Catch report - Minehead - 10th March 2017 (9)

Date: 10-03-2017

Time of day: Evening - night

Location: Minehead

Mark: White Mark

Low Tide: 10:43(1.66m) 23:01(1.29m)

High Tide: 04:40(9.56m) 17:10(9.92m)

Time fished from: 20:45

Time fished to: 13:40

Weather: Cloudy, bright moon. A variable breeze from right to left with an occasional stronger gust.

Sea: Murky with small waves, rolling for up to 10 yards.

Method: Ledger (fixed ledger with rotton bottom) | Ledger (homemade pulley rig with rotton bottom)

Bait: frozen mackerel segments, large frozen sandeel | large frozen sandeel, frozen whole dirty squid

Caught (weight): 1 Dogfish (0lbs 8oz, Guessed), 2 Dogfish (1lbs 0oz, Guessed), 1 Whiting (0lbs 7oz, Guessed) | 2 Dogfish (1lbs 0oz, Guessed), 2 Dogfish (1lbs 8oz, Guessed), 1 Dogfish (2lbs 8oz, Guessed)

The Session: I set up just past white mark rock and began with one rod baited with a sandeel cast around 70 yards or so and my second rod required leader attaching so I set this up slowly. After around half an hour there was a bite on the sandeel and it was a typical sized dogfish. I cast the other rod after unhooking this fish and returning it and the session then continued with a steady run of dogfish to both baits, one nice fish hooked, but I became snagged and despite all my efforts to cause the rotten bottom to give my mainline did instead and so I concluded my leader know must have been snagged too. I was able to move down on to a large area of sand shortly afterwards. A odd moment came later when I hooked and lost a fish on mackerel and the hook had also gone and the following fish on sandeel and the mackerel and hook I lost deep in its mouth. I assumed it was the actual fish that took the mackerel. Bites stopped for a while from around low tide for almost 2 hours and I took the opportunity to scout around for evidence of my mainline and leader but I saw nothing and after a stroll over to my left I saw a nice run of sand almost right in front of the highest peak of the trees behind me, which I moved to to try to avoid further tackle losses. Bites began coming again and after some more dogfish again on both baits I began using squid after running out of mackerel and I switched to usng sandeel on the fixed ledger rod. I had one bite on the squid and it felt a nice fish but it came off. I was unsure if it was really a better fish or just a hard pulling dogfish. Not long after a lively bite on sandeed produced a whiting and then a couple more dogfish, one foulhooked along with bringing in my other rig I had cast over, which I managed seperate but had to hand collect all the slack line from the quid rod and could only wind the tangle on the reel as best I could in a quickly advancing tide, before packing both rods up and heading home. I would have liked to catch a ray, cod or other species but felt they all had a good chance to bite if any came across my bait. Also, I'll try a fixed ledger again in future as it seemed that the fish caught on this rod were all lip hooked, as opposed to deep hooked on the pulley rig, possibly the fish pulling directly against the weight helped in this.

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

Set up 1: Rod: Daiwa Seahunter X 14ft 3 piece Fixed spool £64.07 [ > 2 years 10 months ] Reel: Daiwa Crosscast S 5000 Fixed spool £48.99 [ > 2 years 0 months ] Line: Maxima Hi-viz 20lb £13.95 Hook: Sakuma Manta 1/0 10 £1.99 Tackle: Maxima Clear 15lb 100m £4.00

Set up 2: Rod: Shakespeare Omni Beachcaster 14ft 3 piece Fixed Spool £26.95 [ > 0 years 8 months ] Reel: Mitchell 667FG Fixed spool £23.90 [ > 3 years 7 months ] Line: Maxima Chameleon 20lb 600m £17.99 Hook: Sakuma Manta 1/0 10 £1.99 Tackle: Maxima Clear 15lb 100m £4.00