Stefan Jones, Matthew Druce and Sam Longhurst enjoyed a successful boat trip off the North Devon coast with Sam a newcomer to angling landing his first ever bull huss.
The trio enjoyed a great day afloat landing around twenty tope to 25lb, numerous huss and a few conger. All the fish were tempted using frozen Ammo mackerel. The day was made extra special in the presence of dolphins, porpoises and gannets.
Keen alround angler John Shapland fished Anglers Paradise with his good friend Dan Spearman targetting catfish and carp from the day ticket catfish lake they enjoyed success using large boilies with John landing a carp and a personal best catfish of 19lb 5oz.
Anglers Paradise has the largest density of catfish in North Devon with fish to over 70lb. These fish give a very strong fight and will feed until cooler weather descends as autumn approaches.
The weather is set fair for whatever fish you seek. Bideford Angling Festival is underway and there should be a few bass, huss and smoothound off the coast and a few mullet from the estuary.
Boat anglers should be able to get out in search of tope and maybe even a shark. The water clarity should be improving after the storm of last week and the bigger tides every chance of a few late mackerel and bass on lures.
Carp anglers could well tempt a few fish off the surface during the heat of the day. The cool of the night will be best chance on bottom baits with carp anglers set up cozy in their state of the art all comforts of home bivvys.
For those with a sense of adventure eels could be well worth targetting with water temperatures still holding up well.
The game angler could target sea trout after dark on the Taw or Torridge with good numbers in both rivers. A surface lure can bring heart stopping moments as they erupt from the water in the still of the night.
John Forster enjoyed a session on Gregorys Lake at the Clawford Fisheries, the session was by kind permission of the Lakes owner John Ray. The lake is normally residents only and is well stocked with bream, tench and rudd. John landed a fine brace of bream totaling 11lb 11oz and several quality tench along with numerous golden rudd.
Johns tactics were to fish 2 lines. With Andy Seerys micros dampened down with Corn over the top of Groundbait with corn over the top Depth 4ft, fished slightly over-depth with 0.5 float 0.15 main0.13 bottom 16 B911 hook
There are plenty of opportunities for day ticket anglers at Clawford that boasts over a dozen lakes totalling 40 acres nestled in a tranquil valley estate covering 78 acres. www.clawford.co.uk
See link to my visit to the fishery last year.
Neil Edworthy with his children Taylor and Charlie-Marie who had 14 Fish out in 20 hours on the dam wall on Beatties using mainline cell boilie’s.
Barrie Christian and friend Dave James fished Stafford Moor’s Lodge lake landing several fine carp up to 22lb 15oz using CC Moore live system boilie’s .
Alexander McDonald ( Below) who had 8 fish up to 23lb 10oz in a 24hour session from Beatties lake using DNA Baits .
Sunday September 4th
1.00pm until 4.00pm
Special Guests: –
Libby Ross – IFCA
Safe Fishing – With the coastguard
Fun Fishing Competition
Sponsored by
When the weather permits private boat anglers are enjoying some fine sport off the North Devon Coast with tope the main target species. Recent rough weather has clouded the water encouraging some species to feed hard with lower light levels. Stefan Jones headed to a mark off Woolacombe in his Private boat and enjoyed a great days sport landing nine small eyed ray between 5lb and 7lb plus smoothound and bull huss. The successful bait was Ammo sandeel wrapped in squid.
August is often a poor month for trout fishing with high water temperatures making the trout reluctant to feed. Excessive weed growth also impacts on many of the regions smaller still-water’s resulting in temporary closure. Blakewell Fishery is presently closed for maintenance and is due to reopen in early September as is Exe Valley near Dulverton. I will post here when both of these excellent fisheries reopen and may well pay a visit to them both myself. It is unfortunate that these conditions coincide with the busy time for tourism as fishery’s stand to lose income as a result of closure. Perhaps it would make sense to have a short close season each summer to allow for weed clearance with the fisheries reopening in early September as temperatures drop and the trout resume their feeding in earnest. Trout anglers would return to the lakes full of enthusiasm after the short break. Keen Fly Fishers can always find sport in the estuary along the coastline targetting bass and grey mullet. On the rivers they can target salmon and sea trout when conditions allow. There are also many miles of river to explore with a light weight fly rod, wild brown trout are beautiful fish that give great sport in beautiful surroundings.
Extracts from South West Lakes Trust Latest news update.
General:
The warm, dry weather continued throughout most of the month with a few very hot sunny days. Water levels are dropping and water temperatures rising (to over 20 ºc), resulting in many of the fish moving out to sheltered, cooler deeper water.
Fishing:
Wimbleball – Boat fishing over the open, deeper, cooler water, particularly nearer the dam, has proved to be the most productive, particularly on the drift, while bank anglers have struggled to locate feeding fish. Weekly rod averages varied between 1 and 2.5 fish per rod. Evenings have been the best time to fish on or near the surface when dry Daddies, Claret
Hoppers, Bobs Bits and Ant patterns have caught fish. Nymphs (Diawl Bachs, Buzzers, Hares Ears and Pheasant Tails) fished on the washing line method, while Orange Blobs and
Boobies on sinking lines have caught the deeper fish. The best fish of the month was a 4lb 3oz Rainbow caught by Mr Ormston, while Paul Grisley caught a full bag of fish up to 3lb. Water level is 67% full.
Roadford – Roadford exploded into life at the end of July and has fished brilliantly all month. Regulars Duncan Kier and Andy Birkett have both had red letter days fishing by boat over the ‘boils’ (aeration pipes near the tower). Duncan managed 56 Brownies in one day up to 3lb 4oz with Andy catching 30 fish the following day up to 3lb. Duncan has returned to take 9 fish followed by a further 32 fish in separate sessions. Successful flies have been a Squinky, Muddler and Leach on the drift over the boils. Boats and engines are available on 01409 211507.