Rock Marks Fishing - Sea Fishing - Catch Report - Ilfracombe

Date: 10-05-2019

Time of day: Evening - Night

Location: Ilfracombe

Mark: The pier

Low Tide: 03:54 (1.79m) 16:17 (2.03m) 04:49 (2.19m) 17:18 (2.45m)

High Tide: 10:26 (8.12m) 22:45 (8.06m) 11:22 (7.67m) 23:48 (7.67m)

Time fished from: 19:15

Time fished to: 01:15

Weather: Sunny with just a light wind.

Sea: Fairly clear and flat with just a small swell.

Method: Ledger (homemade pulley rig) | Ledger (homemade pulley rig) | float | Ledger (running ledger)

Bait: Frozen small sandeel, frozen extra large sandeel | frozen whole loligo squid | frozen mackerel strips | frozen whole scad

Caught (weight): (lbs oz, ) 1 Pollock (0lbs 3oz, Guessed), 1 Pollock (0lbs 8oz, Guessed), 1 Pollock (0lbs 3oz, Guessed), 1 Coalfish (0lbs 6oz, Guessed), 1 Pollock (0lbs 3oz, Guessed), 1 Pollock (0lbs 3oz, Guessed), 1 Pollock (0lbs 4oz, Guessed), 1 Spotted Ray (2lbs 8oz, Guessed), 1 Pollock (0lbs 10oz, Guessed), 1 Dogfish (1lbs 8oz, Guessed), 1 Dogfish (1lbs 8oz, Guessed), 1 Dogfish (1lbs 8oz, Guessed), 1 Spotted Ray (2lbs 8oz, Guessed), 1 Dogfish (1lbs 4oz, Guessed), 1 Dogfish (1lbs 8oz, Guessed), 1 Dogfish (1lbs 8oz, Guessed), 1 Dogfish (1lbs 8oz, Guessed), q Dogfish (1lbs 8oz, Guessed)

The Session: I hadn''t planned to go out so this was a spur of the moment decision and I wasn''t expecting to catch a lot as I would be fishing over high tide.

On the higher part of the pier I set up a ledger with pulley rig and sandeel first and cast it around 70 yards straight out. Then I set up a float rod which was set at around 10 feet deep and dropped it just a yard from the edge of the pier and watched the float for a bit. The tow took it steadily over to my right and it kept around 2 yards from the wooden pillar once it couldn''t travel any further to my right. I use a long hooklength when I float fish as I believe this helps the baits move around in the water like it isn''t attched to anything, so With the float held back by the rod the bait would be varying between 10 and 7 foot deep.

The first bite was quite soon after the first drop of the float and it was a small pollock, which was what I expected to get. Each time I put the float down the edge again I would see the float dip down quickly which I assumed was small fish and 20 minutes after the first one the float dipped under a couple of times and then stayed just under the surface so I lifted the rod and was a little surprised to feel something pull back quite hard. After a minute long fight I lifted a larger pollock out.

I began setting up the next ledger rod once I put that pollock back and after catching another small pollock on the float I cast the ledger around 40 yards to my right a bit baited with a whole squid, then I put out a prawn trap with old squid and other bait in and continued to re-position the float and let it drift with the tow off to my right a few yards, over the prawn trap which I expected to attract more fish with a scent trail. The float kept showing small dips and the fish were letting go quite quickly, I struck at one and hooked another fish. I didn''t take much notice of it until I was photographing it and I saw it was a Coalfish. On the very next cast I had another small pollock.

After another pollock I lifted the prawn trap for the first time. As I was doing so I had a bite on the float, which was only a yard or two away from the prawn trap so the fish were not scared off by the trap being pulled through the water. The trap contained a small edible crab which was a couple of inches across and no sooner had I dropped the trap again the float went under and I had another small pollock.

Things went quiet for a bit now. I hadn''t noticed any bites on my ledger rods that were worth striking at, which I had cast about 5 times each. I set up a conger rod with a whole scad on and dropped it down the edge. As I was wondering if I would get any fish on the ledger rods tonight something took the small sandeel bait. The rod tip moved just like a dogfish bite and I gave it a while before striking. Apart from the fish staying deep and the occasional pull back I thought I had a large dogfish, or small Bull Huss but then I saw a Ray appear at the surface and I managed to get it over the edge of the steps safely enough to reach over and lift it up. It was smaller than the Spotted Ray I''d had in previous years but larger than the one I had the other week, just by a bit.

I hoped this was marking the start of a night of catching Spotted Ray. But unfortunately it wasn''t.

I missed another couple of bites on the sandeel and lost a dogfish before landing another pollock on the float which was to be the last fish on float for the night. The next half an hour produced 3 dogfish from 5 bites and also a few crabs and a single prawn in the trap. One crab was the largest Velvet Swimming Crab I''d ever seen. It had large claws and bits of weed growing on its shell.

Shortly after catching a dogfish the rod tip of the sandeel rod bent right over as something hooked itself. As Ray do this now and again I hoped it was another, and it was, and was a little larger than the previous one. After this fish the prawn trap produced another small edible crab and I had 5 more dogfish from around 10 bites, on both squid and sandeel, most of them came off when I was reeling them in and one time I had two on one hook and one of them fell off as I lifted them.

Almost out of Sandeel, and as I had stayed as long as I intended I packed up, satisfied with the session with the float providing the fish until darkness fell. The Scad on the conger rod was still whole when I packed up, there were just a few marks on it where crabs had eaten a bit.

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

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

Reel: Daiwa Crosscast S 5000 Fixed spool (£48.99) [ > 4 years 2 months ]

Line: Maxima Crystal Ivory 20lb (£14.08) 651 yards

Hooks: Sakuma Manta 2/0 (£13.05) 100

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

Hooklength: Sunset Amnesia 25lb (£6.25) 100m

Set up 2: Rod: Daiwa Seahunter Z 12ft 2 piece Fixed Spool (£37.99) [ > 0 years 2 months ]

Reel: Shakespeare Agility Surf 70FD Fixed Spool (£39.99) [ > 5 years 0 months ]

Line: Maxima Crystal Ivory 20lb (£14.08) 651 yards

Hooks: Sakuma Manta 2/0 (£13.05) 100

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