Date: 29-12-2018
Time of day: Afternoon - Night
Location: Seaton, Devon
Mark: Main beach
Low Tide: 04:37(1.36m) 17:16(1.37m) 05:40(1.58m) 18:24(1.51m)
High Tide: 11:22(3.88m) 00:00(3.42m) 12:20(3.64m)
Time fished from: 16:30
Time fished to: 00:30
Weather: Cloudy/overcast with only occasional wind from behind
Sea: Fairly murky, with waves up to 2 feet.
Method: Ledger (homemade pulley rig) | Ledger (homemade pulley rig) | Ledger (Homemade 2 hook flapper rig)
Bait: Frozen medium sandeel, frozen whole loligo squid | frozen black lugworm, frozen squid pieces, frozen half sandeel | frozen medium sandeel
Caught (weight): 1 Whiting (0lbs 12oz, Guessed) | 1 Pouting (0lbs 5oz, Guessed), 1 Pouting (0lbs 4oz, Guessed), 1 Pouting (0lbs 4oz, Guessed), 1 Bull Huss (0lbs 12oz, Guessed), 1 Pouting (0lbs 4oz, Guessed)
The Session: I arrived at Seaton to see a large area of the beach free of anglers right near the entrance so I decided to set up straight down from it. As I was setting up a pulley rig rod and flapper rig rod another angler approached me and I learned from him that there was a competition on.
There was a very steep shingle bank leading to gently sloping sand/shingle to a relatively calm sea. There was plenty of room at the bottom of the shingle so I moved my tripod and most things I needed down there to save having to get up and down the steep bank too often.
I cats both rods straight out around 80 yards and 60 yards. There wasn''t any action until well after dark but I had three bites on sandeel. The first two I missed and on the third, with another sandeel added to the remains of the first, I left for a while before thinking the fish had gone and striking to find a nice sized whiting on the end. It had swallowed the hook and was bleeding so I decided to keep this one.
After catching that fish there was a period of around an hour with no bites until they began again, but this time on the flapper rig which I was using lugworm and squid on. The bites on this rig came fairly often over the whole session but I failed to hook most of them. If I struck as the rod tip moved I would miss or bump them off and if I left it the hooks would come back bare.
During these bites I tried a whole squid on my pulley rig and quiet soon after casting out I had a gentle bite which I missed. I recast quickly and after a few minutes teh rod tp showed a good incication that a fish had took the bait. As I put my hand on the rod and checked it was ready for striking I felt a hard thumping traveling through but the rod tip was barely moving. I struck and briefly felt something that could have been a nice size but it became free and when I got the rig back up to me the bait had slid up the line and the line was twisted into a large tangle that took a while to sort out. It looked like it might have been a conger eel that had pulled the bait up the line and then needed to twist around to try and free it.
I recast but had nothing for a long time after on this rod. I took two more, but smaller pouting on the lugworm and sometimes the sandeel pieces or squid were also gone on this rod so there may have been other species or crabs out there too. Just before 9:30 I had a quick bite on the ledger rod but that was it. I left the rod for 10 minutes and when I reeled in something was on the end. A small Bull Huss had taken the whole squid and just sat with it without moving the rod tip.
Many more bites came on the flapper rig but I only managed to hook one more pouting. Once I''d ran out of worm I switched that rod to a pulley rig but despite a few quick bites I caught nothing else.
A load of anglers packed up around the same time so I assume the competition finished around then. When I left, other anglers were still fishing but I don''t think many fish had been caught by anyone near me.
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: Shakespeare Agility Surf 70FD Fixed Spool (£39.99) [ > 4 years 7 months ]
Line: Maxima Hi-Viz 20lb (£15.42) 550m
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 Crosscast 13ft 3 piece Fixed Spool (£60.00) [ > 1 years 1 months ]
Reel: Daiwa Crosscast S 5000 Fixed spool (£48.99) [ > 3 years 9 months ]
Line: Maxima Chameleon 20lb (£17.99) 600m
Hooks: Sakuma Stinger 2 (£15.00) 100
Shockleader: Gardner Slinky 60lb (£6.99) 100M
Hooklength: Maxima Clear 15lb (£4.00) 100m
Set up 3: Rod: Daiwa Crosscast 13ft 3 piece Fixed Spool (£60.00) [ > 1 years 1 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
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