Bideford Angling Clubs midweek evening competition held on Tarka Swims was won by David Bailey with a weight of 8lb 4oz Liam Bailey took 2nd spot with 5lb 1oz Martin Turner 3rd on 3lb 1oz
Conditions were hot and still,many of the carp were basking near the surface and not interested in our baits.
Shore sport is starting to take off as summer sweeps in with the first really warm days of the year. Numerous smoothound have been caught from regular shore marks and from boats in Bideford Bay. Bideford Club members weighed some fine specimens into their 24 hour rover.
Bideford 24hr rover May results
1st Nathan clements bull Huss 11lb 15 3/4 119.844%
2nd taz wotton smoothound 11lb 8 115%
3rd Antony smith bull Huss 10lb 12 1/2 107.812%
Great fish tonight 5 fish all over 100%
(Above) Smoothound 13lbs 1/2 oz caught from a boat by Jack Pike.
(Above) Ross Stanway and Lee Holden enjoyed sport at Ilfracombe landing a brace of spotted ray each along with the inevitable dogfish.
The coming week should see mackerel shoals all along the coast with big tides and improved water clarity. Mullet will be present in harbours and from rock marks. Bass will also be well worth targetting with both lures and bait. There is the chance of gilthead bream in the estuary with crab and lugworm the favoured baits. After dark the beaches will produce ray and the rock marks bull huss.
Many thanks to Ian Laird for allowing to post his images of a night on the beach.
It will be no surprise if an early tope shows up, a whole mackerel presented on a wire trace could well bring a screaming reel!
Anglers fishing on Reel Deal off Ilfracombe have enjoyed some top rate pollock sport.
(Above)Lily Hammond fished at Stafford Moor Fishery in Dolton with her dad Jason Hammond who fished up on lodge lake using Sticky Baits boilies this is one of Lily’s fish a fine 14lb mirror .
(Above)Darren Garlick caught 3 fish up to 23lb 15oz from the inlet swim on beatties lake using pepperami boilies .
(Above) Zenia Drury-Gregorek, 33, (-; I got a rare window to fish on my favourite lake, the picturesque Koi Lake and just before leaving to pick the kids up I caught this stunner, using a cocktail of maggots float fishing on the bottom. God I love fishing and it was so GREAT to be out there.I really hope to encourage more ladies to fish as it’s simply magical.
Gavin Simpson, 40 from Wellingborough caught an amazing Personal Best 6lb 12oz Golden Orfe from the Main Carp Lake which is just 1lb 9oz short of the British Record! After about 4 hours of fishing he had a great bite, and he knew this fish felt different straight away. Gavin Said – “As I played it towards the net I saw this huge orange flank and thought WOW! I put the net under it and couldn’t believe what I was seeing, the most enormous Golden Orfe I had ever seen, what an amazing fish! It weighed in at 6lb 12oz, I had to check what the British Record was as I was sure it couldn’t be a lot more. I was right, the current record is 8lb 5oz, this fish was just 1lb 9oz off of the British record!
What a great fish and what a great memory for a trip that was a present from my wife Kerry for my 40th Birthday. I am sure there is a British record to be had in that lake for someone. Get yourself to Anglers Paradise, buy yourself one of Zyggy’s magic hats or hoodies and get yourself in those record books! I’m ‘Orfe’ there again soon myself to try and catch a bigger one!”
Paul Shepperd from Southampton is now the NEW CATFISH COMPLEX RECORD HOLDER – with a 74lb 8oz Catfish from the Main Carp Lake beating Sean Tacy’s weight by exactly 1lb that was caught 2 weeks after!!!
Paul went from 8 years of trying to catch Cat with no success until last year when he caught his 1st to then catching this Monster! Paul baited his swim with 14ml pellets, soaked overnight in Korda halibut goo, using a nine inch hook link with a long hair, with a korda size 6 curved shank hook. Paul Said – “Thank you to my wife and all the lads who helped with netting and weighing this monster. Also, Joe, the estate manager, the rig clinic guru, said this cat only has to eat a 10lb carp to be 84lbs. So there’s the challenge ladies and gents, beat that!
Thank you to the Paradise family for making this dream come true. See you next May. Also just to add to this great weeks fishing, I also met my fishing hero’s Ali Hamidi and Dean Macey at Anglers Paradise. Certainly a Week to remember!”
Brothers Aaron and Liam Jones had a couple lovely fish from day ticket water Lower Tamar lake near Bude on the Cornwall/Devon border. Liam managed a 16.02 common and Aaron had this cracking 22lb Mirror. The fish fell to Krill boilies.
Stuart and Chris Hutchings fished on Beatties lake and enjoyed success with 19 carp mostly mid to upper doubles with 3 twenties.
(Below) Callum Gardiner with one of his catches from Beattie’s lake using Sticky Baits krill boilies. Callum was well pleased with the new personal best of 24lb 7oz.
Ryan Brentnall traveled from Okehampton to enjoy a fines days sport at Blakewell Fishery where he landed six hard fighting rainbows to 3lb in a 17lb bag.
Combe Martin SAC member Guy Spriggs landed a fine smoothound of 11lb 4oz on his latest visit to the coast.
An excellent report from John Deprieelle on the recent lure competition at Upper Tamar.
Upper Tamar kayak comp
The first kayak event on Upper Tamar reservoir has been and gone and despite all attempts from mother nature, the event was a success.
When fishery manager Ben Smeeth gave me the thumbs up to organize a kayak comp on the stunning venue set in Cornwall near Bude, I was delighted. This 80 acre reservoir is home to some of the biggest Perch in the Southwest but locating them can be tricky at times. With Kayak lure fishing becoming increasingly popular this was the perfect opportunity to get afloat and see if we could find a few of the dark destroyers.
The eve of the comp wasn’t looking good though as 50mph plus winds howled across the venue. That night I lay in the tent worrying that all my plans might be shot down in flames. As expected some people cried off as for some it was a long journey to just turn around and go home but the die hard anglers were there on time and it was left to the group to decide what to do. We decided to at least head out and give it a shot and test the water so to speak. I might add at this point that Savage gear had kindly donated free goodie bags consisting of T tail fat minnows and cannibal shads for all entrants. On top of that there was a prize for the biggest fish caught on one of the said lures.
We all launched into the white water being blown around like paper hankys but just 10 mins into the comp Bristol angler George Osborne hooked into a fish that not only smashed his previous PB but also caught it on the cannibal shad. The fish weighed in at 4lb 5oz and 44cm. One very happy angler and an incredible fish to set the pace. From there on people started to catch steadily and fish of almost every size graced the boats from just ounces going up in every pound class right up to another fish of 4lb 4oz caught by Lee Garner.
It wasn’t all fun and games though as the weather did claim some of us and over a thousand pounds worth of fishing tackle now sits at the bottom of Tamar reservoir. Four rods and reels, a box of lures, a set of car keys and lots of tears(mainly mine) were the price to pay but everyone took it in good spirit and the fish gods returned us with big fish as compensation.
As the afternoon came the winds finally gave up and for an hour we sat on a flat calm lake as if nothing had ever happened. The fishing slowed up but one final fish just under 4lb marked the end of an enjoyable, eventful day. We ended with two fish over 4lbs, ten fish over 3lbs and loads of fish over 2lbs.
I had hoped for a fun event which wasn’t too competitive with a lot of laughs and I think I achieved just that.
The biggest single fish of the day went to Tony Chesworth with a massive spawned out fish of 47cm(3,14).
The biggest fish caught on a Savage gear lure went to George Osborne measuring in at 44cm (4lb,5oz).
Dom Garnett kindly donated a signed copy of his book for the smallest fish and this was also caught by George Osborne at 14cm.
In 3rd place was George Osborne who looked like he was going to clean up.
In 2nd place was Adam Moxey with a string of fish to low 3’s
And 1st place went to Lee Garner who certainly had the lions share .Everyone who placed went home with goodies from Savage Gear, Costa, Cash and vouchers from Culm Valley angling.
Plans are already in place for an autumn event but these competitions can only exist with your support so watch this space. Massive thanks to Ben and Gary at SW lakes, Richard Taylor at Savage gear, Danny Parkins for the Costa prizes and Culm Valley angling.
John Deprieelle
(Northern John)
Competition Organiser
Blair Warner and Matt May had a great session at Jennetts reservoir, Bideford, part of the South West Lakes Trust portfolio. The pair managed 5 commons with the biggest three being 23.01, 22.06 and 21lbs for Matt with Blair having a 16lb common. Blair also lost two fish in the same day. The day ticket water is prolific as a ‘runs water’ with average size of fish near 20lbs.
(Above) Blair 16lb common carp
(Above) Matt May 23lb 1oz common