Catch Report - Seaton, Cornwall - 8th November 2019 (5)

Date From: 08/11/2019 17:30:00

Date To: 08/11/2019 21:45:00

Time of day: Evening

Location: Seaton, Cornwall

Mark: Main beach

Low Tide:

Moon Phase:

Weather: Mostly clear sky and sheltered with some wind from behind.

Sunrise/Sunset:

Sea: Clear with waves up to 2 feet high, rolling for 80 yards over low tide

Method: Ledger (shop bought 2 hook flapper) | Ledger (shop bought up and over rig)

Bait: King ragworm | Frozen Launce

Caught:

The Session:

I took a 2 hour drive down to Seaton in Cornwall to meet up with other anglers for a session hopefully catching a variety of species. I arrived just after 5pm by which time the others, John, Bob and dodders were already fishing.

I set up on their left and began by setting up the rod with a flapper rig and casting it around 60 yards. It was not as far as I usually cast because the swell was quite big which meant it was not possibly to comfotably get close to the water to cast. Ideally I would have worn Waders but due to the cold I opted for wellies and a flotation suit.

I had a bite almost immediately on this rod and the others had begun to get them and catch fish too. I missed the first few bites though as they were very quick and short shakes of the rod tip and because I was still setting up my other rod so I was just chancing the strike. Once I got my other rod cast out, which was a bit further, I went and said hello to the others and learned they had begun catching.

The bites on the ragworm on the flapper rig kept coming and I left some a long time before the bite stopped and I reeled in to find my hooks stripped of bait so I thought it was going to be a case of chancing the strikes again as the fish weren't hooking themselves.

Then the other rod tip began showing a bite and it was different to the others, which I expected as I had a whole Launce on for bait. The line went a bit slack and I tightened up the line and held the rod, feeling movement on the end, but I suspected it might be weed. I pulled the rod back gently and again felt shaking coming through to the rod tip so I pulled back again hard and spent the time reeling in undecided if I had weed of a fish. It turned out I had both and the weed mostly fell off as I brought a nice sized Bass towards me which myself and John guessed at around 1lb.

After this fish it was a while before I had any more bites but the others steadily caught. I tried some short casts of 40 yards and others as hard as I could do them and eventually joined the others in getting bite. they were still hard to connect with though and over the session I managed 3 small Whiting and finally a Pouting, which was less than the others but I was pleased with the catch nonetheless.

I like this beach because it has two main features, one is the steap slop at the top and the other is the flatness over low tide, which I am more used to as it is similar to the beach marks I fish in North Devon. the only problem on this session was that near low tide it was a 60 yard or more cast just to get over the shallow water where I was on the left hand side. Waders are a neccessity here I think. I did manage to walk onto a sandbank further to my left at one point and cast out from the real shoreline meaning I was possibly 120 yards out once I put my rod back in the tripod. I didn't have a bite on that cast, but I feel had I have known before hand and I had waders on, I would have had some valuable casts over the exposed sand and few inches of water which could have got me a fish like a ray which someone had when we met here last year.

I was going to stay late but the cold wind, lack of bites later on, and rain, plus a busy day at home the next day concinved me to pack up when the last of the others did and while chatting to them near the end we noticed a circle of clear sky around the moon, which we had not seen before but we found out to be caused by ice crystals. I should have got a photograph but the cold put me off getting my Bridge Camera out, which I regret a bit now especially as it is pretty much a localised spectacle as we found when we got back to the cars and could not see the effect from there.

All in all, good to have another meet, though it the highlight was really the mention of meeting again the following week, rather than any special fish caught this night.

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