Young Chloe Tuffin Brazier aged eleven fished at Horwood Fishery and landed her first carp a hard-fighting 7lb common that tested her angling skills and made her a very happy girl. Andy Seery’s new 8mm go-nut bait was the successful offering presented on pole tackle with a size 18 hook.
Day Tickets for Horwood can be purchased from Summerlands Tackle.
High water temperatures and extensive weed growth have made fishing challenging at Bratton Water as at many other waters in the area some of which have been forced to close temporarily. The skillful angler can generally tempt a fish or two from the Bratton Waters Crystal clear waters using either dry flies or small nymphs. South Molton Angler Bob Gooding put his many years of experience to good use catching five brownies in a session the best two scaling 7lb 8oz and 5lb. Arthur Bond landed a brace of 5lb brown trout and rainbow trout.
As autumn sets in sport at this tranquil lake will improve with the trout rising freely. Daddy long-leg patterns are well worth trying fished virtually static; this visual fishing is a particularly pleasing way to deceive the specimen browns that cruise within the clear waters.
Chris Haydon and Kevin Dobson from On The Bank Angling, both from Exeter and have been testing out the Deeper Smart Sonar which is the world’s first wireless cast-able lake feature and fish finding device. They came back to Eldorado in search of catching their Personal Best Cats, and that they did! Chris managed to land the Biggest Cat from the Bottom Lake at 45lbs!! This Cat hasn’t been reported to come out for at least 2 years but Chris found it and landed the Beast on Popped Up Worms giving him a New PB Cat to his name! Kevin joined in on the action and also landed himself a PB 23lb Cat on a Big Chunk of Luncheon Meat.
Where has that summer gone, those long evenings full of promise? Tonight I grabbed a couple of hours at Watermouth with James hoping for a few mackerel over top of the tide. The sun was illuminating the high cliffs of Exmoor to the East, porpoises were showing just a short distance from the shore and gannets were swooping and gliding in the evening sky.
It was good to be there with a rod in hand even though things didn’t go exactly to plan! After twenty minutes I eventually hooked a string of small mackerel, then next cast had a birds-nest!! Worst for years. Still plan “B” I launched a whole live mackerel out beneath a standard orange tipped sea float. Time to chill a bit and absorb the scenery with the rod in hand and the hope of a good fish. On two occasions on the retrieve a bass shadowed the bait.
James float-fished beside me and the float only sank once as he glanced away.
There is a mixture of feelings at this junction of the year, a slight sadness that summer has drifted past. Optimism as we enter the three best months of the year for sea fishing.
I received this email today from BASS and thought it worth sharing with readers.
Good evening guys, I hope you do not mind me sending you a copy of these two emails from BASS but I thought I would circulate them in case you were interested and would like to do something to save our bass
The species is at a crucial point in its decline. Anglers have been warning for 50 years that too many bass have been killed and still the politicians have allowed the situation to deteriorate to the present awful stock levels.
The more anglers speak up the better the chance of real success in limiting catches to a level that will allow the species to recover.
It would be great if you could find the time to email European and British fishery ministers and civil servants as BASS suggest. I have already done so.
Kind regards and thanks for reading this.
David Wilson
Urgent Last Chance!
EU Consultation: Fish Sea Bass Sustainably.
View this email in your browser
Latest ICES Sea Bass assessment shows spawning stock at an all time low.
Dear Save Our Sea Bass Subscriber
http://www.saveourseabass.org/en/send-email/
We have some important news for you.
On 30 June, ICES issued a new bass assessment. It warns that the bass spawning stock is now at an all-time low and that there is now a risk that the stock’s ability to regenerate itself is compromised. ICES have therefore recommended a full moratorium for 2017.
We have previously advised the Fisheries politicians and managers that we should restrict the bass fishery to sustainable fishing only: recreational angling and commercial hook and line fishing (excluding long-lines). This advice was not followed and, predictably, the stock is now in deep trouble and so a moratorium is needed.
We are concerned that, even now, the Fisheries politicians may give in to commercial lobbying pressure to allow unsustainable commercial bass fishing to continue. We therefore need to send a strong and clear message to the Fisheries politicians and managers, telling them that their existing policy has failed and that from now on we want the bass fishery managed so as to deliver the greatest long term benefits to society, and that means restricting it to sustainable fishing only.
We hope that a moratorium will create some breathing space for the bass stock to recover. But if it does, will we just see the fishery re-opened to unsustainable commercial fishing, so that the destruction of the stock can start over again? We must not let that happen.
You will see that we have just completely updated the Save Our Sea Bass website. We have also started a brand new campaign to email the Fisheries politicians and managers now that they are digesting the ICES advice and are considering how to react. We would ask you to support this email campaign by sending an email and encouraging members of your family and friends to send an email too. If you can help to promote the email campaign via social media too, that would be fantastic.
And finally, a special word for our French Subscribers and comrades in arms! We understand that your Fisheries Minister, Alain Vidalies, is only interested in supporting the commercial bass fishermen and has no interest in listening to what French anglers or conservationists want. However, he cannot act alone, he has to make his case on bass to other EU Member States and the EU Commission. The more French people send emails objecting to unsustainable commercial bass fishing, the more difficult it becomes for Vidalies to sustain his argument – the other EU Member States in the negotiation will be able to tell him that he is not properly representing the wishes of the people of France. We urge you to take part in the new email campaign and to spread the message widely across France.
Best wishes from the Save Our Sea Bass team.
http://www.saveourseabass.org/en/send-email/
The latest report from Zenia at Anglers Paradise is full of young anglers enjoying early success during their summer holidays.
(Above)Freddie Woodcock, 7 from London caught his 1st EVER Catfish at 17lbs 8oz from the Easy Access Lake on Halibut Pellets, Freddie said – “I have never been so excited, and I knew I’d made my Dad Proud!”
PRECIOUS MOMENTS. (Above) Here is Aiva Shelley with her Daddy on her first ever day of fishing on the Beginners Carp Lake. At just 4 Years Old she cast out and reeled Reeled in this 6lb Mirror and she loved it! Aiva used her Daddy’s Float Rod with Sweetcorn as the hook bait and this was her First Ever Carp!
Zenia comments. “Special Moments as a Family is just one of the reasons why we do what we do, what a priceless picture of a Father and Daughter Sharing the moment”.
Charlotte Cropp,( Above) 15 from Salisbury caught her 1st Ever Catfish from the Easy Access Lake after 15 years of coming here! The Girl Power Continues, it really is so great to see so many more Girls out there Fishing!
Charlotte’s Story – “This holiday, my goal was to catch my first ever Catfish. So on a drizzly Wednesday, we set up on Easy Access with the hope of achieving this. After waiting for about 4 hours, with no bites at all, my rod went screaming off and the drizzle decided to turn into a full on shower! After a fairly long battle and an aching wrist my first ever Catfish was landed. Not only that, but it weighed 21lb 4oz! After 15 years, I’ve never been so happy at catching a fish in my life!”
Here she is with her First Ever 21lb 4oz Catfish from the Easy Access and being presented her Prizes for Winning Fish Of The Week. (Below)
A Picture Can Speak A Thousand Words.. ( Below).Tommy Flower with his Gorgeous 2 Year Old Daughter Summer giving the Fish a Kiss before releasing it back into the Octopussy Lake. Tommy caught the Upper Double off the Top during a quick hour of stalking on Skretting Pellets. It’s Pictures like this that remind us the Magic of This Sport we call Fishing!
Andy Seery won Clawford Fisheries latest open match with a fine net of 105lb. Runner up was Nathan Underwood with 67lb. Numerous forty pound plus nets were taken.
The next open is on Sunday September 11th for details contact John Ray at Clawford Fishery.
Stafford Moor Sunday Open on Tanners lake saw competitors battling against the weather with wind & Rain all day!
Doug Richardson was winner with 138lb 5oz fishing 6 & 8 mm pellet on the pole.
Runner up was Kevin Osbourne with 104lb 6oz and Mark Hayman third with 102lb 11oz.
Silvers winner of the day was Bruce Hunt with 31lb 12oz.
I glimpsed the spotted flank of a good-sized brown trout in edge of the river and vowed to return with the fly rod and suitable selection of offerings. Warm sun was beating down and we had suffered a blank outing to the river in search of thin-lipped grey mullet. We had glimpsed a shoal further up stream but they had drifted out of sight after a baited Mepps spinner was cast close to them.
James was lacking enthusiasm; tired after a few too many ales the previous night he would have preferred a day sat quietly watching his rod chilling with bait in the water. It was a warm humid day’ cows ambled lazily swishing their tails as flies buzzed around them. Their scent and that of estuary mud hung in the air. The sky was blue with high white cotton wool clouds and barely a breath of wind. The day had slipped by surprising quickly despite the lack of success and I told James a little of the history of this pleasant meandering bend in the river.
Many generations of angler have visited the bend over the years and I have been privileged to speak with some of them and share their memories. Several years ago I purchased a little green book Coarse Fishing in the Barnstaple Area’ By D.J. Rogers and G.W.Mosdell
The book tells of big roach tempted from the bend on bread flake and paste. Silver flanked beauties that frequently topped the magical two-pound barrier. Dave contacted me a few years ago after reading an article I had written on the lost roach of the Taw. We shared a drink in the Chichester Arms before walking to the river down a well-trodden path beside Venn stream that joins the River Taw on the bend. Dave showed me where the Cricketers’ once played on those long ago summer days back in the sixties. We stood upon the flood embankment and Dave pointed to the flat area of grass that had once been the cricket pitch, he told where the small pavilion had stood. In the still evening it was easy to visualize the scene of years ago. The cricketers in their whites: that quintessential English sound of summer; the rap of leather upon willow echoing through the balmy air.
.Yet if you closed your eyes that distinctive smell of warm estuary mud would be there still. The roach are perhaps long gone. I once fished there on a cold winter’s night ledgering with a pinch of bread-flake on a size 10 hook. A quiver tip illuminated with a luminous attachment that failed to twitch. The cold night was punctuated by the sounds of geese flying over.
Jack Anderton fished the bend in the fifties catching up to 100 mullet on a tide. He told me of fun carefree childhood days frolicking in the river. Jack lived within sight of the bend and often fished there early in the morning before breakfast. His mother would call to him from the bedroom when breakfast was cooked and Jack would amble back to enjoy a feast undoubtedly smelling of estuary mud. Jack also told me of escapades trapping eels that were abundant then.
Many roach over the magical 2lb mark were landed by Jack, which proved highly profitable as the famous wine makers Williams & Humbert offered a prize of a bottle of sherry for any roach topping this weight. One red-letter day fishing close to the Cricket pitch at Bishops Tawton using float-fished maggots he landed 39lb of roach including five over 2lb.
In the 1970’s Kevin Richmond was drawn to the bend in search of big eels. He wrote of this in the Journal of the local specimen group of how he landed a huge eel of 5lb 73/4oz.
Kevin Richmond
Since 1974 it has always been my ambition to land a five-pound eel. I came close to achieving this during the later part of 74 when I had a very large fish straighten a 1/0 Aberdeen at the net. Richard Dennis was there at the time and he will confirm the size of that fish.
During the years 1976 to 1978 I slowly improved my best eels; 4lb 1½oz (1976) 4lb 5¼oz (1977) and 4lb 7oz (1978). It was not until the 13th July 1979 that the fish came my way………
I decided to have an attempt fishing what is known as the cliff swim (due to the opposite bank from the fishing position being continually eaten away during periods of high water) as it is my belief that somewhere on the river is a point where the salinity content causes an interaction between estuarine and freshwater species enabling both to coexist together. I also believe that the growth rates would be much more greater in such an area due to the fish population getting the best of both worlds.
Upon arriving at the swim I ground baited with approximately 20 to 30 chopped trout, laid over an area of 10’ x 15’ to which an additive had been added. Rods were set up. Terminal rigs put on hooks sharpened. I cast out at 20:30 and had my first run at 21:45. Due to the very high tides the fishing at this stage was very difficult due to the very fast tidal flow. I did not land my first eel until 22:50 – it weighed 1lb 6oz. three more eels came up to midnight weighing 11oz, 6oz and 2lb 6oz and then sport died until 03:15 when I landed an eel of 1lb 9oz.
At 03:30 I had a run, which was no different to any of the others – until I hit it!!. The 1½lb test curve rod slammed over and line was rapidly taken. The fish kept pulling over to the cliff and virtually reached the other bank before I stopped it. Constant pressure slowly brought the fish across the river, until it was three or four yards away- where the fish woke up!
Suddenly the line went slack as the eel belted past me and went through my other two lines ‘tangling one. By now I was wondering just what the hell I had hooked?
Once again constant pressure brought the eel in close again and I managed to bring it within netting distance. My main worry at his stage was that the tangled line would in some way foul the bottom or the landing net. I gently eased the fish over the net- and the sodding thing slid over the net cord and belted off again!
As can be imagined this almost made me into a nervous wreck and it was with great relief that I finally netted the fish. I bit off the tangled line and carried the fish up the bank into the field just to be safe.
Even at this stage the eel looked big and when I shone the torch on it I realised that it was bloody enormous. With the weigh net included the eel went 5lb 15¾oz and as my net registered 8oz the eel was 5lb 7¾oz, a Devon best and over a pound better than my previous biggest eel. The eel was in superb condition measuring 40½” long and was almost a constant 9” girth throughout. The photographs were taken and the eel was slipped into my keep-net.
Early next morning two ‘noddies’ off salmon fishing strolled down and I got one of these guys to take a couple of shots of my fish and myself. It was then returned and swam away strongly.
Who said Friday 13th was unlucky?
It was not just eels that Kevin tempted on his dead baits for one night his bait was seized by fine double figure bass.
Much water has flowed around the bend as generations of fishers have ebbed away. As James and I walked from the river on a summer’s afternoon the church bells rang out and I wondered if earlier generations had paused to listen as they left the waters edge? There is something timeless about the bend and many other places we cast our lines.
