Catch Report - Brixham - 14th June 2018 (8)

Date: 14-06-2018

Time of day: Evening - night

Location: Brixham

Mark: The Breakwater

Low Tide: 00:47(0.82m) 13:10(0.77m) 01:34(0.69m) 13:57(0.73m)

High Tide: 07:22(4.91m) 19:43(5.08m) 08:13(4.95m) 20:31(5.14m)

Time fished from: 18:30

Time fished to: 23:45

Weather: sunny and cloudy with a fairly strong wind from the left.

Sea: Choppy and clear with a swell of around 2 foot.

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

Bait: Frozen whole loligo squid | Ragworm | Ragworm

Caught (weight): 1 Ballan Wrasse (0lbs 8oz, Guessed), 2 Corkwing Wrasse (0lbs 5oz, Guessed), 1 Cuckoo Wrasse (0lbs 6oz, Guessed), 3 Pouting (0lbs 3oz, Guessed) | 1 Corkwing Wrasse (0lbs 5oz, Guessed)

The Session: I walked to around 200 yards from the end of the breakwater and set up a legder rod with a flapper rig first. The buoys that were strung out along the breakwater seemed a little further out than when I was at this mark a couple of months ago and so I thought I stood a chance of being able to cast far enough to avoid the week and snags while also avoiding getting snagged on the pot ropes. I cast the flapper rig baited with two ragworm just to the distance of a buoy and pulled it back a bit then released the bale arm again to let the weight sink straight to the bottom. I wound in the tight line, put the rod in the rest and tightened up some more and the rod tip began shaking. I struck and felt a fish on the end. As it neared the surface I felt the weight suddenly go light and noticed the wrasse was still hooked. When I swung it up to me I saw that my rig body had snapped where a crimp was and the lead had come off. I was dissapointed as this was a newly tied rig and I crimped very lightly. I photographed the fish and returned it where it was briefly grabbed by a gull before being dropped, when it then swam away.

Before I tied a new flapper rig I set up the float rod and cast the float out again baited with ragworm, and set at a depth of around 10 foot deep. I cast this a few times as I tied a new rig but had no bites. Once the new rig was tied I recast it the same distance as the first cast and again it wasn''t long before I had another bite. I struck quickly and felt the fish before again feeling everything feel really light. Once again the rig body had snapped. This time I opted for Sunset Amnesia 40lb line and this was fine with the light crimping. I shall not be trying Gardner Slinky for flapper rigs again.

I needed to recast the float as it had drifted in and when I reeled it in there was a corkwing wrasse on the hook. I unhooked it and put it back and then recast the flapper rig and the float after baiting them up. I then began setting up a pulley rig on another rod and put a whole squid on and cast it the same distance.

I had a couple more bites on the flapper rig, both times the rig snagged but I managed to get it back. Then one bite I had, a bit bolder than the previous ones, was from a bright pinkish coloured Cuckoo Wrasse which was the first one of this species I have caught. I quickly released it hoping for another but the next fish, which took the bait 10 minutes later was another Corkwing Wrasse.

On the next cast I lost another rig when it snagged, and then another. I was thinking about packing up but stuck with it. A bit later I then lost the pulley rig when that snagged and I then accepted my big mistake in setting up in front of these buoys. Bites had also stopped and I soon saw what I thought was the reason when a seal surfaced right in front of me and stayed there for abour 5 minutes. Moments after it swam away though I had another bite which, this time was from a small pouting.

It was getting dark now so I decided to move before light faded completely. I went back down the breakwater around 200 yards and recast all 3 rods. an hour passed before I had any more bites and I hooked two more fish on the flapper rig before seeing a bite on the pulley rig. Stupidly I struck as soon as I got to the rod and the tip moved again. I knew I should have waited when the squid came back almost in one piece. I recast hoping the fish would stick around as it wouldn''t have felt the hook but I had no more bites on this rod.

A Velvet Swimming Crab was stuck on the top hook of my flapper rig when I next reeled it in and then I had no more bites over the next half an hour so I decided to pack up and use up my remaining ragworm somewhere tomorrow.

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

Set up 1: Rod: Daiwa Seahunter X 14ft 3 piece Fixed Spool (£60.00) [ 2 weeks ]

Reel: Daiwa Crosscast S 5000 Fixed spool (£48.99) [ > 3 years 3 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: Vercelli Outlander KW 13.5ft 3 Fixed Spool (£33.75) [ > 0 years 2 months ]

Reel: Shakespeare Agility Surf 70FD Fixed Spool (£39.99) [ > 4 years 1 months ]

Line: Daiwa Hyper Sensor 20lb (£12.95) 635m

Hooks: Sakuma Manta 2/0 (£13.05) 100

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

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

Set up 3: Rod: Shakespeare Omni Mackerel 10ft 2 piece Fixed Spool (£17.95) [ > 3 years 11 months ]

Reel: Lineaffe Carp 60 Baitrunner Fixed Spool (£12.00) [ > 1 years 10 months ]

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

Hooks: Sakuma Stinger 2 (£15.00) 100

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