Date: 01-09-2018
Time of day: Afternoon - Evening
Location: Lilstock
Mark: Left hand reefs and The pipe
Low Tide: 04:42(1.85m) 16:51(2.18m)
High Tide: 10:51(10.59m) 23:12(10.40m)
Time fished from: 16:15
Time fished to: 22:30
Weather: Mostly sunny with some clouds.
Sea: Murky and no waves to begin with changing to waves around 1ft at the pipe
Method: Ledger (homemade pulley rig) | Ledger (homemade pulley rig)
Bait: Frozen peeler crab, Live ragworm and squid piece | frozen peeler crab, Live ragworm and squid piece, frozen whole loligo squid
Caught (weight): 1 Conger Eel (3lbs 0oz, Guessed) | Nothing
The Session: I have been intending to fish Lilstock much sooner, since I fished Kilve reefs earlier in the year. When I remembered earlier in the week I decided to give the low tide and onwards window a try with the baits that had been advised in the write ups on other web sites. I stopped off in Watchet and paid a visit to the tackle shop there and bought some very large ragworm for the session. The manager was very friendly and welcoming and the service and bait quality was excellent and I will definitely be bearing them in mind for grabbing bait en-route when I travel that way again.
Once I arrived at the beach, which was a few hundred yards from the car park down a dirt track I saw what has been called ''the pipe'' mark and I knew I wanted to fish the reefs so I walked to the left along the pathway and then found an easy way to climb down to the beach over the large boulders, just before I reached the bare metal gate. another angler was fishing much further to the left and I haded almost straight down to the water and set up just in front of what looked like a patch of sand, but was actually a large patch of mud, so I ended up moving back to the right a few yards once I had set the rods up.
I cast both rods as far as I could, around 70 to 80 yards after baiting one with a crab and the other with a ragworm and squid. I knew this mark was snaggy so I used a rotten bottom link of 10lb line and bent out the spikes on my grip leads to help them sit on top of any rocks. I had a bite on the first cast on the ragworm and squid and I struck, briefly felt the fish and then also felt that the weight was snagged. I pulled it hard and walked to the right to try and free it but I couldn''t. I left it with slack line for a while to see if the fish would pull the line and weight free but there was no movement so I then walked back with the rod and pulled the line straight back. The line parted somewhere above the leader knt so I lost everything, which was obviously not a good start. Once I set that rod up again I checked my other rod before casting it out. It was snagged aswell but It came free when I pulled it so I made my next casts go at angles in each direction.
Again the rod with ragworm and squid showed a bite. It was similar to the first as some determined short pulls. I struck and again felt the fish but got snagged and again I lost everything. I decided to use pyramid lead weights on the next cast to see if that would help. I was snagged again when I struck at the next fish. After much pulling and walking along the shore I managed to free it but it snagged again when I was reeling in. I could feel the fish was on too. I feed it again but at the cost of the lead this time. The fish was a small, lively conger eel.
The other rod was snagged when I decided to check it to change the baitand I lost that weight too and then I lost two more on sucessive casts when I struck at bites. I had bought plenty of weights but I wasn''t prepared to lose on on every cast so I decided to move and try back at ''the pipe'' mark which was supposed to be less snaggy. Thankfully it was. It was more difficult to fish from as the ground was roundish boulders as opposed to the mixture of mud, sand and large stones over to the left. The problem here was that I wasn''t getting any bites. I stuck it out until after dark with just one bite on squid before dark and then once the tide had almost reached the pipe I reeled in both rods to find them snagged and again I lost both leads.
Overall a very disappointing session. I''ll probably try this mark again but will likely choose a bigger low tide and go further to the left before trying over to the right hand side of the entrance over high tide. I know this mark fished well but I don''t want to keep leaving all that lost tackle so It might not be an area I''ll enjoy fishing.
Tackle used (price) [ time since first used ]:
Set up 1: Rod: Daiwa seahunter Z 13ft 2 piece MFS (£42.99) [ > 0 years 9 months ]
Reel: Shakespeare Agility Surf 70FD Fixed Spool (£39.99) [ > 4 years 4 months ]
Line: Maxima Chameleon 20lb (£17.99) 600m
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 Seahunter X 14ft 3 piece Fixed Spool (£60.00) [ > 0 years 4 months ]
Reel: Wychwood Riot Fixed Spool (£39.99) [ > 0 years 2 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
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