Catch report - Ilfracombe - 22nd July 2017 (10)

Date: 22-07-2017

Time of day: Afternoon - Night

Location: Ilfracombe

Mark: The Pier

Low Tide: 00:15(0.96m) 12:37(0.81m)

High Tide: 18:03(9.08m)

Time fished from: 09:00

Time fished to: 03:00

Weather: Cloudy with sunshine with a bit of wind but dying down later in the evening.

Sea: Choppy but clear with a swell of a foot or two.

Method: Float | Ledger (homemade 2 hook flapper rig) | Ledger (homemade pulley rig)

Bait: Live lugworm, live ragworm | Large frozen sandeel, frozen mackerel segments | frozen whole loligo squid

Caught (weight): 3 Dogfish (1lbs 8oz, Guessed), 1 Pollock (0lbs 8oz, Guessed), 1 Poorcod (0lbs 2oz, Guessed), 2 Whiting (0lbs 4oz, Guessed), 1 Whiting (0lbs 7oz, Guessed), 2 Spotted Ray (3lbs 0oz, Guessed)

The Session: I returned to The pier and set up 3 rods on the lower part. The legder rods were cast as far as I could manage, around 70 yards and the float was sset at around 10ft deep and dropped straight down. It took a couple of hours before I had a bite and it came on the float from a usual sized pollock. This seemed to mark the start of the reasonable action I had this night. Shortly after I had some Whiting and a poorcod on the flapper rig and lots of missed bites on that rod. Then at around 2am a typical Ray bite developed on the other rod. After 5 minutes I struck and reeled in the fish, again a typical size, around 3lb. A dogfish quickly followed but took the bait gently enough to make me think it was another Ray. The very next cast received a bite quite soon and again it developed over a few minutes before the rod tip pulled hard and stayed down. It was probably self-hooked and I took a little longer to get it in as it pulled back harder than the last one. While attempting to unhook it I managed to catch my own hand in the pliers and as I hastily took the photograph blood dripped down onto the fish. Two more dogfish followed before I felt the need to call time and fish again next week.

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

Set up 1: Rod: Shakespeare Omni Mackerel 10ft 2 piece Fixed spool £16.95 Reel: Lineaffe Carp 60 Baitrunner Fixed Spool £12.00 Line: Maxima Chameleon 20lb 600m £17.99 Hook: Mustad Aberdeen 4 8 £1.99 Float: Fladen Cigar float £1.99 Hooklength: Maxima Clear 15lb 100m £4.00

Set up 2: Rod: Daiwa Seahunter Z 13ft 2 Both £44.99 Working [ > 0 years 5 months ] Reel: Daiwa Crosscast S 5000 Fixed spool £48.99 [ > 2 years 8 months ] Line: Maxima Chameleon 20lb 600m £17.99 Hook: Sakuma Manta 2/0 30 £5.78 Hooklength: Ultima Memorex 40lb 50m £5.95 Shockleader: Gardner Slinky 60lb 100M £6.99

Set up 3: Rod: Daiwa Seahunter X 14ft 3 piece Fixed spool £64.07 [ > 3 years 6 months ] Reel: Shakespeare Agility Surf 70FD Fixed Spool £39.99 [ > 3 years 6 months ] Line: Maxima Hi-Viz 20lb 550m £15.42 Hook: Mustad Aberdeen 4 8 £1.99 Hooklength: Maxima Clear 15lb 100m £4.00 Shockleader: Gardner Slinky 60lb 100M £6.99