Date: 03-12-2017
Time of day: Afternoon - evening
Location: Ilfracombe
Mark: The pier
Low Tide: 11:17(0.88m) 23:41(0.66m)
High Tide: 05:13(9.41m) 17:38(9.62m)
Time fished from: 13:30
Time fished to: 21:40
Weather: Cloudy with a little bit of sunshine and spots of rain. small wind from the seaward side.
Sea: choppy with a swell of a few feet. Fairly murky
Method: Ledger (homemade pulley rig) | legder (homemade 2 hook flapper rig) | Ledger (running ledger) | float
Bait: whole frozen calimari squid | live lugworm, live ragworm | half a frozen mackerel | live ragworm, live lugworm
Caught (weight): 2 Dogfish (1lbs 8oz, Guessed) | 4 Whiting (0lbs 3oz, Guessed), 1 Pouting (0lbs 3oz, Guessed) | 1 Bass (5lbs 6oz, Weighed), 1 Pollock (0lbs 5oz, Guessed) | 1 Pollock (1lbs 8oz, Guessed), 1 Long Spined Sea Scorpion (0lbs 1oz, Guessed), 1 Pouting (0lbs 2oz, Guessed), 1 Ballan Wrasse (1lbs 4oz, Guessed), 1 Smelt (0lbs 1oz, Guessed), 1 Pollock (0lbs 12oz, Guessed)
The Session: I began the session on the highest part of the pier by the car park. I was goign to be fishing until well after dark so I decided to fish the tide right in and back down until about low tide again. It was probably around 13:30 when I made my first cast which was a squid minus the head/tentacles and I gave it a good whack over in front of the rest of the pier so it landed about 30 yards out from the end. This was to make sure I avoided any boats that came and went until dark. The next rod was the two hook flapper one. I cast it in front of me about 20 yards out, initially with a ragworm on one hook and blow lug on the other. Finally I set up a float rod while waiting for bites on the others and flicked out a ragworm a few yards about 10 foot deep. I didn;t see much action until I became suspicous of the weight on my float set up still being visible to me after I increased the depth to 15 foot or so. I saw that a kink in the line had stopped the small, light weight from pulling the line through the centre of the float. Once I straightened the line I had a few casts before deepening even more to around 20ft. Sure enough bites came but the were too quick for me. Occasionally one would pull the float right under but I felt nothing on the end. A lucky guess at a steady movement of the float lead to me first believeing I had gone too deep and hooked the bottom, but then the fish moved and fought well until it surfaced and I saw it was a nice Wrasse. It was my first Wrasse from the pier and a nice one too. It was around this time that I started seeing little taps on the rod with the flapper rig on. Again these were hard to connect with but I did manage to hook one after about 20 minutes which turned out to be a Pollock. Then, I had a small Pouting, again after 20 minutes or more. I had no more visible bites on the ledger rod and concentrated on these hard to see bites on the float. 45 minutes later a lucky lift of the rod inbetween dips saw a Smelt come to the surface. Back to missing bites for a few minutes and then I noticed my line on the lpulley rig rod was slack. I tightened up to see it go slack again and then itstayed tight and I could feel no movement. I struck anyway and reeled in a dogfish that had swallowed the hook so I cut the line and tied another hook on. As it wasn't as busy as I'd hoped I decided to set up a rod and have a go for a conger eel. I'm very inexperienced fishing for them so stuck with a running ledger and a large hook with the back half of a mackerel on. I dropped it a few yards from the edge. Nothing much happened. 45 minutes later I decided to move to the top of the steps now the tide was well on its way out again. All ledger rods were out and I dropped the float down to the right hand side of the metal pole, I had shallowed up slightly to around 20ft. The first bite came to the flapper rig I left it a while and then struck. A whiting was on the end. It had taken the blow lug. I recast and then checked the bait on the float. It had gone. I rebaited and dropped it down again but this time I watched. Sure enough I saw the same dips as I did earlier. I finally connected with a small Pouting and quckly recast. The next bite seemed to just drag the float in a way that looked like the tow was pulling it, but it was moving too quickly. Strike! and another fish was hooked. This time a Sea Scorpion and my first ever on the float. By now I was very pleased with the different species I had caught. The next fish were, two whiting to the flapper rig, another pollock when I moved down the steps a bit, and a dogfish to the whole squid I had out. The session was now getting a bit busy and I was probably missing bites because of the number of rods I had out. Still I recast them all when I was able to move to the bottom of the pier. The conger rod now with a mackerel head, and the float close in and the other rods cast as far as I could. I began walking along the pier with the float rod, dragging the float along, leaving it for a few moments and then moving again. Right on the end of the pier I left the float for a moment and it slid under and disappeared. I struck and the weight was immediately noticeable. I was telling myself this is the one and after a strong, but short fight a nice sized pollock came to the surface and I was slightly panicking at the thought of losing the best fish yet. Thankfully I lifted it out. I decided to cut the line after I took a photograph, because the hook was not visible. It wasted no time in swimming away. A few more cast, running low on worm and a bit of a desire to be indoors made me decide to pack the float rod up. I had cut the line and had the float and weight in my hand when I noticed two twitches of the tip of the conger rod. They were definitely caused by a fish but I suspected something too small to take the wholebait. Still. I shuffled near and watched with great anticipation. Tick tick tick, the drag began to go. then the rod tip dipped a couple more times. Something was definitely having a good go at the bait. Tick tick, and a longer repeated clicking, then it stopped. again the rod tip moved and then a ru of about a metre which caused line to fall off the spool and tangle round itself. Half panicking I untangled it and even began wondering if I was wise to try for a conger eel on my own. I left the untangled line on the pier and told myself if it straightened and the rod tip bent I would strike, so I tightened the drag and didn't have to wait long at all . The line went taught and the rod tip went off to the right. Striking wasn't needed. A fish was on but it was clear it was a smaller fish than I imagined. Oh well I thought. It would be welcome whatever size conger it is. Then after a small fight it surfaced. It was a bass and while not huge it was surely my biggest yet. I moved over to the steps and was thankful to a wave that lifted the fish onto a higher step before receding so I could scoop the fish up. I was the happiest I could be. The fish weighed 5lb 6oz and was my biggest to date. I considered taking it for food but would have to give it away as my freezer was full. It was deep hooked too and took me a while to unhook so I decided to take it home but as I moved to the edge to knock it out and gut it, it made a few flaps of its tail and fell in to the water and swam off away from the pier. Oh well, a schholboy error I suppose but I can't say I'm bothered if it survives. I packed the rest of my rods up and as if to punctuate the night the flapper rod had a whiting on the end, I photographed every fish this evening and this final one was done so with just as much pleasure. I walked quickly up the slipway too delighted to think that this was possibly my most successful session overall.
Tackle used (price) [ time since first used ]:
Set up 1: Rod: Daiwa Seahunter Z 13ft 2 Both £44.99 Working [ > 0 years 6 months ] Reel: Daiwa Crosscast S 5000 Fixed spool £48.99 [ > 2 years 9 months ] Line: Maxima Chameleon 20lb 600m £17.99 Hook: Unbranded Baitholder 4/0 50 £3.99 Hooklength: Ultima Memorex 40lb 50m £5.95 Shockleader: Gardner Slinky 60lb 100M £6.99
Set up 2: Rod: Daiwa Crosscast 13ft 3 piece Fixed Spool £60.00 Working [ > 0 years 1 week ] Reel: Shakespeare Agility Surf 70FD Fixed Spool £39.99 [ > 3 years 7 months ] Line: Maxima Hi-Viz 20lb 550m £15.42 Hook: Sakuma Stinger 2 100 £15.00 Hooklength: Maxima Clear 15lb 100m £4.00 Shockleader: Gardner Slinky 60lb 100M £6.99
Set up 3: Rod: Daiwa Seahunter X 14ft 3 piece Fixed spool £64.07 [ > 3 years 7 months ] Reel: Leeda Quicksilver 70 £19.99 [ > 5 months ] Line: Maxima Hi-Viz 20lb 550m £15.42 Hook: Sakuma Manta 8/0 10 £4.45 Hooklength: Gardner Slinky 100lb 100m £7.95
Set up 4: Rod: Shakespeare Omni Mackerel 10ft 2 piece Fixed Spool £17.95 Reel: Lineaffe Carp 60 Baitrunner Fixed Spool £12.00 Line: Maxima Chameleon 20lb 600m £17.99 Hook: Sakuma Stinger 2 100 £15.00 Hooklength: Maxima Clear 15lb 100m £4.00
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