North Devon Flounder fisherman are looking forward to the first big competition of the 2024 Flounder season. There is plenty of interest with a good number already registered at Barnstaple Bait and Tackle.
Andrew Atkinson won Appledore Shipbuilders monthly Sea Rover with a club record rockling of 2lb. Runner up was Josh Atkinson with a bull huss of 10lb 15.25oz and third Andrew Atkinson with a bull huss of 8lb 12oz.
Stephen Found won Bideford Angling Clubs monthly rover with a thornback ray of 8lb 13oz. Andrew Clements was second and third with a bass of 6lb and a conger of 17lb 1oz.
Combe Martin SAC held a weekend long competition for the mullet anglers in the club that was fished between seven keen members. Fishing a variety of marks a total of 32 mullet were caught over six tides.
( Above ) John Avery with a 2lb 8oz grey mullet
( Above) First light Combe Martin Bay
The winning fish, a fine specimen thick lipped grey mullet fell to the rod of Callum Gove and weighed 5lb 2oz. Daniel Welch was runner up with a thick lipped grey mullet of 3lb 14oz.
Members concentrated their efforts over high waters that coincided with first and last light each day with members fishing from pre-dawn until after dark on some tides.
The competition concluded with a full English and tea and coffee in the Pavilion.
Reece Woolgar has extended his lead in Combe Martin SAC’s Lure Fishing League tempting a fine bass of 73.5 cm. The fish had a good sized mullet of close to 30cm in its throat.
With just three weeks remaining in the competition Reece will take some beating though October is a good month for big bass.
The present standings are :-
Reece Woolgar – 334.5cm
Wayne Thomas – 310 cm
Ross Stanway – 293cm
Dan Welch – 270cm
Many thanks to Richard Wilson for sharing his thoughts on Lymes Disease with North Devon Angling News. Ticks are ever more common across North Devon and Exmoor and it is wise to check fior them after any visit to the countryside. Removing the nasty little creatures early reduces the risk of Lymes disease.
Are you familiar with the phrase a Doolally of Doctors? It’s a medical version of the Madness of Crowds, which is when a lot of people go collectively nuts. Like the dot.com stock bubble or a dangerous TikTok craze. OK, I just made it up, but it trips nicely off the tongue and is technically accurate.
For a great example of a Doolally of Doctors in action, look no further than Lyme Disease. It’s a textbook case.
Let me explain: Lyme, caught from ticks, is the fastest-spreading bug-borne disease in the northern hemisphere. Which is a big and scary thought. It’s also nasty, very hard to treat and ruins lives. And if you spend time outdoors in long grass or woodland margins it’s very easy to catch. It’s even spreading to suburban parks and gardens.
So what’s a Doolally of Doctors got to do with ticks? Well, as said, catching Lyme is very easy, but try getting a diagnosis. Or treatment. And especially treatment that works.
For example: Hollywood actor and musician Kris Kristofferson had a physically debilitating disease that for 14 years, and maybe a lot more, ruined his life. It even moved into his brain, resulting in a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s.
He had muscle spasms, heart arrhythmia that needed a pacemaker, sleep apnea, fierce joint pains and pretty much the full gamut of symptoms that most of us with Lyme Disease would recognise as potential runaway Lyme; but a Doolally of Doctors didn’t. They opted for more familiar diagnoses, all of which failed to deliver a cure and, to repeat myself, this went on for at least 14 years. He also picked up diagnoses of several Syndromes, such as Fibromyalgia (beware doctors diagnosing a ‘syndrome’, it’s a weasel word).
This continued until a new doctor tested for Lyme and it turned out, as I’m sure you’ve guessed, that Kristofferson had Lyme, which then responded to antibiotics (Alzheimer’s doesn’t). And because the longer treatment is delayed the harder Lyme is to cure, I expect his road to recovery is tough.
I have some sympathy with the first stages of misdiagnosis. Lyme shares symptoms with many diseases and it’s human nature for a Dr to reach for something familiar and treat that. And it’s not easy to confirm Lyme. If you get a blood test then about 15-25% can be false positive or false negative. Worse, the tests detect antibodies and once you’ve had the disease you have the antibodies for life. So you’ll always test positive, except when you test negative even if you have had, or still have Lyme. Confusing, isn’t it?
Next is something that’s very hard for us non-medical folk to grasp. The antibiotic treatment used by doctors always works. Always. Different countries have widely different drug regimes & doses, but they all work. 100%. You think they’re joking? No, they’re not. Lyme is a disease the experts have got nailed. Or so they say. And this is where the Doolally starts to part company with reality.
The first problem is that maybe 20-25% of Lyme patients report the same or worsening symptoms after treatment. In a Swedish study, 19% were still on sick leave or incapacitated 5 years after taking the approved antibiotics. No wonder so many people think their recurrent Lyme symptoms mean the treatment has failed. A lot of sick people think the experts have got it wrong.
This is heresy. The Doolally forcefully rejects such foolishness and explains that all these patients are suffering long-term damage caused by the original infection, now cured (by them). The pills always work.
Next, hands up everybody with Lyme symptoms who was tested for the co-infections ticks carry? Almost nobody? That sounds about right. A US survey of over 3,000 patients with long-term Lyme found that over 50% had co-infections, with 30% reporting two or more. The most common include Babesia, Bartonella, Ehrlichia, Mycoplasma, Anaplasma, and Tularemia. All are unpleasant, some are more globalist than others and many don’t respond to the antibiotics used against Lyme. A UK survey found 95% of 500 patients had co-infections.
So somewhere between the misdiagnoses, miracle pills and co-infections, it’s no surprise that the ne’re-get-well Lyme patients are everywhere. In fact they’re so common that the Doolally has a name just for those they’ve treated: Post Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (PTLDS). And there’s that snitty little word ‘syndrome’ again. PTLDS means people they’ve cured but who ungratefully still claim to be sick.
So what is this Frankenstein confection, this “disease-syndrome” endorsed by some of the top research institutions around the world? Broadly speaking the two words are a mismatch. Diseases usually have known treatments. A Syndrome might be real and treatable, but is often doctor-speak for a patient who’s a bit wrong in the head. Some patients are just weird. Sigh!
As an aside, I’ve never heard of anyone with Malaria Disease Syndrome. Why? Hold that thought.
It’s important to remember that a Doolally of Doctors is never wrong (it’s group-think): They know that real people have real diseases that real doctors treat. Everything else, including many syndromes, is woo or psychiatry or weird. And that’s really strange because Lyme is a bacterial disease with a track record for dodging antibiotics. It’s real, just like its cousin Syphilis, which is also difficult to treat (but a lot more fun to catch). Both are the unusual spirochete bacteria, which can run a doctor ragged. If you want peer-reviewed papers published in reputable journals, there are plenty to choose from. Here’s one. There are many, many more.
In most walks of life, this authority-figure insistence on the dumb-ass patient being delusional/weird, despite persuasive evidence that they’re not, would be called Gaslighting. And remember, we’re talking about up to a quarter of the patients they manage to diagnose with Lyme.
Spare a thought also for the many they don’t diagnose. Too many Drs will insist you’ve got Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, man-flu, sleep apnea, ME, heart disease, gallstones, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetic neuropathy and/or pathetically-weird patient syndrome. Whatever.
Just think what could be achieved with global diseases like malaria if we applied Doolally Logic to our planning. Maybe half of the world’s malaria would simply vanish if we just got better at misdiagnosis. And to cure someone, all you have to do is give them a one-size-fits-all course of pills. Dose, duration, follow-up appointments? Nah! The treatment is infallible and malaria will be eradicated. Anyone still claiming to be sick must have a syndrome. Except this rule does not apply to post treatment Recurrent Malaria. That’s proper Malaria, the real deal, because sometimes, unexpectedly, malaria treatment fails. Unlike Lyme?
Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome. A place where medics can’t tell if you’re cured, but they know for sure their medication always works because, if maybe sometimes it didn’t, what would that make their ‘Syndrome’?
Answer: Lyme Disease.
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Reece Woolgar has taken a commanding lead in Combe Martin SAC’s Lure Fishing League sponsored by High Street Tackle. Reece banked a fine brace of bass measuring 66cm and 65cm to push his combined total for five bass to 321 cm. Wayne Thomas is in runner up spot with 310cm. The league closes on October 31st with the prizes presented at High Street Tackle.
Reece Woolgar – Five bass – 321 cm
Wayne Thomas – Five bass – 310 cm
Ross Stanway – Five Bass – 293cm
Dan Welch – Five Bass – 270cm
Time seems to race past ever more quickly and trips that are on the horizon soon appear in the rear view mirror. I have just booked up for next year’s Looe Basher as it seems to have been christened on our Watts App Group. This fishing excursion to Looe each autumn has become an annual trip with all involved keen to repeat the excursion each year.
An annual trip to Looe in Cornwall is in truth nothing unusual for Pauline and I as the lively fishing town on the South Coast of Cornwall has an enduring appeal that sank into my soul as a child in the 1960’s.
Looe as I have said many times before was where I started my angling journey catching mackerel, garfish and pollock float fishing from the Banjo pier. The blue shark brought back to shark Angling Club of Great Britain weighing scales fascinated me as a child and I hoped to one day venture out onto the high seas where these fierce predators roamed the vast ocean.
The annual Looe Basher is organised by Lee Armishaw of Watersmeet Publications with military precision. I admire and appreciate the effort that is put into arranging such a venture with five boat trips and meals in local pubs all put together to cater for a range of anglers from all walks of life.
Whilst several of the group are in regular contact throughout the year either at the water’s edge or via social media many only meet during this week of the year.
I was joining a reef fishing trip with seven other anglers including Dr Mark Everard, Keith Armishaw, Carl Aldridge, Jeremy Wade, Lesley Smith, Dennis Hart, Peter Evans and A. Gaffney. We were fishing on Murray Colling’s boat Swallow Two, a boat I had wanted to fish on for many years having heard many complimentary comments from other anglers.
I walked over Looe Bridge from West Looe and paused for a look down river as the tide flooded. The sun was rising slowly from the east, its glow illuminating the early morning vista. The bakery was the next stop for a Cornish pasty and an apple doughnut. Healthy eating is not my thing when out on a boat for the day.
The day was set up as a friendly fishing competition between two boats with eight anglers on each boat. The other boat was ‘Sowenna’ skippered by Dan Margetts with whom I have enjoyed several great fishing sessions in the past. There would also be a prize the angler to catch the most species and for who caught the biggest fish.
Fortunately with the good natured friendly group gathered there was no danger of the competitive element spoiling the day!
As we chatted quayside it was hard to believe that a year had passed since we had stood here full of optimism on our previous trip. Top of the agenda was success enjoyed earlier in the week with a very successful tuna trip that had resulted in a full house of tuna. The tuna had certainly given all involved a good workout! Sharking trips had also been successful with several shark tempted despite rough seas driven by a persistent North East breeze.
The two boats steamed out on calm waters past the historic and iconic Banjo pier. As the land faded into the distance behind us, the East wind whipped up white horses. Fortunately a clear blue sky lifted the spirits as sunshine illuminated the turbulent scene as gannets and gulls soared overhead.
We stopped for mackerel on the way to the reefs and brought up shimmering strings of fish for bait. Carl Aldridge was delighted to catch a pilchard to add to his growing species tally for the year. A couple of cuckoo wrasse were also swung aboard.
With enough bait for a few hours fishing we set off once again for the reefs that were around nine miles off-shore.
Anticipation hung in the air the anchor was sent down and the engines cut.
A variety of tactics were employed by the anglers. I sent down a two hook rig consisting of size 4 Sakuma Chinus, baited with small strips of squid. Within seconds of the bait hitting the seabed the rod tip quivered and shook. I wound in a small poor cod to add to my mackerel in the species tally. Next drop down the rod tip rattled and I wound in a plump pouting. Looking around the boat everyone using small hooks or baited feathers were swinging in pouting.
I grabbed my heavier rod and baited a 6/0 Sakuma Kong hook with a fresh pouting head and trailing guts. Jeremy Wade to my left was using similar tactics and hooked a good fish that unfortunately came off. A few moments later I felt a solid tug transmitted through the line. I paid off a yard of line and paused for a few seconds. Tightening the line I felt a solid resistance and reeled quickly lifting the rod at the same time. The rod hooped over and there was a brief moment of give and take. I tightened the drag and heaved the powerful fish away from the rocky sea bed. I gained several yards before the fish tried to reach sanctuary at the seabed. I had every confidence in my tackle and held hard persuading the fish towards the surface.
The fish appeared in the clear water and skipper Murray grabbed the heavy 250lb b.s leader dragging the protesting conger over the gunnels. The eel was estimated at 28lb and was over 6ft long. After a short spell of wrestling I held the conger aloft for a quick picture before sliding the fish back over the side.
I caught a couple more smaller eels and others on the boat caught eels to 20lb with a couple of potentially bigger fish lost. Dennis Hart caught a fine double figure ling.
I switched back to the small baits and caught a succession of pouting and a couple of stunning cuckoo wrasse their colours more akin to fish of the tropics than UK waters.
A flock of birds appeared to the South working over a shoal of bait fish. A huge tuna erupted from the water silhouetted for a second against the bright sky line. One of those memory moments that will be forever etched in the mind’s eye.
As the tide began to pick up Murray suggested we start drifting and fishing with lures. I was determined to try and catch a John Dory and I knew that Murray was the go to skipper in Looe for these spectacular fish. I chose a small sidewinder lure fished on a long flowing trace. The tactic is to lower to the sea bed and then wind up slowly ignoring any taps and waiting for a solid hook up.
At the bow of the boat Murray’s deck hand employed these very tactics and soon hooked a small john dory that was delighted to admire and photograph as Murray held it aloft. Sadly this turned out to be the only john dory caught.
Over the next few hours we caught pouting, whiting, mackerel, horse mackerel(scad) and pollock as we drifted several different reefs. Murray was increasingly frustrated by the slow sport and attributed it to the exceptionally big spring tides that resulted in too fast a drift. Undoubtedly made even worse by the strong north-east wind.
By the time Murray called time after a good eight hours at sea I’m sure some were glad to be heading back to port. It had been a tough day for at least one on board who had suffered the age old curse of sea sickness.
The boat bounced back over the lively sea. Gannets glided and dived into the water. We chatted of fish, fishing and future plans. As we approached Looe Island we entered calmer waters and left behind the turmoil of the open sea.
Looe harbour brought a comforting and familiar vibe. Crab lines from the quayside as young and old relaxed hoisting crabs up the old rocky walls to reside for a while in plastic buckets.
We were greeted eagerly by fellow Looe Basher members as the boat was secured. Some fish were filleted to be taken home. A few images were taken of the happy anglers gathered in warm comradeship content to have shared another adventure out at sea.
The biggest tides of the year – (Below)
On September 25th The Arundell are hosting an evening with Angela Harding celebrating the release of her new book ‘Still Waters and Wild Waves’. A book that will undoubtedly connect with many anglers and those who love the waters edge.
https://www.thearundell.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Angela-Harding-25th-Sept.pdf
