Bratton Water’s stature as a first class brown trout water is growing with some stunning fish being tempted. Chay Boggis visited the fishery and had a fine bag of trout to just over five pounds. Successful tactics were a white dog nobbler fished close to the surface with a fast erratic retrieve. Nick Hart and top angling photographer Henry Gilbey paid a recent visit to the fishery and their work should appear in a top trout fishing publication this spring!
(Above) Adrian Carnell AKA Carpbusters who came with friend Geoff Waring who had out 2 fish to 16lb 8oz from the beach swim on Beattie’s using good old Mainline Cell boilies.
(Above)Simon Hartman who fished for 24 hours on ‘big fish corner’ on Beattie’s using cherry carps poker pop ups , Simon had out 3 fish up to 21lb 14oz.
Some major work has been undertaken on lodge lake making it deeper at the back where the the mangroves have been removed! Many over hanging trees and branches have been removed and several new swims created. .The line found in and around the lake was extreme so it was good to get it removed .There are many 27, 28 & 29lb carp in Lodge so fishery owners Joanne and Paul are predicting some excellent sport during the coming season. Below Wayne Grinney with a carp that weighed in at 31lb 2oz
John Barbeary’s Bluefin visited some of Johns proven local favourite marks to catch plenty of spurdog with the biggest 3 at 16lb all fish were double figure fish. Several hard fighting conger to 29lb wee also boated along with bull huss.
The cold grey and damp conditions were a stark contrast to the far off climes John had returned from after a well earned break from Ilfracombe chartering. The next few months should see offshore sport continue with spurdog, huss and conger dominating catches.
There is still time to hook into a spurdog from shore marks all along the North Devon Coast and with things roughing up this week and evening tides and expect to get a few reports. Kevin Pike rose early at the weekend to tempt a fine spurdog of 10lb 4oz. Many thanks to Kevin for letting me use this excellent image.
Combe Martin SAC members fished their roving match at Clovelly on Saturday 28th January and it was Matt Jeffery who won the mixed brace competition with a plump dab of 11.5oz and a whiting of 1lb. The hoped for spurdog failed to materialize though Matt confided that something grabbed a whiting on his last cast of the night.
I have just received this exciting press release from South West Lakes Trust. Upper Tamar is set to receive an impressive stocking of big carp that will make it one of the West Country’s most exciting waters.
South West Lakes Trust would like to announce some exciting news for Upper Tamar fishery in 2017 with the stocking of some fantastic large fish for the first time. In September, 30 carp weighing between 20-32lbs will be stocked. This is the start of a longer term stocking plan that includes a further 25 carp in the same weight range in 2018 and 40 more weighing over 20lbs in 2019. This follows on from the stocking of around 250 smaller carp, transferred from some of other waters, weighing up to 20lbs over the last three years to add to the already good stock of fish that reside in the 81 acre venue.
In recent years catching a fish over 20lbs or 30lbs from the venue has been a challenge but that is set to change!
Upper Tamar forms part of the Tamar Lakes complex of fisheries with Lower Tamar only half a mile down the road. At 35 acres, Lower Tamar is home to a large head of 20lb+ fish with several fish over the 30lb mark and growing very quickly.
The new fish are being sourced from our local supplier Lana Springs Fish Farm in Devon. Owner Chris Mannifold has a great reputation for supplying premium carp.
Ben Smeeth, the Trust’s Angling Technical Lead said “I am delighted to be working with Chris on this exciting project. The majority of fish will be Mirrors to complement the large population of Commons already in the lake. With a really good weed growth providing a rich source of food these fish will continue to grow with the aim of producing a large head of 30lb and 40lb fish within the next 5-7 years.”
Upper Tamar has produced a lot of runs for anglers in the last few years with some anglers catching as many as 25 carp in a single 24 hour session. There are so many swims to choose from each giving a different perspective of the beautiful lake and each presenting different challenges and features.
Upper Tamar is a spectacular venue, set in peaceful rural countryside, spanning two counties with the Devon and Cornwall border running down the middle of the lake.
The fishery benefits from outstanding facilities with a café open from March to November, showers, toilets and a camping field – perfect if the family also want to come along! There is a supply of bait and tackle available from the café and an onsite self-service permit room so you can arrive at your leisure and start fishing! The venue also benefits from a level stoned path all the way around which makes access to swims for everyone really easy. We do also provide a taxi service to any swim if you give us plenty of notice!
There are also two angling lodges which sleep two people and are bookable through our central office on 01566 771930.
Updates to our new fishing website www.swlakesfishing.co.uk will mean you can view a map of Upper Tamar fishery including swim names before even visiting. We also have a very active Facebook page called ‘Coarse Fishing South West Lakes Trust’ so please LIKE our page for regular catch reports, pictures and information about all of our coarse fisheries in the South West.
The stocking in September will be just in time for the Pallatrax Carp Open Pairs competition at the end of the month and it will be interesting to see if any of the competitors can bank some of our new residents and scoop a share of the £3,500 prize money. Anyone who wants to book onto one of our three pairs carp competitions in 2017 needs to call our office on the above number.
Anyone who would like to come along and see the fish stocked are very welcome – we would love to see you at Upper Tamar to share this great occasion with us and witness the start of an amazing future for this special fishery.
Ben Smeeth
Fishery Manager 01288 321262 [email protected]
Stillwater Trout anglers are enjoying some great sport at Blakewell Fishery where Peter Shazell landed a 4lb brown trout and Justin Phillips and fine rainbow of 6lb 6oz.
Dan Miles Redmore with a one of a fine brace of spurdog of 13lb 4oz and 12lb 5oz.
The latest from Nick Hart at Exe Valley. These cold calm winter days are great for the winter fly fisher!
Always good to see new faces on the lake and today Andrew, John, Simon & Roger took the trip from Cheddar on a cold January morning. I got the boat out for a bit of ice breaking and the guys nailed some fish. Rogers were camera shy but the 4 of them landed 19 fish with John taking the best bag of 5 at 19lb 8oz with Andrew on 5 for 17lb. All sorts of tactics used including lures and nymphs with sink tips & floaters. Thanks for visiting guys and hope to see you again.
Jon Patten has a knack of finding the big fish and enjoyed success this week landing a fine spurdog of 14lb.
The fish was tempted with a large slice of mackerel presented on 6/0 Varivas Big Mouth Xtra hooks.
The perception of change
Everything changes through time just at different rates so whilst our perception may well be that something’s never change the fact is everything does, we are just not around long enough to notice! I of course write this from an angler’s perspective and find myself trying to gauge where we are or I am in piscatorial terms.
We walked down to Watersmeet a few days ago and I stopped to take a photo of the waterfalls. Stood tall and proud in the river was a grey heron patiently stalking his next meal. I thrilled at the sight of a fellow fisher fishing the waters that I have fished. I recalled a salmon of 11lb that took a Mepps spinner in the pool above. I also remembered another salmon I tempted from the little pool below where the bird stood. These great memories are tempered by my knowledge that the rivers salmon stocks are in serious decline. I have many fond memories of the river thirty years ago when salmon and sea trout were abundant. Yet back then I spoke to locals who reminisced about a river when they were young when salmon and sea trout where packed into pools like sardines, tides of silver that moved up river following a spate.
I frequently recall a sentence uttered in jest during a TV comedy show. “They were the good old days, yet no one told us at the time!” How true this is if I fish the river next summer I may well hook a salmon and of course I will now have to return it carefully to the water. I just hope that in thirty years time if I am still around that I don’t speak to a young angler and recall when salmon once swam in this river!
Fish populations do of course fluctuate and hopefully salmon will be ascending and descending our rivers long after I have made my last cast. I am not so gloom ridden when it comes to sea angling for in this huge expanse of water things evolve. Fish populations ebb and flow and whilst there has been a decline there is plenty of room for hope as each season we see superb catches of some species. The adaptable sea angler will always find sport. Thirty years ago we chased twenty-pound cod from the North Devon Shoreline now its spurdog that seem to be the go to fish. The cod have gone but the spurdog have been protected from intense commercial fishing and have filled an ecological gap. I am puzzled where previously bountiful numbers of pouting and whiting have all gone?
The carp fisher has never had it so good in many ways with big carp now readily available in many waters. The old timers like me can wax lyrical about the old days when we had to work for our fish. Of old waters with overgrown tree lined banks, of carp that were nigh on impossible to catch pre hair rig and boilie.
The coarse fisher has a multitude of waters containing silver fish and handsome perch to specimen size. In some ways we have never had it so good yet we always look back with fondness at those good old days. We should remember that in angling as in life things are so much better when we are young or at least they are looking back. I guess we need to just seize the moment for what it is fish for what’s there and enjoy.
A fine perch for Chris Lambert
