(Above) Ollie Passmore tempted this fine specimen thin lipped grey mullet weighing 4lb 8oz on a baited spinner in the river Taw Estuary.
Ollie Passmore with a stunning wrasse caught on a recent session. I suspect wrasse fishing will slow down for a few days after the rough and windy weekend. I suspect we will see a few big bass, smoothound and huss in the coloured water, don’t be afraid to use a big bait oozing plenty of scent!
Triple Hook Club – Shaun Foster Cup – Woolacombe Beach
Dennis Toleman secured top spot in Triple Hook Clubs Shaun Foster Cup beaching a fine small eyed ray scaling 9lb 4oz in runner up spot was Kevin Hancock with a small eyed ray of 4lb 6oz.
Ladies day aboard Reel Deal (Dan Hawkins) off ilfracombe resulted in fabulous Blue sharks up to 90lb. Stacey Bayldon landed the first blue shark of the day, followed by Jade Jemmett, Michelle Bayldon and Sharon Feakes landing the biggest at 90lb. A truly amazing experience, life long dream achieved! A massive thank you to Daniel Hawkins and Archie Porter aboard Reel Deal for an amazing day, to Dave Stenson for embracing our madness and our helping hand and huge thank you to Phil Lewis for the best birthday present ever!
Many Thanks to Stacey for sending this report to North Devon Angling News
Congratulations to Steve Dawe who has been raising awareness for the stroke association via his challenge to catch 52 species.
Wayne has kindly been supporting my challenge since January 1st and posting links to my blog and although the species I have been catching having been spread across the west country a fair few have fallen from the North Devon and Somerset coastline. For anyone that hasn’t seen what I have been up to I have a website that covers information on my challenge, the charity I am supporting, a gallery and all my blogs from the year
This Monday I managed to land the 52nd species which in theory should be the end of the challenge, I will however keep trying for a few more while simultaneously raising awareness for the Stroke Association and stroke victims. The last month was pretty busy and with the summer in full swing I had planned to target a number of the summer species from boat and shore. I also had a couple of annual festivals to fish, the 2 day British Conger Club festival and The 3 day Shark Club of Great Britain festival. The conger festival based from Plymouth went pretty well and our team managed to win the team event, and having come runners up for the previous 2 years it was great to finally win. I also managed to catch a Goldsinny Wrasse to add to the species list so a good event all round.
Then it was the shark festival and with tricky angling conditions I managed for the first time to blank during this event, but every cloud has a silver lining and with some persistence I managed to sneak out a Scad and Grey Gurnard. No good whatsoever to me during this festival but a huge bonus for the challenge, so it was a bit of a result. Another of the species that had managed to elude me more recently was the Blenny and a trip with the LRF gear finally paid off when I managed to connect with several, a bit like buses.
With the target now at 49 I knew that species 50 had to be the Blue shark and with a couple of trips booked out of Looe surely I could exercise the ghosts of the shark festival and get one. Sure enough I managed a shark a trip, not big girls but very welcome none the less.
With number 50 done and dusted I set my eyes on a Tope and my first trip booked from Minehead targeting tope from Lundy was cancelled due to lack of interest, that was a real set back. My second Tope trip was from Lyme Regis and with no others booked the pressure was on the skipper. Fortunately, lady luck was on my side and despite only two tope being landed I managed two of them, not huge but this challenge isn’t about size just species. That was number 51 and I could almost see the end in sight, I switched tactics to try for my first ever Undulate Ray and once again Neptune took pity on me and delivered several of these stunning rays to give me species 52.
The Veals Mail order Team enjoyed a fantastic day Tope fishing out of Ilfracombe with Daniel Hawkins of Reel Deal Charters
Simon Lynch relays that the day started off well with numbers of small Tope around the 20lb mark, along with a few Bullhuss. After a couple of hours Dan decided to up the anchor and move off. He suggested big mackerel baits at the second mark and we were soon rewarded with some lovely Tope around 30lb, it was non stop action all afternoon with double shots on-board. Simon Lynch landed a new personal best of 41lb.
I joined South Molton Angling Members on a trip out off Clovelly aboard Shimano sponsored ‘Independent’ Charters skippered by Doug Walls.
We met at Clovelly at 8:00am all keen to head out for another adventure at sea that commenced with the transfer of anglers and gear from the pebbly foreshore to the waiting boat a hundred or so yards offshore.
All on board and Doug gave an outline of the days plan. We would be venturing past Hartland Point to sample the fishing grounds West of Hartland at the Mouth of the Bristol Channel expectations were high for a variety of species. I have fished these grounds in the past and know full well that they can give excellent sport.
The journey to the mark is an integral part of any day at sea and spirits were high as we rounded Hartland Point race where several porpoises were showing in the surging waters. The cliffs from Clovelly round to Morwenstow are wild and for the most part inaccessible those parts that can be accessed carry a rich vein of history including many a shipwreck.
The first stop was to a reef where we drifted for pollock, mackerel or bass. First into action was Mike Good who swung aboard a pleasing pollock of around 4lb.
(below) Mike Good with a 4lb pollock.
After a few drifts and a few more pollock Doug decided to drop anchor and see if we could entice a few tope, bream or huss. Within minutes of the baits hitting the bottom rods were nodding as a succession of bull huss seized our baits.
There were a variety of tactics employed with some choosing big baits for tope or huss and others small baits for bream and other species. Black bream are great sport and good eating and it was great to see one of these come aboard to Ed Rands who was using back lug and squid baits.
After an hour or so the tide eased and sport tailed off. A move to a mark further West was Doug’s choice and we steamed several miles before once again dropping the anchor. Soon after settling Mike Good hooked the best fish of the day a fin perfect black bream of 2lb 8oz.
(Above)Steve Edmunds with a pleasing bream
A couple more bream followed but sadly it was not a good as we had hoped for and bites were few and far between. I always feel for the skipper at times like this for they have put the anglers on good ground but the fish are either not there or not playing the game. As time and tide ebbed away there were a few flurry’s of action with Ed Rands boating the biggest fish of the day a bull huss of 8lb 8oz. The day ended with ten species caught including, bull huss, dogfish, corkwing wrasse, mackerel, scad, pollock, smoothound, pouting, poor cod and black bream.
Robert Kingdon boated a smoothound with an unusual tail deformity.
(Above)
I hope to return to waters off Clovelly next year with the South Molton anglers and enjoy a day afloat with Independent Charters. Doug kept us supplied with tea and coffee all day and did his best to put us on the fish.
(Above)Double Hook up for Dan Welch and Ross Stanway
Combe Martin SAC Club members are competing for top quality lure fishing prizes donated by Ilfracombe’s High Street Tackle. Shop owner Danny Watson is a keen lure angler and is keen to promote this growing branch of angling that is receiving a big boost with this summers clear waters ideal for this method. Entry into the competition is free for paid up CMSAC Members. The competition ends on September 2nd to coincide with the clubs annual fun fish on Ilfracombe pier.
(Above) The current leaders in the bass fishing section are Daniel Welch and (Below)Jonathon Stanway fish of 55cm. Dans was tempted on a surface lure. and Jonathon’s on a Black Fillish minnow This is Dan’s third fish entered into the category.
(Below)Fellow member Ross Stanway is close behind with a bass of 53cm!
Chris Bonds leads the best fish other than a bass with this stunning boat caught pollock of 11lb 3oz tempted on a sidewinder sandeel.
9lb14oz pollock – Dan Welch
(Above) Beautiful evening lure fishing landed 2 lost one the biggest was 43cm caught on a sexy brown fiiish lure. Daniel Welch
