George Stavrakopoulos is a keen species enthusiast and enjoys trips to Ilfracombe Pier. Their latest venture saw them land whiting, pouting, poor cod, pollack, shanny smelt, rock goby, 3 bearded rockling, shore rockling, conger, tadpole fish and a cling fish it was non stop action. A big surprise was the sight of four big mackerel trapped alive in the pool behind the pier. These out of season visitors were soon caught and dispatched by local anglers who either enjoyed a tasty meal some quality bait for the freezer.
An ugly surprise!
One of the delights of sea angling is the unexpected and Kody Chugg had a surprise when this ugly fish grabbed his bait. The fish is a tadpole fish occasionally caught along the North Devon Coast with the biggest I have heard of locally weighing just over 1lb. The Combe Martin SAC club record for tadpole fish is 1lb 1oz caught by Paul Blake the boat record is 1lb 1oz caught by James Fradgely Gubb
The British Record for the species is boat caught 1lb 6oz and shore caught 1lb 12oz.
GUY BAGS A BRACE OF BLONDES
Combe Martin SAC Member and shore caught stingray record holder Guy Spriggs ended 2016 in style landed a fine brace of blonde ray scaling 12lb 4oz and 16lb. The fish were landed on 30th 31st December.
Globe Trotting Zyg reaches another milestone
Zyg Gregorek continues his globetrotting adventures achieving yet another milestone as he describes below!
Well done Zyg looking forward to meeting up at the lure fishing weekend at the end of February.
Hi All
Having recently returned from North Carolina, on my latest quest to catch a Roundscale / Hatchet Spearfish. This was my fifth attempt in the last four years.
I decided to try North Carolina, after contacting several skippers, I picked Dan Rooks on Tuna Duck. Dan has fished the area for nearly 20 years and was very knowledgeable on the necessary identification patterns. He was very willing and wanted to help our expedition. Despite adverse weather conditions surrounding Hurricane Ermine, of the many Marlin caught during the four days only two of the fish were positively identified by Dan as Roundscale Spearfish. Thank God. Mission accomplished.
All fish were photographed and released.
Following the skippers report to the IGFA and photographic evidence. I can now confirm and am very proud to say I finally caught the Roundscale Spearfish and have now caught all the known Spearfish species, Long Billed, Short Billed, Mediterranean the elusive Roundscale. I believe I am the only person to have achieved this feat.
In addition following the capture of the Roundscale Spearfish I have achieved the coveted IGFA Royal Billfish Slam with 12 different species.
If you try hard enough you will achieve.
Best Fishes
Zyg
Winter Mullet
There was a time when the mullet fishing season started in the late spring and finished in the late autumn. Times have changed with these fish now caught all through the year. Time and experimentation could well reveal far more marks to catch these hard fighting silver ghosts during the colder months?
Daniel Welch set out after winter mullet and landed a near specimen of 3lb 14oz.
Boat Anglers Enjoy Huss and Spurdog Sport
Lee Holden caught this 14lb bull huss whilst fishing off Ilfracombe on John Barbeary’s Bluefin. Sport with huss and spurdog is likely to continue right through until spring whenever the weather permits.
(Above) Dan Spearman with a spurdog of 14lb 1oz
MORE SHORE NEWS
January can be a tough month weather wise for the shore angler but if the correct clothing is worn then there is no reason not to get out there and catch a few specimens. I get a steady stream of reports from successful forays to the coast with some anglers traveling long distances to enjoy their sport.
Combe Martin SAC member Dan Spearman enjoyed a succesful shore foray to a local rock mark landing a fine specimen whiting of 1lb 14oz and specimen spurdog of 8lb 11oz.
David Alsop travelled over to the North Devon Coast from wales and was rewarded with fine specimen spurdog weighing 11lb 6oz.( Below)
Many thanks to Robert Young for allowing me to share his picture.
NEWS YEARS DAY- CMSAC- ENDURE ICY BLAST
Thirteen members of Combe Martin Sea Angling Club set forth to fish as an icy cold North Easterly Wind lashed the coast. Fishing was hard going for most but Colin Emery and Liam Stevens consulted Google Maps to find a sheltered mark where they found some sport. Colin secured the top three spots with a specimen bull huss scaling 10lb 12oz and a plump dogfish of 3lb 2oz and a conger of 17lb 4oz.
COMBE MARTIN SAC BOAT TRIP
Members of Combe Martin SAC had a trip on Steve Webber’s Osprey off Minehead and found some quality fish topped by cod of 18lb 4oz to the rod of Matt Jeffery and 15lb 3oz to Rob Scoines.
In addition to the cod Jonathon Stanway landed a boat club record haddock of 2lb 7oz and several ray were also landed including double figure blondes to John Shapland and Chris Bond.
Holsworthy Sea Anglers _ Enjoy fine Ilfracombe boat sport.
Holsworthy Sea Anglers had a great day out with John Barbeary on Bluefin off Ilfracombe. They started off with the obligatory lesser spotted dogfish with plenty of them showing their faces throughout the day, a quick move and Andrew Braunton and Tom Marshall started to find the spurdog and a lonely smoothound for Paul Cozens. Another move further out and bingo plenty of spurdogs from high singles to mid doubles along with bullhuss for a bit of variety and also a solitary tope which released itself at the surface. Steve did manage a conger at the end for a 6 species total.
Many thanks to Paul Cozens for the write up and images. Great to sea smiling faces out at sea!
