Date: 22-12-2018
Time of day: Night
Location: Porlock-Bay
Mark: Left hand side of Weir
Low Tide: 11:31(1.47m) 23:52(1.15m)
High Tide: 05:39(10.13m) 18:04(10.23m)
Time fished from: 21:20
Time fished to: 02:00
Weather: Cloudy, mostly calm occasional wind from various directions.
Sea: Murky with a small swell and small waves breaking.
Method: Ledger (homemade pulley rig) | Ledger (homemade pulley rig)
Bait: Frozen whole launce | frozen whole loligo squid
Caught (weight): 1 Dogfish (1lbs 6oz, guessed), 1 Dogfish (1lbs 8oz, Guessed) | 1 Dogfish (1lbs 12oz, Guessed), 1 Dogfish (1lbs 8oz, Guessed)
The Session: Due to the time of year and the changeable weather I made a last minute decision to go fishing and decided on Porlock Weir because it is fairly easy to walk to the mark and get set up. I walked along the top of the shingle bank to just past a patch of discarded squid. I expected to find some lost tackle as this was evidence of people fishing over high tide, where I think you need to be able to cast well over 100 yards to ensure you clear the rocks and hit sand, but even then you can easily become snagged as you are reeling in.
With my two usual ledger rods I cast them both around 70 yards. I kept the baits the same over the session. I began hopeful and expected bites from the first cast but it was not to be. After a few casts there were signs of something having a go at the bait but theer were crabs out there as well so sometimes the hooks were coming back bare.
I decided to take a walk around to see if I could find any lost tackle but didn''t see any until I returned to my rods and reeled one in. I had set up in an area with large rocks in front of me and my lead snagged briefly on the way in and as I was tring to free it I saw a dogfish in between some rocks. I was founl-hooked with a lot of line attached, but no weight. I freed it and put it back. When I went to reel in my other rod it too was snagged and I ended up loosing everything despite using a rotten bottom. going by where the line was entering the water I had allowed my line to bow and my leader knot must have pulled into some rocks.
Before I recast I moved along about 50 yards until there were smaller rocks in front of me again and when I looked back to the ground behind me I saw plenty of clear area behind me with a very rough circle of large stones and realised this is where I was on my last session here.
Still with barely any bites I decided to go for another tackle finding walk at low tide. This time I began to see line which I freed by lifting the large rocks until I saw the lead weight and was able to free it. I ended up with 6 weights, rigs and some shock leaders, even a couple with rotten bottoms. Most of them looked recently lost with one clearly lost some time ago but the weight was still usable. One of them had a dogfish on the hook. This one I noticed as I was walking back to my rods, level with where my box was which meant the fish must have been out of the water for an hour or so.
The turn of the tide appeared to bring some fish around. I could have guessed they''d all be dogfish and I missed or lost twice as many as I hooked, landing the first at 00:20 and the last at 01:02 before the bites slowing down and after missing one at 2am on my last launce I decided to pack up. I was glad to get out again but I hoped for at least a conger eel or cod.
Tackle used (price) [ time since first used ]:
Set up 1: Rod: Daiwa Seahunter X 14ft 3 piece Fixed Spool (£60.00) [ > 0 years 7 months ]
Reel: Daiwa Crosscast S 5000 Fixed spool (£48.99) [ > 3 years 9 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) [ > 1 years 0 months ]
Reel: Shakespeare Agility Surf 70FD Fixed Spool (£39.99) [ > 4 years 7 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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