John Barbeary took advantage of a break in the weather to take a party of anglers out of Ilfracombe where they enjoyed top rate sport with conger and spurdog. Steve Dawe (above) boated a spurdog of 19lb and Andrew Atkinson (Below) a hard fighting conger of 40lb.
Dan Welch secured victory in Combe Martin SAC’s Winter Rover landing a specimen spurdog of 12lb 3oz ( Above)
In runner up spot was Matt Jeffery with a specimen bull huss of 10lb 13oz(Below). Matt also took third place with a spurdog of 8lb 4oz.
Several conger were also landed to 15lb along with rockling and dogfish.
The end of competition meeting was held at Cook Island and proved to be a great venue with friendly banter and in depth discussion on the weekends fishing and tactics.
I joined seven members of Bideford & District Angling Club at Clovelly this morning to carry out a beach clean of the foreshore and harbour area. Following issues with angling related litter Bideford Club were determined to show that anglers do care and condemn those who drop litter and tarnish the majority of anglers who do take their litter home. In all we collected 16 bags of rubbish of which I would estimate 1% was angling related. The vast majority of the litter was plastic and its long levity was illustrated quite starkly by this old Ski Yogurt pot that I googled to find it probably began its life in the mid 70’s.
Children’s plastic toys were also abundant along with plenty of household containers. Some of the debris has undoubtedly come from waste that had been dumped on the cliff-side by villagers in times gone by to be dislodged as the cliffs subside and the sea pounds the upper foreshore. Giving up a couple of hours to pick up the unsightly waste from the foreshore brings home the immensity of the plastic and waste issue that is caused by our modern lifestyle. There is a minority of anglers who add to this problem with their own debris but society has a big problem as could be seen as I drove home along the Atlantic highway with its littered verges.
Cameron Atkinson took advantage of a break in the weather and decided to get out in chase of a Spurdog and was rewarded with this potential British record of 18lb. Fish was tempted using a flounder bait mounted on a pair of 6/0 hooks.
There are spaces on Bluefin out of Ilfracombe Tuesday January 30th. The weather looks good at present so an opportunity to get out after the spurdog and conger.
Late January often sees a big a cod or two caught from marks up Channel so it could be well worth getting out on Reel Deal over the next week if the weather calms down as predicted.
(Above) Kevin Legge with a fine halibut.
Combe Martin SAC members Kevin Legge and Craig McCloughlin joined a party of anglers in Saltstraumen Brygge Fish Camp,Norway. In search of cod, halibut, haddock and coalfish from the shore. They enjoyed success with several halibut, double figure cod and also enjoyed the spectacle of the Northern Lights with temperatures well below zero throughout the trip. Both anglers were kept warm with specialist clothing from Braunton Based company Reeds – Chillcheater.
(Above) Even in Norway Kevin found the inevitable dogfish!
Shore sport seems to have slowed down with the weather undoubtedly deterring a few anglers from venturing out. There are a few whiting, dabs and dogfish being tempted. There is still an excellent chance of catching ray, conger, huss and spurdog from deep water marks.
If the weather permits boat sport should be good off Ilfracombe with Bluefin taking trips out after spurdog and conger.
Bideford 24 hour Rover
Nathan Clements took the top spot in Bideford Angling Clubs twenty four hour rover with a fine pollock of 4lb 3oz.
In runner up spot was Andrew Clements with a pouting 1lb 1 1/2 and in third Antony Smith with a rockling 14 1/2 oz.
In Appledore Shipbuilders Rover Josh Atkinson secured victory with a spotted ray weighing 3lb 10oz.
Ian Laird landed this fine 9lb 7oz small eyed ray whilst fishing a North Devon Rock Mark. He also hooked this dab that had tried to engulf a mackerel and herring cocktail presented on a 6/0 hook to 80lb b.s wire!
Boat fishing has been excellent off North Devon with spurdog and conger but if its cod your after its up to Minehead and Watchet you will need to go.
A good weekend on Reel Deal with plenty of fish about including whiting, conger, ray and dogfish both days no cod yesterday. Cod have been scarce some days but plentiful on others. Chris Wadham has taken the lead in the Big Cod Competition sponsored by High Street Tackle Ilfracombe, Ammo Bait and Veals Mail Order with five cod for a total length of 2.32 metres.
