Plenty of fish to chase from the North Devon Shoreline at the moment with ray, bass, rockling and mullet amongst the specimens caught over the last week.
John Shapland landed this fine thick lipped grey mullet of 3lb 8.5oz from an estuary mark
(Above)Dan Corben fished up on swim 13 on the split on Lodge lake banking six fish out up to 27lb 4oz all caught on Spotted Fin Catalyst boilies
Paul Blake fished lodge at Stafford Moor with David Mason they had seven carp between them. Dave broke his personal best three times including fish of 20lb 5oz and 22lb 12oz and I Paul set his personal best with last fish of the day weighing 20lb 12oz.
Toby Bassett enjoyed a beautiful day bobbing about on John Barbeary’s Bluefin with plenty of fish tempted throughout the day afloat.
Several bass were tempted drifting over the reefs with the biggest around 5lb. Anchoring brought sport with several tope to 30lb along with huss and the inevitable dogfish. One angler hooked a large fish that came close to spooling him before dropping the bait. The guess was that it was shark?
bass and scad
As winter approaches anglers will be looking forward to targetting the spurdog, huss and conger that prowl the mid channel marks giving some exciting and frantic sport when the weather permits access.
Matt Thomas caught this brace of fine huss weighing 9lb 4oz and 8lb whilst fishing from a popular North Devon Shore mark. The huss were both tempted using bluey hook-baits.
Thornbury Holiday Park near Holsworty have two fishing lakes 8 feet deep that have been established for approx 20 years. Both are fully stocked with a variety of healthy Carp, specimen Carp and other course fish.
The lakes are 1.25 and 1 acre in size and fishing is complimentary for guests staying in our lodges and cottages. A daily £8.00 fee applies to all other visitors.
Everyone can fish from dawn till dusk at our beautiful lakes.
We only have a few simple rules;
For more info on staying at Thornbury Park please either phone
01409 261750, or visit our website www.thornburyholidaypark.co.uk
Jake England caught this cracking 29lb common carp from day ticket water Jennetts reservoir, Devon, at the weekend. Jake also had two other commons at 20lb and 17lb.
The carp known as Blackspot has been tempted from Furzebray at weight of 45lb 12oz. It was caught during the spring at a weight of 39lb 12oz a massive weight increase of 6lb. At this rate this carp and others in the lake could be nudging 50lb next year!
When I started carp fishing back in the early eighties such a water would have been unheard of in North Devon. Waters that contained such huge carp were spoken of in hushed tones and I would suggest that Furzebray now holds fish to almost match those at Redmire Pool in its glory days.
Tarka Swims Bideford & District AC Coarse Section monthly competition.
1st Martin Turner 9lb 13oz
2nd Pete Slade 4lb 15 1/2oz
3rd Richard Jefferies 4lb 15 1/4oz
4th Steve Bailey 4lb 4oz .
Sunday’s 5 hour match was fished by 9 members in damp,cooler conditions. Martin Turner anded a good carp after 40 mins on peg P this fish, along with 2 skimmer bream on 6mm pellet on the bomb gave him victory. Pete Slade on peg H landed a good net of silver fish to beat Richard Jefferies by a mere quarter ounce for 2nd place.
Wistlandpound Fly Fishing Club members travelled to Exe Valley Fishery to compete for the secretary’s Shield.
The weather forecast gave the rain clearing away by mid morning but on this occasion this proved a little premature as heavy rain persisted for the first couple of hours with the Anchor Lake overflowing into an already swollen River Exe. The wind had however abated from the gale force winds of the previous two days that had been courtesy of storm Callum.
It was relatively mild and trout were rising from the start of the days competition. I started off with a damsel nymph and hooked into a hard fighting rainbow of around 3lb within ten minutes of starting.
A few more follows and takes followed but as is often the case the trout seemed to grow warier as anglers lines splashed upon the water. Noticing several trout rising a couple of yards along the bank I relocated; tied on a daddy longs imitation and fished it very slowly to quickly complete my three fish limit of fish to kill and take. Other members were also catching trout on a regular basis with small imitative patterns outscoring lures.
It was now time to snip off the barbed hooks and go catch and release for the remainder of the day. This proved both fascinating and frustrating for me as I successfully hooked a succession of trout on buzzers and diawl bachs all of them coming detached before reaching the net. This wasn’t really an issue as the most exciting part is hooking the fish and all appeared to be fish between 2lb and 4lb and whilst it is good to get them to the net its not important as it the successful deception that matters in this instance.
By mid afternoon all members had completed their three fish bags and gone on the enjoy some catch and release action.
The competition was won by Dave Mock who weighed in three trout for total of 9lb 14oz. Runner up was Colin Combe with three for 9lb and third myself with three for 8lb 14oz.
4th -Paul Grisley 8lb 12oz
5th – Nigel Bird 8lb
6th David Eldred 6lb 4oz
The trout averaged 3lb for the day with all members taking their allocated quota. The innovative pricing structure combining various options of catch and release and catch and kill gives excellent value depending upon individual preference. The lake is can now be fished without hindrance from weed and the water remained clear despite the flooded river Exe racing past full of turbidity and flotsam.
John Jobson enjoyed a cracking day ticket session on Beatties Lakes inlet swim , sticky krill 16mm over pellet and hemp, common 19lb then two mirrors including a personal best of 28lb 11ozs and then a mirror of 18lb12 oz.
(Below) Wayne Law banked four carp to 19lb 8oz
(Below) Jason Crawford and Alex Cole had nine carp from swims 3 and 4 up on lodge lake . They fished out in the open water and tight off the island with Sticky baits krill boilies.
