Date: 04-08-2018
Time of day: Evening - night
Location: Ilfracombe
Mark: The pier
Low Tide: 04:53(2.22m) 17:07(2.49m) 05:44(2.50m) 18:10(2.76m)
High Tide: 11:19(7.64m) 23:49(7.64m) 12:15(7.38m)
Time fished from: 18:30
Time fished to: 03:15
Weather: Sunny with occasional breezes
Sea: Clear and choppy with a swell of around 2 feet.
Method: Ledger (homemade pulley rig) | float | Ledger (running ledger)
Bait: Frozen peeler crab, frozen large sandeel, frozen whole loligo squid, live ragworm | live ragworm, frozen mackerel strips | half a frozen bluey, half a frozen mackerel
Caught (weight): 1 Pollock (0lbs 3oz, Guessed), 1 Dab (0lbs 2oz, Guessed), 1 Pollock (1lbs 0oz, Guessed), 1 Pollock (1lbs 4oz, Guessed), 1 Dogfish (1lbs 8oz, Guessed), 1 Conger Eel (3lbs 0oz, Guessed)
The Session: I tried my local pier again to use up the remaining ragworm I had and I set up in the same place, on the upper pier, as I did the night before.
My choice of rods today was one float rod for small fish, one for mixed large and small and one for bigger fish. I set up the float rod first and as I usually do I just dropped the float down a few feet away from the egde of the pier with the depth set around 8ft deep. The first bait was ragworm and every now and again I switched to mackerel strips. I also dropped a prawn trap in the water to try for some smaller fish, crabs and prawns as some entertainment if the fishing was as slow as it had been before.
As I was setting up my ledger rod for fishing squid, crab and sandeel I could see the float constantly dipping under the surface and it was obvious the small pouting were still around in abundance. I struck at a few because I didn''t want to miss any gentle bites from bigger fish but they were all probably too small to get the hook in their mouths. Once I had set up the ledger rod I cast it around 40 yards, which I hoped would not be too far out so it would need reeling in as boats arrived and left the harbour on what was looking like a busy day for them.
As I continued to hope that some of the bites on the float were from bigger fish I chatted to visitors, provided a photo opportunity for a family to take photographs of their children holding my rods and gave two people from New Zealand an idea of how much smaller the fish we expect to catch here are to what they can catch back home. As the crowds became less I did manage to hook one pollock on the float, which was when I was using mackerel so I stayed with mackerel for the rest of the session and then decided to give ragworm a try on the ledger which I also now cast further out, around 70 yards, since the number of boats around had become less. I also moved along the pier a bit, so I was on the middle part of the steps. The bait was out around half an hour when the tip registered a bite which was a series of shakes with long pauses inbetween. I struck at one shake and could feel something on the end and I was quite pleased to see a small dab, as were some other anglers and visitors. That was all the action I would see on that ledger rod for a while though and I set up a rod for a big bait which was going to be some bluey that another angler gave to me as he left earlier. As I usually do I dropped this close to the edge of the pier with a 2oz weight to keep it still, but be light enough to not cause a fish to drop the bait if it picked up and swam straight off with it.
I gave some quick advice to a man and his son who has just arrived and were about to set up on the lower pier as the tide was about to come in over it and they moved up the steps a bit and we had a good couple of hours chatting and fishing together. One time when I lifted the prawn trap a velvet swimming crab was in there which had no front claws. It was larger than most I see and it also entered the trap next time I put it out.
My rod with the bluey on had been out for a while and so I wanted to check the bait hadn''t been taken by crabs so I lifted it sharply, half expecting it to be snagged aswell but it was not and I felt a strange shaking as I reeled it in. I didn''t expect a small Conger Eel to be on the end but was pleased enough when the man and boy said it was the first one they''d seen been caught. I think the last of the visitors who had come to look at the statue were also intrigued to see someone lift a Conger Eel out of the water here and the boy wanted to put it back and showed he would make a great angler with the care he showed for himself and the fish as he put it back on a swell that came up the steps.
As it came for their time to leave I began preparing to move on to the lower pier because it would soon be clear of water. I was the last angler here but there were some fishing from the car park. Once I did move along the pier things were still relatively quiet but I managed to hook and land one dogfish and two pollock, one of which took the bait so hard the float rod butt almost bounced off my tripod as the tip bent fast downwards. The second pollock took the bait at around 3am and I gave it another half an hour before deciding to pack up. I was now contemplating whether to return to Chesil before I returned to work on Monday, from my week off.
Tackle used (price) [ time since first used ]:
Set up 1: Rod: Daiwa Seahunter X 14ft 3 piece Fixed Spool (£60.00) [ > 0 years 3 months ]
Reel: Wychwood Riot Fixed Spool (£39.99) [ > 0 years 1 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 13ft 2 piece MFS (£42.99) [ > 0 years 8 months ]
Reel: Leeda Quicksilver Fixed Spool (£19.95) [ > 1 years 3 months ]
Line: Daiwa Sensor 50lb (£6.99) 230m
Hooks: Sakuma Circle Extra 6/0 (£7.29) 10
Hooklength: Gardner Slinky 100lb (£7.95) 100m
Set up 3: Rod: Shakespeare Omni Mackerel 10ft 2 piece Fixed Spool (£17.95) [ > 4 years 1 months ]
Reel: Lineaffe Carp 60 Baitrunner Fixed Spool (£12.00) [ > 2 years 0 months ]
Line: Maxima Chameleon 20lb (£17.99) 600m
Hooks: Sakuma Stinger 2 (£15.00) 100
Hooklength: Maxima Clear 15lb (£4.00) 100m
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