Winter Trout Sport at Bulldog

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The cold frosty days of winter are to be enjoyed as the rainbow trout seem to relish the cooler waters. The recently expanded lake at Bulldog Fishery is certainly giving fine sport to visiting anglers.

Tim and Andy were certainly glad they made the 100mile round trip to fish Bulldog today!
After making the trip the boys wasted no time in wetting the fly.  After a slightly slow start, the bites soon came in hard and fast in the afternoon. The result – a fantastic day on the bank!
Biggest of the day weighing in at 4lb4oz with a lot of the catch not being far behind!

CHRISTMAS GIFT

Looking for the perfect Christmas gift this year? Look no further how about surprising your loved ones with a gift voucher for the fishery!
Simply call or message with the details of what ticket you’d like to gift, and we will post the voucher directly to you 📬 It couldn’t be easier 🎄🎅
Ticket prices:
Fly lake
3fish = £35
6fish = £45
Carp lake:
24hrs =£25
(Payment via bank transfer)

FLOUNDER FISHING COMPETITION RESULTS

Combe Martin Sea Angling Clubs Annual Flounder Competition

Daniel Welch took first and second place in Combe Martin Sea Angling Clubs Annual Flounder Competition with flounder scaling 1lb 9oz and 1lb. His son Solly caught the only other flounder tempted during the match a fish of 14oz.

Solly Welch with a flounder of 14oz

The Taw estuary flounder fishing has been below par so far this season with specimen sized flatfish very scarce. Fish seem to in small pockets with some anglers finding up to half a dozen flounder whilst other have blanked. The estuary has a ceratin appeal even on a grey November day. I fished the town area of the river with Nick Phillips and his son Jack and moved around to several swims without any indications on the rod tip. The glimpse of a kingfisher brought a welcome flash of electric blue to the day. The cry of curlew, oyster catcher, geese and gulls drifted across the grey estuary. The unpleasant litter of society was strewn here and there a rat scurried on the bank. Urban fishing on a grey late autumn day. I looked up to the bridge and thought of the salmon that had hopefully migrated through in recent weeks to spawn high on the moors.

Appledore Shipbuilders held their Christmas Competition at Heanton Court on the River Taw where the twenty four competitors recorded fifteen flounder. The winner was  with a flounder of 1lb 6.75oz.

 

Appledore Shipbuilders

CHRISTMAS COMPETITION

24 members fished Appledore Shipbuilders Christmas competition.

Fishing was tough with only 13 anglers registering fish. Michael Hammett secured the trophy and customary large turkey with a flounder of 1lb 6oz 14dr.

Michael was certainly in the spot today as he also secured 2nd and 3rd pick of the table with Flounders of 1lb 6oz 8dr and 1lb 3oz 12dr.

Thanks to Quay Sports for donating some prizes.

It was decided to run these for the best brace which you will not be surprised that this was also won by Michael.

Well done to all that fished.

Wistlandpound Fly Fishing Club – Bulldog Fishery

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Wistlandpound Fly Fishing Club held their latest Match at Bulldog Fishery where David Richards secured top spot with three rainbow trout for 9lb 2oz the best a fish of 3lb 9oz.

Dave Mock was runner up with three for 7lb 15oz and Colin Combe third with three for 7lb 13oz. The club are holding their Christmas Competition at the venue on December 17th.

 

Reece Woolgar – Winner of CMSAC 2023 – Bass lure League

Reece Woolgar was the worthy winner of Combe Martin Sea Angling Clubs Lure Fishing league sponsored by High Street Tackle Ilfracombe, Reece recieved a Gift voucher to spend in store to the value of £150. Reeces best three bass totalled 200cm just 1 cm ahead of runner up Mark Jones.

Combe Martin SAC will be running the competition next year and give thanks to Danny Watson for agreeing to sponsor the event again. The league is free to all CMSAC paid up members and is awarded to the member who catches the best three bass throughout the league on a lure boat or shore. Next years league will run from April 1st until October 31st. The presentation will be arranged to be at High Street Tackle at a convenient weekend.

The club plan to hold a couple of lure fishing sessions in the summer of 2024 with the intention of sharing knowledge and social interaction.

(Below) Reece Woolgar with some of the bass caught during his lure fishing season.

(Below) Mark Jones runner up with three bass total of 199cm

 

Anglers Paradise 2023 Lure Fishing Weekend

THE WINNER  OF THE 2023 LURE WEEKEND 
A massive congratulations to Mark Sharratt who WON 🏆 as the overall CHAMPION by catching 5 species consisting of Tiger Trout, Rainbow Trout, Brown Trout, Perch and Rudd which made him…THE CHAMPION OF 2023
A Big THANK YOU TO ALL The Sponsors Mark went home loaded with amazing prizes, including Rods, Reels, Lures, Clothing, Luggage, AND a week’s holiday for 2 at Anglers Paradise!
THE WINNING TEAM OF THE ANGLERS PARADISE LURE WEEKEND 2023 – CONGRATULATIONS TO TEAM FOX RAGE CAPTAINED BY THE LITTLE MENACE BEN HUMBER
Ben’s team caught 7 species 🎣
• Catfish
• Pike
• Rudd
• Tiger Trout
• Brown Trout
• Rainbow Trout
• Perch
A great achievement by the team and excellently lead by Ben who showed us all with some superb angling exactly why he’s the most decorated captain of our lure weekends!
Second place – Okuma/Rapala
Third – Drennan/ESP
Fourth – Rozemeijer/Voodoo
Well done to all the Teams and their awesome Captains, you all fished your socks off and we are proud of every single one of you
Thanks to all the sponsors for the great team prizes
2023 – TEAM FOX  RAGE ARE THE WINNERS
(Below) One of the Lure Weekend Captains Dave Drake representing Drennan ESP with a very impressive Rainbow  Trout caught during the competition
RUNNER UPOF THE 2023 LURE WEEKEND
Congratulations to Nigel Kingston who was the Runner Up with 4️⃣ species consisting of Tiger Trout, Rainbow Trout, Brown Trout and Perch
A Big THANK YOU TO ALL The Sponsors Nigel went home very happy loaded with amazing prizes, including a Rod, Reel, Lures, Clothing, Luggage and a pair of Fortis eyewear sunglasses  the list goes on!
WELL DONE NIGEL!
Special thanks to @fox_rage_fishing
@rapala
@okuma_fishing
@outlaw_pro_predator @fortiseyewear @rozemeijerfishing @drennantackle @espcarpfishing Voodoo and Bryan Davies 

Anglers Paradise

All the Cool Dudes – And why the fish don’t give a damn.

I always enjoy Richard Wilsons witty column of comment that so often resonates with my own experience.  I must admit I often feel a little outgunned when I visit the waters edge and open my small fly boxes of often bedraggled flys. I generally manage to catch a few though despite not having boxes full of every size and colour buzzer available. I often wonder if the the natural world has as many types of nymphs as the average anglers fly box. Got me thinking of an article on fishing fashion outfits. It has to be camo for carp and blue for Match fishing……

RICHARD WILSONS  FISH RISE

All the Cool Dudes – And why the fish don’t give a damn.

Wanna flash your fancy gear or check out the cool kit & kaboodle that other folks carry? Or maybe just keep up with the times, fishing-wise? Maybe you, like me, worry that you’re behind the curve; an also-ran in the thrusting world of fish-tech?

What to do? Who to ask? On my bit of the planet, I can spend all day on a river and never see anyone. The only other angler out there could be naked and who’d know? Not me – for which I am very grateful. But this isolation means I’m getting a bit set in my ways.

We all know that Silicon Valley mantra: move fast and break things. That’s not me. Of course not. Change, even keeping up to date, comes slowly. So it was a bit of a surprise when I crashed into a transformational Eureka!moment that mugged me, unexpectedly, in a car park full of fishing folk.

A few years ago I moved house and now live near a reservoir created almost 125 years ago. It’s big, well-stocked with hard-fighting rainbow trout and a place of pilgrimage for those who live further afield. By any standard you care to apply, it is well-bedded into its landscape.

The fun begins when the car park gate opens at 8 am and the arrivals parade from car to pontoon-catwalk and into the waiting hire boats. It’s showtime. The display includes uber-cool 4-wheel trolleys laden with fishing luggage, multiple rod tubes and more. All greenish, of course. It’s a scaled reminder of those swanky quay-side luggage displays from the golden age of transatlantic ocean liners. You’re only as grand as your bags.

This is competitive. Expensive tackle, of the pay-and-display variety, is on show to upstage the less well-off with their bargain-basement rods and reels. Increasingly the only way I can tell the two apart is by price and brand logos. The last genuinely bad rod I owned was an upmarket brand. And the one before that.

I’m also witnessing a demonstration of the first rule of fishing: All tackle expands to fill the space available to it. Here the carry-on luggage limit is set by the size of the hire boat or your wallet, whichever sinks first. My craft bobs along high in the water with just me, one rod, a net, a small shoulder bag for tackle and a plastic shopping bag with a few provisions. I worry that my fellow anglers are looking down on my feeble kit assemblage with the faux concern of the well-endowed.

Once we get out fishing there are at least 20 boats, well spread out but in clear view. Initially, I’m driven by anxiety that my tackle inadequacy means others will outperform me. I’m doing what the pros call ‘covering the water well’ which, to you and me, means blanking. Thankfully nobody is catching anything much.  So that’s OK.

Next my attention turns to how well, or not, they’re casting. This would be more interesting if I could see who’s doing what in the cheap seats and who’s fishing the posh logos. So all I learn is that some people cast better than others. Ho-hum.

As the fishless day gets longer, I start to wonder why everyone is wearing the same colour clothes.  Greenish, of course. By now it’s clear I need to get a life or catch some fish.

Despite their clear kit advantage, most of the regulars are struggling with the conditions. And so am I. Fish are not being caught.

But not quite. Because not everyone is blanking. There is a brazen exception that warms the cockles of my non-conformist heart. With a metaphoric single finger to convention, a solitary boater is breaking the dress code for just about every sort of fly fishing everywhere and ever. It’s the eureka! moment that lights up my day – and it’s up there with having an Osprey land on your ornithological hat.

A silver-haired gent in his late 70s is wearing a red Puffa jacket and hauling in yet another fish almost every time I look his way. He is vibrantly not in anybody’s herd. And whatever he’s doing it’s working with no reliance whatsoever on the colour greenish. His trousers are old and dull orange, probably corduroy, lightly paint-stained and discordantly at one with the jacket.

By chance, we both call it a day at the same time and step onto the pontoon a few minutes apart. We exchange greetings, his more chipper than mine.  My new acquaintance is tall and elegant – a picture of good health and a fine, Heston-esque model for his jacket. He’s also wearing what seem to be comfortable rubber-soled bedroom slippers.

I was quitting because nothing was happening for me.  He has had an excellent day’s sport and is in early because advancing years shorten the day.

I am awestruck and humbled. As an aspiring minimalist, I like to think my kit is inconsequential. My new acquaintance puts me to shame.  He carries no tackle bag. Just a nondescript rod and a modest but deep net, along with some spare nylon and a small fly box (all buzzers) which fit comfortably in one pocket of his iridescent jacket. I assume he also has nippers and some bits n’bobs tucked away somewhere.

He had launched with a rod, a light lunch, a net and tackle to fit in 2 modest pockets.  And he’s the most successful rod on the water.  So hurrah for that! If a red jacket catches fish, I’m getting one.  I might just get one anyway.  Just to be awkward while pretending to be nearly 80 and that I haven’t grown up yet.

So here’s a controversial thought: Maybe the fish don’t give a damn about the colour of our kit, as long as it doesn’t flash or strobe.

And what if trout actually like red? This could be tough for them because red light is very hard to see when you’re underwater. So if it doesn’t shout Boo! they may not even know it’s there. They can, however, see greenish very clearly. Brownish too. Are there two more dangerous colours for fish? When did you ever see a heron wearing red?

So, what are we waiting for?  I’ve seen the future: On my boat I want nothing that isn’t cheap and cheerful. I will keep all the necessary tackle trimmings, like flies, in the pockets of my Hawaiian shirt.  With my red Puffa jacket I’ll be sporting carpet slippers, a daft hat, plastic aviators and slobby trackies. And the rod will be jacket-matching red –  really cheap, much too short and loaded with a homemade shooting head. I can stun livestock on the far bank with that. And who’s to say I won‘t also catch fish?

Does anyone want to enter one of those competitive tournaments with me? Is one of you fishing pros up for joining me on this? I don’t think we’ll disgrace ourselves and, who knows, we might even win something. With no luggage aboard we could even find space for a Ghetto Blaster. So best play-list, maybe?

Move fast, break things and go fishing. And all of it while sitting down. Eureka!

 

Huss and tope for Ollie Passmore

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Combe Martin SAC member Ollie Passmore has been enjoying success from the North Devon Shoreline tempting this 37lb 6oz tope and 12lb 11oz Bull Huss,

“Absolutely buzzing to finally catch a PB tope a few weeks back weighing 37lb 6. After sadly loosing a couple this year it made it all that much sweeter. Nothing can beat the feeling of seeing that reel screaming and the rod bent over!!

Top terminal tackle as always from @sakuma_fishing doing the business again!”

BULLDOG TEAM ENJOY THAILAND ADVENTURE

 

Nigel Early would Like to say a big thankyou to my son Tom for an amazing two weeks in Thailand. It included a weeks fishing at Exotic fishing where we caught red tailed cat fish,chao prias and to top it off Tom caught this near 300lb mekong cat fish. Then off to the coast for a week chilling where we saw and met some lovely people, several trips out but to me the highlight was a trip to the elephant sanctuary which was an unbelievable experience. It only remains me to say thankyou Tom for a wonderful 65th birthday present.

The new trout lake is fishing well since being recently enlarged and has been well stocked with rainbows, Spartics and brown trout.

The venues carp lake is producing regular catches of twenty pound plus carp.

Cyril Petherick Flounder Competition

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Bideford Angling Clubs Cyril Petherick Open Flounder Competition was won by Andrew Clements with a flounder of 1lb 4oz. Nathan Clements was runner up with a flounder of 1lb 1.5oz and Stephen Found third with a flounder of 1lb 1.25oz. The twenty two competitors struggled with strong winds and flood water making fishing difficult. Large numbers of small bass were stripping the hooks of bait.