Date: 05-05-2019
Time of day: Night
Location: Woolacombe
Mark: Main beach
Low Tide: 00:49 (1.14m) 13:07 (0.99m) 01:23 (1.03m) 13:41 (0.94m)
High Tide: 07:10 (8.99m) 19:25 (9.05m) 07:46 (9.08m) 20:00 (9.11m)
Time fished from: 22:40
Time fished to: 03:20
Weather: Variable cold wind from the sea/
Sea: Clear with waves rolling for around 60 yards and up to 3 feet.
Method: Ledger (homemade pulley rig) | Ledger (homemade pulley rig)
Bait: Frozen small sandeel | frozen whole loligo squid, frozen black lugworm
Caught (weight): 1 Dogfish (1lbs 4oz, Guessed), 1 Conger Eel (2lbs 4oz, Guessed), 1 Dogfish (1lbs 8oz, Guessed), 1 Conger Eel (1lbs 0oz, Guessed)
The Session: Woolacombe is somewhere I haven''t fished for a while but probably should fish more often considering it is where I have caught my biggest Small-eyed Ray from. The sea looked fishable when I checked the webcam and the flag was barely lifting so the wind looked quite light.
I walked straight down the beach from the main entrance and set up near the rocks. I needed to wade out around 50 yards to get my baits well behind the back breaker but the rolling tide was manageable and the sand was flat and solid.
Each cast was put around 70 yards but I didn''t have any bites for almost 2 hours. Around an hour before low tide I noticed that there was a gulley in front of me and the sand further out was exposed, just like at the Putsborough end where I fished a few weeks ago, so it could be like that all along the beach but would only be noticable on big tides. Probably a couple of my casts were only landing in a foot or so of water, which wasn''t good but at least now I had a renewed confidence knowing I was going to be casting into deeper water again.
After a couple of casts something took the double small sandeel bait and it was no real surprise when I saw it was a dogfish, a one eyed dogfish. Thre next cast on this rod was out about half an hour before the next bite registered almost in the same was and when I felt it pulling a bit harder I suspected a small Bull Huss but a conger eel emerged from the white surf, only small but very welcome.
It had become quite difficult getting the weights and line to not cross as the tow was pulling both baits around. The rod tips were bending down and flicking back as the criss-crossing waves pulled the line in all directions. I was sure a few times a bite registered but left each nait until something more positive showed and it was quite a while before it did. An hour after I caught the Congerr Eel I had another Dogfish, then missed the next two bites and as the tide, now coming back in, pushed me back to the other side of the now almost empty gully I recast both rods, intending to leave them as long as possible to keep them out in the deeper water.
A fox made an appearance which surprised us both. I put down some sandeel for it and it hung around for a bit, trying to get a closer look at me and my tackle but eventually just ran off towards the village.
No more bites showed and as I checked my lines to see they were crossed I reeled on rod in and it felt heavier than it should. I saw the line on my other rod moving around so I knew I was dragging the rig from the other rod in too. I was concentrating on the tangle that emerged from the water for a few moments before I noticed some movenment and looked to the waters edge to see another Conger Eel on the hook of the sandeel rod.
After putting this fish back I attempted to untangle the line, but ended up putting the rod in my holdall still set up to see if I could recover what looked like over a hundred yards in a large tangle once I got home.
It wasn''t a great session but I caught something in the end. I forgot how the waves criss-cross here and cause the rod tips and line to move around a lot and the gulley didn''t help much either.
Tackle used (price) [ time since first used ]:
Set up 1: Rod: Daiwa Seahunter X 14ft 3 piece Fixed Spool (£60.00) [ > 1 years 0 months ]
Reel: Daiwa Crosscast S 5000 Fixed spool (£48.99) [ > 4 years 2 months ]
Line: Maxima Crystal Ivory 20lb (£14.08) 651 yards
Hooks: Sakuma Manta 2/0 (£13.05) 100
Shockleader: Gardner Slinky 60lb (£6.99) 100M
Hooklength: Sunset Amnesia 25lb (£6.25) 100m
Set up 2: Rod: Daiwa Seahunter Z 12ft 2 piece Fixed Spool (£37.99) [ > 0 years 2 months ]
Reel: Shakespeare Agility Surf 70FD Fixed Spool (£39.99) [ > 5 years 0 months ]
Line: Maxima Crystal Ivory 20lb (£14.08) 651 yards
Hooks: Sakuma Manta 2/0 (£13.05) 100
Shockleader: Gardner Slinky 60lb (£6.99) 100M
Hooklength: Sunset Amnesia 25lb (£6.25) 100m
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