Jon Stevens landed a fine brace of double figure smoothound fishing a North Devon mark over the recent big spring tides the best hound scaling 11lb 2oz.
Big brace of spring small eyed includes club record!
Combe Martin SAC Member Mark Jones took a trip up channel in search of Spring ray and landed a stunning brace of small eyed ray scaling 13lb 15oz and 12lb 1oz both fish were “caught on a flooding tide both rods went at the same time the first rod I played and landed a lovely male small eyed at 12lb 1oz. Was really hectic for 20 minutes caught on Braunton Bait Box dirty squid and ammo sandeel! “.
The larger of the two fish sets a new club record for Combe Martin SAC.
BIG BASS FROM THE SURF
Liam Loveday tempted this stunning 13lb bass from a North Devon surf beach. The fish took a peeler crab bait presented on a 4/0 Chinu hook cast 30yards into the surf an hour before high water. The fish gave a strong account for close to ten minutes before being beached safely.The fish measured 87cm.
This is an encouraging catch from the surf early in the season.
Personal best bream and tench double!
Steve Dawe was due to go boat fishing on the same trip as myself last Monday but when the trip was cancelled due to strong winds Steve diverted his efforts to Lower Tamar Lake in search of specimen bream. Steve has invested many hours attempting to catch an illusive double figure bream. Below is Steve account of the trip.
“Last night a spur of the moment trip in blustery conditions resulted in 2 personal bests. I finally tracked down the Bream and landed fish of 8lb 6oz and 10lb 8oz losing another fish before the shoal moved. The next take was a PB Tench of 8lb 2oz, i am going be on cloud 9 for rest of May now! Soon forget all those blanks when you get payback. Shame the bloody camera lens kept fogging up”.
Watt a Carp!
North Devon angler Lee Watts fished Colebrooke fishery at Cullumpton and banked the carp known as paw print at 35lb 4oz along with a a common carp at 25lb 8oz both caught on grizzly test baits and Lees home made leads.
Bulldog Trout Fishery Latest Reports
Bulldog Trout Fishery is gaining a reputation for producing quality trout fishing as illustrated here from the latest report sent over by fishery owner Nigel Early.“At the end of the day nothing like a quite cast or two on my lake, time to reflect how lucky I am. Had my friends down from Evesham fishing today sadly one no longer with them having passed away and is sorely missed. A toast to Rodger during a break.
Well done to Bill for the biggest fish a Magnificent brownie of 10 lb plus,”
(Below) Krystian and his mates traveled from Yeovil to fish Bulldogs trout Lake were well satisfied with a great day with all three anglers taking four fish bags scaling;ing 17lb 9oz, 17lb and 15lb 12oz.The trout averaged between four and five pounds.
(Below) South Molton Bishop Mike Clothier tempted a fine brace of rainbows scaling 4lb 8oz and 8lb.
North Devon Match Group Versus Bideford AC Report from John Forster
North Devon Match Group Versus Bideford AC Report from John Forster
At the mega Stafford Moor Fishery Friends we had the first interclub against Bideford AC
With the Draw being done with Bideford choosing the bag with even numbers and the 2 lakes being used being Willow and Woodpecker of we went ,i drew peg 1 on Woodpecker which is a bit of a hit and miss peg , however i liked the look of it and hoped for the best
as the match progressed there was a fair bit of banter flying between the carp boys who we re also fishing a match on the speci lake actually really nice guy ,
i had set up 3 pole lines and a hybrid line and started on the method hitting 2 in the first 15 minutes ,
The pole lines were very quiet so back onto the tip this was the story all the way through the match
I would liketo say a big thanks To Martin Turner for sorting this for Bideford
To Jo and Paul for all the work they put into making Stafford one of if not the best Fishery in the UK ,
But at the end of the day NDMG 200 PTS BIDEFORD 151 POINTS
at the end i weighed in 112lb 03 to win the section and Nathan Underwood had 133.07 to win the Lake ,
Lake Winner
Woodpecker Nathan Underwood 133.07
Willow Paul Morris 112.00
Section Winners
Woodpecker
John Forster 112.03
Phil Bailey 127.05
Woodpecker
Christopher Morris 94,07
Martin Turner 76.12
Plan “B” Brings A Pleasing Twenty – Lower Slade
The weather scuppered the boat trip out of Minehead with the wind due to swing West to North West by midday. A difficult call for the skipper but the right one as the weather men got it right. And so it was plan B. I had loaded the carp gear into the van the previous night thinking I might set out early but it was 6.30am by the time I woke up and close to 8.00am by the time I was on the road with dark thundery clouds in the morning sky.
It was precipitating down profusely when I arrived at Lower Slade and I watched a fellow angler pushing his barrow into the bay. With this area no longer an option I settled on a roadside swim that gave access to areas where I had previously enjoyed success. Whilst I haven’t fished Slade much for carp in recent years I don’t believe they change their habits to dramatically frequenting the same old areas with the wind influencing this.
By the time I had three rods out and some bait scattered about it was around 9.30am. The showers had passed by and the sky was blue with wisps of white cloud and the lush green growth of late spring was all around. A robin alighted upon the rods and searched for crumbs of bait around my feet.
After an hour or so I decided to check one of the baits and recast. As I prepared to recast the bite alarm on the right rod blipped and the bobbin bounced a couple of times. I grabbed the rod and wound down to feel a heavy weight as a good fish shook its head. The fish gave a good run around giving a few anxious moments as it found some weed, becoming solid for few moments before steady pressure coaxed it free. Eventually it swirled close to the bank and moments later it was safely within the net.
The scales put a number on it of 21lb 14oz; a pleasing result and another carp ticked off my challenge to bank a carp from each SWLT North Devon Lake this season. I had charged my camera battery the previous night and had remembered to grab the camera on the way out of the house but had forgotten to put the battery in! Fortunately these days we always have our phone with a camera! Hence the slight grainy image.
The rest of the day drifted past and for a while it seemed as if summer had arrived as the call of the cuckoo echoed around the valley. I packed up late afternoon as a cool North-West wind sprung up as predicted.
Taking a walk beside the tumbling waters of the East Lyn
After the rain and clouds it is a relief to walk beside the tumbling waters of the East Lyn as they race towards the Bristol Channel. Over forty years ago I caught my first salmon from this river an event that is etched upon my mind. The numbers of salmon that now run this river have dramatically declined though of course as an angler I cannot help wonder what now swims within this raging torrent. It’s running too high to fish today as any fish hooked would surely be lost in the maelstrom unfair on the fish and pointless for the angler.
After one of the driest Aprils on record May’s rain has restored the balance and the coming weeks give promise across North Devons rivers with salmon and sea trout likely to be well distributed throughout. Time to pause and take in natures beauty as Spring bursts towards summer invigorated by weather fronts pushing in from the Atlantic.
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Bideford Angling Club – Midweek Evening Match
It’s good to see the return of Bideford Angling Clubs Evening Summer League series heralding those longer summer evenings. Im always dismayed at how quickly the series passes by ! Many thanks to Martin for his regular updates.
Coarse section Tarka swims evening match No.1
Results:
1st Kevin Shears 27lb 5oz
2nd Les Polden 26lb 12oz
3rd Nathan Underwood 21lb 4oz
4th Steve Ashton 13lb 12oz
5th Martin Turner 13lb 10oz
16 fished. Kevin made the perfect start to the evening series with a lovely net of bream caught on peg 16 in the margins on corn. Les fished on peg 8 and added 2 good carp, late on , to a good net of smaller fish on maggot for a close 2nd. Nathan fished long pole on peg 4 for third spot. Steve’s net of smaller skimmers caught over So simple groundbait was enough for 4th place.
