Catch Report - Ilfracombe - 11th July 2021 (5)

Date From: 11/07/2021 14:00:00

Date To: 11/07/2021 18:45:00

Time of day: Afternoon - evening

Location: Ilfracombe

Mark: Capstone Rocks

Tide Times:

Moon Phase:

Weather: Sunny with some clouds and wind from left to right.

Sunrise/Sunset:

Sea: Mostly clear and choppy with a swell of up to 3 feet

Method: float

Bait: Dead Ragworm

Caught:

Session and Lifetime Statistics:

The Session:

I tried a local rock mark to use up some ragworm I had bought a few days before and intended to use the previous day but didn't due to changing my ind on where I fished.

The ragworm was dead by the time I got to the mark. I seem to have problems keeping it alive which might be down to my fridge or the tackle shop selling old worms. They do look lively when I buy them and see them being packed in the newspaper but for some reason after a couple of days in my fridge they are usually dead. Recently I had bought soem while on holiday and most were still alive and moving around fine after 3 days in newspaper which I thought was too damp but they seemed fine. My fridge does have a tendency to dry food out so this could be the cause.

But I know that Wrasse don't seem to mind and so I visited my local mark to see if I could catch a few. I parked in the Theatre Car Park, paid for 4 hours parking, which was £4.40 and walked around the pathway to the rocks and saw the spot I wanted was free so I got set up quickly and put the float out around 20 yards at around 12 feet deep. It caught the weeds now and again so I went shallower until the tide came in a bit more. I expected to have to wait for a while for a bite because the fish here quite often just start biting a couple of hours after low tide. There are times that there are fish biting at low tide and I do remember my first sessions here when I float fished for Pollock a lot and was getting bites from the moment I arrived which was often around low tide but they seem increasingly scarce until the tide has come in a bit and then they will be in numbers for a couple of hours and then disappear, when they used to still be biting at high tide. Maybe I just had a lot of lucky days of because I was new to sea fishing still it just seemed better.

So the tow of the sea switched directions a few times over the first hour and I just kept on recasting the float and letting it drift as far as I wanted before getting it back where I seem to get the bites most often.

The first bite came when I was not holding the rod and the float went under and disappeared from sight. When I lifted the rod I felt nothing pull back and I saw why when I noticed the line was laying all around innthe messy swirling white water close in. I'd forgot to keep the slack line in check. Back out with another whole worm, it wasn't long before the float went under again, then it came back up and seconds later went down again and stayed submerged in the same place. I struck and this time felt something pull back. I made sure I kept the rod tip high and to not give the fish chance to dive into the kelp and I was soon able to step down to a suitable place to bring the fish to my hand and lift it out of the water, surprisingly without getting splashed by the swirling water. I weighed it and put it straight back. At first it didn't swim so I watched it for a few moments, knowing it was safe from gulls taking it because of its size but I'd love to learn why Wrasse seem to do this. I know Dogfish go limp and play dead sometimes and wonder if the wrasse are also thinking they should play dead once they feel themselves fall back in the water as so many do it but after several seconds and sometimes a minute or two they just kick their tail and swim down. Even when taken from shallow water and put back without having to drop them from very high they do it so I'm not sure its from being stunned or being brought up from a big depth.

So, now knowing something was around I prepared for the next bite to come quite soon after recasting but they didn't happen very often to begin with. I had 3 over an hour and missed one and felt the other two but they came off quite quickly. One felt like it could have been a big fish but Wrasse can feel quite solid as soon as they are hooked so they can be deceiving.

The next fish came eventuallly though and this time it was a Corkwing Wrasse, slightly larger than the ones I most often catch but no specimen. I had another two Ballans within 12 minutes afterwards and missed a couple more good bites, possibly from the fish I caught and then the bites stopped for a bit. Well, they might have continues if I had have noticed my stop knot had slipped and I was fishing about 4 feet deep for an hour. Once I corrected the depth back to around 12 feet I had a few more bites and landed another Ballan Wrasse and then soon after I decided to pack up as I had somehow got through half a pound or ragworm apart from several very small ones.

Overall a good quick session. Wrasse are always nice to see due to their markings and so even just a few make for a memorable session.

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