Date: 03-02-2019
Time of day: Afternoon - evening
Location: Minehead
Mark: Gasworks beach
Low Tide: 11:14(1.88m) 23:35(1.73m)
High Tide: 05:26(9.62m) 17:49(9.66m)
Time fished from: 15:30
Time fished to: 20:50
Weather: Cloudy with some sunshine. Mostly no wind but occasional gusts.
Sea: Murky and small waves up to 1ft until after high tide when they dropped to just an inch or two.
Method: Ledger (homemade pulley rig) | Ledger (homemade pulley rig)
Bait: frozen black lugworm, frozen whole loligo squid | frozen whole medium sandeel, frozen whole loligo squid
Caught (weight): 1 Cod (0lbs 12oz, Guessed) 1 Cod (0lbs 12oz, )
The Session: I arrived later than I planned because the roads were not quite clear of snow. I parked and set up along the pebbles and fished two rods, both with pulley rigs and one switching between lugworm and squid and the other sandeel and squid. The lugworm had been refrozen a couple of times after not being used on previosus sessions. Over the whole session I cast both baits as far as I could with most going over 70 yards. I manged to fish the whole session without becoming snagged.
Each cast resulted in the bait coming back almost whole, indicating there were just crabs out there. It was a while before I spotted a bite and it was so quick that I could have missed ones previously. The rod tip just bent down a bit and then settled back and that was it. After a few moments I struck just in case but I didn''t hook anything.
As the anglers to my left and right packed up another angler set up near me and we had a good chat. He told me some small cod and other fish had been caught earlier including by himself. While he was here I had a bite which was worth striking at. It made a few pulls of the rod tip and I was pleased when I felt a small weight on the end and again when it appeared on the shore, seeing it was a small cod. It was hooked inside its mouth and had taken a whole lugworm. The timestamp on the photograph was exactly the time of high tide. I hoped there were more around and bigger in size.
It was the highlight of the session though unfotrtunately. The other angler packed up after losing a rig in a snag and I had a few more bites but they stopped by the time I got my hand on the rod. I moved down the rocks a couple of times as the tide receeded and then packed up when I ran out of lugworm and drizzle was just becoming visible in the air. I was glad I didn''t blank and I had just gone out because I didn''t the week before and I wanted to travel a bit rather than stay local so I enjoyed the session anyway.
Tackle used (price) [ time since first used ]:
Set up 1: Rod: Daiwa Seahunter X 14ft 3 piece Fixed Spool (£60.00) [ > 0 years 9 months ]
Reel: Daiwa Crosscast S 5000 Fixed spool (£48.99) [ > 3 years 11 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 2: Rod: Daiwa seahunter Z 13ft 2 piece MFS (£42.99) [ > 1 years 2 months ]
Reel: Shakespeare Agility Surf 70FD Fixed Spool (£39.99) [ > 4 years 9 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
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