Kyle Blackmore took advantage of the quiet shores on Christmas Day to tempt this smoothound. Not a large specimen but a thought provoking fish at this time of year. Catching fish outside of their recognised seasons has always happened but my gut feeling is that it is happening far more these days. There are many factors that impact upon fish and fish migration climate is just one of these and as anglers we play our game on natures chess board casting our lines into ever changing waters.
At Christmas and the New Year we often indulge in looking back and forth in time and social media has introduced an instant world that undoubtedly has its up and down sides. It is a fact that social media reflects good and bad in people so rather than condemn it as the new evil best to accept it as it is; taking the good with the bad as we always have in life.
On North Devon Angling News I try to report in a positive way to promote angling and the enjoyment of angling. I started the website back in 2016 when I saw that traditional papers were in decline ( The North Devon Journal stopped rewarding their angling columnist), I still write the column in the Journal because I want angling to have its place in North Devon News but feel that most people get their news on line these days. I hope readers enjoy what I try to do on this site and I welcome any features on local angling that you may be inspired to write. Please keep sending the news and images I do not reveal marks unless they are large easy access ones as I know this is a contentious area for sea anglers.
Fish conservation and habitat are all factors that impact upon anglers and I try to promote good practice within my pages on this site. In many instances anglers are at the forefront of conservation efforts espeicially on our rivers with grace concerns regarding salmon and sea trout stocks.
As I type this a latest report has just come in from Ian Laird ( Below) who landed this 9lb 8oz bull huss from a North Devon Rock Mark. One observation on recent months is that I am getting good numbers of qaulity pictures from anglers fishing the shore line during day light hours. I have fished plenty of after dark sessions to be plaged by small dogfish and strap eels.
If you would like to advertise/sponsor North Devon Angling News please get in touch. I try to give good value to all my sponsors. In the next few weeks my Intention is to add a few new features to the site giving more information on venues and whats on offer to anglers visiting North Devon.
Richard Ball landed five pike to 11lb 8oz in a day session at Lower Slade Resevior for a total weight of 41lb 4 oz all but one fish were tempted using sardine the other preferred a herring.
Anglers Paradise are very proud and pleased to share with you that they have just given away £8500 to the following local charities :-
Devon Air Ambulance – £2500
Food Banks Okehampton and Holsworthy-£2000
Black Torrington Surgery Elevator – £1500
Exeter Hospiscare – £1000
Halwill Primary School – £1000
Halwill Parish Hall – £500
We’d like to thank all our customers for their generosity throughout the year. All year we continue to raise as much as we can at Anglers Paradise through doing Raffles, Quiz Nights, we also raise most of the money during our annual Netting week through events like Archery, Bingo Night, Race Night, Quiz Night, Treasure Hunt, Tombola, Pool and Darts competitions etc.
Pictured is Zyg and Rose Gregorek and Daughter Zenia, Brian Kneebone of Devon Air Ambulance, Sally Hill from Blake House Surgery, Head Teacher of Halwill Primary School Ruh Alford, Sarah Gainsbury and Roger Young of Holsworthy Food Bank, Reginald Harnel of Okehampton Food Bank and Jill and Paul Voaden of Hospiscare.
Stafford Moor is renowned for its Specimen Carp and bumper Match fishing nets but is also holds a good head of other specimen fish including perch and huge eels. Neilsen Jeffery is a well known Match angler but enjoyed a great pleasure session on Beatties Lake landing several bream and this stunning perch of 3lb.
If Carlsberg made Fish I think they’d look like THIS!! Brett Davies had a day on the famous Koi Lake with his girlfriend Derian and they had a fantastic day of nonstop catching including this stunning 11lb 7oz Koi making it a new personal best for Brett!
Brett shared with us –
“I stalked this fish for 45 minutes. There were multiple failed casts, a good few rejections of the free-lined dog biscuit, and a lot more whispered swear words. Then on probably the tenth cast, the bait dropped just on the fishes’ nose and it came up sweet as nut and gulped the biscuit down.
The fight was absolutely mental, probably 3 or 4 minutes of dogged power, mostly right under the rod tip. I did forget to say that even though I had 12lb line straight through to a size 8 hook, I was using one of the light lure rods I had with me for the lure weekend, and it was bent double.
I eventually slipped the net under and I knew it was biggest Koi I’d personally seen at Angler’s Paradise in more than 20 years visiting, shaking like a leaf I was.
Seeing the scales spin around to well over 10lb shocked me. A new PB Koi at 11lb 7oz and it’s also one of my many favourite Angler’s Paradise experiences. Lovely.”
The Individual Winner of the whole Competition was **DAVEY MEADES** who caught 6 Species altogether which included a 43cm Rainbow Trout, a 35cm Blue Trout, 2 Rudd at 12cm and 13cm, a 14cm Golden Rudd, a 11cm Perch and the fish that determined his win was a 17cm Golden Tench which was the 1st ever Lure caught Golden Tench to be caught in the history of Anglers Paradise!!
Quantum, Costa and Anglers Paradise Sponsored this Event meaning Davey Won a Week’s Holiday for 2 at Anglers Paradise and a huge range of Quantum Tackle, including a Rod, Reel, Lures and Clothing, a Pair of Costa’s Sunglasses and lots more, he had to take his Prizes in 2 trips as he couldn’t carry it all!!
Damon’s Team Captain was Fladen’s very own Pike King – Nathan Edgell, who was extremely proud of his Team Member to Win the Competition! Special Thanks to
Quantum and Costa for being so generous with the Prizes.
The Runner Up of the Lure Weekend 2018 was **SCOTT WAY** Winning with 5 Species amounting to 180.5cms consisiting of a 51.5cm Pike, a 35cm Tiger Trout, a 16cm Perch, a 39cm Blue Trout and a 39cm Rainbow Trout. Massive CONGRATULATIONS to Scott, this was his first ever Lure Weekend with us too!
Scott was in Team Fox Rage with Captain Ben Humber who was very proud of Scott’s determination and dedication till the very last whistle! This Catergory was Sponsored by QUANTUM who we’d like to say a massive Thank you for the very generous Prizes donated to the Event.
Now THIS is a catch that has made Anglers Paradise history! Andy Payne has done it again! Not only is he the only man to have ever caught and landed a Catfish on a Lure but this year he’s caught this stunning 22lb Common on a lure making him the 1st to have ever caught a Carp on a lure at Anglers Paradise!!!
It was a magical fishing moment that I for one feel blessed to have been there and share it with Andy. Andy caught the lure caught Carp from the Bottom Lake at Anglers Eldorado.
Team Captain Kev Cox from Fox Rage as you can imagine was thrilled to bits and very proud of his team member Andy to catch such a species like this on a lure!!
This was without a doubt the Winner for the new Catergory – Fish Of The Weekend – Sponsored by FOX RAGE. Andy also came THIRD in the overall Competition catching 5 Species to 160.5cm consisting of a 17cm Perch, a 34cm Blue Trout, a 32cm Golden Trout, a 10.5cm Rudd and the 67cm Common Carp Wining more prizes from the very generous Quantum!
The Winning Team of the 2018 Lure Weekend is Team Fox Rage with Team Captain Ben Humber leading them to VICTORY!! It was the closest Competition EVER, Team Ben Humber WON with 9 Species to include Pike, Perch, Common Carp, Blue Trout, Rainbow Trout, Tiger Trout, Brook Trout, Golden Rudd and Rudd.
To tell you exactly how close it was, Team Fladen with Captain Nathan Edgell also caught 9 Species so in the end it had to come down to literally cm’s!! Team Fladen amounted to 253.5cm but Team Fox Rage won it with 286.5cm – it was so, so close!! Kev Cox’s Team had 8 Species and Savage Robbie Northman’s Team also had 8 Species which is superb angling for all the Team Members – they all fished their socks off but The Winners were TEAM BEN HUMBER – FOX RAGE – WELL DONE TO EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU!!
The Fish that secured their Win was another surprise Common Carp caught by Ian Paynton from the Trout Lake bumping their species up to 9!! Ben’s Team consisted of Dion Cooke-Martin, Nicky Lock, Ian Paynton, Lee Paynton, Mark Hawitt, Scott Way, Dom Cooke and son Dylan who are now the 2018 Team WINNERS!
A Big Shout out to all the Team Captains for doing a Fantastic Job and well done to all of the Anglers for fishing it until the very last second – pure dedication to Fishing! Thank you to all the Sponsors for yet again great Prizes for this Catergory – Quantum, Fladen, Costa, Drennan, Savage Fishing Gear and Fox Rage.
The BIGGEST PIKE caught at the 2018 Lure Weekend was caught by the one and only DION COOK-MARTIN measuring 62cm from Valhalla. DION was in Team Fox Rage with Captain Ben Humber leading him to Victory!
DION won some pretty special prizes from the Sponsors of this Catergory **Fladen and Costa** including a Fladen Rod, Reel and a pair of Costa Sunglasses – Thank you so much to Fladen and Costa, for the amazing Prizes, DION is a very happy boy.
For the FIRST EVER time, a Female Angler has Won The Biggest Perch catergory with a 27cm Perch caught by Derian Edwards!! This year’s Competition saw 5 Lady Anglers join us, which is fantastic to see more Women joining in and proving that the sport of fishing is ever growing with ladies that fish too and in this case do it better!! I for one am always trying to encourage more females to fish and join in, in this case Derian didn’t want to join in the Competition as she’s a beginner to fishing and didn’t think she could, but I assured her partner Brett, that this was an event for all levels of angling and is a friendly Competition that anyone can join in and that she would be welcomed by all, she changed her mind and decided to fish the Lure Weekend. Then she only went and WON BIGGEST PERCH!!! We are so proud of Derian, congratulations on becoming the FIRST LADY to WIN a Catergory!! Derian won a Fox Rage Rod and Reel and a pair of Costa Sunglasses, many thanks again to the Sponsors of this CATERGORY – Fox Rage and Costa. Derian was in Team Savage Fishing with Captain Robbie Northman who was extremely proud of his Team Member!! HERE’S TO SEEING MORE LADIES FISHING LIKE DERIAN!! GIRL POWER!!
Luke Taylor Won this Category with a lovely 45.5cm Rainbow Trout from the Trout Lake caught on the second morning of fishing, Luke also caught a 35.5cm Artic Char to add to his list of species!
Luke was in Team Savage with Robbie Northman as Captain.
Luke won a selection of Drennan goodies AND a pair of Costa Sunglasses – Thank you to Drennan and Costa for the great prizes and for sponsoring this Category.
With so many fantastic prizes donated from the Sponsors, we decided to have a New Category which was judged by me (Zenia), the Captains, Adjudicators etc to vote on who they thought was the most improved Angler over the weekend. The Winner of Most Improved Angler went to Anthony Addison, who from start to finish went from strength to strength and throughout the weekend Anthony learnt so much especially from his Team Captain Kevin Cox. Dylan Cooke (who was the youngest member of the competition) and DION were Runners Up who both showed determination and dedication especially in challenging conditions at times!! Good on you boys – keep up the great Angling and passion for learning. This Category was sponsored by Savage Fishing Gear and Anthony won himself an amazing Savage Reel AND Rod!!
The Blind Team Winners were Michael Molloy, Ian Paynton, Lee Paynton, Ben Taylor and Steve Self with 10 Species consisiting of Pike, Perch, Blue Trout, Rainbow Trout, Golden Trout, Tiger Trout, Rudd, Golden Rudd, Golden Tench and a Common Carp. Last year it was won with 4 species, so 10 is pretty awesome!!
Special Thanks to Costa for the Prizes.
So, that’s a wrap! As you can see, there were lots of fish caught and we are proof that THERE IS SUCH A THING AS A FRIENDLY FISHING COMPETITION!!
Looks like the 2018 November Lure Fishing was a great success once again many thanks to Zenia for her enthusiastic write up! Several first this year with carp on a lure and a golden tench.
💥WINNER OF THE NOVEMBER 2018 LURE WEEKEND💥
The Individual Winner of the whole Competition was **DAVEY MEADES** who caught 6 Species altogether which included a 43cm Rainbow Trout, a 35cm Blue Trout, 2 Rudd at 12cm and 13cm, a 14cm Golden Rudd, a 11cm Perch and the fish that determined his win was a 17cm Golden Tench which was the 1st ever Lure caught Golden Tench to be caught in the history of Anglers Paradise!!
Quantum, Costa and Anglers Paradise Sponsored this Event meaning Davey Won a Week’s Holiday for 2 at Anglers Paradise and a huge range of Quantum Tackle, including a Rod, Reel, Lures and Clothing, a Pair of Costa’s Sunglasses and lots more, he had to take his Prizes in 2 trips as he couldn’t carry it all!!
Damon’s Team Captain was Fladen’s very own Pike King – Nathan Edgell, who was extremely proud of his Team Member to Win the Competition!
Special Thanks to Quantum and Costa for being so generous with the Prizes.
MASSIVE CONGRATULATIONS to DAVEY MEADES for WINNING THE 2018 LURE WEEKEND!!
The Runner Up of the Lure Weekend 2018 is **SCOTT WAY** Winning with 5 Species amounting to 180.5cms consisting of a 51.5cm Pike, a 35cm Tiger Trout, a 16cm Perch, a 39cm Blue Trout and a 39cm Rainbow Trout.
Massive CONGRATULATIONS to Scott, this was his first ever Lure Weekend with us too!
Scott was in Team Fox Rage with Captain Ben Humber who was very proud of Scott’s determination and dedication till the very last whistle!
This Catergory was Sponsored by QUANTUM who we’d like to say a massive Thank you for the very generous Prizes donated to the Event.
WELL DONE SCOTT!
**FISH OF THE WEEKEND** AND **THIRD PLACE**
Now THIS is a catch that has made Anglers Paradise history! Andy Payne has done it again! Not only is he the only man to have ever caught and landed a Catfish on a Lure but this year he’s caught this stunning 22lb Common on a lure making him the 1st to have ever caught a Carp on a lure at Anglers Paradise!!!
It was a magical fishing moment that I for one feel blessed to have been there and share it with Andy. Andy caught the lure caught Carp from the Bottom Lake at Anglers Eldorado.
Team Captain Kev Cox from Fox Rage as you can imagine was thrilled to bits and very proud of his team member Andy to catch such a species like this on a lure!!
This was without a doubt the Winner for the new Catergory – Fish Of The Weekend – Sponsored by FOX RAGE.
Andy also came THIRD in the overall Competition catching 5 Species to 160.5cm consisting of a 17cm Perch, a 34cm Blue Trout, a 32cm Golden Trout, a 10.5cm Rudd and the 67cm Common Carp Wining more prizes from the very generous Quantum!
CONGRATULATIONS ANDY AND WELL DONE ON A TRULY AMAZING CATCH AND MAKING ANGLING HISTORY AT ANGLERS PARADISE!!
🎣💥THE WINNING TEAM OF THE LURE WEEKEND💥🎣
The Winning Team of the 2018 Lure Weekend is Team Fox Rage with Team Captain Ben Humber leading them to VICTORY!!
It was the closest Competition EVER, Team Ben Humber WON with 9 Species to include Pike, Perch, Common Carp, Blue Trout, Rainbow Trout, Tiger Trout, Brook Trout, Golden Rudd and Rudd.
To tell you exactly how close it was, Team Fladen with Captain Nathan Edgell also caught 9 Species so in the end it had to come down to literally cm’s!! Team Fladen amounted to 253.5cm but Team Fox Rage won it with 286.5cm – it was so, so close!! Kev Cox’s Team had 8 Species and Savage Robbie Northman’s Team also had 8 Species which is superb angling for all the Team Members – they all fished their socks off but The Winners were TEAM BEN HUMBER – FOX RAGE – WELL DONE TO EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU!!
The Fish that secured their Win was another surprise Common Carp caught by Ian Paynton from the Trout Lake bumping their species up to 9!! Ben’s Team consisted of Dion Cooke-Martin, Nicky Lock, Ian Paynton, Lee Paynton, Mark Hawitt, Scott Way, Dom Cooke and son Dylan who are now the 2018 Team WINNERS!
A Big Shout out to all the Team Captains for doing a Fantastic Job and well done to all of the Anglers for fishing it until the very last second – pure dedication to Fishing!
Thank you to all the Sponsors for yet again great Prizes for this Catergory – Quantum, Fladen, Costa, Drennan, Savage Fishing Gear and Fox Rage.
Bring on next year!!!
The BIGGEST PIKE caught at the 2018 Lure Weekend was caught by the one and only DION COOK-MARTIN measuring 62cm from Valhalla.
DION was in Team Fox Rage with Captain Ben Humber leading him to Victory!
DION won some pretty special prizes from the Sponsors of this Catergory **Fladen and Costa** including a Fladen Rod, Reel and a pair of Costa Sunglasses – Thank you so much to Fladen and Costa, for the amazing Prizes, DION is a very happy boy.
Looks like a crackinglure fishing weekend at Anglers Paradise – Full results to follow as soon as Zenia compiles a full report!
WHAT AN AWESOME 2018 LURE WEEKEND!!
The Lure Weekend has officially finished, and what an amazing Weekend it was!!! The Anglers fished their socks off and the Captains did their Teams PROUD!
I honestly don’t know where to start, I’m missing everyone already, it’s a weekend where Anglers from across the Country join us and we all share the passion of Fishing, make friends, laugh (alot!!), Fish, and have a ‘Ruddy’ good time!
This was the BIGGEST 5th Lure Weekend at Anglers Paradise and it couldn’t have gone better, I want to thank every single one of you for being a part of our Lure Family, I honestly feel so blessed to have the opportunity to Host such a great Event and meet such wonderful people doing it, thank you for making my job such a pleasure!!
A MASSIVE Thank you to the Team Captains who did us so so proud – Nathan Edgell aka the Pike King who represented Team Fladen, Ben the ‘Stinky’ Humber who represented Team Fox Rage, Robbie Northman who represented Team Savage and Kev Cox who represented Team Fox Rage who sadly couldn’t make the presentation as had to be taken to Hospital. The poor chap had Flu all weekend but tried his best to battle the Weekend out but it defeated him on the last day and turns out he has severe Pneumonia on both lungs, he’s now back and home resting and on anti-biotics – Kevin – thanks for doing an awesome job despite feeling how you were – we wish you a speedy recovery and please rest!!
The Team Captains did a SUPERB job yet again and the results of the Lure Weekend will be trickled out throughout the week – so watch this space, I need a day to recover and then I’ve got 100’s of pictures to sort!!
Thank you to John Deprielle from Fladen who was our Professional Photographer of the Event, he’s taken some amazing pictures that I can’t wait to share with you!!
Thank you to the Costa Boys – Adam Sinclair and Ben Bagham who joined us and gave some amazing Prizes for the Winners inc 5 Pairs of Sunglasses!!
Thank you to all the Sponsors – Fladen, Fox Rage, Savage, Costa, Quantum and Drennan – The Prizes were absolutely Phenomenal this year and the Winners went home with massive smiles with all their goodies!!
Thank you to the Adjudicators – George Crisp, Paul Oglesbee, Ashley Bunning, Paul Tegg and Jamie Noone – You ALL did a superb job and made sure everything went to plan!
Thank you to the Staff at Anglers Paradise – Especially Kit Edmonds the Chef who made sure the Anglers were fed – the Food was amazing and Kit didn’t stop from 6am right the way to 8pm!!
Not forgetting my husband who helped me massively to make sure everything ran smoothly – I couldn’t have done it without him!!
There were some great catches and you won’t believe the surprise catches until you see them!! All to be announced and REVEALED in the coming days!!
Richard Ball braved the weather at Lower Slade to do a bit of pike fishing and caught a stunning 12lb pike caught on frozen roach.
Anglers fishing for pike are reminded that they must use a wire trace and carry suitable long nosed forceps for un-hooking, an un-hooking mat and a 42″ landing net.
