Catch report - Woolacombe - 3rd June 2016 (6)

Date: 03-06-2016

Time of day: Night

Location: Woolacombe

Mark: Right hand side of main beach

Low Tide: 11:06(1.05m) 23:34(0.98m)

High Tide: 17:27(9.00m) 05:54(9.26m)

Time fished from: 21:30

Time fished to: 01:50

Weather: Sunny and calm but an increasing fairly cold wind from behind over the session.

Sea: Very clear, small waves rolling for around 60 yards punctuated by short periods of larger waves about 4ft high.

Method: Ledger (Pulley pennel rig) | Ledger (Pulley rig)

Bait: Half frozen extra large sandeel | Frozen peeler crab, half frozen extra large sandeel

Caught (weight): 1 Small Eyed Ray (9lbs 9oz, Weighed), 3 Dogfish (1lbs 0oz, Guessed), 3 Dogfish (1lbs 8oz, Guessed) | 1 Dogfish (1lbs 0oz, Guessed), 1 Dogfish (1lbs 5oz, Guessed)

The Session: I set up the first rod with half a frozen sandeel and a 'flat' 150g lead. I cast it around 80 yards, which was beyond the back breaker. The first bite came before I had set up the second rod. It was a rather lively dogfish. I rebaited this rod and the proceeded to set up the second rod with 40lb hooklength and a whole peeler crab with the shell left on. From then until 00:45 I had a number of bites, mainly on the sandeel and all the ones I landed were dogfish. One of them had swallowed the hook and I decided to cut the line. While reeling in another one a fox took interest and I had to chase it off. At around the turn of the tide I changed my leads to grip leads as the flat ones were not staying still. At just after 1 o'clock the rod baited with sandeel showed a rather gentle bite I thought it would be another dogfish so I struck hard so as not to give the fish time to swallow the hook. Once I was sure the spikes of the gripper lead had collapsed I realised this fish was not a dogfish. It was making occasional pulls strong enough to cause me to backwind and be cautious when winding down. After a 5 minute fight I saw in the surf a sizeable ray. The tide was coming in quite fast and I made a quick decision to pull the fish up the sand via the line because I couldn't hold the fish and the rod and the tide was getting close to my tripod. As I pulled, the line snapped at the hook and I made a quick grab for the wing of the fish as it tried to turn in the shallow surf. I managed to pull the fish ashore and found the hook was conveniently in the front of its mouth. I unhooked it without problem and also managed to weigh it. As I have only caught one ray before and so not yet able to judge weight by the size I was surprised to see the electronic scales show 9.62lb and double checked with some dial scales, which showed a weight about half a pound lower. I then took a few photographs before returning it to the sea and watched it swim gracefully through the shallow surf. It was after this catch that I considered packing up as I was more than pleased with what I had brought ashore but I continued for a while, catching more dogfish and fishing both rods with sandeel for the last bit of the session, then finally packing up as a second dogfish had swallowed the hooks. Overall I was very pleased with the session and with the performance of the different hooks I was trying out. I put the swallowed hooks down to the dogfish just doing that anyway and not down to the type or size of hook. I decided to check my scales as I was writing this report and my kitchen scales register 1/2 ounce lighter when weighing various objects.

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

Set up 1: Rod: Daiwa Seahunter X 14ft 3 piece Fixed spool (£64.07) [ > 2 years 1 months ] Reel: Daiwa Crosscast S 5000 Fixed spool (£48.99) [ > 1 years 3 months ] Line: Maxima Hi-Viz 15lb (£12.29) 550m Hooks: Sakuma Manta size 2/0 (£2.35) 10 per pack Hooklength: Shakespeare Omni-X Connect Clear 15lb (£5.49)

Set up 2: Rod: Ron Thompson Evo Surf 15ft 3 piece Fixed Spool (£30.00) [ > 2 years 10 months ] Reel: Mitchell 667FG Fixed spool (£23.90) [ > 2 years 10 months ] Line: Maxima Chameleon 20lb (£17.99) 600m Hooks: Sakuma Manta size 2/0 (£2.35) 10 per pack Hooklength: Ultima Memorex 40lb 50m (£5.95)

Set up 3:

Set up 4: