Date: 13/12/2015
Time of day: Evening - night
Location: Ilfracombe
Mark: The pier
Low Tide: 00:32(1.30m) 12:52(1.20m)
High Tide: 06:55(9.10m) 19:13(9.00m)
Time fished from: 18:15
Time fished to: 01:50
Weather: Breezy to begin with but not too cold. Wind dying down to almost nothing after 9pm
Sea: Rough to begin with, with a swell of 6 ft causing the sea to cover the higher part of the pier. Dying down to almost flat after 9pm.
Method: Ledger pulley rig x2
Bait: Frozen squid pieces, frozen whole lugworm, frozen whole peeler crab
Caught (weight): 1 Dogfish (1lbs 0oz, Guessed) | 1 Dogfish (1lbs 0oz, Guessed), 1 Dogfish (0lbs 8oz, Guessed), 1 Dogfish (2lbs 0oz, Guessed)
The Session: I arrived to find the sea a little rougher than it looked on the webcam. The 9.1m tide was managing to reach the higher part of the pier and send the occasional bit of spray far enough to get an angler wet. Another angler was just moving down the pier back towards the car park. I set up near him and put one rod far out, around 70 yards or so with a large piece of squid on. The other rod was cast close in with a whole lugworm on. I had no bites and after an hour or so the other angler left and so I took his spot and cast out towards the second small beach opposite the harbour. I had two bites here, one on each bait. The squid rod had a spider crab on which let go after being dragged along the surface for a number of feet. Once the tide had stopped reaching the higher part of the pier I moved along to the end. No bites came from here until I was able to move to the lower part of the pier and moved one rod. I returned to the other to see the tip bent over. I welcomed a dogfish as I swung it, swiftly unhooked and photographed it. Than I moved this rod and the rest of my tackle to the far end of the lower pier. I cast both rods out quite far, possibly 70ft or so again and over the next few hours I had around 10 bites and landed three more dogfish, one with bolder markings than the others and another rather small. One other bite, quite solid and determined appeared to be from a cod/pollock/whiting as I caught a glance as it turned on the surface after becoming unhooked just within sight. Although I was still getting the bites at the time I packed up and was quite enjoying seeing an abundance of shooting stars, it was already a couple of hours later than I had planned to stay for. I was pleased I hadn't blanked, hoped for a cod, but glad my usual 'chuck it and chance it' method was again enough to catch something.
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 1/0 circle hooks ( £7.05 for 30 ) Rig: homemade pulley rig
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 2/0 sea hooks ( £7.35 for 30 ) Rig: homemade pulley rig