Date: 27-07-2018
Time of day: Evening
Location: Ilfracombe
Mark: The pier
Low Tide: 00:15(1.75m) 12:34(1.68m)
High Tide: 06:39(8.25m) 18:57(8.58m)
Time fished from: 20:00
Time fished to: 00:30
Weather: A steady wind from right to left and increasing in strength over the session. Occasional rain and passing of dark clouds, which covered the moon for long periods.
Sea: Clear but choppy with a swell of 3 to 4 foot.
Method: Ledger (homemade pulley rig) | Ledger (homemade pulley rig) | float | Ledger (running ledger)
Bait: Frozen launce | frozen launce | frozen mackerel strips | half a pollock
Caught (weight): 2 Pollock (0lbs 1oz, Guessed), 2 pollock (0lbs 6oz, guessed), 3 pollock (0lbs 14oz, Guessed), 1 dogfish (1lbs 6oz, Guessed), 1 dogfish (1lbs 8oz, Guessed)
The Session: The upper part of the pier was full f anglers when I arrived and as I had planned to fish as late as I could anyway I waited until someone packed up so I could take the vacated spot.
I set up one ledger rod first and cast it around 60 yards out baited with a launce and then I set up a float rod and set the depth at around 10 feet deep and dropped it in front of the wooden struts. I was having a great conversation with a man who freshwater fishes while I was setting up and nearly didn''t notice the tiny pulls I was getting on the float. One fish eventually pulled the float under briefly and I struck to find the mackerel stripped from the hook. I rebaited and almost immediately the same thing happend. The bait again was gone and this made me cusrious as to what species it was doing it. As the man I was talking to said goodbye and wished me a good session I struck at the next bite, which just showed as a steadying of the float as it drifted in the tow, and on the end was a tiny pollock. I caught another before concentrating on setting up my other ledger rod and then casting that around 70 yards and recasting my other rod further, both baited with launce.
I only saw occasional movements of the rod tips and each time I reeled in the bait was half eaten by something, but I couldn''t guess what. I moved along the pier once it was clear of water and recast both ledger rods before dropping the float in front of the pier wall again. It wasn''t long before the float went under and the first of several pollock, this one blind in one eye, came to my mackerel strips. One was deeply hooked and bleeding so I knocked it on the head to use for conger bait. These were all caught within a short space of time before the bites stopped on the float and ones began to show on the ledger rods. As I concentrated on these I set up a conger rod and dropped half of the pollock down the side of the pier.
The bites on the ledger rods appeared to be typical dogfish bites but I couldn''t land any of them so I wasn''t sure. One time I was reeling one in and then it fell off leaving just a clump of weed on my line. It was at this moment I glanced at the conger rod to see the tip shaking as it was bending down a bit. As I moved over to it, almost dropping my other rod while I did so, the spool began spinning round and the ratchet confirmed something was beginning to swim with the pollock. As I bent down to pick up the rod and tighten the drag the spool stopped spinning. I waited a minute or two before stricking to feel nothing but weed on the line and covering the bait. The bait had no maks on it at all. I quickly dropped it back down in the water but I had no more bites on this rod.
Eventually on the ledger rods I began to connect with more bites, now I was sure they were dogfish and I landed two before deciding to pack up after seeing a very dark large cloud drifing over, preferring to not risk getting very wet or caught in the prossible thunderstorm that was forecast.
Tackle used (price) [ time since first used ]:
Set up 1: Rod: Daiwa Seahunter X 14ft 3 piece Fixed Spool (£60.00) [ > 1 month ]
Reel: Daiwa Crosscast S 5000 Fixed spool (£48.99) [ > 3 years 4 months ]
Line: Maxima Chameleon 20lb (£17.99) 600m [ > 4 years 6 months ]
Hooks: Sakuma Manta 545 2/0 (£5.39) 30
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) [ > 0 years 8 months ]
Reel: Shakespeare Agility Surf 70FD Fixed Spool (£39.99) [ > 4 years 2 months ]
Line: Maxima Chameleon 20lb (£9.99) 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 3: Rod: Shakespeare Omni Mackerel 10ft 2 piece Fixed Spool (£17.95) [ > 4 years 0 months ]
Reel: Lineaffe Carp 60 Baitrunner Fixed Spool (£12.00) [ > 1 years 11 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) [ > 0 years 7 months ]
Reel: Leeda Quicksilver Fixed Spool (£19.95) [ > 1 years 2 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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