8 Sep 2025

PROTECTING OUR SALMON – Dates for your diary

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https://www.exmoorsociety.com/individual-event/protecting-our-salmon-history-threats-and-their-future-on-exmoor

The iconic salmon have migrated up through Exmoor’s Rivers for thousands of years yet their extinction could be imminent if we do not focus our efforts on saving these beautiful enigmatic fish. It would be tragic to walk beside these waters without the chance to glimpse a salmon.

THE 2025 Salmon Run with the Westcountry Rivers Trust also highlights the plight of salmon see below for details.

Salmon Run 2025

 

4 Sep 2025

WEEKLY ANGLING REPORT – September 4th 2025

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NORTH DEVON RIVERS TO FEATURE ON BBC COUNTRYFILE

This Sunday’s forthcoming BBC Countryfile episode features North Devon’s Taw and Torridge the two major rivers that feature in Henry Williamson’s classic tomes, ‘Tarka The Otter’ , ‘Salar the Salmon’ and A Clear Water Stream. The program features interviews with prominent local anglers reflecting upon angling history, the iconic salmon and the efforts to ensure the future of these marvellous fish.

TROUT & SALMON FISHING

Autumn is often a golden spell for anglers as temperatures drop and rain brings a welcome lift to the regions rivers that will encourage salmon and sea trout to enter the river systems. Trout anglers will also enjoy the chance to cast their flies into the rejuvenated streams and onto the regions reservoirs as cooler water encourages fish to the upper layers. Large dry daddy longlegs can provide exciting opportunities and large wild brown trout can also be seen slashing into shoals of fry in the lakes margins.

MATCH FISHING

Bideford Angling Clubs Rod N Reel Coarse Match on their home-water was won by Nathan Underwood with 96lb 3oz. Runner up was Martin Turner with 40lb 7oz and Kevin Shears third with 37lb 14oz.

Nick Jones won Stafford Moor’s Open match last weekend with 172lb 14oz.

The venues specimen carp lakes are in fine form with good carp from Beattie’s and Lodge Lake. Tony Franklin banked fourteen fish during a four day session including a personal best of 42lb.

At Bulldog Fishery a short closure to allow repairs to a water main seemed to result in the lakes resident carp feeding well on reopening with a group of anglers on a group booking banking 42 carp including a mirror carp of 33lb 1oz and a common carp of 32lb 10oz.

Combe Martin SAC hosted their Annual Fun Fishing event on Ilfracombe Pier an event that was enjoyed by over twenty anglers from different generations. Nine species were caught including pollock, conger, blenny, red bream, tompot blenny, smelt, ballan wrasse, corkwing wrasse and poor cod. A good number of red sea bream were donated to Ilfracombe aquarium where they can be seen along with other fish caught on previous fun fishing events over recent years.

The Welch Family won a trip to Ilfracombe Aquarium that they kindly donated to runner up family Jesubaul and Becky Mringer. The longest fish was a 54cm conger caught by Louie Cameron and the heaviest a ballan wrasse of 1lb 1oz to the rod of Daniel Welch. The top individual points scorer was Ben Clarke with 25 points and Jesubaul runner up with 24 points.

Combe Martin SAC are very appreciative for generous sponsorship of the event from High Street Tackle, Ilfracombe Aquarium and Barnstaple Bait and Tackle.

Combe Martin SAC member David Brooke has set a new club boat record with a fine specimen gilthead bream of 6lb 4oz.

Autumn is often a time of plenty for sea anglers with water temperatures at their peak resulting in a wide range of species being present. Trigger fish, sea bream, red mullet and sole are all possible targets from Ilfracombe Pier along with squid on Autumn nights.

4 Sep 2025

Seth Tuson takes lead in CMSAC lure league

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Seth Tuson is now leading Combe Martin SAC’s Lure Fishing League with five bass for 347.5cm after adding a bass of 67cm to his five fish total.

 

1st – Seth Tuson – Five Bass -347.5cm

2nd -Mark Drewer – Five Bass – 344.5cm

3rd – Wayne Thomas – Five bass – 318cm

4th – Jamie Steward – Four bass – 272cm

5th –  Reece Woolgar – Four Bass – 263cm

6th –  Daniel Welch – Four Bass – 233cm

2 Sep 2025

Trevor Telling Memorial Competition 2025

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Final call for this coming Sunday…

Trevor Telling Memorial Fishing Competition
Wimbleball Lake, Sunday the 7th September 2025…
2 Fishing competitions in 1, from the boat and the bank, trophy & prizes for each.
Normal price for fishing plus £5 donation to charity.
The charity being supported is Exeter Hospicecare team.

For those that knew Trevor, and for those that didn’t, this is now an annual commemorative event to remind us of a man who simply loved all fishing but especially fly fishing.

His local knowledge of Wimbleball was legendary which he readily shared with anglers on the pontoon as he sent them out for their days fishing.

2 Sep 2025

NORTH DEVON RIVERS TO FEATURE ON BBC COUNTRYFILE

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This Sunday’s forthcoming BBC Countryfile episode features North Devon’s Taw and Torridge the two major rivers that feature in Henry Williamson’s classic tomes, ‘Tarka The Otter’ , ‘Salar the Salmon’ and A Clear Water Stream. The program features interviews with prominent local anglers reflecting upon angling history, the iconic salmon and the efforts to ensure the future of these marvellous fish.

The ever cheerful Charles Inniss at the Half Moon with my wife Pauline.

To continue reading article from TACA click below :-

https://www.thetaca.com/news/a-century-of-tarka-heritage-rivers-amp-hope-for-the-future?ss_source=sscampaigns&ss_campaign_id=68b5762c7abfb569022f0cb1&ss_email_id=68b6a40caeb48f50a6e335d2&ss_campaign_name=A+Century+of+Tarka%3A+Heritage+%26+Hope+for+the+Future&ss_campaign_sent_date=2025-09-02T08%3A00%3A26Z

Charle Inniss returns a fine fresh salmon to the Torridge

 

31 Aug 2025

Combe Martin SAC Fun Fish 2025

by | posted in: Articles, At the Waters Edge, Club Page, Sea Angling, Sidebar, Young At Heart | 0

Hard to believe that another Combe Martin SAC Fun Fish has come and gone signalling the end of the Summer season in conjunction with the annual Sea-Ilfracombe Festival.

This popular event is very much what it says on the tin so to speak; a fun fishing event with few rules and the focus very much on family fun. Once again a big thank you from Combe Martin SAC for generous sponsorship from High Street Tackle, Ilfracombe Aquarium and Barnstaple Bait and Tackle.

This year’s event saw over twenty taking part with several young anglers catching or seeing their very first fish. The move to use lighter tackle and small barbless hooks has certainly boosted the catch rate ensuring that plenty of fish were tempted.

Nine species were caught including pollock, conger, blenny, red bream, tompot blenny, smelt, ballan wrasse, corkwing wrasse and poor cod. A good number of red sea bream were donated to Ilfracombe aquarium where they can be seen along with other fish caught on previous fun fishing events over recent years.

The Welch Family won a trip to Ilfracombe Aquarium that they kindly donated to runner up family Jesubaul and Becky Mringer. The longest fish was a 54cm conger caught by Louie Cameron and the heaviest a ballan wrasse of 1lb 1oz to the rod of Daniel Welch. The top individual points scorer was Ben Clarke with 25 points and Jesubaul runner up with 24 points.

Daniel Welch with the heaviest fish a ballan wrasse of 1lb 1oz
The Cameron Family with Archie (right) holding his brothers conger

The event cast off at 2.30pm as a strong swell surged close to the pier landings and a heavy shower threatened to dampen the spirits.

Fortunately the storm clouds soon drifted past and a vivid rainbow appeared off Hillsborough as bright blue skies brightened the rest of the afternoon.

Fish were caught from the start despite the murky water stirred up by heavy swells throughout the previous week. Four or five lobster were caught which is far more than any previous Fun fish. Another interesting feature was the large number of small red bream caught throughout the two hour long event.

Apologies if I have spelt any names wrong, a strong breeze, aging ears and a rain smeared score sheet undoubtedly contribute to any errors. Everyone who registered a fish took home a prize from our sponsors and in my view everyone who took part was a winner. I hope that those smiles convert just a few to enjoy the marvellous pastime that can forge a deep and lasting connection with the natural world.

28 Aug 2025

Bulldog Carp

by | posted in: Carp Fishing, Sidebar | 0

Following a short closure to allow repairs to a water pipe Bulldogs Carp Lakes re-opened  and group of six anglers enjoyed great fishing on a lake exclusive. They banked 42 carp two of which where over 30lb one common 32lb 10oz and a mirror at 33lb 13oz loads of mid twenties and smallest being 9lb 6oz all lovely and strong fighting fish, “can’t thanks Nigel and Tom enough very welcoming and even done us burger and chips for our exclusive booking”.

 

28 Aug 2025

WEEKLY ANGLING REPORT – August 28th 2025

by | posted in: Articles, At the Waters Edge, Carp Fishing, Coarse Fishing, Match Fishing, Sea Angling, Sidebar | 0

            Members of Combe Martin SAC spent a day off Ilfracombe fishing on Daniel Welch’s boat Predator 2. Whilst the hoped for tope failed to show members found ten different species fishing on the seabed as cloudy water hampered lure fishing. The species caught included mackerel, scad, black bream, bull huss, smoothound, gurnard, conger, pollock, bass and dogfish.

             Combe Martin SAC host their annual fun fishing event this Sunday on Ilfracombe Pier with fishing starting at 2.30pm and ending at 4.30pm. This easy going event has been running for several years in conjunction with the Sea-Ilfracombe Festival. All young anglers should be accompanied by a responsible adult. The club would like to thank the ongoing support of High Street Tackle, Barnstaple Bait and Tackle and Ilfracombe Aquarium. Prizes are awarded for anglers under 16 who catch the most species and longest fish. The heaviest fish caught by and the top family points total.

 

            Late summer and early Autumn offer a wide range of species to target in saltwater as the seasons transition. All tactics can work at this time of year with both bait and lure tactics proving effective dependant on the prevailing conditions. An increasing number of anglers are now compiling records of the fish species they catch. A branch of angling I would compare to keen birdwatchers often referred to as twitchers. This can become very addictive with anglers traveling long distances and adapting tackle to target species not caught on standard sea tackle. Some mini sea species are caught using tiny hooks and gossamer thin lines paired with miniature rods. I recently bought Jack Perks excellent book “Field Guide to British Fish- Freshwater and Marine”. The book contains information and quality photo’s of 200 species found in UK waters. It has a useful tick list in the back of the book to record your own tally of species.

The book is a perfect companion to Alwynne Wheeler’s Key to the Fishes of Northern Europe that was first published in 1978. It is fascinating to compare the two books that illustrate the significant changes that are happening in both marine and freshwater eco systems.

            Ben Evenden won Stafford Moor’s Sunday Open with 197lb 9oz.

            Stafford Moor’s Carp Lakes are in fine form with plenty of multiple hauls. Dan Hoskin and his son fished Beattie’s Lake to bank sixteen carp twelve of which were over twenty pounds with the best a fine fish of 28lb. Martin Burton banked four carp to 32lb and Owen Thrumble banked forty carp over five days to 30lb 5oz.