Catch Report - Ilfracombe - 28th May 2020 (1)

Date From: 28/05/2020 16:30:00

Date To: 28/05/2020 21:45:00

Time of day: Afternoon - evening

Location: Ilfracombe

Mark: Capstone Rocks

Low Tide:

Moon Phase:

Weather: Sunny with some wind from left to right

Sunrise/Sunset:

Sea: Fairly clear and a little choppy with a swell of a few feet

Method: Float | Float

Bait: Frozen mackerel strips | frozen whole large sandeel

Caught:

The Session:

I tried a local rock mark again to see if there were any Pollock around because the previous attempt produced none, although I did get a Conger Eel.

I set up two float rods just like the previous session and began with the rod baited with a Mackerel strip, casting various distances from 10 yards to 30 yards and a depth of around 8 feet at first. As the sea level rose I increased the depth and cast less distance each time. I was getting no bites at all though and after around 2 hours I decided to cast out the other rod baited with an old refrozen sandeel.

The tow slowed to a still and I was able to leave both floats out in almost the same spot, both at around 12 feet deep and then I put the rods down on the rocks and waited with my feet right by them just in case I had a surprise bite that pulled hard.

It took half an hour but as I looked at each float in turn I saw the one on the sandeel rod begin to move away from the rocks a bit. From an almost complete standstill I quickly became confident this would be a bite and as I picked up the rod the float accellerated away without going under. I left it for a few seconds and when it had gone about 4 meters I struck and could feel a fish on. It soon surfaced after a few seconds and began jumping clear of the water. It was a nice sized Garfish. I didn't look forwards to unhooking this as they barely stay still once out of the water. I think it was about equal in size to my previous biggest and it could have been a bit bigger. It had taken the entire sandeel but was still just hooked in the side of the jaw. Due to it moving around a lot I didn't want to fiuss with weighing it and so I put it back once I could pick it up. I was pleased that this fish swam away just fine.

That was all of the action for this session. It was very disappointing. As the tow increased again I had to keep recasting each bait and I went even deeper and varied the difference but I couldn't get a bite at all. It seems the Pollock are a bit scarce round these rock at the moment.

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