Date: 01-04-2017
Time of day: Evening - night
Location: Ilfracombe
Mark: The pier
Low Tide: 03:25(0.73m) 15:46(0.96m)
High Tide: 09:50(9.27m) 22:07(8.97m)
Time fished from: 18:15
Time fished to: 00:15
Weather: Cloudy with a bit of wind from harbour direction. Fairly cold
Sea: Calm and fairly murky to begin with, quickly changing to a big swell of up to 6ft or more.
Method: Ledger (homemade pulley rig with rotten bottom) | ledger (running ledger) | prawn trap
Bait: Frozen mackerel segments, frozen dirty squid pieces | frozen whole mackerel, frozen mackerel head, frozen mackerel tail, frozen mackerel pieces | frozen mackerel head, frozen dirty squid pieces, frozen mackerel pieces
Caught (weight): (lbs oz, ) 1 Dogfish (1lbs 0oz, Guessed), 2 Dogfish (1lbs 8oz, Guessed) | 1 Dogfish (0lbs 6oz, Guessed), 1 Dogfish (1lbs 0oz, Guessed), 1 Dogfish (1lbs 8oz, Guessed), 1 Dogfish (2lbs 1oz, Weighed), 1 Cod (0lbs 12oz, Guessed) | 2 Dogfish (1lbs 4oz, Guessed)
The Session: As I arrived I went and talked to another angler for a while and we had a nice chat before I setup and he moved up the steps a bit. I began on the higher part of the pier just above the steps and set up both rods before beginning fishing. One I initially had 70lb hooklength on and dropped a whole mackerel down the edge of the structure. This was soon detached from the hook by crabs and I so tried a head too. I baited the other rod with a smallish piece of dirty squid on a small hook and cast it quite far, around 70 yards, but soon had to reel in and give a short cast due to the rowing boats being around. I also put out the prawn trap with several bits of old squid and mackerel in. Nothing much happened and with two retrieves of the prawn trap I had a single prawn. With what I think was the only bite at this point turned out to be a 6 inch edible crab which had the line looped around its claw. Each time I reeled in the mackerel head more of it had been eaten by crabs. A few people came and chatted including a really nice guy who worked on one of the charter boats and an older man who told me what the fishing was like here many years ago. As the sea level rose and became more rough I decided to move back to the raised area just by the car park, which I timed just right as a push of water came up from the middle steps as I lifted my rod rest to move it. The new spot was more confortable and I recast both rods, the pulley rig right out far and over to where I previously was, and the running ledger just a few yards from the edge of the structure, and then put the prawn trap out again. It was around 20:45 at this point and it was a fair wait before I had my first bite here. It felt like a good fish when I hooked it and it was difficult to bring in. I had brought it over a ledge below and upon seeing the water flood up the steps I decided to lift the fish rather than walk round and try to hand it out. I hadn't got a decent view of what it was as the water was swirling around and white foam on top. As soon as I began lifiting the fish I knew it was a mistake and whatever it was, under it's own weight, immediately came off the hook and I was left wondering if I should have risked landing it at the steps. I had a couple more bites on this rod, very similar to the first and I missed both of them. I decided to change the other rod to a lighter hooklength and a piece of mackerel for bait and I recast it again just a few yards. It seemed like only 10 minutes before a lively bite came and what I first thought to be a whiting turned out to be a small cod. It gave me hope that a bigger one might be around so I continued with the short casts and small pieces of mackerel. The rest of the session was quite busy with bites coming sporadically and at times on both rods at the same time. Each one turned out to be a dogfish and as many fell off the hook before I could lift them, than I landed. A surprise was when I lifted the prawn trap, on two occasions, each time finding a dogfish inside. Whilst I was unhooking the smallest dogfish, sometime after high tide, I was approached by a policeman who was enquiring if I had seen a lone woman, they waited in the car park for an hour or more before driving off. I didn't think to ask if she was vulnerable or dangerous, but said no lone females had been here since I arrived at 6pm. Around an hour passed wih the bites almost stopping and I made two definite last 5 minute casts which both came back without bait on as if to help me mark the end of the session. Overall I was please to have seen a cod after such a long time of not catching one and the session was worth it just for that.
Tackle used (price) [ time since first used ]:
Set up 1: Rod: Daiwa Seahunter X 14ft 3 piece Fixed spool £64.07 [ > 2 years 11 months ] Reel: Daiwa Crosscast S 5000 Fixed spool £48.99 [ > 2 years 1 months ] Line: Maxima Hi-viz 20lb £13.95 Hook: Sakuma Circle 440 2/0 30 £8.26 Hook: Sakuma Manta 1/0 10 £1.99 Tackle: Maxima Clear 15lb 100m £4.00
Set up 2: Rod: Shakespeare Omni Beachcaster 14ft 3 piece Fixed Spool £26.95 [ > 0 years 9 months ] Reel: Mitchell 667FG Fixed spool £23.90 [ > 3 years 8 months ] Line: Maxima Chameleon 20lb 600m £17.99 Hook: Sakuma Circle 440 1 30 £6.05 Hook: Unbranded Baitholder 4/0 50 £3.99 Tackle: Maxima Clear 15lb 100m £4.00
Set up 3: Tackle: cord 50m £3.99 Tackle: Fladen Prawn trap large entrance £8.49
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