Date: 13-04-2016
Time of day: Evening - night
Location: Ilfracombe
Mark: The Pier
Low Tide: 04:41(1.82m) 17:02(2.19m)
High Tide: 11:11(8.03m) 23:32(7.80m)
Time fished from: 18:20
Time fished to: 01:05
Weather: Overcast, no wind at begininng increasing to a steady breeze after 9pm
Sea: virtually flat at the start witha small swell at the end. Fairy clear close in but murky 50 yards or so out
Method: Homemade pulley rig with rotten bottom | running ledger | prawn trap
Bait: Frozen mackerel segments, frozen prawn, frozen black lugworm | frozen squid pieces | frozen mackerel head, frozen crab, frozen squid
Caught (weight): 1 Dogfish (0lbs 4oz, Guessed), 1 Dogfish (1lbs 0oz, Guessed), 2 Dogfish (1lbs 8oz, Guessed), 1 Dogfish (2lbs 0oz, Guessed) | 1 Dogfish (1lbs 0oz, Guessed), 1 Dogfish (1lbs 8oz, Guessed), 1 Dogfish (1lbs 8oz, Guessed), 4 Poorcod (0lbs 2oz, Guessed) | 1 3 Bearded Rockling (0lbs 3oz, Guessed)
The Session: I began fishing at 18:15 from the higher part of the pier, with plenty of time until darkness. I set up the rod with the pulley rig first and baited it with a large frozen segment of mackerel. I cast around 70-80 yards out. I set up the other rod with a running ledger and a smaller hook, with a piece of squid that I had refrozen multiple times. I cast this gently to around 15 or 20 yards just to the right. There were no immediate bites but after 40 minutes or so the running ledger rod showed occasional twitches but nothing long enough to strike at. After a few recasts the pulley rig rod was doing the same. I took a chance on the running ledger at one point and reeled in a tiny poorcod. I had been fishing now for an hour and a half. For a while afterwards these bites continued as they were and it was only while chatting to a man from Combe Martin that I had a bite that was worth striking into again. A slightly larger poorcod was hooked and landed. Two more sucessive casts produced two more poorcod, with the bites beginning no sooner that I had put the rod in the rest. They were certainly liking the squid bait. Then the bites slowly became irregular and just gentle vibrations before fading off completely just as darkness fell. I threw out the prawn trap with a few pieces of various bait in. One hour later (near 10pm) the running ledger rod registered a bite. I hooked and reeled in the first dogfish. I missed a few bites afterwards and then retreived the prawn trap. It felt heavy and I had caught two fair sized edible crabs and a rockling. 20 minutes later I had my second dogfish on the pulley rig and the next two hours resulted in bites on both rods, sometimes at the same time. I managed 8 dogfish in total, and around 3 or four fell off as I was reeling them in. I also had a very strong bite when I tried a whole frozen prawn that I found in my bait bag. More retreives of the prawn trap produced nothing. At around 00:45 I noticed the bites had slowed and the wind was colder. I gave it a while longer before deciding to pack up. It was an enjoyable session with a good chat with another angler.
Tackle used (price) [ time since first used ]:
Set up 1: Rod: Daiwa Seahunter X 14ft (£66.00) [ 1 year > 9 months ] Reel: Daiwa Crosscast S 5000 fixed spool (£48.95) [ > 11 months ] Mainline: Maxima High-viz 20lb (£14.00 per 550m) Hooklength: Maxima Clear 15lb (£4.00 per 100m) Hooks: Sakuma 440 size 2/0 circle hooks ( £7.30 for 30 ) Rig: homemade pulley rig
Set up 2: Rod: Ron Thompson Evo Surf 15ft 3 Fixed Spool ( £30.00 ) [ > 2 Year 6 months ] Reel: Mitchell 667FG Fixed spool ( £18.00 ) [ > 2 year 6 months ] Mainline: Maxima Chameleon 20lbs ( £18.00 per 600m ) Hooklength: Maxima Clear 15lb ( £4.00 per 100m ) Hooks: Sakuma 440 Size 2 circle hooks ( £5.55 for 30 ) Rig: running ledger
Set up 3: Prawn trap 50m cord
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