Date: 24-05-2016
Time of day: Evening
Location: Ilfracombe
Mark: Capstone
Low Tide: 01:55(1.30m) 14:09(1.42m)
High Tide: 08:16(8.66m) 20:33(8.76m)
Time fished from: 04:55
Time fished to: 20:30
Weather: Sunny with some clouds, a fairly strong wind from right to left, decreasing in strength over the session. Visibilty good.
Sea: Choppy with a 1 to 2ft swell at the start increasing to a swell of 5 to 6 ft. Fairly clear.
Method: Float | prawn trap
Bait: frozen mackerel strips | frozen mackerel head, frozen squid pieces, frozen mackerel pieces.
Caught (weight): 1 Pollack (0lbs 3oz, Guessed), 1 Pollack (0lbs 5oz, Guessed), 2 Pollack (1lbs 0oz, Guessed), 2 Pollack (0lbs 8oz, Guessed), 2 Pollack (0lbs 12oz, Guessed), 1 Pollack (1lbs 0oz, Guessed), 1 Pollack (1lbs 0oz, Guessed), 1 Garfish (0lbs 4oz, Guessed), 1 Garfish (0lbs 12oz, Guessed), 1 Coalfish (0lbs 4oz, Guessed) | 1 Shore Rockling (0lbs 3oz, Guessed)
The Session: I was annoyed at myself for forgetting my camera again. I also forgot my phone so I used previous experience to guess the time from tide height. I began float fishing at a distance of around 25 yards and at a depth of about 8 ft. The first fish, a small pollock, came on the second cast. The next two casts resulted in two garfish that were very lively. I missed a string of bites and decided to go down a few hook sizes. This resulted in a few bump-offs and couple more pollock before things quietened down for about 45 minutes. Then after swiftly unhooking one fish I noticed the straight lateral line and level top and bottom mouth, this was my first catch of a coalfish. After another 15 minutes or so of no activity I changed depth to about 12ft and immediately began getting bites again I had another few pollock, including the biggest two of the session and one bite resulted in another garfish but it fell off the hook as I got it to the edge of the rocks. Afterwards I had another couple of small pollock by just dropping the float at the end of the rod tip and it felt almost time for high tide so I packed up, very pleased with the session. During the session I retrieved the prawn trap a few times and it produced one shore rockling.
Tackle used (price) [ time since first used ]:
Set up 1: Rod: Shakespeare Alpha X Travel 11ft telescopic Fixed spool (£16.99) [ > 2 years 11 months ] Reel: Lineaffe SX50 Fixed Spool (£10.00) [ > 3 years 0 months ] Line: Maxima Chameleon 20lb (£17.99) 600m [ > 2 years 4 months ] Hooks: Sakuma Circle 440 6 (£4.85) 30 [ > 1 years 10 months ] Other1: Maxima Clear 15lb (£4.00) 100m [ > 2 years 4 months ] Other2: Fladen Pencil Float 210mm (£2.00) [ > 1 years 9 months ]
Set up 2: Tackle: Prawn trap £5.95 Tackle: cord 50m £3.99