Catch Report - Seaton - 15th September 2018 (6)

Date: 15-09-2018

Time of day: Evening - night

Location: Seaton

Mark: Main beach

Low Tide: 04:20(0.95m) 16:38(1.10m) 05:00(1.27m) 17:17(1.42m)

High Tide: 10:52(3.89m) 23:16(3.74m) 11:31(3.61m) 23:57(3.39m)

Time fished from: 20:30

Time fished to: 02:00

Weather: Cloudy with a little sunshine and a strong wind blowing in from the sea

Sea: Fairly clear with waves up to 2 feet high

Method: Ledger (homemade pulley rig) | Ledger (homemade pulley rig) | Ledger (homemade 2 hook flapper)

Bait: Whole large frozen sandeel, whole frozen loligo squid, frozen peeler crab | whole large frozen sandeel, frozen lugworm and squid pieces, frozen lugworm, frozen mackerel segments

Caught (weight): 1 Pouting (0lbs 1oz, Guessed), 1 pouting (0lbs 1oz, guessed), 1 pouting (0lbs 2oz, guessed), 1 Whiting (0lbs 1oz, guessed), 1 conger eel (2lbs 8oz, guessed), 1 conger eel (1lbs 0oz, guessed)

The Session: I fished Seaton with a friend and we arrived at around 8pm to find one convenient area with enough room for both of us. I set up two ledger rods, one with a pulley rig and the other with a flapper rig and tried different baits over the session. I was varying the range of my casts from 40 to 80 yards.

The first fish was on the flapper rig and it took a hook baited with a lugworm and squid. The fish was very small and I decided to switch the rig to a pulley rig and use it as bait. I cast it about 40 yards out and left it for a long time, until while I was rebaiting my other rod I thought I saw the tip moving as if a fish was taking it but nothing much more happened. After about another 5 minutes I reeled the rod in to find a small conger eel on the end.

Over the rest of the session I had more small bites but only managed to hook small pouting and a whiting on sandeel and squid baits until I decided to try a crab that I didn''t realise I''d brought with me. It resulted in another small conger eel which, apart from a good bite on our first few casts, was the only other one worth striking at.

We stuck at it despite the strong wind and lack of decent bites before we were the only people left fishing on the main beach. I had one last bite shortly before deciding to pack up but it was not enough to change our minds and stay longer.

I''ve had worse sessions on this beach and also much better ones. It was surprising to have conger eel as the main and biggest species, which has happened to me a few times this year. They are rather common catches at the moment.

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

Set up 1: Rod: Daiwa Seahunter X 14ft 3 piece Fixed Spool (£60.00) [ > 0 years 4 months ]

Reel: Wychwood Riot Fixed Spool (£39.99) [ > 0 years 2 months ]

Line: Maxima Chameleon 20lb (£17.99) 600m

Hooks: Sakuma Manta 2/0 (£13.05) 100

Shockleader: Gardner Slinky 60lb (£6.99) 100M

Hooklength: Sunset Amnesia 40lb (£4.50) 100m

Set up 2: Rod: Daiwa Crosscast 13ft 3 piece Fixed Spool (£60.00) [ > 0 years 10 months ]

Reel: Daiwa Crosscast S 5000 Fixed spool (£48.99) [ > 3 years 6 months ]

Line: Maxima Chameleon 20lb (£17.99) 600m

Hooks: Sakuma Stinger 2 (£15.00) 100

Shockleader: Gardner Slinky 60lb (£6.99) 100M

Hooklength: Maxima Clear 15lb (£4.00) 100m

Set up 3: Rod: Daiwa Crosscast 13ft 3 piece Fixed Spool (£60.00) [ > 0 years 10 months ]

Reel: Daiwa Crosscast S 5000 Fixed spool (£48.99) [ > 3 years 6 months ]

Line: Maxima Chameleon 20lb (£17.99) 600m

Hooks: Sakuma Manta 2/0 (£13.05) 100

Shockleader: Gardner Slinky 60lb (£6.99) 100M

Hooklength: Sunset Amnesia 40lb (£4.50) 100m