Catch report - Ilfracombe - 8th January 2016 (12)

Date: 08-01-2016

Time of day: Evening - night

Location: Ilfracombe

Mark: The pier

Low Tide: 10:39(1.84m) 23:01(1.66m)

High Tide: 04:38(8.31m) 16:57(8.39m)

Time fished from: 15:40

Time fished to: 00:00

Weather: Cloudy, a little breeze growing to a steady wind later on. One small shower near the end of the session. Feeling quite cold.

Sea: Quite rough, with a swell of 6ft. Very murky.

Method: 2 x Pulley rig with rotten bottom | Prawn trap

Bait: Frozen mackerel segments, frozen squid pieces, whole frozen large sandeel, frozen back lugworm | frozen peeler crab, frozen mackerel head, frozen squid

Caught (weight): 1 Dogfish (1lbs 0oz, Guessed), 2 Dogfish (2lbs 0oz, Guessed) | 1 Dogfish (1lbs 5oz, Guessed), 1 Dogfish (2lbs 5oz, Guessed), 1 Whiting (0lbs 6oz, Guessed) | 1 Pollack (0lbs 1oz, Guessed), 2 Shore Rockling (0lbs 1oz, Guessed), 1 Shore Rockling (0lbs 2oz, Guessed), 1 Shore Rockling (0lbs 4oz, Guessed), 1 3 Bearded Rockling (0lbs 2oz, Guessed)

The Session: I first set up on the harbour wall right by the car park. I cast both rods just a short distance, around 20-30 yards and one was baited with lugworm, the other squid. I only had one bite on each rod but they were gentle and could have been crabs. After an hour it was safe to move to the upper pier and I cast each rod further, around 50-60 yards and one baited with squid, the other with mackerel. I also put out a prawn trap with mackerel, squid and crab inside the main part of the trap. After about another hour or so, and just a couple more bites I landed a dogfish on the squid bait. The prawn trap had nothing in it when I lifted it and I then moved to the lower part of the pier at around 19:45. Casting out much further, around 70-80 yards I had more success over the next few hours. No more bites on the squid bait but I had 2 more dogfish on the mackerel and one on sandeel and after switching back to lugworm on one rod I had a small whiting. After leaving the next cast out for quite a while I reeled in to find a tiny pollock on the end.Three lifts of the prawn trap over these hours produced 6 rockling, a velvet swimming crab and a single prawn. I hooked and lost three more fish, most likely dogfish. But the last two hours of fishing gave just one noticeable bite. I began packing up at around 23:40 with a final lift of the prawn trap producing nothing and the last rod having a dogfish on the end as I lifted it to reel in. This was at midnight on the dot, just as it had started to rain. I enjoyed the session partly due to having a good conversation with another friendly angler who set up next to me. All in all a fairly long, enjoyable session for someone who wasn't really bothered what they catch.

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

Set up 1: Rod: Daiwa Seahunter X 14ft (£66.00) [ > 9 months ] Reel: Daiwa Crosscast S 5000 fixed spool (£48.95) [ > 3 months ] Mainline: Maxima High-viz 20lb (£14.00 per 550m) Hooklength: Maxima Clear 15lb (£4.00 per 100m) Hooks: Sakuma 440 size 2 circle hooks ( £5.55 for 30 ) Rig: homemade pulley rig

Set up 2: Rod: Ron Thompson Evo Surf 15ft 3 Fixed Spool ( £30.00 ) [ > 1 Year 9 months ] Reel: Mitchell 667FG Fixed spool ( £18.00 ) [ > 1 year 9 months ] Mainline: Maxima Chameleon 20lbs ( £18.00 per 600m ) Hooklength: Maxima Clear 15lb ( £4.00 per 100m ) Hooks: Sakuma 440 Size 2/0 sea hooks ( £7.35 for 30 ) Rig: homemade pulley rig

Set up 3: Item: Prawn Trap Item: 50m cord