Eighteen club members took part in Combe Martin SAC’s Blow Away the Excess competition over four days with shore and boat an option. Ross Stanway secured first and second place taking home over £90 for a blonde ray of 14lb 1oz and a conger of 18lb 4oz. Dave Brooke was third with a bull huss of 8lb. Mark Jones landed a spurdog of 7lb 13oz.
The Christmas period has seen some stunning carp banked from Furzebray carp lakes near South Molton that must have some of the best looking carp in North Devon. Congratulations must go to Tony and Martin Kingdon who have created this fantastic fishery that opened over ten years ago and has matured into a stunning complex.
(Below) Paul Martindale with a cracking 30+ from just before Christmas
(Below)Mike Knowles with the stunning Clover at an all time high of 45lb
(Below) Flyn Mardell has been busy again this week landing no less than 7 fish including C scale at 33+ and the mighty Black Spot at 44.10
Chris Hutchings who fished up on swim one on Lodge Lake
These were a part of a 12 fish catch on peg 1 on Lodge lake during an Xmas social.
Most fish caught ranging from 16-20lb with 3 20’s included @ 20lb 6oz 22lb and the biggest @ 27lb 13oz
Tactics wise I fished small pva mesh bags of crushed manilla boilies which complemented a trimmed down manilla dumbell topped off with a trimmed down signature pop up the hook.
Jon Patten and Kyle Blackmore enjoyed an action packed session landing numerous spurdog, bull huss and bonus whiting.
The biggest spur fell to Kyle a personal best of 13lb 8oz.
Neil Harvey had 8 fish out all caught on Mainline 15mm cell tipped on yellow corn. Glugged in cell bait enhancer with a 3in PVA sock with crushed cell and micro pellet all dipped in glug before the cast. Neil Fished peg 2 on lodge lake and caught all off the back margin of the spit, a rod length off.
Kody Chugg landed this stunning personal best spurdog of 10lb 12oz during his latest excursion to the North Devon Shoreline. Several other good spurdog have been landed over the past few days and I will try to compile a full report early in the new year.
Cameron Atkinson, Thomas Atkinson, James Mayhew and David Atkinson Cracking enjoyed a splendid days boat fishing from a Private boat the boat catching around 50 spurdog with the biggest weighing 15lb to Thomas.Camerons biggest went 14lb 12oz. They also had a few decent huss with the biggest weighing 13lb 8oz caught by David Atkinson along with a few eels to around 20lb and a small eyed weighing 5lb 7oz, they also lost a few other decent fish either spitting the bait half way up or on the surface near the boat. The fish were tempted on a range of fish baits including, mackerel, squid and pouting.
Kyle Blackmore and Andrew Proudfoot headed out onto the North Devon shoreline and earned this brace of spurdog. Andrews scaled 11lb 2oz and Kyles 9lb 3oz the fish were tempted using triple sandeel baits. Spurdog can be tempted on a wide range of fish baits presented on a wire trace to combat their fierce dentistry. L:ook for deep water adjacent to a decent tide run.
Kyle Blackmore took advantage of the quiet shores on Christmas Day to tempt this smoothound. Not a large specimen but a thought provoking fish at this time of year. Catching fish outside of their recognised seasons has always happened but my gut feeling is that it is happening far more these days. There are many factors that impact upon fish and fish migration climate is just one of these and as anglers we play our game on natures chess board casting our lines into ever changing waters.
At Christmas and the New Year we often indulge in looking back and forth in time and social media has introduced an instant world that undoubtedly has its up and down sides. It is a fact that social media reflects good and bad in people so rather than condemn it as the new evil best to accept it as it is; taking the good with the bad as we always have in life.
On North Devon Angling News I try to report in a positive way to promote angling and the enjoyment of angling. I started the website back in 2016 when I saw that traditional papers were in decline ( The North Devon Journal stopped rewarding their angling columnist), I still write the column in the Journal because I want angling to have its place in North Devon News but feel that most people get their news on line these days. I hope readers enjoy what I try to do on this site and I welcome any features on local angling that you may be inspired to write. Please keep sending the news and images I do not reveal marks unless they are large easy access ones as I know this is a contentious area for sea anglers.
Fish conservation and habitat are all factors that impact upon anglers and I try to promote good practice within my pages on this site. In many instances anglers are at the forefront of conservation efforts espeicially on our rivers with grace concerns regarding salmon and sea trout stocks.
As I type this a latest report has just come in from Ian Laird ( Below) who landed this 9lb 8oz bull huss from a North Devon Rock Mark. One observation on recent months is that I am getting good numbers of qaulity pictures from anglers fishing the shore line during day light hours. I have fished plenty of after dark sessions to be plaged by small dogfish and strap eels.
If you would like to advertise/sponsor North Devon Angling News please get in touch. I try to give good value to all my sponsors. In the next few weeks my Intention is to add a few new features to the site giving more information on venues and whats on offer to anglers visiting North Devon.
Rob Scoines and Kody Chugg enjoyed success with thornback ray at a popular rock mark higher up the Bristol Channel. They landed eight ray to 8lb 1oz! The big advantage of fishing up channel is that dogfish are scarce so if you catch its generally ray or codling that take the bait.
