Catch Report - Unnamed - 7th July 2018 (7)

Date: 07-07-2018

Time of day: Evening

Location: Unnamed

Mark:  Rock Mark

Low Tide: 06:35(2.67m) 19:04(2.86m)

High Tide: 00:30(7.39m) 12:59(7.20m)

Time fished from: 19:30

Time fished to: 23:20

Weather: Sunny with very little wind.

Sea: Very clear and calm but with an swell increasing to around 2 foot later in the session.

Method: Ledger (homemade pulley rig) | Ledger (homemade pulley rig)

Bait: Frozen peeler crab | Frozen large sandeel

Caught (weight): 1 Smoothound (6lbs 10oz, Weighed), 1 Smoothhound (9lbs 1oz, Weighed), 1 Smoothound (5lbs 5oz, Weighed), 1 Smoothound (5lbs 12oz, Weighed), 1 Smoothound (8lbs 0oz, Weighed), 1 Smoothound (8lbs 8oz, Weighed) | 1 Dogfish (1lbs 8oz, Guessed)

The Session: This was my first time at this mark. It has a reputation for being difficult to get to and quite dangerous so I travelled light, using a rucksack with just the minimum amount of terminal tackle, and my holdall with just two rods and my tripod in.

The initial part of the walk from the parking area was fairly easy, with brambles and a steep grassy slope being the worst to deal with. I can imagine that this might be difficult to get up in wet weather or after a damp morning. I folowed the pathway that had been worn into the grass by previous people and once I arrived at the top of the cliff edge I looked down and saw the very steep and dusty slope down to the rocks. It was pretty much a straight descent with a deepish ridge which helped with keeping my footing at certain points. There was one part which left me exposed on my left side which would have meant that a wrong foot or losing balance could have meant falling down over the edge. I managed to get down without needing the rope that is there and the dry soil underfoot undoubtedly helped with grip that would not be possible in wet weather.

Once I was down the steepest bit there was a small ridge with a steep drop down to hop over and so I put my holdall over this first before hopping over. Some of the edge looked like it was close to collapsing so I made sure I was tight in against the cliff edge. I then began to navigate over the rocks

, deciding first to walk left down a natural ridge to see if a fishable spot would be there, then I changed my mind, retraced my steps a bit before directly forward over the rocks and as I got close to the water I noticed a convenient spot which would allow me to bring a fish fairly close in and have places to move back to as the sea level rose. It meant that I would be sat on barnacle covered slate-like rock though so it wouldn''t be comfortable.

I set up my rough ground rod and baited with a peeler crab. To use the crab I just lifted the shell from the back end and checked that the soft skin below was not lifing with it as I did so. Once this was off I lifted the triangular V on the underside of the crab and inserted the hook through from this side and then from the other side I pushed the hook down so the shank sat in the skin as I whipped it on with light bait elastic. I was using a pulley rig but I never clipped the bait down due to using a plain lead weight and not needing to cast too far. I found a bit of rock where I could get a good foothold and cast the bait straight out around 60 yards. I relled in most of the slack line and set the rod down, initially against rocks, but later using my rod rest, with the drag set really light. I stayed near the rod for a while before getting up to set up another rod. As I did my drag made some noise and I saw my rod tip bending down a bit. So I shuffled back down the rock, tightened up the drag and held the rod ready for a run. I could feel something moving the lead and bait and before long the rod tip was pulled hard so I struck. The fish was hooked and it immediately swam to my left and I had to give it line. I don''t use the drag for this purpose, instead prefering to trust myself to switch the anti-reverse off and on as required and letting the reel handle spin to give line. I actually believe that the fish stops pulling sooner when I do this as it senses the pressure against it die down, which the pulling of line off the reel from a set drag doesn''t do, instead keeping a constant pressure on the fish. Once the fish was near the rocks below me I shuffled down so I was straddling a small pool of water which I managed to quickly lift the fish into as a swell came. I was then able to put my rod down, open the bale arm and reach down to pick up the fish whcih I did by holding it''s fin and putting a hand under it''s body as soon as I could.

Not having caught a big Smoothound for a while I didn''t know what to guess the weight at. My previous biggest was under 7lb and I put this around the same weight. Upon weighing this fish it was heavier by a few ounces once I''d deducted 4oz for my sling weight. I photographed the fish and shuffled back down the rocks to wait for a suitable swell to drop the fish down into. I was keen to get another bait out there.

What then happened over the rest of the session was pretty much the same. I was setting up my second rod when the next bite came. The fish was around half an hour later and was again heavier, the heaviest I landed during the session. My lead had snagged, which I figured the fish would know better than me how to free it, so I slackened the line and waited for a while until it felt like the fish had dislodged the weight. This larger fish gave more of a heavy slow fight with no big pulls until it was nar the edge. The next crab I used wouldn''t lift its shell very easily so I baited it with the shell on and when I had a run on this one it was short and stopped suddenly. I figured the fish didn''t like feeling the shell and dropped the bait but when I went to reel in my lead was snagged. I tried freeing it but then left it while I finished setting up my second rod. Once I cast this about the same distance, with sandeel on I resumed trying to free the lead on my other rod. My sandeel rod showed a bite while I was doing this so I struck at that and reeled in a dogfish which I left in a rock pool while I resumed freeing my lead. Eventually it came free and I also saw I had lost my hook. The knot was almost all there still suggesting the line had come untied, or cut through itself.

I retied the rig, recast, unhooked the dogfish and then had second thoughts about using 2 rods. The dogfish bite was so soon after casting I decided I didn''t really want to risk my attention being on smaller fish and missing larger ones, or possibly losing my rod if it got pulled in, so I packed up the second rod.

I lost two more weights over the session but had 4 more Smoothounds. One fought really well though it wasn''t the biggest and I was unfortunatle to lose the one which looked easily the largest as a wave lifted it onto a rock and I lifted the slack line as the fish gave a flip of its tail and dropped down into the water, tightening the line and snapping the hook. I made a grab for the fish but a larger swell came and prevented me getting a hold of it and all I could do was watch it navigate the ridges as it found a way out to open water.

Darkness came and I used two crabs on my last cast because one was small and the other came apart leaving half the meat in the shell. It wasn''t long before I caught the final fish on this cast and I then packed up, noting that I took 9 crabs, caught 6 Smoothounds and had a bite on every cast, which was quite a successful session.

The Walk back over the rocks to the foot of the cliff was OK. I probably took a different route than I used to get to the part I fished but it was just as easy. Once at the foot of the cliff I took out my camping lantern and tied it to myself with my hoodie cords and it lit the rocks around me well. Going back up the cliff, I shuffled up in a croutched position suing my hands to hold onto stones and move my holdall up bit by bit. It was quite scary going back up and I am sure it would be near impossoble in rain even with the rope that is there. Once at the top I needed a quick rest before walking up the grassy slope to my car. I checked my hands and saw they had a few cuts and I had put my knee on a sharp rock while climbing back up, resulting in a cut, some swelling and a bruise. Once I got home I also noticed my jeans were badly ripped at the back from shuffling over the barnacle covered rocks so much.

Despite travelling what I considered light, I think I should still try to take less tackle when I visit this mark again, maybe not even using a rod rest. That said, I think my holdall may have given some protection to my rods.

This is not a mark I will recommend due to the dangerous element both descending and climbing the clif, and precarious way you have to land large fish.

Tackle used (price) [ time since first used ]:

Set up 1: Rod: Daiwa seahunter Z 13ft 2 piece MFS (£42.99) [ > 0 years 7 months ]

Reel: Shakespeare Agility Surf 70FD Fixed Spool (£39.99) [ > 4 years 2 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) [ 1 month ]

Reel: Daiwa Crosscast S 5000 Fixed spool (£48.99) [ > 3 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