Catch Report - Ilfracombe - 13th June 2018 (20)

Date: 13-06-2018

Time of day: Evening - night

Location: Ilfracombe

Mark: The Pier

Low Tide: 12:13(0.88m) 00:39(0.83m) 13:02(0.68m)

High Tide: 06:13(9.11m) 18:34(9.27m) 07:01(9.36m) 19:22(9.49m)

Time fished from: 19:15

Time fished to: 02:20

Weather: Overcast and fairly windy with some stronger gusts.

Sea: Clear and choppy with just a small swell.

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

Bait: Frozen peeler crab, frozen medium sandeel | frozen whole loligo squid, frozen medium sandeel | frozen mackerel strips | frozen mackerel head

Caught (weight): 8 Pollock (0lbs 5oz, Guessed), 1 Pollock (0lbs 8oz, Guessed), 1 Pollock (0lbs 14oz, Guessed), 1 Common Blenny (0lbs 1oz, Guessed), 6 Dogfish (1lbs 4oz, Guessed), 3 Dogfish (1lbs 4oz, Guessed)

The Session: I set up on the upper part of the pier with two ledger rods cast around 70 yards baited with sandeel and squid. Ove the session I also tried peeler crab but it was still frozen when I arrived so I couldn''t use it straight away. After around half an hour I also set up a float rod and dropped the float down the side of the pier, just in front of the wooden struts and set at around 18 foot deep.

I began to get bites on the float quite quickly but I missed the first couple because they were so quick. Once I caught the first one, which was a pollock of a common size for this pierI was confident I would catch a few more even before darkness.

Once the sea level had dropped a bit more I moved down some steps and continued with the float but casting it across the front of the pier so it was around 10 yards to my left and a couple of yards out from the edge. I had a bite on one of the ledger rods, on sandeel and was rebvaiting when I saw the float lift up and lay flat on the surface. I thought my weight had snagged so I reeled in and found a small blenny on the hook. I must have been fishing very close to, or on the bottom and the fish took the bait and swam up to where it felt safe.

I dropped the float out again and recast my ledger rod, turned back to look at the float as it shot under as an onlooker commented at how fast it had gone under. He was working in the area and was considering trying sea fishing. We had a conversation as I caught a few more pollock, and missed some, and I gave him what I hoped would be enough information, specifically on how little money you need to start sea fishing, for him to decide to give it a go. certianly he said he would be happy catching pollock like I was.

At around 21:30 I moved to the lower part of the pier as it was now clear of water. I recast all 3 rods and began to set up a rod to fish the mackerel head on. It wasn''t long before I had the first dogfish on double sandeel, and then that was followed by a steady stream of mostly missed or bumped off, dogfish bites and pollock bites on the float. after darkness fell I resorted to my usual way of relying mostly on the rod tip to show bites on the float and use the float as simply a way to suspend the bait in the water. Sometimes though I would use my headtorch, with the beam turned down very low with just enough light to see the float and, in this clear water, as I saw a couple of times, pollock were swimming about below as my bait fell through the water. I even saw the flash of the largest of the session as it took the bait and pulled the float quickly under.

My freezer has had quirte a bit of refrozen bait in it and I had brought plenty along to put in a prawn trap. I thought that this time I would put plenty in, just a couple of times rather than a few pieces of bait each cast, over the length of the session, so in went a few squid, sandeels, lugworm and chunks of mackerel. I gave the trap a lift after 15 minutes to try and see what I might expect in a short timespan and found there to be already 4 prawns and a Velvet Swimming crab in the net. I continued to get prawns over the session in this net and ended up with over 20.

The pollock stopped biting but the dogfish continued. I didn''t feel any bite I had was from any other species and had nothing on the mackerel head. I forgot about my float for quite a while and ended up losing it when my line caught under a limpet shell on the side of a rock and snapped as I tried to break it free.

After using up nearly all of my bait I packed up. There was still plenty of time until the tide reached the lower pier surface again but I decided to get home and some sleep to head out again tomorrow rather than opt for the possibiltiy of a few more prawns and maybe a conger eel or bass on the mackerel head.

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

Set up 4: Rod: Daiwa seahunter Z 13ft 2 piece MFS (£42.99) [ > 0 years 6 months ]

Reel: Leeda Quicksilver Fixed Spool (£19.95) [ > 1 years 1 months ]

Line: Daiwa Sensor 50lb (£6.99) 230m

Hooks: Sakuma Circle Extra 6/0 (£7.29) 10

Hooklength: Gardner Slinky 100lb (£7.95) 100m