Date: 12-01-2019
Time of day: Afternoon - evening
Location: Ilfracombe
Mark: The pier
Low Tide: 02:57(2.23m) 15:25(2.31m)
High Tide: 09:29(7.95m) 21:45(7.59m)
Time fished from: 15:30
Time fished to: 21:00
Weather: Cloudy with a strong wind from behind (westerly)
Sea: Fairly murky and very choppy with a 3 foot swell
Method: Ledger (homemade pulley rig) | Ledger (homemade 2 hook flapper) | float | Ledger (running ledger)
Bait: Frozen medium sandeel, frozen whole loligo squid | frozen black lugworm, frozen squid pieces | frozen mackerel strips | frozen mackerel head
Caught (weight): 1 Pollock (0lbs 4oz, Guessed), 1 Pouting (0lbs 4oz, Guessed)
The Session: I gave my local pier a go as the first session of the year and I decided to arrive in daylight and fish until high tide. When I got there there were already several anglers there and more arrived just after me.
I set up my usual 4 rods and a prawn trap and cast the ledger rods around 60 yards out, the float dropped under the rod tip and the conger rod under the rod tip too, ebfore finally loading the prawn trap with lots of squid and sandeel and dropping that down the edge too.
Things were very slow. I had some bites on the float rod but they were all quick and I only managed to hook a pollock after an hour and a half. The bites then stopped and I still had nothing on the other rods.
After another hour and several recasts I had one bite on the flapper rig. I hooked the fish and as I expected it was a small Pouting. After that the session was virtually biteless and other anglers looked as if they were not catching anything either. I spent some time near the end of the session chatting to the angler next to me and although we both had intended to stay till after high tide we both packed up before.
It wasn''t a good start to the year and I was surprised to not have any rockling in the prawn trap. They haven''t shown this winter in the numbers they have done previously.
Tackle used (price) [ time since first used ]:
Set up 1: Rod: Daiwa Seahunter X 14ft 3 piece Fixed Spool (£60.00) [ > 0 years 8 months ]
Reel: Shakespeare Agility Surf 70FD Fixed Spool (£39.99) [ > 4 years 8 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: Daiwa Crosscast 13ft 3 piece Fixed Spool (£60.00) [ > 1 years 2 months ]
Reel: Daiwa Crosscast S 5000 Fixed spool (£48.99) [ > 3 years 10 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
Set up 3: Rod: Shakespeare Omni Mackerel 10ft 2 piece Fixed Spool (£17.95) [ > 4 years 6 months ]
Reel: Lineaffe Carp 60 Baitrunner Fixed Spool (£12.00) [ > 2 years 5 months ]
Line: Maxima Chameleon 20lb (£17.99) 600m
Hooks: Sakuma Stinger 2 (£15.00) 100
Hooklength: Maxima Clear 15lb (£4.00) 100m
Set up 4: Rod: Daiwa seahunter Z 13ft 2 piece MFS (£42.99) [ > 1 years 1 months ]
Reel: Leeda Quicksilver Fixed Spool (£19.95) [ > 1 years 8 months ]
Line: Daiwa Sensor 50lb (£6.99) 230m
Hooks: Sakuma Circle Extra 6/0 (£7.29) 10
Hooklength: Gardner Slinky 100lb (£7.95) 100m
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