Catch Report - Ilfracombe - 20th September 2020 (26)

Date From: 20/09/2020 13:00:00

Date To: 20/09/2020 18:30:00

Time of day: Afternoon - evening

Location: Ilfracombe

Mark: The Pier

Low Tide:

Moon Phase:

Weather: Sunny, cloudy with some fairly strong wind, but gying down a little later on.

Sunrise/Sunset:

Sea: Choppy and murky water yo around 50 yards out, but clearing a lot later. A swell of around 4 feet.

Method: Ledger (shop bought up and over rig) | Ledger (shop bought up and over rig) | Float | Ledger (Running Ledger with rotten bottom) | Prawn trap | LRF

Bait: Whole frozen launce | Whole frozen loligo squid | Frozen mackerel strips, live ragworm | Frozen mackerel head | frozen mackerel pieces, frozen squid pieces | live ragworm pieces

Caught:

The Session:

I decided to return to my local pier again but this time to try several methods on the same day. I knew the sea was quite rough and the wind quite strong but it was supposed to be calming down later. When I arrived I could see that it would not be possible use the light rod until later on if the conditions improved.

I first set up two ledger rods, one with a pulley rig which I cast out as far as I could in the wind and went around 50 yards and the other with a flapper rig which went around 40 yards. I followed these with a float setup dropped down the edge of the pier at around 12 feet deep and then the prawn trap also dropped down the edge with refrozen mackerel and squid in the main compartment. I rested my ledger rods on the railings with the butts far back so just a couple of foot of my rod tip was over the edge. This prevented the wind blowing them anywhere and I tied my rod bags around the rods and railings to secure them. Once I sat down just out of reach from the wind it felt quite warm when the sun shone.

I had been there less than an hour when other anglers turned up. They set up next to me and used tripods which were blown over so they secured them to the railings. This is something which I suppose was necessary on the day but I have often wondered why anglers do this and cause themselves the problem of being unable to land a big fish without risking losing it if they were to hook one on the left hand rod. I tend to leave my tripod well back from the railings so I can walk in front of it with my left hand rod in order to get the fish to the nearby steps to land if it is big. They also sat in the spot where I needed to put my rod back to cast so I had to change my direction into more snaggy ground. Then also one of them was learning to cast with a multiplier reel and kept casting in front of me, making it difficult for me to reel in the last few yards as I had to avoid their line. I also found it a bit cheeky of them later, when I did hit a snag and reeled in a couple of rigs and weed they claimed one rig was theirs from a previous day and took the weight back.

On the first lift of the Prawn trap I had a small Pollock and then a little later a Velvet swimming crab but nothing else on the other methods I had set up so far. The bait on my ledger rods showed signs of something being around, most probably crabs, with the possibility of one fish bite which I thought I saw and when I reeled in the sandeel looked chewed rather than picked apart by crabs. The rod I had out for conger eel showed no bites either and the bait on the float rod came back untouched most of the time, but occasionally the bait was almost gone.

I knew this was a big tide so I kept looking around the rocks and down below my rod tips and over the opposite side of the harbour and found at around low tide I could see the thicker lower parts of the kelp and when I pulled in the prawn trap to check it, it felt like it was just a few feet of water left. The opposite rocks looked brown as a lot of kelp was uncovered. As the tide turned and the tow changed so it ran from left to right the colour went out of it and the water quickly became clearer. I decided to set up the LRF rod and try for some mini species.

It was a good decision and I soon caught another Pollock which after missing a good few bites was finally followed by a Wrasse and a Blenny. As the bites continued and I missed many more than I hooked a young girl took an interest in what I was doing as her dad spoke to the anglers next to me. She was very interested in the colours of the fish and I was lucky to catch a Sand Smelt and Pollock along with a few more Wrasse while she was there so she could see how the species differed.

Eventually, despite the sea calming down, the swell still threatened to get the tackle wet so I moved to the upper pier and continued fishing with just the float rod and LRF rod. Within 15 minutes I caught a Pouting and followed it with a few other species over the next hour, including a few more Sand Smelt. I packed up when I had almost ran out of ragworm.

Tackle used (price) [ time since first used ]: