Quay Sports have announced that their annual charity day will be held on Saturday June 24th in association with Bull Dog Carp Lakes.
Wimbleball Rainbows
It was good to be back at Wimbleball after a couple of months and I was relishing a day at this my favourite West Country lake. I was fishing with South Molton Angling Club who fish a series of days over the season were members can compete for the Mac Trophy awarded for the biggest trout recorded during these nominated days.
Several fellow members had elected to fish from the boats giving the opportunity to search the vast lake for pods of feeding fish. I had chosen on this occasion to fish from the bank and had it in my mind to fish the shallow waters of the Rugg’s bank.
I set up with a floating line and a team of three flies. I waded out into the lake near the point and noted that the water level was still high and that it was exceptionally clear.
Bright sunshine with a cool brisk North Easterly breeze did not fill me with confidence but it was good to be working a fly with the lush green of spring all around.
After twenty minutes without a pull, I walked further along the bank to find some slightly deeper water. After ten minutes I spotted a fish rise and put my team of flies into the vicinity. A savage pull and I was connected to a hard fighting rainbow of around 2lb that had taken a blue flash damsel on the point.
After half an hour I fancied trying Cowmoor Bay and set off along the wooded path to emerge at the mouth of this vast bay. The bank on the opposite shore sloped up from the lake its grass incline decorated by a splash of golden buttercups. The water here was deeper and sheltered from the wind. To be honest it didn’t feel very fishy and after half an hour I tramped back close to where I had started.
I replaced the point fly with a black bead headed Montana and started to fish methodically with a slow retrieve allowing the wind to drift the flies as I kept the line tight.
A couple of twitches transmitted down the line boosted my confidence and soon a good solid take resulted in a good rainbow gyrating on the end of the line leaping from the water on several occasions. At 3lb 6oz it was a pleasing full tailed fish that was to be followed five minutes later by a fish an ounce bigger at 3lb 7oz. I fished on and added two more full tailed rainbows to my bag both succumbing to the Montana.
It was now close to 3.00pm and I decided to head home strolling back to the car on path lined with vivid yellow buttercups.
My next visit will be in summer when I hope to find the trout feasting on beetles a time that can offer superb dry fly sport.
I found out later that it had been a tough day on the boats with no other club members boating more that three trout. Boat or bank is often a hard choice with advantages to both. Fishing a well known bank mark can sometimes beat the boat for when fishing is hard persisting from the bank whilst covering less area ensures that the flies are in the water fishing throughout.
Richard Wilsons Fish Rise -Humorous, edgy and thought provoking as always!
Many thanks to Richard Wilson for sharing his writing on North Devon Angling News.
Humorous, edgy and thought provoking as always!
Zuckerberg’s Fish-Floppery
This morning I popped into Mark Zuckerberg’s vision of the future. Call me vain, but I decided to lie about my age and be a 19 yr-old, which was lucky because everyone I met was also 19. Except the Fairy Princess who was also the last person I saw there and, for all I know, might have been a 60-year-old man back in the real world.
Meta-time is erratic and distance is irrelevant, so I could go when and where I wanted. To make my trip challenging I went fly fishing for migrating salmon while standing on the lip of Niagara Falls
First, the good bits: I stayed dry because just about nobody in the Metaverse has legs (or waders). So I hovered Zen-like above the river, which was very, very cool. No treacherously slippery rocks to upend me, no raging torrent to wash me over the edge and no physical threat from the constant flow of thrill-seekers in barrels. The second matter of great importance was that I caught a very big Salmon.
I was so pleased about this that I jumped off the Falls and swooshed straight past the tourist boats into the visitor centre Starbucks where I flashed the plastic for a $1 Frappuccino. Cool entrance and cheap coffee, huh? I was soon joined by a gorgeous 19-yr old fishing tackle sales agent praising my fishing skills and suggesting that her big-brand 9-foot rod was much better than the one I was using.
She promised that with the most expensive rod in their range (just $1!) I was guaranteed to catch 3 Steelhead whenever I went fishing, and that a 40lb Steelhead would earn a bonus 120lb sturgeon. So I flashed the plastic again, the rod appeared to hand and my new friend vanished before my eyes. Just as I thought we were getting on rather well. Ah well.
Left to myself, I surveyed my surroundings. At the end of the coffee shop was a huge fishing tackle store lit up by a neon sign that declared: Mega-Webba-Verse-Tackle-Company – All Brands Stocked and Everything Available Now.
I wafted in and found myself hovering next to a 19-yr old male wearing an old-fashioned blue and white hooped bathing suit. We were both looking fondly at a magnificent Classic Fly Reel of the sort that costs $1000 in the reel world. Here it was just $1. A bargain!
“Cool reel,“ I said to my new companion.
“It’s amazing. And everything here is exactly the right size. It fits my head like a glove.” He replied.
“A head-glove?” I said.
“Don’t be an idiot’” he snapped, “It’s a barrel hat.” He was talking down to me as though I was a 19-yr old know-nothing. He then reached out and put the reel on his head where it was very obviously the perfect hat to enhance your selfies as you went over the Falls. The badge read, “I’m a Barrel-Head!”. He took it off and passed it to me.
“Oh,” he sputtered. “So now it’s a fishing reel. Isn’t this the Barrel-Riders-Kit-O’gasm Emporium?”
Pennies dropped and, in tandem, we said “Oh F**k it!”. At which the store transformed itself into a pulsating display of sex toys and bondage gear as an inanely smiling, baby-faced Zucker-clone slimed into our bewildered company.
“OK,” it said, “which of you two is the leather-fetishist paddle-boarder?”
This wasn’t my kind of life experience, so I morphed off to the bank of a famous Scottish salmon river where I caught 3 big Steelhead in 5 minutes. The new rod worked so well I was catching fish that don’t exist in Europe.
“Och Aye”, said the Gillie, a hybrid Euro-stereotype wearing a kilt that was much too short for 19-yr old man, “Begorrah mate! Them’s Steelhead! I dare say that one weighs as much as the Blarney Stone of Scone.”
“How much does the Blarney Scone weigh?” I asked, breaking the rhyme.
“It’ll be 40lbs exactly,” he replied.
As he said it, my rod bent into a 120lb Sturgeon.
“Dunno’ how that got up the fish ladder,” said the Gillie. And then, “This is crazy. I’m taking this idiotic headset off and going back to work. Don’t forget this is a catch-and-release fishery.” With that, he disappeared. Silently.
I decided I’d had enough of my new rod and threw it at the river. It de-pixilated in mid-air.
On the far bank was a pub called The Old Metaverse. I drifted over and into the bar where I bounced repeatedly off a stool that was slightly too high for me. The barmaid, a 6-yr old Fairy Princess, refused to serve me because I didn’t have an ID Card to prove my age. But never mind, she said, she would sell me one for $1.
At the other end of the bar a drunk was dropping his trousers while shouting that his willie was awesome and that it was his God-given right to fight us because he was right, we were idiots and this was a public bar, so anything goes.
“That’s just Elon being Elon. He’s only 19.” said the Princess. “He’s a free-willy absolutist. I expect he’ll grow out of it.”
Somebody hit him, a gun was drawn, furniture thrown and the Princess produced a machete. As the air turned blue and the floor ran red with fake blood I walked out through the wall, took the headset off and helped myself to a real cold beer from my own real fridge. It was very good to be home. Real good.
So here’s my conclusion: To nobody’s surprise the Metaverse is Zuckerberg’s even bigger bid to coral all the real advertising and marketing money everywhere, raid your piggy bank and then drain your data. It serves no other useful purpose whatsoever, except to allow us to go fishing without legs. Which is unbelievably cool. Sadly, Zuckerberg’s ambition will include monetising virtual waders and virtual wader accessories like boots and pay-per-use rescue services. So there will be legs.
The Metaverse sends a shiver up my spine. It’s a sugar trap for low-life – the perverts, shysters and fraudsters. The old men pretending to be little girls and AI faking it as seductive sales reps. It’s a shit-show platform for politicians, influencers and the wackadoodle self-delusionals. A place where everyone is welcome and all are victims because all of us, even the slime-balls, are there to be shucked dry by the uber-parasite Zuckerberg.
There is just one silver lining, and it’s the conclusion surely held universally by anyone sane who visits Zuckerland: If all the jerks are in the Metaverse exposing themselves and shooting each other, then while they’re in there the real world might be just a tiny little bit better for the rest of us.
That, and the wading.
Thoughts from the waters edge
The warm late May sunshine is starting to impact upon the rivers with levels now dropping and the water becoming clear. A few salmon have been tempted from the River Taw with Ian Blewett amongst the successful anglers with a silver springer from a Middle Taw beat.
The Torridge has seen very few salmon caught and with the river now below ideal height most will wait for the next spate before casting a salmon fly. The wild brown trout fishing on the Torridge can be superb so as the mayfly start to show there could be some exciting sessions.
I wandered down through the beat I fish on the Torridge swinging a salmon fly and ever hopeful of success. Whilst I delighted upon the beauty of the river I couldn’t help but feel a certain unease at the lack of swifts and swallows. Looking up river I savoured the evening light streaming as it illuminated the water. Yet even here I noticed the bare branches of a tree ravaged by ash dieback. I and others of my generation have witnessed a catastrophic decline in nature. It is likely that salmon will be extinct in West Country Rivers before our granddaughter is old enough to drive. Whilst there is a lot of effort by keen conservationists to stem the decline I cannot help but feel a sense of melancholy as I walk away from the river.
It is perhaps time to get out onto the coast and taste the salty air and relish the savage pull of a bass?
D & S IFCA The Review of the Netting Permit Conditions
It is vital that stakeholders speak up and put across their views. There is a great deal of apathy across many sectors of society but one thing is certain those who do not speak will not be heard. The constant raising of the state of our rivers and seas across the media in regard to sewage pollution highlights how issues can be brought higher on the agenda.
As anglers across North Devon I feel sure we have seen a great benefit in the total ban on netting in estuaries. Those who believe this to be the case sould write to the D & S IFCA expressing their thoughts. See below statement from the D & S IFCA
The Review of the Netting Permit Conditions
Have Your Say
What is this about?
D&S IFCA is the body responsible to manage the exploitation of sea fisheries resources in this district which includes the areas of Devon, Somerset, Gloucestershire County Councils; Bristol and Plymouth City Councils; North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Councils and all adjacent waters out to six nautical miles offshore or the median line with Wales.
D&S IFCA manages netting activity via the Netting Permit Byelaw. The Byelaw allows permits to be issued that contain conditions of use for those engaged in netting activity.
D&S IFCA must review the existing Netting Permit Conditions and has a duty to consult in writing with permit holders and such other stakeholders, organisations and persons as appear to the Authority to be representative of the interests likely to be substantially affected by the proposed future management options.
Your view is important and D&S IFCA is inviting you to be involved in the review and have your say. We are directly contacting everyone on our mailing list and giving you options on how to respond. All stakeholders can respond even if they don’t have a Netting Permit.
The review of the Netting Permit Conditions will be an extended process, including collating information and evidence, and decision making by D&S IFCA’s Byelaw and Permitting Sub-Committee (B&PSC). The review may or may not lead to changes to the existing Netting Permit Conditions.
D&S IFCA manages netting activity via the Netting Permit Byelaw. The Byelaw allows permits to be issued that contain conditions of use for those engaged in netting activity.
D&S IFCA must review the existing Netting Permit Conditions and has a duty to consult in writing with permit holders and such other stakeholders, organisations and persons as appear to the Authority to be representative of the interests likely to be substantially affected by the proposed future management options.
Your view is important and D&S IFCA is inviting you to be involved in the review and have your say. We are directly contacting everyone on our mailing list and giving you options on how to respond. All stakeholders can respond even if they don’t have a Netting Permit.
The review of the Netting Permit Conditions will be an extended process, including collating information and evidence, and decision making by D&S IFCA’s Byelaw and Permitting Sub-Committee (B&PSC). The review may or may not lead to changes to the existing Netting Permit Conditions.
- The information gathering exercise starts on 19th May 2023
- The information gathering exercise ends on 30th June 2023.
What is covered by the current Netting Permit Conditions?
The existing Netting Permit Conditions regulate netting within estuaries and at sea in the D&S IFCA District. The Netting Permit Conditions apply to both commercial fishers (Category One Permit) and recreational fishers (Category Two Permit) and the restrictions are tailored to these diffing sectors.
The Netting Permit Conditions and Annexes (charts) can be viewed in full by using the links below or visiting the D&S IFCA website.
The Netting Permit Conditions and Annexes (charts) can be viewed in full by using the links below or visiting the D&S IFCA website.
Summary of the key current restrictions
- No drift or fixed nets are authorised within any of the estuaries.
- A series of coastal zones at sea that prohibit the use of fixed surface nets.
- Minimum sizes for shellfish and bass.
- Protection for berried crab, lobster and spiny lobster.
- A limitation on the removal of parts of crabs (claws).
- A bag limit for recreational fishers (2 lobsters and 3 crabs per calendar day).
- Gear marking requirements (floating markers and flags for fixed nets).
- A 25-metre maximum length for nets at sea operated by recreational fishers.
- Net tags requirement for recreational fishers.
- No removal of spiny lobster from defined Marine Protected Areas.
- No netting authorised in an area surrounding Lundy Island.
How to have your say?
The consultation is not a questionnaire. This phase one consultation has no focussed or specific items, but it does give all stakeholders the opportunity to examine the present Netting Permit Conditions, see how netting is being managed by D&S IFCA and respond accordingly.
The following prompts may help you provide a response:
- What is your interest in the review?
- How did you find out about this review?
- What changes do you think should be made (if any) to the Permit Conditions and why should there be changes?
- What works well from your point of view and why?
- What doesn’t work so well and why?
- Please provide any supporting information or evidence to support your response.
- Are you on our mailing list and would you like to be added if not already?
Please respond by emailing or writing to us and please call if you need further information or to speak to an Officer.
Email: [email protected]
Telephone: (Neil Townsend) – 07590 224011 or 01626 331589
Telephone IFCA Office: 01803 854648
Email: [email protected]
Telephone: (Neil Townsend) – 07590 224011 or 01626 331589
Telephone IFCA Office: 01803 854648
Salmon brace from Middle Taw
Chay Boggis tempted a brace of spring run salmon whilst fishing a middle Taw beat. The fish were tempted using black and yellow flies. The warmer weather coinciding with a dropping river has lead to several salmon being tempted including rumours of a fine 18lb fish.
First Salmon of the season at Little Warham
Five year old Brook helped net the first Salmon of the season at Little Warham for his father and what a fish it was. Approximately 12lb, a fresh spring salmon caught by Anthony Willmington. Safely returned after being pictured by our resident 5 year old photographer.
Torridge Fly Fishing Club – Fine fishing at Gammaton
Torridge Fly Fishing Club have fishing on Gammaton Reserviors near Bideford that offer fine sport throughout the year. Three fish day tickets can be purchased at local tackle shops including Summerlands and Quay Sports.
Located at Gammaton Reservoirs ( 2 four acre lakes). Annual membership £180. Members can keep up to 6 fish a week.
Day tickets £25 (3 fish) available from Summerlands Tackle, Westward Ho!, Quay Sports, Roundswell, Barnstaple & Tarka Country Pursuits, Torrington.
Membership enquiries to Robert Chugg: 07491931003. Email : [email protected]
Richard Wilsons Fishrise When Entomologists Attack
One of my favourite reference books, The Urban Dictionary, finds entomology rather dull and swotty. It comes close to apologising for any guilty pleasure that might be found in creepy crawlies. The entry reads: “Entomology – Noun – The scientific word for the study of insects. It’s bug research pretty much. I enjoy studying entomology. Really.”
This, by the profane standards of the Urban Dictionary, is remarkably demure language (if you don’t know the Urban Dictionary, look it up online – it’s fun, for a while). If I were a swotty entomologist I would expect the Dictionary to be obscenely hostile. But all is not what it seems. Entomologists have hidden qualities.
If you do a little digital digging, you’ll find that amidst the Dictionary’s aggressive smut, the swots and entomologists are an unexpectedly feisty bunch who give as good as they get.
For example, here are a couple of the Dictionary’s more printable definitions of “swot”. The first, appropriately, is written by a swot and it’s a zinger:
1) “Swot – noun – A word used by morons to insult a person of superior academic abilities. Morons believe being called a swot is a horrible, undesirable humiliation for the victim. Well, the morons can fuck-off now!”
The morons’ counter-view lacks flair and basic literacy, as our swot would have told us (if only we’d asked):
2) “Swot – noun – A swot is a person who excels in a subject or lesson, who never gets anythink wrong and is teachers pet.”
Although I rarely did well in exams and was teacher’s pet hate, I like the first definition. I’m sure you’ll agree that a swotty entomologist of the kind who tells the dullards to F-off sounds like good company. And I especially like the added emphasis of the Now! An extra flourish added just in case the first 2 words weren’t enough.
So, game on: Saturday night’s alright for fighting – and I’m with the entomologist. BUT, and it’s a big one, fists and fishing don’t always mix well on the bank. So what are these swotty, foul-mouthed fly fetishists for when we’re out there casting a line?
I’m going to declare an interest here. As an intellectually indolent teenager with a serious fly-fishing habit, I didn’t have much truck with entomology.
Instead, all my effort went into dropping a dry fly of indeterminant type on the nose of a rising trout that I could see. Presentation was everything and entomology was for grown-ups. Nothing much has changed since.
So as you can see, an entomologist might be someone I’d rather rub shoulders with after fishing. Why would I want to be on the bank with a new partner who calls me a moron and tells me to F-off just because my philistine ineptitude is a denial of their faith (and everything)? However, I think I will have to swallow my pride …. while I still won’t pay any attention to fly catalogues, I’m fascinated by entomologists and would like to go fishing with one. Really – and regularly.
Back in the day, my fantasy choice of fishing partner would have been Hunter S Thompson, author of the lost masterpiece Fear and Loathing on a Trout Stream (a frantic tale of sex, drugs and the evening rise). Thompson was a roiling bundle of provocation, and so is our entomologist. Like Thompson, he or she is happy to say F-off to anyone found to be insufferable. In Thompson’s case that was almost everyone he met, especially if the resulting brouhaha made good copy. I like to think my new entomologist friend could do this too, but more selectively. And, fingers crossed, that this would happen with less reliance on the fabulous intake of drink and drugs that kept Thompson in fighting shape. I’m getting a bit long in the tooth to go the full Hunter-S, so absent the great man himself, the entomologist sounds promising.
This is important because every-so-often life washes up people who deserve to be told to F-off now, and I’ll admit I’m not very good at confrontation. So hanging out with an attack entomologist might be useful. Not only can my new friend speak ill unto evil but, most importantly of all, he or she also knows exactly to whom and why it needs saying. And that is why entomology really, really matters. Even to a slouch like me.
It also means that I can be sure that if the entomologist really does do a Thompson and gets us into a fight, then it will be with someone who deserves the beating. And I’m hoping the entomologist will be better with their fists than me, because we’ll be in trouble if they’re not.
But there’s more to entomologists than bare-knuckle jeopardy. They’re a clever and well-educated bunch of people, usually with some paperwork to prove it. So, if you want to know about the impacts of sewage, climate change, industry or farming on a river, just ask an entomologist. And if you also want hard evidence to save your river from any of this, then you know who to turn to. I cannot stress enough how important, how essential and wonderful even the foulest-mouthed entomologists are. We should all honk-for-entomology. I want to see Hug-an-Entomologist t-shirts and Fuck-off Now! coffee mugs (this last item for Christmas presents please).
So forget matching the hatch – I’m never going to do it. But I will dabble in citizen science and count insects to give our pugnacious entomologist the data needed to take down polluters. And if that’s what entomology is for, and it sure looks like it is, then I’m a fan.
I’m also a fan because this is about more than science. Language matters and in this case it’s direct and Anglo-Saxon, the building blocks of good writing. So the Urban Dictionary is right: The morons who wreck rivers really do need to ‘F-off Now’, and they have to do it before it’s too late.
Until about 20 years ago river water quality in my part of the world, Britain and Ireland, was fitfully improving. Now we have a rolling ecological disaster and it’s getting worse. Much worse.
This isn’t a problem peculiar to a small part of North-West Europe. It’s happening just about everywhere people go fishing. So whether it’s raw sewage or farm slurry or some stinking factory or the over-heating redds that my new friend the entomologist identifies as the wrecking ball, then I’m with them on the barricades, bandana askew, Che t-shirt rescued from the attic and two fingers aloft.
They can all Fuck-off Now!
CORONATION DAY TREASURES FROM THE STREAM
The River Bray flowed through the heart of a peaceful valley in early May with new born lambs frolicking on the riverside fields with bluebells and wild garlic abundant. As I drove to the river I tuned into Radio 4 with commentary of the Coronation of King Charles taking place in London. The pageantry and splendour was described in great detail and I was content that my wife Pauline would be relishing the spectacle in front of the TV at home.
The call of the river is strong and after several fruitless visits to the Lower rivers searching for silver I relished a sortie with lighter tackle in search of wild browns.
I parked the car and pulled on my waders, heading to the river with my 3 weight Snowbee https://www.snowbee.co.uk/fly-fishing/rods/snowbee-classic-fly-rod-3-4-4-piece-7.html
I tied a big bushy dry fly to a short dropper https://www.nigelnunnflies.com beneath this on the tip I tied a small copper John nymph.
The river had a tinge of colour following heavy overnight rain and I hoped this would make the fish a little less easily spooked as the river here is often crystal clear with the trout scattering in all directions as a clumsy angler like myself approaches the water.
I flicked the duo of flies into the streamy water. The dry fly bobbed under on the second drift and a tiny brown trout was swung from the water. I admired its beauty and shook it from the tiny barbless hook into the water without touching it.
I was soon totally absorbed in the tranquillity of the river valley totally focussed on the dry fly as it drifted down after each searching upstream cast.
I came to a deep pool and carefully flicked out the flies whilst knelt behind a tree stump. Moments after the flies alighted a good sized trout appeared from the deep water to seize the dry fly. I lifted the rod and made contact with the trout that took off downstream with power that surprised me. It soon became apparent that the fish was hooked in the tail. I had missed the fish as it took the dry, foul hooking it in the tail with the nymph. So, this fish really didn’t count despite it going for the fly and giving a great scrap in the fast water.
I waded on up river searching likely runs and tempting a couple of tiny trout with one or two other better fish throwing the hook.
A tumbling trout stream in late Spring is a pure delight as bird song reverberates all around and the lush green of spring abounds.
I prefer to search the faster deeper runs at the heads of the pools and it was here that I found the better trout. The dry fly disappearing as a fish intercepted the tiny nymph below.
The rod took on a healthy curve and the trout erupted from the river gyrating airborne above the water in one of those moments that are etched in the minds eye forever. I admired the pristine wild brown that was close to 12” before releasing it back into its home.
Fifty yards or so further up river I added another beautiful trout to the mornings tally its bejewelled flanks far superior to any created for his majesties far away in London.
I returned home in time to watch the Royal event culminate in the traditional gathering upon the balcony. As I watched the thousands cheer in celebration I reflected upon the jewels I had witnessed that morning beside a tumbling stream in the heart of a peaceful valley.
Later in the day we headed to Lynmouth to watch the Coronation Day parade of boats. Shanty singers, boats and flares brought cheer and smiles.
At the top of the tide huge numbers of mullet could be seen their sides flashing as they browsed on the rocks as mullet do. With big mullet abundant I couldn’t resist returning the following evening to find lots of tiny mullet and an absence of bigger fish. Every tide is different I guess and mullet always appear as if they would be easy to catch when you have left the rod at home.
