The River Taw showing its bones a couple of weeks ago. (photo Dr Mike George)
Whilst this long hot summer has its delights it also has a serious downside in that many of our local rivers are at all time low levels. In the short term this results in a catastrophic season for salmon and sea trout fishing and related businesses. It can result in fish kills when any pollution enters the watercourse, as there is minimal dilution. It also causes serious problems for fish farmers who often suffer heavy casualty’s as oxygen levels plummet in the high temperatures. Lakes are also prone to serious issues with oxygenating equipment sometimes required to maintain a healthy environment. If you have concerns about fish stocks or water quality ring the Environment Agency’s Hotline 0800 807060.
Local Reservoirs like Wistlandpound are also showing signs of a dry summer and this can be an advantage to anglers if they take time to look at the features that are uncovered as these can prove valuable at a later date when water levels return to normal. The same applies to rivers where depressions in the riverbed or location of boulders can be an indication of a place where salmon or sea trout could lie up when the river is at normal height,
Wistlandpound Reservoir view from top water level.
Adrian Kemp caught this lovely 22lb 1oz Mirror from Upper Tamar Lake over the weekend. A scattering of cell boilies over silt did the trick for Adrian.
Amy Maunder caught this cracking 20lb common from Lower Tamar at the weekend. Mainline boilies as always, doing the business for Amy.
Congratulations to Steve Dawe who has been raising awareness for the stroke association via his challenge to catch 52 species.
Wayne has kindly been supporting my challenge since January 1st and posting links to my blog and although the species I have been catching having been spread across the west country a fair few have fallen from the North Devon and Somerset coastline. For anyone that hasn’t seen what I have been up to I have a website that covers information on my challenge, the charity I am supporting, a gallery and all my blogs from the year
This Monday I managed to land the 52nd species which in theory should be the end of the challenge, I will however keep trying for a few more while simultaneously raising awareness for the Stroke Association and stroke victims. The last month was pretty busy and with the summer in full swing I had planned to target a number of the summer species from boat and shore. I also had a couple of annual festivals to fish, the 2 day British Conger Club festival and The 3 day Shark Club of Great Britain festival. The conger festival based from Plymouth went pretty well and our team managed to win the team event, and having come runners up for the previous 2 years it was great to finally win. I also managed to catch a Goldsinny Wrasse to add to the species list so a good event all round.
Then it was the shark festival and with tricky angling conditions I managed for the first time to blank during this event, but every cloud has a silver lining and with some persistence I managed to sneak out a Scad and Grey Gurnard. No good whatsoever to me during this festival but a huge bonus for the challenge, so it was a bit of a result. Another of the species that had managed to elude me more recently was the Blenny and a trip with the LRF gear finally paid off when I managed to connect with several, a bit like buses.
With the target now at 49 I knew that species 50 had to be the Blue shark and with a couple of trips booked out of Looe surely I could exercise the ghosts of the shark festival and get one. Sure enough I managed a shark a trip, not big girls but very welcome none the less.
With number 50 done and dusted I set my eyes on a Tope and my first trip booked from Minehead targeting tope from Lundy was cancelled due to lack of interest, that was a real set back. My second Tope trip was from Lyme Regis and with no others booked the pressure was on the skipper. Fortunately, lady luck was on my side and despite only two tope being landed I managed two of them, not huge but this challenge isn’t about size just species. That was number 51 and I could almost see the end in sight, I switched tactics to try for my first ever Undulate Ray and once again Neptune took pity on me and delivered several of these stunning rays to give me species 52.
The Environment Agency have decided not to extend the salmon Fishing season on the River Torridge this year. Over recent seasons anglers have enjoyed an extension to the season from September 30th to October 14th and this has been a welcome addition with good numbers of salmon landed. The decision will come as a bitter blow to fishery owners and local businesses who receive welcome revenue from visiting anglers. It is to be hoped that dwindling stocks of salmon will recover and that this decision will be of benefit to salmon stocks.
This season has been a very poor fishing season as a result of the prolonged drought conditions that have persisted since May. The start of the season was blighted by snow melt and very high water. In the longer term it is to be hoped that weather conditions results in good fishing once again. Such weather conditions have been experienced before with older generations recalling the drought of 1976 when rivers and local reservoirs ran very low.
A fine salmon caught at Liittle Warham during last years extension.
The Veals Mail order Team enjoyed a fantastic day Tope fishing out of Ilfracombe with Daniel Hawkins of Reel Deal Charters
Simon Lynch relays that the day started off well with numbers of small Tope around the 20lb mark, along with a few Bullhuss. After a couple of hours Dan decided to up the anchor and move off. He suggested big mackerel baits at the second mark and we were soon rewarded with some lovely Tope around 30lb, it was non stop action all afternoon with double shots on-board. Simon Lynch landed a new personal best of 41lb.
(Below)Zac Rastall caught six carp from Swim 5 (Lord Island) on Beatties lake up to 23lb 8oz caught on Mainline link 14mm wafters over a handful of Mainline 15mm Hybrid at a short distance.
(Below)Harry Burston fished on the pads swim 11 on Beatties lake on a 24 hour ticket and banked three carp up to 21lb 7oz caught on Sticky baits krill wafters
(Below) Nathan Oliver and Jason Crawford fished on swim 14 (beach 1) swim on lodge lake they had 5 fish out up to 23lb caught on Mainline milky toffee pop ups coated in almond goo fished over 3kg of cell , Jase was using particles & Sticky baits krill.
Another scorching weekend lead to a close match , Nathan lead from the start catching steady on BOG paste on the pole from peg 8 beside the stanchions in the deeper water. Martin managed 2nd, fishing the pellet waggler up to the island on peg 11 . John lost several fish but landed 11 in the reeds on peg 13 for 3rd , all on paste on the pole. Neilsen Jeffery drew outside the chalet on peg 4 and had some big fish in the shallow margins on hard pellets for 4th spot.
I joined South Molton Angling Members on a trip out off Clovelly aboard Shimano sponsored ‘Independent’ Charters skippered by Doug Walls.
We met at Clovelly at 8:00am all keen to head out for another adventure at sea that commenced with the transfer of anglers and gear from the pebbly foreshore to the waiting boat a hundred or so yards offshore.
All on board and Doug gave an outline of the days plan. We would be venturing past Hartland Point to sample the fishing grounds West of Hartland at the Mouth of the Bristol Channel expectations were high for a variety of species. I have fished these grounds in the past and know full well that they can give excellent sport.
The journey to the mark is an integral part of any day at sea and spirits were high as we rounded Hartland Point race where several porpoises were showing in the surging waters. The cliffs from Clovelly round to Morwenstow are wild and for the most part inaccessible those parts that can be accessed carry a rich vein of history including many a shipwreck.
The first stop was to a reef where we drifted for pollock, mackerel or bass. First into action was Mike Good who swung aboard a pleasing pollock of around 4lb.
(below) Mike Good with a 4lb pollock.
After a few drifts and a few more pollock Doug decided to drop anchor and see if we could entice a few tope, bream or huss. Within minutes of the baits hitting the bottom rods were nodding as a succession of bull huss seized our baits.
There were a variety of tactics employed with some choosing big baits for tope or huss and others small baits for bream and other species. Black bream are great sport and good eating and it was great to see one of these come aboard to Ed Rands who was using back lug and squid baits.
After an hour or so the tide eased and sport tailed off. A move to a mark further West was Doug’s choice and we steamed several miles before once again dropping the anchor. Soon after settling Mike Good hooked the best fish of the day a fin perfect black bream of 2lb 8oz.
(Above)Steve Edmunds with a pleasing bream
A couple more bream followed but sadly it was not a good as we had hoped for and bites were few and far between. I always feel for the skipper at times like this for they have put the anglers on good ground but the fish are either not there or not playing the game. As time and tide ebbed away there were a few flurry’s of action with Ed Rands boating the biggest fish of the day a bull huss of 8lb 8oz. The day ended with ten species caught including, bull huss, dogfish, corkwing wrasse, mackerel, scad, pollock, smoothound, pouting, poor cod and black bream.
Robert Kingdon boated a smoothound with an unusual tail deformity.
(Above)
I hope to return to waters off Clovelly next year with the South Molton anglers and enjoy a day afloat with Independent Charters. Doug kept us supplied with tea and coffee all day and did his best to put us on the fish.
