Date: 31-07-2018
Time of day: Evening - night
Location: West Bay
Mark: The beach
Low Tide: 02:48(0.98m) 14:57(1.10m) 02:18(0.98m) 14:25(1.11m)
High Tide: 09:41(3.67m) 21:50(3.84m) 09:10(3.68m) 21:20(3.87m)
Time fished from: 18:40
Time fished to: 02:00
Weather: Sunny and cloudy with a wind from the sea.
Sea: Fairly clear with some weed floating around
Method: Ledger (homemade pulley rig) | Ledger (homemade pulley rig)
Bait: Whole frozen loligo squid, frozen peeler crab | frozen large sandeel
Caught (weight): 1 Smoothound (7lbs 13oz, Weighed)
The Session: I originally drove to West Bexington to try for some large fish and I fished for an hour and a half and when I saw a Smoothound being landed I had thought I would cath but it became apparent that weed was going to be a problem all night as each cast came back with clumps of weed around the shockleader knot and grip lead. I gave it an hour and a half before deciding to move. I chose West Bay, thinking it would be clear of weed due to the weed at West Bexington moving to my left and because of the shape of the shoreline at West Bay providing some slack water where weed wouldn''t float to.
When I arrived there I was sure I''d made the right choice and I set up the rods again, sent each one around 70 yards and tried my 3 main baits. Things were pretty quiet all night save for one good bite which had the rod tip go down so quick and hard it was a stuggkle to lift the rod butt out of the cup and lift the rod from the tripod head. It was obvious it was a smoothound, but it made a change to catch one on squid. It went quite well and I even didn''t realise I had brought it right in to the shore, thinking I still had some work to do to get it in. It was a nice size so I weighed it and put it back, which took some doing given how the fish kept turning and swimming inshore again.
Unfortunately not much else happened, I had a few more bites but nothing more than a few quick pulls. I twice got snagged near low tide, revealing something out there at around 70 yards near low tide, once I got my rig back but the other losing it all. It was around this time I decided to pack up, glad I made the change of venue but not feeling great about abandoning a session I had planned to be longer.
Tackle used (price) [ time since first used ]:
Set up 1: Rod: Daiwa seahunter Z 13ft 2 piece MFS (£42.99) [ > 0 years 8 months ]
Reel: Shakespeare Agility Surf 70FD Fixed Spool (£39.99) [ > 4 years 3 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) [ > 0 years 2 months ]
Reel: Wychwood Riot Fixed Spool (£39.99) [ > 0 years 1 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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