Many thanks to Jason Small who allowed me to use these pictures he took whilst fishing from Ilfracombe Charter boat Reel Deal. The party enjoyed a great days varied sport on a very calm day off Combe Martin. The spectacular sea cliffs east of Combe Martin are amongst the highest in the country and provide a fantastic backdrop to a days fishing.
Thin lipped mullet have made a welcome return to the Taw and Torridge estuary’s and are providing fine sport for the band of enthusiasts who target the species using baited spinners. Olie Passmore landed the above fish of 3lb 14oz on his latest session on the Lower Taw. John Shapland has also enjoyed success with mullet to 2lb 14oz.
Steve Pinn landed this stunning mirror of 20lb 15oz from Stafford Moors Lodge Lake the best of ten he banked during his latest session.
Dave Hadland caught 25 fish up to 29lb 2oz using C C Moore live system boilies from the inlet swim on Beattie’s lake. ( Below)
(Below)Thirteen year old Chelsea Babb with her first catch a 20lb 5oz mirror caught with Sticky Baits Krill boilies from beach swim up on lodge lake, Chelsea was here with her dad Damien Babb who is also a regular sea angler.
http://www.staffordmoor.co.uk
Richard Ball landed a stunning common carp of 20lb 7oz from South West Lakes Trust’s Lower Slade Reservoir (Above)
Chris Hudson had a mixed session at day ticket venue Lower Tamar lake, part of the South West Lakes Trust venues. Chris had two carp with the largest being 15lb but also had 5 bream with the largest going 10lb 4oz. This is the latest in a long line of bream over 10lbs in size to have been caught from the venue. All of the fish were caught on a Live-system single hook bait with a handful of scattered boilies. (Below)
Blakewell Fishery hosted an Open day last Sunday sponsored by South West based tackle company Snowbee.This was a friendly relaxed event with the opportunity to mingle with fellow anglers and witness impressive fly casting demonstrations from Snowbee’s Simon Kidd.
Simon also gave tuition to visiting anglers including a young gentlemen called Tom who landed his first ever fly caught trout a hard fighting 3lb plus rainbow.
Simon Kidd gave casting demonstrations and discussed all the latest tackle from Snowbee with particular attention to Fly-Lines. The general consensus is that a quality fly line is a more worthwhile investment than a fly rod or reel. A good fly Line will dramatically improve the performance of any rod whilst a poor line will spoil the performance of even the most expensive fly rod.
The latest tackle from South West based company Snowbee was available to try and I was particular impressed with the thistledown fly lines that delivered a long line with a minimal amount of false casting. http://www.snowbee.co.uk/fly-fishing/fly-lines-backing/
Jeff Pearce a member of Blakewells team put this to good use tempting a hard fighting rainbow. ( below)
Throughout the day anglers mingled chatting about past adventures and spawned plans to visit new waters. Several newcomers to the sport will undoubtedly be hooked on fly fishing. The lakeside proved a delightful location to savor a beer and burger provided by Blakewell co owner Richard Nickell.
Chris Payne enjoyed success during the open day landing a stunning rainbow trout of 11lb 5oz.( Below)
A beautiful day greeted an almost full house for Bidefords Monthly Coarse Match competition. Craig Lamey landed 4 large carp on banded pellet in the margins on the pole. John took 3 on the pole on peg D , Pete landed the largest on the day with a pole caught specimen on luncheon meat, it went 14lb 14oz off peg I. Several good bream,carp and a nice perch made up the backing weights.
1st Craig Crash Lamey 53lb 12oz
2nd John Lovell 27lb 5oz
3rd Pete Slade 22lb 4oz
One of the joys of fishing is the wildlife we see whilst at the waters edge and at Bratton Water there have been some exciting sightings in recent weeks with owner Mike Williams sending me these images he managed to capture of an osprey and a great white egret! Mike tells me the fishing has been excellent recently with some stunning brown trout tempted by visiting anglers. Dry fly and small buzzer nymph patterns always tend to work best at this picturesque water.
The fishery is renowned for the superb quality of its brown trout that have been caught to double figures.
A stunning brown landed earlier this spring by Danny Ford.
Bull huss are on the prowl along the coast as Ali Laird found out when he landed a brace weighing 10lb 1oz and 7lb 13oz.
Rick Blackmore landed a fine bull huss of 13lb 9oz.
Wistlandpound Fly Fishing Club held their Edwards Cup Floating line competition at their home venue. The competition was for the best brace of trout and was won by Dave Mock who landed who two trout for 2lb 15oz, Close behind was David Eldred with a brace totalling 2lb14oz and in third Paul Grisley with a single trout weighing 1lb 9oz.
Andrew Van Koutrik sent me this stunning image of his daughter Roundelay aged ten cradling a superb common carp that weighed an impressive 18lb. She also landed a common carp of 8lb.