Date: 11-03-2017
Time of day: Evening - Night
Location: Ilfracombe
Mark: The pier
Low Tide: 11:20(1.04m) 23:34(0.92m)
High Tide: 17:35(9.01m) 05:52(9.24m)
Time fished from: 20:00
Time fished to: 00:45
Weather: Foggy and overcast with a full moon. An occasional gentle breeze.
Sea: Murky and choppy with a small swell of a few feet. Occasional big waves crashing over the opposite side.
Method: Ledger (fixed ledger with rotton bottom) | Ledger (homemade pulley rig with rotten bottom)
Bait: Frozen medium sandeel, frozen mackerel segments | frozen sandeel segments, frozen squid pieces
Caught (weight): 1 Dogfish (0lbs 6oz, Guessed), 1 Dogfish (1lbs 8oz, Guessed) | 1 3 Bearded Rockling (1lbs 0oz, Guessed)
The Session: I arrived just as the lower part of the pier was becoming clear and I setup the first rod with the fixed ledger and baited with a sandeel. I cast it about 60 yards and set up the other rod after untangling line from the other reel from my previous trip and then cast it about 40 yards baited with a small piece of sandeel. Lastly I began attaching line to a new prawn trap ready to throw out. It was while doing this that I had the first bite. It was a dogfish taken on the whole sandeel. It was over an hour before this happened and I had chatted with other anglers as things were quite slow. I had occasional knocks after this and struck at one about half an hour later and reeled in a very small dogfish that was lightly hooked in its tail. The rest of the session on the rods was just rebaiting and switching baits and getting occasional small bites but nothing I could strike at or connect to. At most it was about 8 more bites. I put out and retrieved te prawn trap about 5 times and the last two times were successful with a nice rockling of a pound or a little more and the last retrieve resulted in a prawn and two small edible crabs. A slow session all night and another angler had packed up and wished us luck and I did half an hour later and wished the others better luck on their next trip. It was nice to see a bigger rockling and also to meet and chat to other anglers.
Tackle used (price) [ time since first used ]:
Set up 1: Rod: Daiwa Seahunter X 14ft 3 piece Fixed spool £64.07 [ > 2 years 10 months ] Reel: Daiwa Crosscast S 5000 Fixed spool £48.99 [ > 2 years 0 months ] Line: Maxima Hi-viz 20lb £13.95 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 8 months ] Reel: Mitchell 667FG Fixed spool £23.90 [ > 3 years 7 months ] Line: Maxima Chameleon 20lb 600m £17.99 Hook: Sakuma Circle 440 4 30 £5.05 Hooklength: Maxima Clear 15lb 100m £4.00
Set up 3: Tackle: Prawn trap £5.95 Tackle: cord 50m £3.99
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