Date: 07-10-2018
Time of day: Afternoon - Evening
Location: Brixham
Mark: The breakwater
Low Tide: 11:26(1.15m) 23:52(0.84m)
High Tide: 05:37(4.70m) 17:52(5.02m)
Time fished from: 13:45
Time fished to: 19:00
Weather: Cloudy with some sunshine. Occasional light breezes.
Sea: Fairly murky with a large swell of up to 4 feet.
Method: Ledger (homemade pulley rig) | Ledger (homemade 2 hook flapper) | float
Bait: Frozen mackerel segments | Live lugworm, frozen black lugworm | frozen mackerel strips, frozen black lugworm
Caught (weight): 2 Pouting (0lbs 2oz, Guessed), 1 Pouting (0lbs 4oz, Guessed) | 1 Mackerel (0lbs 6oz, Guessed), 1 Mackerel (0lbs 8oz, Guessed), 2 Pollock (0lbs 1oz, Guessed), 1 Whiting (0lbs 1oz, Guessed)
The Session: I decided to give Brixham a go late the previous evening so I took a chance on being able to buy live ragworm from the local tackle shop by the harbour but I was unable to so I just bought some frozen bait and live lugworm.
The structure on the left hand side of the breakwater was the usual point I walked up to and I did so again, setting up opposite it. As I walked up the breakwater I could see that there were no pots close in so I was hopeful of catching and not losing any tackle.
I cast both of my ledger rods around 60 yards out each time and I used plain lead weights rather than grip leads to avoid snagging them when reeling it. I had live worm on the flapper rig and mackerel on the pulley rig.
It was around an hour before I had any fish. The bite was from a small Pouting and as I was reeling in I found I had cast over my own line. I hadn''t noticed that there was a bit of a tow to my left so my weights were travelling a bit as they sank. I decided to make each cast land further to my right and swap the rods round each time so the newly cast rod was on the right hand side of my tripod.
Nothing much happened for a while after that, but my hooks were coming back almost stripped of bait so I was either finding crabs, or the fish were not registering on the rod tip. Soon a long line of floating weed appeared and after a couple of casts resulting in my weights being dragged along even more I reeled them in and decided to float fish on the inner side until the weed (hopefully) cleared. It wasn''t long before the mackerel strip, fished at around 10foot deep went under. I missed it. Again it went under. I missed that too. I returned to my box to grab the rest of the mackerel I was using. Pausing briefly to put some down for one of the small birds that frequent there, and take a few photographs, I then recast and shortly afterwards the float went under and I reeled in a small mackerel. Maybe the float fishing would turn up some fish and make the trip worthwhile. I had been there 2 and a half hours now.
Half an hour later I had a small Pollock. After photographing it I returned to my box to find the weed had cleared so I recast my ledger rods and tried with the float rod on the same side before going back to the other side with the float rod as teh lack of bites on the ledger rods were causing me to try and get anything I could.
I had a Whiting on the float before returing to my ledger rods and finding the line on both of them had gone slack because the tide had pushed my weights closer in. Both were snagged and I could only sucessfully get one free, while the other snapped at my leader knot. I continued with just one ledger rod and the float. Upon recasting the other ledger rod, I finally saw a bite and struck to find a small Pouting on one hook. Then I had one more quick try on the other isde with the float again and had anotehr pollock before deciding to have one last cast on my ledger rod before packing up. When I reeled it in it felt to heavy to been just my weight and I was surprised to find a slightly bigger Pouting on the hook but it was not enough to make me stay longer. Though I had already stayed a little past my planned time anyway. I packed up and have decided to not return to the Breakwater unless I can definitely bring some ragworm with me as it has been the one bait that has worked for me here previously.
Tackle used (price) [ time since first used ]:
Set up 1: Rod: Daiwa Seahunter X 14ft 3 piece Fixed Spool (£60.00) [ > 0 years 5 months ]
Reel: Shakespeare Agility Surf 70FD Fixed Spool (£39.99) [ > 4 years 5 months ]
Line: Maxima Hi-Viz 20lb (£15.42) 550m
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 6 months ]
Reel: Daiwa Crosscast S 5000 Fixed spool (£48.99) [ > 3 years 7 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
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