After a month of Combe Martin SAC’s species competition John Shapland has a slender lead with 30 species. In runner up spot is Daniel Welch on 28 and in third Ross Stanway of 21.
The event seems to have stimulated some very interesting fishing with a wide range of species recorded including dragonets, cling fish and various mini species. Strangely no one has registered gilthead bream, garfish or golden grey mullet!
The competition is sponsored by High Street Tackle Ilfracombe.
Stuart Taylor was targetting bass when this specimen Smoothound weighing 11lb 12ozs Saved a blank session.
Graham Snow won Bideford Angling Clubs 24 hour rover with a thin-lipped grey mullet of 3lb 151/4oz. Antony Smith was runner up with a mackerel scaling 1lb 21/2oz and third Andy Clements with a wrasse of 3lb 103/4oz.
Graham followed this win up landing a brace of thin lipped mullet weighing 4lb 7oz and 3lb 81/2oz.
Bideford based Clive Baddick qualified for the finals,of the civil service sports competition where they fished the 6th of July. The south West team won,3 boats 12 areas so 12 on a boat,simple the winner on a boat scored 1 point they had two boat winners and i come 4th so they scored 6 points, the second team had 11 points,the boats fished were supernova,skippered by Lyle Stantiford,top cat 2 ,and wild frontier 2 .The South West Team was Vernon Allen who won the individual competio. ,Mike Patton who one time was England manager, and Clive Baddick.
Sea Anglers have been enjoying varied sport along the coast with thin lipped mullet providing top sport in the estuaries. On the open coast bass and smoothound are giving good sport with spider crab among the best baits. Ali Laird landed a bass of 7lb 10oz and Ross Stanway a bass of 7lb 12oz.
Paul Hutchings landed a brace of smoothound on dirty squid from a local beach the best 10lb 3oz.
Thick Lipped grey mullet can offer superb sport for specialist anglers in local harbours and rock marks.
Apologies for the short break in output due to a week long fishing excursion in Havnnes Handelssted, Northern Norway. I will put a blog post up on the event in due course but in the mean time here are a few pictures of our adventures including the capture of a huge cod weighing 41lb to the rod of North Devon angler Rob Scoines who tempted the huge fish on a lure and light spinning rod purchased from Summerlands Tackle in Westward Ho!
(Below) Wayne Thomas cod 38lb
Ross Stanway landed a fine ballan wrasse of 4lb 14oz from a North Devon Rock mark when he made an early start attempting to add new species in the clubs Species Hunt. Big ballan wrasse have been scarce over recent seasons with very few caught near the local specimen rating of 5lb.
It is unclear whether numbers have declined significantly or if less are caught because less anglers target them? In the clearer waters of Cornwall , South Devon and the Isle of Scilly large numbers of wrasse are tempted using soft plastic lures. It may well be worth trying for the species over some of North Devons Rocky marks during periods with improved water clarity.
Most wrasse are tempted using legered worm or crab baits.
John Shapland has a narrow lead in Combe Martin SAC’s Species Hunt with 25 species but concedes that its getting harder to add to the tally.
The thin lipped grey mullet above is a new PB for John.
Among Johns catches was this strange looking clingfish, his first of the species.
Daniel Welch is in runner up spot with 24 species.
In third place is Ross Stanway with 17 species
Fourth Rob Scoines with 12 species
(Above) Lee Holden with a spotted ray – Lee is currently fifth in the species Hunt with 11 species!
Calm sea have enabled Ilfracombe Boats to get out and put anglers amongst the fish. Dan Hawkins Reel Deal often ventures down to the mouth of the Bristol Channel where large numbers of mackerel and pollock have been caught along with tope and bass.
Kody Chugg tempted this bass of 4lb 6oz from a local rock mark using a whole squid presented on a pulley rig. The next couple of months should see plenty of bass caught along the coast to anglers using a wide variety of tactics. In recent seasons the number of bass tempted on lures has increased with double figure fish amongst them. There was a time when the general consensus was that big bass generally fell to bait this no longer holds true. Bass can be found over a huge range of venues with large specimens often moving into unsuspected areas under the cover of darkness. In these areas a degree of stealth can certainly pay dividends.
Cameron Atkinson won Appledore Shipbuilders latest Boat Competition with a fine tope of 35lb 4oz. In runner up spot was Michael Hammett with a tope of 33lb. Third place was taken by Michael Toogood with a bull huss of 10lb 4oz.