Date: 28/05/2015
Time of day: Evening
Location: Ilfracombe
Mark: The Pier
Low Tide: 08:44(2.90m) 21:10(2.80m)
High Tide: 02:28(7.00m) 15:08(7.10m)
Time fished from: 18:35
Time fished to: 22:15
Weather: Grey skies with a shower early on. A strong wind from behind.
Sea: Fairly clear water with a large swell of up to 5 ft.
Method: Pulley ledger rig with rotten bottom | Prawn trap.
Bait: Frozen mackerel segments, Frozen squid sections, Live blow lug
Caught (weight): 1 Poorcod (0lbs 1oz, Guessed), 1 3 Bearded Rockling (0lbs 6oz, Guessed)
The Session: I set up two rods, both baited with a mackerel segment and cast them both 40 to 60 yards, straight out. Then I put a mackerel head and a piece of squid in a prawn trap and dropped it over the edge. Through most of the session I had no bites, eventually trying squid but that produced no bites either. On one retreive I found that something had snipped my hook off. Two retrieves of the prawn net resulted in a poor cod and a rockling. Another angler who hadn't faired any better gave me some live blow lug as he said he was going to pack up, shortly after he had a small dab. I baited a rod with two lug and recast (mis-cast) around 20 yards. While talking to another angler I noticed the rod tip shake once and after leaving it for 5 minutes I brought it in to find the lug gone. The next cast, with one lug resulted in a bold bite about 20 minutes after casting but I missed it. No more bites came and a the last time I brought up the prawn trap it contained a 5 inch edible crab. A friend was float fishing mackerel through the session and after a long period of having no bites managed 5 bites and landed a single pollock of about 1/2 lb.
Tackle used (price) [ time since first used ]:
Set up 1: Ron Thompson Evo Surf 15ft 3 Fixed Spool £30.00 15/08/2013 Mitchell 667FG Fixed spool £23.90 15/08/2013 Maxima Chameleon 20lbs £17.99 25/01/2014 Sakuma Circle 440 2/0 £8.26 21/07/2014 Maxima Clear 15lb £5.00
Set up 2: Daiwa Seahunter X 14ft 3 Fixed spool £64.07 21/05/2014 Daiwa Crosscast S 5000 Fixed spool £48.99 13/03/2015 Maxima Hi-Viz 20lb £13.29 25/01/2014 Sakuma Circle 440 2/0 £8.26 21/07/2014 Maxima Clear 15lb £5.00
Set up 3: Tackle: Prawn trap £5.95 Tackle: cord 50m £3.99