The sea angling calendar was dominated by flounder this weekend with The Dan Miles Redmore Memorial Competition and Triple Hook Clubs popular Christmas Turkey Open both coinciding on Sunday 18th December. These competitions tend to signify the end of the flounder season on the Taw and Torridge Estuary. It has not been a particuarly productive flounder season this year with very few large flounder tempted. Flounder fishing tends to be cyclical and after last years bumper season it is no surprise that this year has been slower.
Good news has been a significant number of codling in the lower estuary with catches close to those of past decades. It will be interesting to see if there is any improvement of cod numbers on the open coast.
The seasons on the coast seem to so hard to predict, I would suggest anglers try and think out of the box and try different things. In last weeks bitter cold weather good numbers of garfish were being caught from Ilfracombe Pier. Garfish were once thought of as summer fish now they seem to be caught more often in late autumn into winter. Bass are present all year along with grey mullet and ray can be caught from beaches all year.
Bidefords 48 hour results
1st Nathan Clements Flounder 1lb 7 1/4oz
2nd Julien Stainer Flounder 1lb 6 7/8oz
3rd Stephen Found Flounder 1lb 6 5/8oz
Combe Martin Sea Angling Clubs Christmas Competition was won by David Brooke who caught a small eyed ray scaling 7lb 13oz. Daniel Welch took second and third with a dogfish of 1lb 15oz and a bull huss of 5lb 11oz. Fourth was Ross Stanway with a dogfish of 1lb 10oz.
TRIPLE HOOK CLUB -CHRISTMAS TURKEY OPEN
Thirty-Three anglers fished the ever popular Christmas Open Competition with the top ten winning their Christmas Turkey.
1st – Nathan Clements – Flounder 1lb 7.25oz
2nd – Julian Stainer – Flounder 1lb 67/8oz
3rd Stephen Found – Flounder 1lb 65/8oz
4th Dennis Toleman – Flounder 1lb 63/8oz
5th Kevin Hancock – Flounder 1lb 51/4oz
6th Mark Beer – Flounder 1lb 5oz
7th Christine Hancock – flounder 1lb 4oz
8th Nigel Gullon – flounder 1lb 21/2oz
9th Andrew Smith – flounder 1lb 11/2oz
10th – Robbie Hancock – flounder 1lb 11/4oz
