Catch Report - Ilfracombe - 25th May 2019 (13)

Date: 25-05-2019

Time of day: Evening - Night

Location: Ilfracombe

Mark: The Pier

Low Tide: 04:27 (2.51m) 16:41 (2.86m) 05:22 (2.91m) 17:43 (3.24m)

High Tide: 10:55 (7.24m) 23:21 (7.25m) 11:47 (6.84m)

Time fished from: 17:30

Time fished to: 01:00

Weather: Sunny with just a little bit of wind.

Sea: Clear with just a swell of a foot.

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

Bait: Frozen whole large sandeel | frozen whole loligo squid | frozen mackerel strips | frozen whole mackerel

Caught (weight): 1 Dogfish (1lbs 8oz, Guessed) | 1 Coalfish (0lbs 4oz, Guessed), 1 Pollock (0lbs 2oz, Guessed), 1 Pollock (0lbs 3oz, Guessed), 1 Pollock (0lbs 4oz, Guessed), 1 Pollock (0lbs 4oz, Guessed), 1 Pollock (0lbs 5oz, Guessed), 1 Black Goby (0lbs 1oz, Guessed), 1 Dogfish (1lbs 4oz, Guessed), 1 Dogfish (1lbs 4oz, Guessed), 1 Dogfish (1lbs 4oz, Guessed), 1 Dogfish (1lbs 8oz, Guessed), 1 Dogfish (1lbs 6oz, Guessed), 1 Edible Crab (1lbs 0oz, Guessed)

The Session: I set up on the upper part of the pier as I was going to be fishing until after high tide and I didn''t want to have to move later. I began with a ledger rod and float rod and as usual I cast the ledger rod around 70 yards straight out and then dropped the float down by the side of the pier at a depth of around 8 feet.

Even before I set up my second ledger rod I had to bring the first one in due to boats approaching the harbour and even after I had set up my second ledger rod more boats came and went and I spent most of the first couple of hours just float fishing because some of the boats approached fast and came quite near to the pier as they went around the corner. On two occasions the boats came in so fast I didn''t have time to reel in both rods between the time I saw them and the time they were in front of me and I ended up having to let out line so it went slack and sunk. I decided to put out my prawn trap aswell for something else to keep me occupied until the boat activity died down. I put several old squid in there as well as some old sandeel and a bit of mackerel.

Within the first hour I began to get bites on the float and I landed 3 fish, the first a Coalfish and then two Pollock. The bites continued but many of them were very small pulls. As i held the rod I could feel the fish take the bait because the tow in the water was pulling the float to the side so the line was quite tight, but they quickly dropped it before I had time to react.

I checked the prawn trap and had a small Black Goby in it but nothing else and quickly put it back to leave it for another hour. I was able to begin using the ledger rods now so began casting them around 60 to 70 yards again. The float produced another pollock before I checked the prawn trap again and this time there was a Coalfish inside. Two more Pollock came to the float soon after but I had no bites on the ledger and began to cast them shorter distances. It was a while before I had a bite on them though and the bites on the float stopped so I had an hour of just sitting around. I decided to set up a rod for Conger Eel before it got dark.

After darkness fell I began to get bites on the ledger rods and had 4 dogfish, 3 on sandeel and one on squid. The bites were typical of them, so I didn;t expect any to be Rays or anything else. I decided to check the prawn trap again and it felt heavy when it came out of the water, which was because of a fair sized crab being inside. I had one more dogfish on sandeel afterwards and then finally a 3 Bearded Rockling in the prawn trap. I fished for another hour but had no more bites so I decided to pack up.

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

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

Reel: Wychwood Riot Fixed Spool (£39.99) [ > 0 years 11 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: Daiwa Seahunter Z 12ft 2 piece Fixed Spool (£37.99) [ > 0 years 3 months ]

Reel: Shakespeare Agility Surf 70FD Fixed Spool (£39.99) [ > 5 years 1 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 3: Rod: Shakespeare Omni Mackerel 10ft 2 piece Fixed Spool (£17.95) [ > 4 years 11 months ]

Reel: Lineaffe Carp 60 Baitrunner Fixed Spool (£12.00) [ > 2 years 10 months ]

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

Hooks: Sakuma Circle 440 2 (£5.55) 30

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

Set up 4: Rod: Daiwa seahunter Z 13ft 2 piece MFS (£42.99) [ > 1 years 6 months ]

Reel: Lineaeffe Tiger 870 Fixed Spool (£17.00) [ > 0 years 1 months ]

Line: Daiwa Sensor 50lb (£6.99) 230m

Hooks: Sakuma Circle Extra 8/0 (£8.79) 10

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