Date: 14-04-2018
Time of day: Evening - Night
Location: Ilfracombe
Mark: The pier
Low Tide: 11:52(1.31m) 11:52(1.31m)
High Tide: 05:52(8.58m) 18:11(8.67m) 05:52(8.58m) 18:11(8.67m)
Time fished from: 21:00
Time fished to: 02:00
Weather: Cloudy with good visibility but a fairly strong wind from the right.
Sea: Fairly murky with a swell of a few feet, loud waves crashing against the rocks opposite.
Method: Ledger (homemade pulley rig) | Ledger (homemade 2 hook flapper) | float | Ledger (fixed ledger)
Bait: Frozen large sandeel | frozen black lugworm, frozen squid pieces | frozen mackerel strips, frozen black lugworm, ragworm | frozen mackerel head
Caught (weight): 1 Conger Eel (0lbs 8oz, Guessed), 1 Conger Eel (0lbs 3oz, Guessed), 1 Dogfish (1lbs 5oz, Guessed) | 1 Pollock (1lbs 0oz, Guessed)
The Session: I set up in the middle of the lower pier and began setting up four rods. The first was baited with a sandeel, second with black lugworm and squid pieces, the third, mackerel strips and the fourth a mackerel head.
The main two ledger rods I cast as far as I could, landing up to 80 feet straight out. The float was dropped in between the wooden posts at about 8 feet deep and the rod with a mackerel head for bait dropped just a few yards out over to my right and the clutch set very lightly.
My confidence wasn't very high as there were already people fishing who had not caught much at all but I felt with four rods I should cover a lot of ground, baits, species and potential sizes. Typically the first cast on sandeel showed a bite within about 10 minutes. The tip of the rod was moving deliberately and constantly back and forth so I struck quickly but I felt nothing at the end. I left the bait ou there another couple of minutes and then reeled in to find the sandeel gone. A short while later and another bite registered on this rod but it was just a couple of pulls and then nothing else. It was the rod with the flapper rig on which showed the next bite. It stopped after a minute or so and I reeled in and became surprised when I saw a small Conger Eel which had taken the squid bait.
I chatted to the other anglers and they began to pack up just after 11pm. I decided to recast my rods and as I brought the flapper rig in I was again surprised to see a Conger Eel on the end. This time it was smaller and as I held the rig to untangle the line from its body I found it wasn't even hooked, it had just wrapped both hooklengths around itself.
The other anglers had all gone by now and a little later some others arrived. I had a few bites but either missed them or they quickly stopped and I would reel in to find my bait chewed. One bite pulled on the rod quite hard and I was luck to not scare the fish as I took my rod out of the tripod, clumsily knocking it and snagging the line around the arm of the rest. The fish began pulling again after a few moments and I struck to feel the typical pull of a dogfish. It had took the hook deep down so I cut the line instead of trying to unhook it.
The float rod was the next rod to produce a fish. As usual I had dropped the float down close, this particular time, with a 1 inch wide strip of mackerel. I saw the rod tip bend round but was too late. I dropped the bait down again and possibly the same fish went for the bait again, this time pulling the rod harder. A nice pollock of around a pound put up a good quick fight and was hooked nicely in the upper lip.
One of the other anglers had left me some ragworm, it needed to be used this evening so I changed the float hookbait for the remainder of the night and put on 4 or 5 ragworm each cast. I had one bite on this bait but it pulled the rod tip and let go before I could jump up to grab the rod. the next couple of casts showed no bite but the ragworm was mostly gone, however this could be because of the condition of the bait.
Then at around low tide I had no bites for what seemed a significant amount of time. The anglers who arrived after me had packed up, after catching a few dogfish, and left me their bait. I tried a prawn on two rods before deciding to pack up. I wondered if the two Conger Eel were a sign they would be around in the same numbers as last year and no doubt I will find out.
Unfortunately the photographs I took appear to be corrupted.
Tackle used (price) [ time since first used ]:
Set up 1: Rod: Daiwa seahunter Z 13ft 2 piece MFS (£42.99) [ > 0 years 4 months ]
Reel: Daiwa Crosscast S 5000 Fixed spool (£48.99) [ > 3 years 1 months ]
Line: Maxima Chameleon 20lb (£17.99) 600m
Hooks: Sakuma Manta 2/0 (£5.78) 30
Shockleader: Gardner Slinky 60lb (£6.99) 100M
Hooklength: Sunset Amnesia 40lb (£4.50) 100m
Set up 2: Rod: Vercelli Outlander KW 13.5ft 3 Fixed Spool (£33.75) [ > 0 years 1 months ]
Reel: Shakespeare Agility Surf 70FD Fixed Spool (£39.99) [ > 3 years 11 months ]
Line: Maxima Hi-Viz 20lb (£15.42) 550m
Hooks: Sakuma Stinger size 2 (£15.00) 100
Shockleader: Gardner Slinky 60lb (£6.99) 100M
Hooklength: Sunset Amnesia 40lb (£4.50) 100m
Set up 3: Rod: Shakespeare Omni Mackerel 10ft 2 piece Fixed Spool (£17.95) [ > 3 years 9 months ]
Reel: Lineaffe Carp 60 Baitrunner Fixed Spool (£12.00) [ > 1 years 8 months ]
Line: Maxima Chameleon 20lb (£17.99) 600m
Hooks: Sakuma Stinger 2 (£15.00) 100
Hooklength: Maxima Clear 15lb (£4.00) 100m
Set up 4: Rod: Daiwa Seahunter X 14ft 3 piece Fixed spool (£64.07) [ > 3 years 11 months ]
Reel: Leeda Quicksilver Fixed Spool (£19.95) [ > 0 years 11 months ]
Line: Maxima Hi-Viz 20lb (£15.42) 550m
Hooks: Sakuma Manta Extra 8/0 (£6.75) 10
Hooklength: Gardner Slinky 100lb (£7.95) 100m