Date: 07-05-2018
Time of day: Afternoon
Location: Kilve
Mark: Kilve beach
Low Tide: 05:19(3.09m) 17:32(3.46m)
High Tide: 11:42(8.90m)
Time fished from: 15:50
Time fished to: 19:30
Weather: Cloudy but sunny to begin with but becoming dull later. Much more windy than the forecast, from left to right.
Sea: Murky and fairly choppy but small waves.
Method: Ledger (homemade pulley rig) | Ledger (homemade pulley rig)
Bait: Whole frozen loligo squid | frozen peeler crab, frozen whole loligo squid
Caught (weight): 1 Dogfish (1lbs 5oz, Guessed), 1 Cod (0lbs 12oz, Guessed)
The Session: This is a Mark I had been meaning to try for a year and decided to give it a go while the weather forecast still looked favourable.
I arrived later than I had planned and as it was my first visit to this Mark I took a while navigating myself over the rocky and weedy terrain to the smooth and sloping reefs. I used my rod bag to test the ground ahead and use it to steady myself.
I set up my two ledger rods at what looked like a central spot on a length of reef and cast them both as far as I could, but with the wind blowing from my left, my casts were hampered and I managed around 60 yards. As the water level dropped I saw that I had chosed the one bit of reef that had a big area of weed in front of it and so I reeled in both rods and moved left to a spot which not looked better.
Still struggling to cast effectively in the wind (and noticing the temperature felt a lot colder that the forecast) I stuck it out and answered a few questions from a few curious groups of people. One of my rods showed a slack line bite and I wound down and held the rod to feel something regularly pulling the line so I struck. The flow made the fish feel a bit bigger than it was and after pulling it through som weed too, a dogfish was landed and returned twice as it swam back to the bank. My next cast snagged on the retreive and I lost everything as either my rotten bottom clip never release, or my hook snagged, or the leader knot did
Time seemed to fly by and it was soon time to move back a bit. I went over to my right and to a bit of reef that shelved a bit more steeply which I calculated shoule allow me more time before moving again. I set up another rig but in the end decided to switch the rig from the rod I was still fishing with to the one I felt more comfortable casting with in the wind, the Vercelli Outlander KW. The cast again did not go as far as I liked but after some some the rod tip rattled and I expected a moderate whiting to appear at the edge but instead a cod appeared. It unfortunately had swallowed the hook and although I unhooked it easily, it was almost dead as I returned it.
I wanted to make sure I didn't become stuck and so it was almost time for me to leave, I could have stayed another half an hour and been comfortable but I was at least now familiar enough to return another day. As I began navigating back ove the rocks and algae I could see a much better pathway, weaving around the water and staying mostly on rocks. I was quickly back at the start of the beach just below the fence which sits atop the small cliff. Just a walk across the river that was running over the rocks here and I was soon back at the car. I think I might travel a bit lighter next time and plan to arrive even earlier and allow time for a casual set up of my rods and choosing of spot to fish from.
Tackle used (price) [ time since first used ]:
Set up 1: Rod: Daiwa seahunter Z 13ft 2 piece MFS (£42.99) [ > 0 years 5 months ]
Reel: Shakespeare Agility Surf 70FD Fixed Spool (£39.99) [ > 4 years 0 months ]
Line: Daiwa Hyper Sensor 20lb (£12.95) 635m
Hooks: Sakuma Manta 2/0 (£5.78) 30
Shockleader: Gardner Slinky 60lb (£6.99) 100M
Hooklength: Sunset Amnesia 40lb (£4.50) 100m
Set up 2: Rod: Vercelli Outlander KW 13.5ft 3 Fixed Spool (£33.75) [ > 0 years 1 months ]
Reel: Daiwa BF 5500 Fixed spool (gift) [ > 0 years 1 months ]
Line: Maxima Hi-Viz 20lb (£15.42) 550m
Hooks: Sakuma Manta 2/0 (£5.78) 30
Shockleader: Gardner Slinky 60lb (£6.99) 100M
Hooklength: Ultima Memorex 40lb (£5.95) 50m
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