. No sooner had I put this rod in the rest than my first rod registered a bite. After a few pulls I struck at the fish but missed it. The bait had a clear bite from it, so I quickly put more elastic around it and recast, attempting to get the same distance. I was getting occasional knocks on this rod but nothing I thought worth striking at again and so the first fish I had was a rockling when I decided to bring in my prawn trap. It had eaten all the small pieces of squid and mackerel and had a large stomach. I recast the net and then both my rods. The squid had gone from my hook and the mackerel was barely left. I recast both and almost immediately the mackerel rod produced a bite. It was easy to strike at due to the constant pulling by the fish and it was a small dogfish. After recasting I continued to see occasional movement on both rods that looked like fish having a half-hearted attempt at taking the bait. It was half an hour though before anything else worth striking at happened. It was another dogfish but a little larger. I put it back and shortly after raised the prawn trap again. Just after I did so a man, woman and child walked near me and took an interest in the rockling and as I put it back the mackerel rod again showed a bite which I hooked and landed which gave the young boy a chance to see what sounded like his first dogfish. After a quick feel of their skin and watching me take a photograph of it they thanked me and left and I was happy that I might of helped a young boys interest in sea fishing. Things went quite for a while afterwards and, looking up at the sky, which had cleared rather a lot I wondered if the bright moon was having an effect on the fish feeding tonight. Another retrieve of the prawn trap at 19:45 revealed two more shore rockling and a velvet swimming crab inside. Then seemingly as it began to cloud over the squid rod, which I had now added a lugworm to showed its first proper bite which turned out to be a small pouting. Some more barely noticeable bites occurred and as I pulled the prawn trap in again to find another rockling and an edible crab inside another couple walked along and watched me for a few minutes as I had bites on both rods got tangled on the squid and lugworm one and so struck at the mackerel one, missed it and sorted the tangle then found another pouting on the end. I sorted both rods out and recast them, had a small, seemingly angry bull huss quite quickly on the mackerel again and then I was able to put the crab back and cast out the prawn trap. Another dogfish came, this time to the squid and lugworm and then a poorcod and rockling in the prawn trap again along with another velvet swimming crab. The next 15 minutes produced four more dogfish from 7 or 8 bites and then as the sky cleared again and the bright moon lit up the pier the bites died down and while I was again wondering if the moon and clouds did cause the bites to come and go as fast as the sky cleared and became cloudy again I made one last retrieve of the prawn trap to find a solitary prawn inside. I packed up quite happy but also fairly exhausted at what was one of my busiest sessions I have had.
Tackle used (price) [ time since first used ]:
Set up 1: Rod: Daiwa Seahunter X 14ft 3 piece Fixed spool £64.07 [ > 2 years 7 months ] Reel: Daiwa Crosscast S 5000 Fixed spool £48.99 [ > 1 years 9 months ] Line: Maxima Chameleon 20lb 600m £17.99 Hook: Sakuma Manta 1/0 10 £1.99 Hooklength: Maxima Clear 15lb 100m £4.00
Set up 2: Rod: Shakespeare Omni Beachcaster 14ft 3 piece Fixed Spool £26.95 [ > 0 years 5 months ] Reel: Shakespeare Agility Surf 70FD Fixed Spool £39.99 [ > 2 years 7 months ] Line: Maxima Hi-viz 20lb £13.95 Hook: Sakuma Circle 440 1/0 30 £7.05 Hooklength: Maxima Clear 15lb 100m £4.00
Set up 3: Tackle: Prawn trap £5.95 Tackle: cord 50m £3.99
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