Date: 30-06-2018
Time of day: Night
Location: West Bay
Mark: The Beach
Low Tide: 01:57(0.83m) 14:08(0.91m) 02:34(0.88m) 14:41(1.01m)
High Tide: 08:45(3.69m) 20:59(3.97m) 09:20(3.66m) 21:33(3.90m)
Time fished from: 22:25
Time fished to: 03:15
Weather: Sunny with very little wind then a spell of a steady breeze after dark and lightning visible over the channel. Turning cloudy by the end of the session.
Sea: Very clear with waves up to 2 feet and rolling for 5 yards.
Method: Ledger (homemade pulley rig) | Ledger (homemade pulley rig)
Bait: Frozen peeler crab, frozen whole loligo squid | frozen double medium sandeel
Caught (weight): 1 Conger Eel (0lbs 6oz, Guessed), 2 Dogfish (1lbs 8oz, Guessed) | 1 Dogfish (1lbs 10oz, Guessed), 1 Bull Huss (1lbs 8oz, Guessed) 1 Conger Eel (0lbs 6oz, Guessed), 1 Dogfish (1lbs 8oz, Guessed) | 2 Dogfish (1lbs 10oz, Guessed), 1 Bull Huss (1lbs 8oz, Guessed)
The Session: I set up around the middle of the beach and baited the first rod with a whole peeler crab and cast it around 80 yards straight out, this was followed by a rod with two medium sandeel cast 80 yards aswell.
It was around 45 minutes before I had a bite, which came to the sandeel rod. It was a few short sharp pulls which caused the rod tip to rattle, much like the way winter whiting and pouting make the rod tip move. I missed it and very shortly after, when I recast the otehr rod with a new peeler crab I had a bite on that rod that looked the same. I missed that too and then when the next bite came to the sand ell I waited a bit longer after 4 pulls it moved a bit more and for longer so I decided to strike then. I knew something was on the line but didn''t expect a it to be a small conger eel. It gave me a bit of confidence that something was around and hopefully there would be more, and bigger fish too.
Unfortunately over the next two hours I only had a couple of bites. They came to the rod which I had switched baits from crab to squid. Both of them were irregular pulls and shakes over a couple of minutes. One of them I hooked but it came off near the shore before I could see what it was. It was either a big fish or a foul-hooked fish and it pulled quite a lot as well as feeling big. Quickly, I rebaited and got the rod cast back out. It wasn''t long before the rod tip began moving around again. This time it was typical of a dogfish bite. I struck early to try and avoid the fish being deep hooked. It came in easily and was just lip hooked. Again I got the bait back out quickly.
Just a couple of minutes passed before this rod tip was registering another bite. It was not moving as much as the dogfish so I waited a bit longer before striking. The fish was clearly hooked and I sensed it was pulling just a bit differently. Once I saw it on the shore I noticed the darker spots and body of a Bull Huss, quite a small one but another species, so very welcome. It seemed that squid was going to be thr prodcutive bait tonight, but I only had one pack and had just a few left already.
As sandeel was not producing much I tried mackerel on my other rod. The fish were small so I cut them into 3 pieces and used the middle and tail ends for the bait. The bait was in the water for longer than the squid but I began getting bites on this rod too. One moment I stood up to react to a bite on squid when the mackerel rod tip began moving too and I ended up striking on both rods simultaniously. I reeled in the squid rod for a bit first before the fish came off so I switched rods and felt someting on the other one. I was another dogfish.
The last few squid I managed to make last for several casts but couldn''t get any fish to stay on the hook. I had another fish on it which was the final fish of the night. I had noticed lightening over the channel and the sky was getting very dark as the full moon was now covered and I sensed the forecast of possible thunderstorms might be right so I decided to get packed up anyway, given I''d about used all the most productive bait aswell.
Tackle used (price) [ time since first used ]:
Set up 1: Rod: Daiwa Seahunter X 14ft 3 piece Fixed Spool (£60.00) [ 3 weeks ]
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
Set up 2: 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
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