Date: 10/07/2015
Time of day: Evening
Location: Ilfracombe
Mark: The pier
Low Tide: 07:06(2.10m) 19:42(2.40m)
High Tide: 00:58(8.00m) 13:29(7.70m)
Time fished from: 18:20
Time fished to: 22:50
Weather: Small gusts of wind and some sunshine.
Sea: Fairly flat to begin with - just the occasional sound of splashing against the pier. a swell of around a foot or two after dark.
Method: Pulley rig with rotten bottom | Prawn trap
Bait: Black lugworm, frozen dirty squid segments, frozen sand eel, frozen mackerel segments | Frozen mackerel head, frozen peeler crab legs, frozen dirty squid tentacles
Caught (weight): 1 Dogfish (2lbs 0oz, Guessed) | 1 3 Bearded Rockling (0lbs 3oz, Guessed)
The Session: I began the session by being given some black lugworm and a pack of sand eels by a kind angler who was about to pack up. Neither bait did well though and neither did the mackerel as I tried a variety of distances over the session, from 20 yards to 70 yards, though casting shorter in the second half due to two yachts that had moored out in front of me. Two other anglers arrived and asked for advice on rigs as they were new to sea fishing so I helped as much as I could and set them up with some shock leader and a homemade pulley rig each and gave them an idea of what to do. We had a good chat but they never had a bite and the only one I had was a small knock that left hardly a mark on the bait. There were two times that I reeled in to find my hook was gone along with some of my hook length and I put it down to crabs snipping it off. It was after dark when the dogfish took and I thought it was the gentle movement of the sea that caused my reel to back-wind at first but after a couple of minutes it went again and I had hooked the dogfish. I packed up shortly after. The prawn trap was just as unsuccessful, with several retrieves being unproductive except for one which contained a small velvet swimming crab and a rockling. The crab was able to get me with a brief squeeze of my finger when I took it out of the trap, which hurt a lot.
Tackle used (price) [ time since first used ]:
Set up 1: Rod: Daiwa Seahunter X 14ft (£66.00) [ > 6 months ] Reel: Daiwa Crosscast S 5000 fixed spool (£48.95) [ > 1 month ] Mainline: Maxima High-viz 20lb (£14.00 per 550m) Hooklength: Maxima Clear 15lb (£4.00 per 100m) Hooks: Sakuma 440 size 3/0 circle hooks (£6.25 for 30)
Set up 2: Rod: Ron Thompson Evo Surf 15ft 3 Fixed Spool ( £30.00 ) [ > 1 Year 6 months ] Reel: Mitchell 667FG Fixed spool ( £18.00 ) [ > 1 year 6 months ] Mainline: Maxima Chameleon 20lbs ( £18.00 per 600m ) Hooklength: Maxima Clear 15lb ( £4.00 per 100m ) Hooks: Sakuma 440 size 1 circle hooks ( £4.50 for 30 )
Set up 3: Other setup: Prawn trap (£5.95) 50m cord
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