Catch Report - West Bay - 19th January 2019 (11)

Date: 19-01-2019

Time of day: Evening - night

Location: West Bay

Mark: Esplanade beach

Low Tide: 10:23(1.18m) 22:43(0.90m) 11:15(0.88m) 23:32(0.66m)

High Tide: 04:52(3.69m) 17:28(3.59m) 05:49(4.02m) 18:23(3.88m)

Time fished from: 18:30

Time fished to: 01:30

Weather: Mostly cloudy and almost no wind.

Sea: Fairly murky with varying waves up to 3 feet high and rolling for 50 yards.

Method: Ledger (homemade pulley rig) | Ledger (homemade 2 hook flapper) | Ledger (running ledger)

Bait: Frozen mackerel segments, frozen half loligo squid | Frozen black lugworm, frozen squid pieces | frozen mackerel head, frozen mackerel tail

Caught (weight): 1 Pouting (0lbs 12oz, Guessed), 1 Pouting (0lbs 15oz, Weighed), 1 Bull Huss (1lbs 0oz, Guessed), 1 Dogfish (1lbs 10oz, Guessed), 1 Shore Rockling (0lbs 2oz, Guessed), 1 Pouting (0lbs 12oz, Guessed), 1 Pouting (0lbs 4oz, Guessed), 1 Pouting (0lbs 13oz, Guessed), 1 Pouting (0lbs 6oz, Guessed), 1 Pouting (0lbs 12oz, Guessed), 1 Pouting (0lbs 13oz, Guessed)

The Session: After spending the morning trying to decide where to go I settled upon trying West Bay. I have fished here before, but in the summer. I thought I might get some nice sized Pouting and possibly a Conger Eel and most likely some Dogfish.

I had looked at a webcam before leaving so I saw that there were some medium sized waves and they were rolling quite a way up the beach, therefore I needed to give the tide a while to start going out and I planned to arrive at sometime after 6pm.

When I arrived I walked over the steps and along so I was close to the pier structue than I was the rocks the other side of the beach. This was because there was a raised area of shingle that I could set up on, close to the water, but a bit higher so any rolling water went around me.

I set up a pulley rig, flapper rig and a conger rig. I fished the pulley rig at around 70 yards straight out and the flapper rig around 60 yards straight out and then I cast the conger rig over near the rocks around 50 yards out.

I didn''t have any bites straight away so I was beginning to wonder if I made the right decision but I think I had just made the mistake of leaving my baits out too long as the hooks were bare when I reeled them in, with the hook on my pulley rig even snipped through by a crab; and then on one cast, an hour and a half after setting up, I had a bite on the flapper rig. The tip bent down a couple of times befiore the line went slack. I struck and felt a bigger weight than I expected on the end and I was pleased to see a nice sized Pouting. Possibly the biggest I''ve caught to date.

20 minutes later I had another bite which also made the line go slack and a bigger Pouting was on the end. I weighed this one, which went 15oz and so I believe it is my biggest to date. Most of the bites from Pouting showed on the rod the same way which was probably because of the way the retreating tide was helping to put a bit of a bend in the rod tip and keeping the line tight, which would make the lead weight jump a bit when more tension was put on by the fish.

Another half an hour passed with a missed bite on the flapper rig and I was wondering if a slight nodding of the other rod was a bite or not. After a good 10 minutes I reeled in to feel something on the end. A small Bull Huss had taken the mackerel and barely made an indication. After returning this fish it wasn''t long before a different biute showed on the flapper rig and what I first thought could be a much bigger Pouting was a Dogfish and the first of several, I thought. It wasn''t the case though and on the next cast of the flapper rig, I tried a piece of squid with the lugworm and a small Rockling took a liking to it, making very small shakes of the rod tip.

There was over an hour before I had another bite and as the time passed I was wondering if they had disppeared over the low tide hours but when I had a cast that snagged, causing me to lose an entire rig and leader, I made the next casts go just around 50 yards as I had also noticed waves breaking far out, indicating rocks, or rough ground within my casting range. Whether this was the case or not I began getting bites again and had more Pouitng of similar sizes and even one on the pulley rig, which never gave any indication it had taken the squid.

I had to keep recasting the mackerel bait intended for Conger Eel and even with a grip lead the rod tip moved around a lot causing it to drag on the bottom and drift inwards. It seemed there was a lot of power under the water and a bait this size was being moved around a lot. There was also evidence of crabs taking the bait so perhaps they were grabbing it and trying to run off with it.

As my lugworms had almost gone I wondered if I should switch baits and continue fishing for a few more hours but I eventually packed up, feeling that I wasn''t going to catch a Conger Eel from the beach and I was more than happy with the quantity and size of the Pouting I had caught and the 3 other species so I packed up leaving the flapper rig out last and missing the last bite.

One thing I noticed over the session was that when I used bait elastic on the worm baits the bites appeared to be a bit more aggressive and as the worm was not easily taken from the hook I had plenty of moments to strike. But when I didn''t use elastic I mostly had a single hard pull, then slack line and If I didn''t strike straight away, the hook would be virtually bare when I reeled in. The Pouting were managing to take the bait in almost one go if I didn''t use elastic.

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

Set up 1: Rod: Daiwa Seahunter X 14ft 3 piece Fixed Spool (£60.00) [ > 0 years 8 months ]

Reel: Shakespeare Agility Surf 70FD Fixed Spool (£39.99) [ > 4 years 8 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 2 months ]

Reel: Daiwa Crosscast S 5000 Fixed spool (£48.99) [ > 3 years 10 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: Shakespeare Omni Beachcaster 14ft 3 piece Fixed Spool (£26.95) [ > 2 years 6 months ]

Reel: Leeda Quicksilver Fixed Spool (£19.95) [ > 1 years 8 months ]

Line: Daiwa Sensor 50lb (£6.99) 230m

Hooks: Sakuma Circle Extra 6/0 (£7.29) 10

Hooklength: Gardner Slinky 100lb (£7.95) 100m