Catch Report - Ilfracombe - 4th July 2021 (12)

Date From: 04/07/2021 17:15:00

Date To: 04/07/2021 21:50:00

Time of day: Afternoon - evening

Location: Ilfracombe

Mark: The Pier

Tide Times:

Moon Phase:

Weather: Very cloudy but some sunshine, clearing over the session. Some wind from behind.

Sunrise/Sunset:

Sea: Mostly clear and fairly choppy with a swell of a few feet.

Method: Ledger (shop bought pulley rig) | Ledger (Shop bought up and over rig) | Float | LRF

Bait: Frozen Whole Launce | Frozen Loligo Squid Strips | Frozen Mackerel strips, Live King Ragworm | Live King Ragworm Pieces

Caught:

Session and Lifetime Statistics:

The Session:

I fished my local pier with four rods to use up bait I had left over from a holiday. I set up on the lower pier and put out two ledger rods at a distance of around 90 yards, straight in front of me. I was managing some extra distance to my usual casts due to the wind being behnd meI also put a float rod near teh edge of the pier at around 12 feet deep, but went shallower as the tide level dropped until I was around 6 feet deep. Lastly I set up an LRF rod to see what small species might be around.

The LRF rod was registering very faint shakes on the tip from the first drop down but I could not hook anything for a while. The float was also being pulled down a very tiny amount by something until the Mackerel strip was almost all gone. It was while focusing mostly on the float rod I noticed one of my ledger rods tips bend down as I looked around. I got ready to strike at the fish as soon as the tip went again and after a minute or so it did again. I lifted the rod sharply and could feel something was hooked but it was not very big. I reeled it in slowly and as it came about 30 yards from the pier it surfaced and showed itself to be a small Conger Eel. It had taken the bait well and was hooked deep enough for me to need to use a T-Bar disgorger on it. Once it was photographed I put it straight back and hoped it meant more fish were out there.

Back to the float rod and LRF rod, I checked both and found the bait to be gone from both of them. I rebaited them both and dropped them down the side of the Pier again and for a while neither showed any bites. I tried a few spots with the LRF rod but there was clearly a lack of fish, or they just didn't want the bait today. Well, that was until one Tompot Blenny decided to take the ragworm piece so hard I thought it must be a nice Wrasse. I then managed to follow it up with a Pollock on the float which must have been able to get to the bait before the small stuff that was stripping it from the hook bit by bit could get to it. The fish pulled the float down a bit but swam away from the pier rather quickly when it took the bait which was unusual for the pollock here as they usually just swim along the wall and pull down.

Once that fish was back and I put another bait out, the small fish set about stripping the bait again and pulling the float down a millimeter or two each time.

I tried for more with the LRF rod after having to reel in the ledger rods due to boats coming into the harbour. The baits on them looked untouched so I thought the conger Eel was a lone fish out there and it would be a while before I had something else on them.

When using the LRF rod I saw plenty of small Sandeel swimming around loosely which indicated there were no predators around. Occasionally a bigger sandeel swam underneath the shoal of small ones. I was getting small shakes on the rod tip of the LRF rod again and each time the bait was gone, but I managed to hook a couple more Blennies and a Rock Goby but missed at least 10 bites during that time. I kept setting the float depth shallower as the tide level dropped and had some Pollock on it which all took the bait fairly confidently and I was alerted to the bite by seeing the rod tip being pulled rather than the float going under because I was leaving the float to drift where it wanted to, which was mostly against the pier wall. At one point my line became snagged on a wooden strut and as much as I tried I couldn't free it and ended up snapping my line in a last ditch attempt to pull it free. It is always frustrating losing tackle because of the thought of it being left in the sea but a small comfort is the floats I now mostly use are homemade ones made from Corn Starch which is touted to be biodegradable, though there is some debate about the length of time it takes and the conditions required for it to happen quickly.

As it became obvious the ledger rods were going to produce no more fish I had a couple more small fish on the LRF rod and then a surprise Pollock of around half a pound on it too. I had work the next day so I packed up shortly after catching that one, kind of happy to have caught on 3 methods but disappointed that the ledger rods again failed to produce much.

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