Shore fishers have been enjoying some great sport with smoothound from many marks. Combe Martin SAC member Dan Spearman landed a fine hound of 12lb 14oz. Fellow club member Ollie Passmore landed a hound of 12lb 6oz.
Dan West also enjoyed a hectic session with smoothound landing several fish to double figures from his mate Keith Bullards boat whilst fishing in Bideford Bay.
Wistlandpound Fly Fishing Club Members traveled to Blagdon Lake the birthplace of Stillwater Trout fishing in the UK. The day was probably the hottest of the year to that point with a clear blue sky and relentless hot sunshine blazing down upon the mirror calm lake. Far from ideal conditions for trout fishing and I don’t think anyone expected the fishing to be easy.
The fishing did prove challenging but England International Matt Kingdom and I managed five fish each all hard fighting rainbows with full tails.
Dave Mock boated the biggest trout of the day at 4lb 8oz.
1st – Wayne Thomas – 5 Rainbow Trout 13lb 4oz
2nd – Matt Kingdom – 5 Rainbow Trout 11lb 3oz
3rd -Colin Combe – 2 Rainbow Trout – 6lb 2oz
Jennetts Reservoir
1st Christopher Morris 39lb 14oz
2nd James Grogan 33lb 2oz
3rd Martin Turner 30lb 3oz
4th Ben Hathaway 18lb 8oz
In very hot still conditions Christopher took a superb catch of net skimmers and roach on sweetcorn and pellets fished shallow on the pole. James also fished with corn on the pole for a mainly roach net .Third was Martin with an all caster roach net.
Thirty-Eight anglers raised £3156.75 for Appledore Life Boat and Devon Air Ambulance in a charity match at the prolific Stafford Moor Fishery.
The winning pair were Kevin Shears and Scott Bowden (Above) with a stunning combined weight of 198lb 10oz. In runner up spot were Simon McCarthy and Simon Clarke with 157lb third were Phil Jones and Martin Heard with 146lb 11oz. Individual winner on Tanners Lake was Simon McCarthy with 130lb and individual winner on Woodpecker was Paul Ware with102lb 12oz. Match organiser Neilsen Jeffery gave thanks to fishery owners Joanne and Paul Coombes who made all competitors very welcome. Special thanks was also extended to the events sponsors Summerland’s Tackle, Stafford Moor, Martin Cox Angling Supplies and Adrian Marshall who supplied a fantastic array of prizes.
Anglers have been enjoying some fine sport with tope numbers increasing as mackerel shoals move into the Bristol Channel. Dan Hawkins took a part of anglers into Combe Martin Bay as a strong westerly blew up Channel and managed to find several quality tope.
A short period of heavy rain brought a welcome rise in the River Torridge initial optimism from local anglers keen to reap the benefits was temporarily thwarted as a surge of white water descended down river from clay workings. This ongoing issue has brought condemnation from angling bodies who are working hard to improve the Torridge environment.
As the waters cleared anglers enjoyed some exciting moments with Peter Stemp catching a fine brace of salmon from a middle river beat estimated at 14lb and 12lb. Colin Buckingham caught a 12lb salmon from an up river beat and another angler hooked a huge salmon estimated at 20lb that gave the angler a tantalizing glimpse at it leaped from the water before shedding the hook.
I fished a middle river beat one recent evening with my son James and enjoyed a tranquil few hours beside the water. The start of our trip brought optimism as a fine salmon leaped from the water. Whilst we failed to connect with the king of the stream we both enjoyed a pleasing diversion catching hard fighting brown trout using upstream dry fly fishing tactics. The fleeting glimpse of a kingfisher added to our enjoyment.
We left the river as the colour faded from the day and owls began hooting in the nearby woods. If we had the time and no work next day we should have commenced fishing for the silver sea trout that often succumb in the still of the night.
Below is a letter I received from Melissa Thomas North DEvon Angling News is always pleased to promote angling related good causes.
I am in the process of promoting Hft’s first charity Fishing Competition, taking place on the 12th- 13th August at Upper Tamar Lake near Launceston. I understand you probably receive a lot of requests for free publicity – and cannot support them all – nevertheless, if you are able to include the attached press release and/or a poster in one of your forthcoming issues/online we would be extremely appreciative.
Hft is a national charity supporting more than 2,500 adults with learning disabilities across England to live the best life possible. Our services range from supported living to residential care – from a few hours a week to 24 hours a day – and we support people with a range of needs, challenging behaviours and specific syndromes like autism spectrum disorders and down’s syndrome. Hft also helps people with learning disabilities to take part in daily activities, make friends and develop relationships, find work, and gain independence. You can find out more about our work on our website: <http://hft.org.uk/Stories/>
A lot of our core work is reliant on voluntary donations, so we organise a series of fundraising events across the year to help support this work. The Carp Open Pairs competition is just one of these events, and is raising money to support the services and facilities at Chy Keres short stay and respite centre in Tregadillet, Cornwall.
It would be hugely beneficial to have some advertising and/or coverage of our charity fishing competition – as it will enable us to: get more people registered to participate and, therein, to raise more money to support our key services at Chy Keres. In return we would be happy to mention you in any online publicity and, of course, would love to have you come along to the event itself. I would also be very happy to show you around Chy Keres if you would like to find out more about the support we provide, or would like to find out more about what we are fundraising for. Please let me know if you have any other ideas that you would like to explore.
Thanks so much for your time and please do let me know if you have any questions or would like more information.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks and best wishes,
Melissa Thomas
Support Worker, Hft Chy Keres
Melissa Thomas
Support Worker
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James Wigglesworth and his angling friends often enjoy trips to Ilfracombe’s Pier where they catch a wide variety of species using both conventional tactics and LRF techniques. Many thanks to James for sending me this informative article.
Whether you’ve fished it or not, Ilfracombe Pier should be a venue on any species hunters radar. Throughout the seasons nearly anything is possible from the North Devon Port. During the summer months it can get particularly busy with families and groups targeting the seasonal mackerel that visit our waters so I prefer to head down at quieter times and adapt a mobile approach where I can fish on the move and target different species in different habitats. My favourite style of fishing is using a very light LRF rod (0.5-7g) with a size 16 hooks trying to tempt all the weird and wonderful mini species that find sanctuary in and around the harbour. Tiny bits of ragworm or Isome fished tight to the wall will produce bites for the majority of the day with gobies, blennies, scorpion fish, wrasse and small pollack finding it too irresistible to ignore. If that’s not really your game and you like to fish static with heavier gear then you’d be silly to ignore the piers potential. I haven’t done too much of this myself but good friend and local species hunter George Stavrakopoulos has and he’s bagged a lot of good fish. He fishes light flapper rigs baited with worm, squid or mackerel. Fishing straight off the end of the lower Pier will find your lead landing on rough, rocky ground which will see you getting plenty of bites from wrasse, pout and the likes. Moving round into the harbour the ground cleans up and just a gentle lob will find you on the sand where there are plenty of dabs, flounders, bass and the odd ray or gurnard.
Float fishing through the warmer months will get you mackerel and garfish which is always great fun on light gear. We’ve seen some pretty strange fish come from the Pier since we’ve been fishing it and also some pretty rare ones. One recent session saw myself catch a topknot and a leopard spotted goby in consecutive casts and I know that George bagged himself a cling fish and a tadpole fish in a single session there last year. Get down there and give it a go…. you never know what might turn up!
A stunning double figure rainbow trout for venue regular Andy Facey.
