Steve Edmunds won the first leg of Wistlandpound Fly Fishing Clubs Winter Challenge Match held at Exe Valley Fishery with a four fish bag totaling 13lb 4oz. Runner up was Colin Combe with four for 11lb 8oz and third Paul Grisly with four for 11lb 6oz.
Justin Williams has caught ‘The fully’ from Lower Tamar lake at 24lbs. The much sought after fish is looking really good and up in weight.
North Devon Match Group Championship No.11 Stafford Moor Oak and Woodpecker
1st Kevin Shears 84lb 6oz
2nd Neilsen Jeffery 80lb 13oz
3rd Tom Downing 60lb 15oz
4th Phil Watters 58lb 4oz
5th John Lacey 53lb 2oz
6th Kier Durrant 42lb 13oz
Silvers Bag – Norman Martin 9lb 15oz .
Cold, still conditions , greeted the 22 competitors who were pegged on 2 of the prolific lakes on the Stafford moor complex. Kevin’s victory was from peg 11 on Oak, fishing the long pole with corn , Neilsen used similar tactics also from the deeper water on Oak peg 14 for second. Tom was top weight on Woodpecker, his catch for 3rd overall on peg 19 was mainly waggler and pellet at depth. Phil landed 58lb 4oz for 4th off woodpecker 15. John was 5th with waggler caught 53lb 2oz on Woodpecker 10. Young Kier made the frame with 42lb 13oz from Oak 16.
Harry Collins (Haribo) had 8 fish up to 26lb 2oz from the summer hut swim on Beattie’s lake using Sticky Baits Manilla Boilie.
Bideford Angling Clubs twenty four Hour Rover was won by Nathan Clements with a fine conger of 28lb 3.5oz.(Pictured above) In second place was Lee Watts with a spotted ray of 3lb 6.5oz and in third Lee Watts with a dogfish of 2lb 2oz.
Appledore Shipbuilders 24 hour Rover was won by Josh Atkinson with a small-eyed-ray of 5lb 15oz(Below). Runner up was Graham Snow with a thick lipped grey mullet of 2lb 12oz.
Ross Stanway took the top two places Combe Martin SAC’s Lee to Lee Competition with conger of 16lb 12oz and 14lb 8oz.
In third place was James Thomas with a dogfish of 1lb 13oz. Jack Phillips took forth place with a smoothound of 5lb 4oz a surprise catch from Combe Martin’s Bottom Deck probably the first of this species ever landed from this mark. (Below)
Several quality fish were also landed over the weekend by anglers not fishing in club competitions. Dale Kiff landed a fine conger of 19lb 14oz.
Kody Chugg Fished an up channel mark to land a personal best small eyed ray of 7lb 10oz. (Below)
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Keith Bullard from Braunton fished Bratton Water and tempted a fine brown trout of 10lb 3oz using a small buzzer pattern. This picturesque still-water trout fishery offers some fine winter trout sport with hard fighting brown trout that can often be stalked in the clear waters.
Matt Whalley gives excellant account of his trip to Stafford Moor. ( Always pack the rods away last!)
A return visit to Stafford Moor Fishery after my recent trip a couple of weeks back was on the cards and this time we were booked onto Beaties.
The day started off very slow although a few carp were showing but with the temperature set to drop hard that night, I knew the bites could be tricky.
I set up with a good friend on the Summer House swim and deployed a few spombs of Deep Blue Particles Chilli Hemp Mix out onto my chosen spots. Not to much bait because of the time of year but enough to hopefully entice the carp to feed!
The weather forecast was spot on and a hard frost set in. The night was very quiet and the following day carried on along the same lines, with bites not coming!
The session was at an end and the pack down began before the trip back to Cornwall. As always leaving the rods laid on the ground, hoping for that last knocking bite and fortunately for me, this time it came!
This quality blank saver couldn’t resist a DBP NT1 Boilie on an Blowback Style Rig with a J Precision Hook at the business end! This made my trip home a little bit sweeter..
Anglers Paradise just held their annual Lure Weekend which was a great success. Full report from Zenia. The weather was testing, rain, wind and hail but every Angler still stuck it out till the end of the Competition!
There were 20 Lure Anglers that took part and the 4 Teams were Captained by Nathan Edgell from Fladen, David Watkin-Smith from Quantum, Kevin Cox from Fox Rage and David Drake from Drennan. The Competition ran over 2 days of fishing on 4 different Lakes that consisted of our Predator Lake Valhalla, the Specimen Cat Lake, the Trout Lake and the Bottom Cat and Carp Lake at Eldorado of which all Teams fished each Lake in rotation.
In total, there were 11 Pike, 14 Perch, 2 Trout and the 1st ever Anglers Paradise Lure caught Koi and Golden Orfe to come out in the annual Competition, there was also a big Catfish lost, so no Cats were landed this year!
The Winner of the whole Competition was Damon Braxton who caught 3 different Species at a combined length of 108cm, Damon caught a 39.5cm Koi (which is the 1st ever Koi to be caught on a Lure here!) a 10.5cm Rudd and a 58cm Pike. Fladen and Anglers Paradise Sponsored this Event meaning Damon Won a Week’s Holiday for 2 at Anglers Paradise and a huge range of Fladen Predator Tackle, including a Rod, Reel, Lures and Clothing. Damon’s Team Captain was Fladen’s very own Pike King – Nathan Edgell, who was very proud of his Team Member to Win the Competition!
The Runner Up was Lee Paynton who had a Perch and a Pike at a combined length of 92cm, Sponsored by Quantum. Third Place was Tom Wilson who also had a Perch and a Pike with a combined length of 80.5cm, Sponsored by Fladen.
Tom Wilson took the Crown for the Biggest Pike with a respectable 68.5cm Pike from the Specimen Cat Lake, although Nathan Edgell actually caught the Biggest Pike measuring 86cm but as he’s a Team Captain – it doesn’t count!! Tom was in Team Quantum with Captain David Watkin-Smith leading him to Victory! Tom won some pretty special prizes from Quantum including a Spinning Rod, a Spinning Reel, a Specialist Bag, a Rod Guard and other goodies – Thank you so much to Quantum for the amazing Prizes.
Ben Taylor Won the Biggest Trout Category with a lovely 45cm Rainbow Trout, it was hard going on the Trout Lake all weekend but in the end he and Joe Drury were the only 2 to catch Trout on the last day of fishing!! Ben was in Team Fox with Kevin Cox from Fox as Captain (and Joe Drury as stand in Captain on Sunday) who both gave Ben plenty of tips and inspiration to help him win this title! Ben won a Fox Rage set up of a Rod, a Reel and some Lures – Thank you to Fox Rage for the great prizes and for sponsoring this Category.
Lee Paynton caught the biggest Perch measuring 33cm from the Specimen Cat Lake. Lee was in Team Drennan with the wonderful Dave Drake as his Team Captain, Lee won an absolute superb selection of Drennan Lures – he could start up a new Lure Shop with them!! Special thanks to Drennan for the amazing prizes and for sponsoring this category. This was Lee’s 1st ever Lure Weekend with us, and we are so happy that not only did he win but he also shared with us that he loved every minute and will be back for next year’s Anglers Paradise Lure Weekend!
The Winning Team was Team Fox – which consisted of Jim Williams, Ben Taylor, Bex Nelson and Father and Son Dominic and Dylan Cooke, Captained by Kevin Cox, (with help from Joe Drury as stand in on Sunday) knocking Team Fladen’s Nathan Edgell off his Thrown!! They won with 5 species, Pike, Perch, Rudd, Trout and the winning/deciding fish was a Golden Orfe caught by young Dylan Cooke just 10 minutes before the end of last session!!
Flounder enthusiasts are enjoying some good sport on light tackle with quality flounder from all the regular estuary marks. Combe Martin SAC Ian Laird landed several to 1lb 7oz in a recent session. 
CMSAC member Rob Pearson also targetted the flounder landing 10 to 1lb 14oz along with a fine bonus bass of 7lb.
Open match on Woodpecker lake Wednesday November 15th.
Aftr a few days of colder weather expectation was that fishing would be hard but on the day some good weights were built with Paul Morris securing top spot with 98lb 10oz.
2nd Glenn Colburn 85lb 7oz
3rd Jack Palmer 48lb 4oz
4th Martin Heard 48lb 1oz