Dark winter nights are made for reading and dreaming and the latest edition of Fly Culture delivers plenty of fuel to inspire. The editor in Chief of this quality read is local Fly Fishing enthusiast Pete Tyjas who was an inspiring Fly Fishing Guide at the Fox and Hounds, Eggesford.
My own book on fishing in North Devon entitled “I Caught A Glimpse” is available from https://thelittleegretpress.co.uk/product-category/author/wayne-thomas/
Matt Jeffery made the best of a session between the storms tempting a hard fighting tope of 34lb 2oz. The fish was tempted using whole squid.
(Below) Early this autumn Matt caught a tope of 39lb.
Furzebray Carp Fishery continues to produce some very big fish despite the colder conditions. Andy White banked the mirror carp known as three scales at 36lb. Chris Connaughton banked fish of 32lb 27lb and 21lb. Graham Kelly banked the huge carp Blackspot at 45lb 8oz (Above) along with other carp of 33lb, 27lb and 21lb. The carp of Furzebray always seem to feed well during stormy conditions.
(Above) Graham Kelly with carp of 33lb and 27lb.
1st Neilsen Jeffery 87lb 2oz
2nd Jim Grogan 34lb 7oz
3rd Bruce Hunt 33lb 15oz
4th Craig Crash Lamey 29lb 3oz
5th Martin Turner 24lb 3oz
6th Kevin Shears 20lb 7oz
7th Paul Elworthy 19lb 13oz.
8th Stuart BUrridge 17lb 8oz .
21 fished. Today’s competition was fished in cold squally conditions . Nieilsen Jeffery rounded off a very successful campaign with a comprehensive victory on peg 16 on the top pond , he has caught 15 carp on pole fished corn. James Grogan has landed some large carp on the adjoining peg for second spot. Bruce Hunt also fished the top lake and landed a mixed bag on maggots on the pole for 3rd overall. Craig was 4th overall and top wieght on the bottom pond , taken on a small method feeder with maggot.
Kevin Legge secured top spot In Combe Sea Angling Clubs Christmas Competition with a fine specimen bull huss scaling 11lb 12oz. Members endured some stormy conditions during the competition with a heavy swell battering the coast. Mark Jones was runner up with a small eyed ray of 9lb 6oz.
Third – Alex Mcleish – bull huss 6lb 3oz
Forth Dan Welch – small eyed ray – 6lb
Fifth – Dan Welch – dogfish – 1lb 12oz
Sixth – Ross Stanway – dogfish – 1lb 10oz.
Julien Stainer secured first place in Bideford Angling Clubs Twenty Four Hour Rover landing bull huss of 8lb 15.5oz.
Cameron Atkinson won Appledore Shipbuilders Wintere League Rover with a whiting of 1lb 4oz.
Seven members fished in the clubs Christmas Competition at Blakewell where all members caught their three fish bags of hard fighting rainbows. The fish were caught on a variety of flies mostly small imitative patterns with the water clarity good. The lake was well sheltered from the gale force winds that were beating in from the North-West.
1st – Paul Grisley – 3 Trout – 6lb 11oz
2nd – Dave Eldred – 3 Trout – 5lb 11oz
3rd – Dave Mock – 3 Trout – 5lb 8oz
4th – Wayne Thomas – 3 Trout – 5lb 5oz
5th – Nigel Bird – 3 Trout – 5lb
6th – Colin Combe – 3 Trout – 4lb 11oz
7th – Andre Muxworthy = 3 trout – 4lb 1oz
As winter storms colour the water it’s time to don those waterproofs and get out in search of specimens. Kevin Legge found this near double figure huss on the feed during a recent trip to a rocky North Devon Shoreline.
Jason McEvoy braved wind and rain at Upper Tamar Lake to bank a fine mirror carp of 24lb 4oz.
1st Richard Jefferies 15lb 13oz
2nd Reg Sutton 14lb 12oz
3rd Martin Turner 7lb 10oz
4th Tyler Scott 2lb 15oz
5th Steve Bailey 2lb 1oz ,
This Sunday’s weather was cold,wet and very blustery, not particularly pleasant, 10 brave / stupid ! fishers sat it out on George’s lake in the final match for this season 2019, first and second spots changed throughout the day, Richard Jefferies just took the honours with a pole catch of carp and bream on peg 12. Reg Sutton almost made it 2 wins in a row but settled for 2nd with 4 carp on peg 9 ,Martin Turner on peg 10 had bream and roach on tip and pole for 3rd . Junior member Tyler Scott came in 4th with a net of small roach and perch. The final points table is ,1st Martin Turner 108 2nd Pete Slade 77 3rd Richard Jefferies 74 4th John Lisle 72 .
An impressive 72 anglers lined the banks of a wind swept Torridge Estuary to take part in Bideford Angling Clubs Christmas Competition and plenty of flounder were tempted.
1st R. Slade flounder 1lb 9 1/2oz
2nd D. Jenkins flounder 1lb 5 1/2oz
3rd D. Talbot flounder 1lb 4 3/4oz
4th M. John’s flounder 1lb 4 1/4oz
5th R. Harris flounder 1lb 3 1/4oz
6th A. Mccourt flounder 1lb 3oz
7th M. Druce flounder 1lb 1 3/4oz
8th C. Curtis flounder 1lb 1 3/4oz
9th D. Bailey flounder 1lb 1 3/4oz
10th A. Clements flounder 1lb 1 1/2oz
Prizes went all the way to 26th place.
JUNIORS
1ST B. Lee flounder 0.310g
2nd B. Lee flounder 0.306g
3rd B. J. Less flounder 0.302g
4th B. Phipps flounder 0.288g
5th B. Phipps flounder 0.256
Nathan Clements wrote :-
“I would like to say thank you to everyone that fished today 72 angler’s produced 39 flounder it’s been a brilliant day.
Thanks to Paul and Lisa done a fantastic job again.
Thank you to all are sponsors.
Thanks to the reds for letting us host the competition.
Congratulations to all the winners
See you all again next year”
Appledore Shipbuilders fished their Christmas comp today. Winner and 2nd was Owen Atkinson with Flounders of 1lb 14 3/4ozs and 1lb 12ozs 3rd was Cameron Atkinson with a flounder of 1lb 2 3/8ozs 22 members fished.
Twenty-Three anglers fishing in Triple Hook Clubs Open Flounder Match with good numbers of flounder landed. Mark Beer was first in the senior section with a flounder of 1lb 6.75oz. In runner up spot was Joan Cairns with a flounder of 1lb 4.5oz.
In the Junior section Lennox Pine took top spot with a flounder of 1lb 63/8oz and Levi Beer was runner up with a flounder of 1lb 33/8oz. Ian Cairns was runner up in club only Junior section with a flounder of 1lb.
The ladies section was secured by Joan Cairns with her flounder of 1lb 4.5oz. Runner up in the ladies section was Levi Beer with her flounder of 1lb 33/8oz.