Its mid summer the longest days are here now and it doesn’t get any better out at the waters edge. Over the next few days it be would great to share a few images of summer at the waters edge. So lets see some images of fish, water and fishing. Lets get away from those standard grip and pose shots of angler with fish and try to get a bit of atmosphere and the joys of angling. Please either email to me at [email protected] or just post on the North Devon Angling News Facebook page and I will transfer from there.
Next weekend I publish a picture special of North Devon Angling Views! Thanks for your response so far
Report and pictures below from Zenia at Anglers Paradise
Zenia Drury-Gregorek (myself) took her son Zaine, age 7 fishing for the day on the Specimen Tench and Orfe Lake and had a great day full of beautiful Tench! Zaine caught a personal best 4lb Golden Tench and Zenia caught her 1st ever Koi Tench and many Golden Tench up to 4lb+, all float fished off the bottom using strawberry soft hook pellets – Life is better with Fishing and it’s even better when you can share fishing moments with your son.
(Below)5C’s Member Maggot aka Mike Whitfield caught a Personal Best 64lb Wels Catfish from the Main Carp Lake, it gave him the fight of his life but he won the fight in the end! Maggot caught the Monster using Paradise Baits Castastrophic dumbells.
We had the lovely handsome actor that is Will Mellor of Hollyoaks fame come and stay with us bringing his wife, son and daughter. They had lots of fun fishing every day and caught some stunners along the way! Will said “Had a fantastic few days at Anglers Paradise with the family! Caught some great fish, had quality family time and met some lovely people.”
(Below) Julian Chidgey got in on the action too and caught a stunning 19lb Linear and mid double Grass Carp from the Main Lake and two 15lb Mirrors from the Octopussy. Julian used his favourite helicopter set up with short pop up rigs and Tor baits Squido.
(Below) Simon Winters tried to keep this catch quiet but his friend shared his catch for him! Si caught a personal best 42lb Mirror from Nirvana’s Kracking Carp Lake – we believe it’s the Parrot.
(Below) A COUPLE WIN♥ – The standard of fish of the week entries was so high that we had a draw, and what made it more special is that it was a tie between Ben Taylor AND his girlfriend Bex Nelson with 2 amazing catches! Bex caught this stunning 20lb 4oz fully scaled Mirror from the Main Carp Lake using Urban Baits Nutcracker and Ben caught the most beautiful personal best 8lb+ Koi Carp from the Koi Lake off the top on bread – amazing pictures too!
(Below)Ryan Owen had a fantastic week of fish, catching a 24lb Common, 20lb 8oz and 19lb 13oz fully scaled Mirrors from the Main Carp Lake, a 20lb Mirror from Nirvana’s day ticket Fat Boys Lake and a 20lb 2oz Fully scaled Mirror from the Specimen Carp Lake. Ryan was sing responsive baits, the code boilies on 8inch rigs fished snowman style on a white citrus pop-up.
(Below)Thomas Gibson caught a lovely looking 22lb 12oz Mirror from the Main Carp Lake at Anglers Paradise which is a new personal best for him using a white pop up!
(Below) Jacob Judges, 10, from Rochester, Kent, truly had a great week with us catching not 1 but 2 personal bests!! Jacob caught a PB 24lb Common from Nirvana’s Day Ticket Xanadu Lake AND a PB 18lb 11oz Grass Carp from the Main Carp Lake, his Dad was very proud!!
Anglers Paradise has a wealth of fishing for both the specimen hunter and the family. Below are a few pictures and stories from Zenia that sum up the fun and fishing available at Anglers Paradise.
(Below)Father and son Charlie and Archie Snell enjoyed a great fishing trip to Anglers Paradise.
GUIDED SESSION SUCCESS
Wayne hasn’t fished for 20 years because of general life getting in the way! But he decided it was finally time to get back out there, so he got in touch with Julian Chidgey to go on a guided session and he caught a personal best 20lb 12oz Mirror from the Specimen Carp Lake amongst a few others! Of course Julian got in on the action too and caught a stunning 19lb Linear and Grass Carp from the Main Lake and two 15lb Mirrors from the Octopussy.
Julian shared with us –
“Wayne used to fish on a regular basis but with a busy job he recently realised he hasn’t picked a rod up for twenty years! With a van full of new tackle Wayne headed down to Anglers Paradise for a holiday, and a guided session.
We started yesterday evening by getting a couple rods out on Octopussy lake so we could sit down and look at rigs and baits. After 3 anglers had struggled on the lake during the day I wasn’t expecting miracles so was happy to see Wayne land a double figure carp within 10 minutes! An hour later and we were interrupted whilst tying some rigs up by another slightly bigger fish. My favourite helicopter set up with short pop up rigs and Tor baits Squido producing the bites.
Not wanting to night fish Wayne headed to his accommodation to get some sleep ahead of a stalking day today. Based on the conditions I planned a route starting with a bit of a gamble, the Specimen Carp Lake. The fish in here are big but ultra-wary. After an hour of feeding floaters we had two of larger fish feeding and after setting the hook, Wayne did a great job playing the fish through the weedy bay.
I hadn’t asked Wayne what his biggest fish was but the look on his face told me everything as the scales settled on 20lb 12oz. What a return to angling!
The rest of the day saw us catch from several other lakes whilst I showed Wayne some great spots to try during the rest of his holiday. Only a few slots left now for summer sessions and the September carp and cat camp, so get in touch if you want to improve your angling.”
WELL DONE WAYNE – GREAT TO SEE YOU’VE GOT THE FISHING BUG BACK!
Zenia Gregorek with a stunning golden tench.
CARP AND CATFISH BRACE FROM THE MAIN LAKE
Congratulations to Martin Judges who stayed with us with his wife and son and caught a 29lb 12oz Mirror AND a 63lb 2oz Wels Catfish from the Main Carp Lake, which I believe are both personal bests!
Martin shared with Anglers Paradise –
“Mega Main Lake Carp and Cat brace!
I have been coming to anglers paradise for a number of years now, and on occasion have managed a nice carp or a nice Cat but I have not managed both in the same week let alone the same session.
This changed this week when about 16.00 on Wednesday, I had a take from a margin spot on the Main Lake landing a stunning 29.12 Mirror and followed this up 02.30 on Thursday morning landing a massive 63.02 Catfish!!
Both fish were caught on Active bait solutions Hydra K barrell waters presented on korda kamo hooklinks with size 8 Korda Frank X hooks.
Regards
Martin Judges.”
Just had this email from a Father who just finished a 72 hour session with his 2 Sons at our Day Ticket Complex ‘Anglers Eldorado’ , and they caught plenty!!
“Hi Zenia
My two sons and myself, recently had a 72hr session on the Eldorado Lakes choosing the Bottom Carp and Cat Lake and also had a fish in between on the others on our ticket.
We had a brilliant trip, although the carp were playing hard to get, we had over 30 Carp and 11 Cats, plus some lovely Koi from the Koi Lake, unfortunately the bigger Catfish managed to snag us up resulting in hook pulls!!
We had a great session and are looking forward to getting back, largest cat 25lb, largest carp 16lb
All the best
Paul, Harry, Jack Painter.”
DAY TICKET SPECIMEN CAT LAKE I’m struggling to keep up with all these big Catfish catches coming out of Nirvana’s Specimen Cat Lake and all giving Anglers new personal bests! Here’s Paul Baker who beat his personal best TWICE at the weekend with a 48lb 8oz Catfish and then another one at the magic 50lbs!! Paul caught the Wels Catfish using 2 22mm halibut pellets. WELL DONE AND CONGRATULATIONS PAUL!
Wilder Van Koutrik aged ten caught this stunning tench of 6lb 7oz from a Private Lake near Barnstaple. Its great to receive a picture of a fine tench from a local water as these fish are no were near as abundant as there were in North Devon waters. This is partially due to an obsession with carp fishing and also I guess due to environmental factors? Its also great to be able to report of a successful junior anglers.
Many thanks for the below report from Martin Turner
NDMG v Bude Canal Anglers
. Individual Results
1st Simon John Allen 34lb 4oz
2nd Andy Gray 29lb 6oz
3rd Kevin Shears 27lb 4oz
4th Paul Morris 26lb 14oz
5th Paul Ware 26lb 10oz .
North Devon Match Group hosted the first leg of our annual inter club event on Killock Lakes , the 12 a side match was fished in hot humid conditions which led to a close match. Pole fishing dominated with Simon John Allen coming out on top for Bude Anglers, but this sterling performance by their captain was not enough to prevent NDMG from winning on the day 164 points to 136 , over 350lb of fish were landed, and we all look forward to the return leg in September, thanks to all competitors and Killock Farm Shop for breakfasts and after match snack.
The warm spring weather has truly woken the big catfish in Anglers Paradises Day Ticket Specimen Cat Lake with some awesome cats banked. See report from Anglers Paradise below.
Tony Trenerry from Launceston had a Red Letter session on our day ticket Specimen Cat Lake catching 4 Cats of 46lb 4oz, 48lb, 51lb 8oz and a new PB of 54lb 8oz!! What a session!! Tony also caught another 51lb 3oz Cat on his previous session!
Tony shared with Anglers Paradise – “Yesterday I had a real red letter day session, the kind of session we fishermen dream of! I did a 24 hour session on the Specimen Cat Lake, and managed to land 4 lovely hard fighting Cats, the biggest was at 54lb 8oz which is now my new PB!
I caught the Catfish with Luncheon meat and fish based boilies, all fish were caught during the day, a true work out, as they all really gave me the run around, and truly put my gear to the test, I need a rest now!”
Also getting in the action was Michael Pearson from Nottinghamshire, who had Cats of 37lb 9oz, 43lb 9oz and finised with a new personal best of 58lb 10oz also from the Specimen Cat Lake! Michael used a Krill boilie with a bag of matching boilies in a pva bag with a 1 foot long hook link to a size 4 barbless wide gape hook KD style.
Matthew Colegate, 26 from Leigh in Kent caught some stunning Koi including a Two Tone Koi!! Matthew lost count of the number of Koi he ended up catching, the biggest at 8lb 8oz and 8lb 2oz, I’ve included all the pictures as they are far too good not to share!! All the fish were caught on free lined mixers/A2 baits pellets.
I’m personally extremely envious and I’m sure many of you will be too!!
Agapi Fruit & Fishing is a small lake that nestles in a secluded valley a few miles from Torrington and is reached via quiet country lanes that make its discovery all the more rewarding. I had not visited since last September when I had visited with my wife Pauline and son James and wrote a review on the fishery. http://www.northdevonanglingnews.co.uk/2017/08/24/unique-fishery-agapi-fruit-fishing/
This is a fun fishing venue teaming with rudd and a few carp that have probably grown to a little over 5lb maybe more. I had persuaded Snowbee ambassador Jeff Pearce to join James and I on a fun trip to try and catch a carp using fly fishing tactics. James would act as back up using free lined stalking tactics to get a carp for the camera if Jeff and I failed. Jeff is a dedicated Fly Fisher and loves to catch his fish on Fly Tactics whilst I tend to be a little more flexible in my approach generally using whatever tactics are within the rules to catch. On this occasion however I was going to remain strictly Fly Only!
James adopts simple free line tactics to try and catch a carp Jeff being the fly Fishing purist ties on a small nymph pattern whilst I elect to use a deer hair chum mixer fly. To increase our chances I catapult pre-soaked mixers out into the lake so that they will drift slowly down the lake with the breeze. When the carp start slurping them down I will flick my fly into their path. That was the plan but the carp proved elusive whilst the rudd swarmed around the baits in their hundreds with an occasional glimpse of a bigger than average rudd that would have been close to 1lb!
Jeff was first to tempt a fish a small golden scaled rudd.
This was closely followed by a couple more tiny rudd on Jeff’s small nymph patterns. The fascinating aspect of this being that once a couple had been caught it seemed that the lakes population had been briefed for catching consistently became frustratingly difficult.
James was persisting with the traditional bread tactics and caught a pleasing rudd early in the evening and glimpsed a couple of carp cruising the margins.
After a couple of hours we retired to the lakeside Summerhouse for a well earned cuppa with delicious ham and chutney sandwiches, salad, crisps and Kit Kat’s. Special thanks must go to Sandra for making us welcome and ensuring we didn’t go hungry.
Fortified we returned to the fishing I dabbled my chum mixer fly in the margins and watched the rudd nudge and nibble at it whilst I hoped to see a carp materialize from the green tinged water and devour my offering. Jeff and James had crept up to the shallows where James had spotted a few carp. I strolled up to see how things were going and Jeff said a good carp had slurped up a bit of floating crust from amongst the reeds. James had modified his tactics and was using a chum mixer on the hook that slowly sank with the weight of the hook. This tactic proved successful as the line suddenly zipped tight and the rod hooped over as a carp surged to and fro stirring up clouds of silt as it fought gamely before eventually slipping over the rim of the net. Sandra appeared at this moment to congratulate James on catching the first carp of the season a handsome mirror carp of around 4lb.
Agapi is the perfect venue for a family fishing excursion with hordes of small rudd to ensure plenty of action and the chance of a carp to set the pulse of the young angler racing. This is thie sort of water all young anglers should start off on for many anglers today set their sights so high that they reach the summit too early without enjoying the journey. Of course old timers like me still get immersed in the fascination of the chase and the challenge of catching whatever the lake holds.
If you are going to Agapi I suggest you give Sandra a ring for directions and to book the lake and secure a few hours of tranquil seclusion deep in the countryside.
