A cracking catch from Jason McEvoy at Upper Tamar.
Jason banked four fish to 20lb 2oz, with this mirror being the pick of the bunch.
All fish caught on a 18mm CC Moore Live system bottom bait.
Upper Tamar Carp
LAKE RECORD CARP 44lb 12oz
Chris Connaughton who works at Quay Sports has banked a carp known as the bullet at a weight of 44lb 12oz from Hacche Moor Fishery near South Molton. The capture of such a fine carp highlights the journey carp fishing has been on over the past 70 years. In 1952 Richard Walker banked a carp weighing 44lb from the legendary Redmire Pool on the Welsh Borders. The carp made headlines and beat the previous record of 26lb caught by Albert Buckley in 1930. Walker’s record stood until 1980 when Chris Yates caught a carp of 51lb 8oz from the same pool. The record has been broken on numerous occasions since 1980 and I like I suspect many others have lost track of the carp record. Today’s carp anglers are very fortunate to have carp dwelling across the country that exceed those old milestones in fishing history. In North Devon there are numerous waters that contain carp of over forty pounds. This is a reflection on fishery owners, fish breeders, anglers’ baits and the potentially changing climate.
In North Devon we have several waters that would rival Redmire’s stock of carp.
New Lake Record
News from Hacche Moor Fishery
“Congratulations to Chris Connaughton on his capture of the “bullet” at a new personal best and lake record of 44.12… Chris has been quietly plugging away this winter and was probably starting to ask himself a few questions, truth be told, as he was yet to have a bite on his winter ticket after several nights angling. This soon changed thou as he opened his account with a lovely fully scaled mirror then the following day he had the bite he was after; the king of the pond at 44.12.. it’s first ever capture during the winter syndicate period too so well done mate.”
Chris is also the owner of Remix bait’s
Can’t believe I’m writing this second fish of my winter campaign on @hacchemoorfishery and I’ve got ‘The Bullet’ which is a new PB and a New lake record caught using ‘Cellnapple’ pop ups. Buzzing!!!
PARADISE CARP CATCH
Sam Passmore with a beautiful, clean 28lb 3oz Mirror from Nirvana’s Day Ticket Kracking Carp Lake.
Sam caught the Mirror using a hinge stiff rig made up of DSD end tackle and finished with a mad baits boosted wicked white cast to a showing fish.The only show in the 3 days of fishing and the only bite he had, and he landed it!
Sam shared – “Another fish from the lake that’s been so good to me and hopefully I’ll be back to finish the business when the time comes!
A Kracking 49!
Adrian Mikos caught a personal best 49lb Mirror known as Parrot from Nirvana’s Kracking Carp Lake caught on a yellow wafter.
Stafford Moor Carp Catch
Jim Dean banked two carp out up to 29lb 2oz from swim 2 up on lodge lake, Jim caught on CC Moore live system and washed out pink carp freaks pop ups.
CARP CATCHES FROM TRUSTY WATERS
The recent mild weather is proving ideal for local carp fishing with some great catches from local SWLT waters.
Jason McEvoy caught this 20lb common as his first fish of the year from Upper Tamar.
It took an 18mm CC Moore Live System bottom bait fished on a size 6 crank, fox camotek hook length and west country leads.
( Below) Some fantastic catches from our Darracott Bailiff Ken Sampson which he had over the Christmas period.
(Below )Some cracking catches from Dean Willoughby who had these fish at Melbury recently.
BIg Carp on the Feed in mild conditions
The mild weather is proving ideal for the regions carp anglers with some stunning carp caught over the Christmas period. Forty pound plus fish have been caught from Furzebray Carp Lakes, Riverton and Torridge Carp Lakes.
Torridge lakes first carp of over forty pounds has been banked by Jamie Everard. The common has been sighted several times in recent months but has not been banked since April when it scaled 35lb 4oz.
Paul Prowse also enjoyed success at the venue banking a fine mirror carp scaling 32lb 8oz.
(Below) Barry Hobson has finally landed Bulldog carp lake’s first 30lb+ carp!
Dropscale – Forty Five Twelve – Furzebray
Tom Rushby banked the mighty Dropscale from Furzebray Carp Lakes at a new top weight of 45.12 and a new pb for Tom.
Merry Christmas & Happy Fishes for 2023
I would like to thank all those who have followed North Devon Angling News throughout 2022 and to those who have contributed news stories and pictures. A special thanks to those who have sponsored the site over past years.
I welcome new sponsors for 2023 at very reasonable rates. Contact – [email protected]
Message from Ashley Bunning – SWLT
Another year passes and we say goodbye to 2022! It has been a hard year for the reservoirs, not only in the South West, but all over the UK. Low water levels and lake closures have been a frustrating factor to fishing through the summer, and we thank all of you for being understanding through these testing times. Having started my role in September, I would personally like to thank all of you for your kind words of support and I hope we can now push forward and continue the great work South West Lakes has been doing to improve the fishing on the waters.
There have been some great catches through the year with many great bags of silvers from many of the reservoirs to some special carp being caught.
Sadly, the lakes have lost two of its ‘A-team’, with Arnie from Porth and The Big Fully from Argal passing. These fish put many smiles on anglers’ faces, they will be missed!
Looking towards the future of the lakes, in November we stocked 39 new carp into Argal. These fished ranged between 13lb and 17lb, with 34 mirrors and 5 commons. Next year we are planning to stock other waters in the region to continue our work to improve all our waters. There has been some great swim building projects carried out on the lakes also, I would like to thank all the volunteers who have given up their time to help and make improvements on the lakes.
I am pleased to announce that we will be running the Mainline Pairs competitions again for next year the dates for this will be March 24-26, June 30-July 2 and September 29-October 1. We are looking forward to seeing all the familiar faces and welcoming new anglers to the competitions.
Also we will be having two event days in August, which will be part of the Angling Trust’s National Fishing Month, with the emphasis to get as many kids fishing as possible. The dates and places for this are the Royalty Fishery on August 5 and Upper Tamar Lakes on August 19. Please keep your eyes peeled for these events on the website, so you don’t miss out.
Once again thank you for all your support through this last year, may you all have a great Christmas and happy New Year. Look forward to seeing you all out on the bank in 2023.
Cheers
Ashley Bunning