31 Jan 2019

The Heart of Devon

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The Heart of Devon

Game Fishing

The River Torridge starts its journey at Meddon near Hartland surprisingly close to the source of the Tamar that in contrast journeys to Devon’s South Coast flowing into the English Channel at Plymouth. The Torridge flows through the heart of Devon’s rural interior. Rolling hills, lush green fields and abundant woodland it is famed for its association with Tarka the Otter. Otters are fortunately still a common site for anglers as they cast their lines for salmon and sea trout on the many miles of water that are available to fish.

The Torridge is a smaller river than its sister river the Taw and is perhaps less daunting to fish with plenty of excellent fly water. Day Tickets for salmon, sea trout and brown trout are available from the Half Moon Inn at Sheepwash that boasts a rich fishing pedigree with several beats available throughout the river. The Little Warham Fishery also offers excellent fishing opportunities for salmon, sea trout and wild brown trout.

LITTLE WARHAM FISHERY

 

Whilst many focus on the Torridge as a salmon and sea trout river its dry fly fishing for brown trout can be superb with great sport to be enjoyed on both the main river and its many tributaries.

The West-Country Angling passport scheme offers a wealth of opportunities.

 

Coarse Fishing

There are plenty of opportunities for the coarse and carp angler in this heart of rural Devon with a variety of waters. The famous Anglers Paradise complex owned by the notorious Zyg Gregorek and family offers a vast range of opportunity with everything from gudgeon to huge carp, catfish, pike and trout. Whilst renowned for its holiday complex the venue also boasts some superb day ticket fishing with Anglers Nirvana and Eldorado home to catfish over 60lb and carp in excess of fifty pounds.

Close to Holsworthy are Thornbury Fishing Lakes that offer carp to double figures along with tench, bream and other coarse fish. Day tickets are available for the two lakes that are set in a tranquil rural setting.

Stafford Moor Fishery close to Dolton has a well deserved reputation for its prolific carp fishing and match fishing. The lakes are well established and run by the Combe family who have invested much time, effort and money to build upon the sound foundations laid by the previous owner Andy Seery. The Match lakes regularly produce ton up bags of carp with Open events held on a regular basis throughout the year.

Carp anglers have the choice of two lakes Beatties and Lodge Lake both of which contain carp to over thirty pounds with twenty pound fish frequently gracing the bank.

The lakes also hold a variety of other species to specimen size including perch, eels and a few surprises.

 

 

Reservoirs

Melbury, Jennets, Darracott, Upper and Lower Tamar are all controlled by South West Lakes Trust and all hold some impressive stocks of coarse fish. Specimen Carp are caught in all of the venues with multiple catches of double figure fish common. These waters tend to offer more of a challenge than the heavily stocked commercial venues and are often less crowded as a result. Though this is not always the case at weekends when news has spread regarding good catches.

Carp are not the only specimens to dwell within these waters with some huge perch to over five-pound present in several of the lakes. These long-established waters are also home to some huge eels that offer a serious target for the dedicated eel angler.

Lower Tamar also holds a good head of bream to double figures.

Match fishing on the reservoirs brings bulging nets of silver fish with Upper Tamar considered one of the best venues for silver fish in the West Country.

 

 

29 Jan 2019

Fishing around Ilfracombe

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CASTING ABOUT IN NORTH DEVON – WHERE TO FISH

FOCUS ON ILFRACOMBE

Ilfracombe is a town with a Victorian heritage located on the North Devon coast that has a wealth of opportunities for the angler. Sea Anglers are well catered for and there are several Coarse Fishing lakes within the surrounding area. The town has plenty of facilities for visitors which makes it a good base to explore North Devon with plenty of scope for family fishing and for more serious angling excursions.

Anglers visiting the town can benefit by calling into the towns only tackle Shop – High Street Tackle. The shop carries a wide range of sea angling tackle for both boat and shore along with essential items for the coarse angler. Owner Danny Watson is an enthusiastic lure angler and ensures the shop has all the latest lures to tempt both angler and fish. The area has plenty of opportunities for the bass angler with lure fishing productive from mid April until December depending upon sea conditions.

SEA ANGLING

SHORE FISHING

The Pier

The Pier is Ilfracombe’s most accessible shore venue and has provided a fishing platform since Victorian Times.  The original structure was demolished at the end of the last century and landing platforms built to enable boats to land at various states of the tide. The famous Damien Hurst Statue Verity has raised the profile of Ilfracombe and its Pier in recent years and is a stop off point for hoards of tourists who debate its merits.

These landing platforms provide easy access fishing for anglers of all abilities. The venue is one of very few places in North Devon with good disabled access.

The Lower landings can be safely fished 2.5 hours either side of low water in settled weather. The right-hand side by the Stone bench can be fished over High Water but only allows casting access to the less productive harbour area.

Anglers must be aware of boat traffic at all times and ensure they take care when casting and always retrieve lines as boats approach.

There is a vast array of species caught from the pier each year with target species varying throughout the seasons. Standard beach casting tackle can be used to catch dogfish, conger, ray, bass, flatfish, Pollock, pouting, whiting and codling.

Float-fishing tactics will bring mackerel, garfish and Pollock.

The pier is a popular venue for species hunting with many mini species caught. LRF tactics are at times very productive with blennies, dragonets, wrasse and clingfish amongst catches.

Grey mullet can be tempted using light freshwater tactics with bread flake the number one bait.

There is ample parking adjacent to the pier and the Aquarium located at the rear of the Pier car park is well worth a visit.

ROCK FISHING

There are plenty of rock marks close to Ilfracombe that provide access to a wide variety of sea bed ranging from sand to rock and kelp. Capstone Point is a popular mark that gives access to deep water with a strong tide run. Great care needs to be taken here as the point is exposed to treacherous swells that have swept anglers into the deep water. The rocks here are also very slippery ensuring the need for studded boots especially if attempting to net fish.

There are also various marks between the pier and Capstone including Cheyne Beach and Salty Dog that can yield a variety of species.

Six miles East of Ilfracombe is the village of Combe Martin that has a sandy beach that is seldom fished but has in the past rewarded anglers with bass, flounder and the occasional conger.

There are several rock marks between Ilfracombe and Combe Martin most of which are on Private property where a permit is required. Broadsand’s Beach and the rocks to the East of the beach can be productive but care must be taken not to get cut off by the rising tide. Fishing is possible over low water with a variety of species available.

Boat Fishing

There is a small fleet of Charter Boats operating out of Ilfracombe giving access to a wide range of species throughout the year. Recent years have seen several boats venturing to new ground with porbeagle, blue shark and thresher shark brought to the boat.

The summer months give the opportunity for anglers to catch mackerel, pollock, bass, ray, tope and many other species. The winter months see spurdog, conger and bull huss dominate catches with the occasional cod.

Coarse Fishing

Lower Slade Reservoir is run by South West Lakes Trust and boasts an impressive range of specimen fish including carp to 25lb, pike to 25lb, bream to 7lb, perch to 5lb and large numbers of roach. The six-acre reservoir with depths of up to 25ft is set in a tranquil valley that was once adjacent to the Ilfracombe to Barnstaple railway.

 

Mill Park Campsite is home to an attractive former Mill Pool that teams with quality roach offering some of Devon’s best silver fish sport. The lake also holds carp and bream.

Mill Park – Stunning nets of silver from tranquil waters

 

 

28 Jan 2019

Latest Carp catches at Stafford Moor

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Jamie Everard  fished up on Stafford Moors Lodge lake and banked ten carp all caught on Bait-works Atlantic heat & small scent from heaven pop ups on top as a snowman fishing tight to the spit.

(Below) Adam Atkins fished on swim 1 with his dad John up on lodge lake and had 3 fish out all caught on Sticky Baits buchenberry pop ups on a Ronnie rig.

(Below) Dean Goodwill and friend Steve  had several carp from lodge lake and Beatties, Dean was using Himders Walters dipped in Betalin and Steve was fishing with Sticky baits krill & pink pop ups.

(Below)Graham Beer who had one out today in a day session up on lodge lake on swim 2 caught on Sticky Baits Manilla boilies.

 

28 Jan 2019

Carping in Paradise – 1ST 40 OF THE YEAR FROM KRACKING!

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1ST 40 OF THE YEAR FROM KRACKING!

He’s only gone and done it again! Steve Elsbury came back to Nirvana’s Kracking Carp Lake after taking a year’s break and caught Parrot the Mirror at 45lbs making it the first Kracking catch of 2019 and the first 40 from the whole complex this year!

Steve shared –

‘After a year away from the Kracking Carp Lake in Devon I thought it was time for another visit. With the drop in pressure and the conditions looking bang on I couldn’t resist it, and I was rewarded with this chunk of a Mirror known as “Parrot” weighing in at bang on 45lb.

I fished a CR1 wafter topped with fake corn over a large bed of crushed CR1 boilie, pellet, and corn, finished off with some CR1 syrup. Hybrid armo-hawk curves doing the business.’

WELL DONE STEVE AND CONGRATULATIONS ON CATCHING THE BIGGEST CARP FROM ANGLERS PARADISE THIS YEAR!

Anglers Paradise
27 Jan 2019

Big carp in stormy weather

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Its would seem that big carp like stormy weather as anglers who brave conditions have discovered at carp lakes across North Devon this weekend.

 

(Below)Joe Buckingham made his first trip to Simpsons, who braved the high winds on Mallard and managed to bag a new personal best  in the shape of the big girl at 34lb15oz.

Despite losing one earlier in the evening and his brolly turning inside out around midnight. Joe tempted her on a chopped down tiger nut fished over partical tight to the margins.

(Below) Big carp on stormy night at Furzebary for Graham Kelley who caught Clover a weight of 43lb 12oz.

 

26 Jan 2019

Ian proves to be dab hand

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Ian Hooper persisted during a recent shore session suffering countless dogfish before a pleasing dab grabbed his bait. These sweet tasting flatfish are a welcome reward during the tail end of winter and far more could be caught from marks along the North Devon coast if anglers scaled down their tackle to find a wider range of fish instead of sitting it out for those outsize specimens.

One great advantage with the humble dab is that they seem to relish slightly iffy worms making them ideal candidates to use up left over bait converting into a sweet tasting starter.

24 Jan 2019

Winter Trout Sport at Exe Valley Fishery

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Well done to Ben Cheeld who fished at Exe Valley today. Ben is the first angler on our Winter Permit Special Offer to receive his free permit.
We now have a date for the Exe Valley Fishery Troutmasters Competition which is Sunday 14th April 2019.

It is hard to believe that we are over halfway through January already. Even with the colder wintery weather it has been lovely to welcome so many anglers both regular visitors and some that haven’t fished since early 2018. We have also announced the date for the Troutmasters competition (more information below).

Anchor Lake Tactics

With the weather being a bit cooler this week the fish have been sitting a little deeper at around 5 foot however on Thursday the sun warmed the lake quickly and by mid-morning the fish were happily cruising just below the surface. Most people are continuing to use floating lines although with the cold spell forecast it may be worth using an intermediate line.

Popular flies this week have been Orange Blob & Damsel patterns, but by far the most successful again this week have been Bloodworm patterns. Jonathan Moore from Exeter hasn’t fished at Exe Valley Fishery for over 6 months but took full advantage of the very popular Catch & Release ticket and caught all six of his fish on Bloodworm patterns. Also caught on a Bloodworm was a 9lb Rainbow Trout weighed in by Simon Metters from Exeter.

 

24 Jan 2019

Looking Back Ten Years ago!

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I will publish the occasional old Journal column from ten years or so back as its often interesting to look back and see whats changing.

(Above) Blonde ray caught by John Avery in February 2008

ANGLING REPORT  January 27th  2008

Spring on its way

The recent mild weather is bringing many signs of spring. Frogs have already deposited plenty of spawn in many ponds and bird song is already ringing out. Spring bulbs such as snowdrops and primroses are already out with daffodils well advanced. In lakes and ponds fish will also be stirring and starting to feed more frequently. Whilst many anglers will be targeting carp it could be worth trying a float-fished lobworm in the margins for perch. Attract them with a steady trickle of maggots and chopped worm. The perch is surely our most handsome fish and some huge specimens reside in our local Stillwater’s. Perhaps there lurks a fish to beat the new British record scaling 6lb 2oz that was recently landed from the River Thames.

Bideford Angling Clubs January Coarse match at Riverton saw Nielson Jeffery secure victory with a net of mostly carp totalling 19lb 9oz. Steve Baileys net of 12lb 9oz took the runner spot. John Lisle’s net of silver fish weighing 11lb 2oz taking third.

Stafford Moor continues to provide excellent sport with some impressive weights coming from Tanners and Woodpecker. Nathan Underwood took top spot in a recent Sunday open match with 127lb of carp. The carp took 8mm pellet fished beneath a waggler float. If conditions remain mild then some of the specimen lakes larger residents should be banked. Fishery owner Andy Seary has invited any angler who lands the thirty pound carp stocked recently the opportunity to name the fish. The angler will also receive a weekend’s free fishing.

On the open coast anglers continue to hope for a cod or two. I fished two sessions last week in what I would have termed ideal conditions for cod. A few dogfish and Pollock were all that succumbed to my offerings. Cod are now very scarce in comparison to ten or twenty years ago when devotees landed double figure fish on a regular basis. I have heard of a 16lb fish but have no confirmation. A few anglers have also reported losing fish into double figures. Lets hope I can report on a big cod before the winter is out. Marks within the estuary are giving a few codling to 5lb along with several bass to 6lb. Fresh crab is the most successful bait.

Whilst there are no cod there are plenty of other species to fill the void. In Combe Martin Sea Angling Clubs roving match last week it was Kevin Legge who continued his recent run of form landing a specimen conger of 26lb 4oz. Paul Widlake took the runner up spot with a bull huss of 9lb 8¼oz and Andy Joslin third with a conger of 15lb 9oz. Members reported taking plenty of dogfish, whiting and pollock from various marks along the coast.

Combe Martin SAC member Guy Sprigg’s landed a fine blonde ray of 15lb 4oz from a local rock mark.

Bideford angling clubs latest mid week rover saw Stuart Bailey take a 1lb 15oz dogfish for top spot. A nice whiting of 14⅞oz for Nick Jobe took second with Jazza John securing third with a doggie of 1lb 13⅝oz.

Tony Gussin secured victory in Rod N Reeler’s monthly Rover landing a specimen small-eyed ray of 11lb 15½oz. In runner up spot Julian Stainer with a dogfish of 2lb 10½oz and in third Tony Werner with a doggie of 2lb 9oz.

The recent conditions are ideal for targeting trout on small Stillwater’s. I seldom find it necessary to use a sinking line relying on a nymph pattern fished on a long leader in combination with a floating line. A slow retrieve generally proves effective with an occasional twitch often triggering a take. Bratton Water is an ideal choice offering clear water and hard fighting rainbows. Owner Mike Williams tells me that visitors to the water have been enjoying some good sport recently with fish taking dry flies on a regular basis. Best fish in recent weeks was a rainbow of 7lb 8oz to the rod of T.Evans. Several five fish bags to 17lb have been taken.

 

21 Jan 2019

Stafford Moor Carp Catches

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Aaron Dale  fished up on Stafford Moors lodge lake and in a 24 hour session had ten fish out up to 24lb all caught on Sticky Baits 12mm Manilla boilies & trimmed pop ups.

Drew Davey  fished up on lodge lake on swim 2 and banked  six carp fish  in a 24 hour session up to 23lb 7oz all caught on Sticky Baits Manilla boilies with chopped Manilla pop

ups.