Chay Boggis landed a personal best smoothound of 10lb 3oz. The fish was tempted using a whole dirty squid hook bait.These hard fighting members of the shark family have been staying in North Devon waters far later than they used to a welcome boost to sport.
Ross Stanway fished Ilfracombe Pier with me on Tuesday evening and we chatted at length about tope fishing. The following night Ross was inspired to head back out to the coast with his good friend Daniel Welch. The decision proved to be a good one as Ross was rewarded with a fine tope of 34lb 1oz. The fish was tempted using half a mackerel presented on 8/0 Sakuma Manta extra hooks.
Autumn time sees a dedicated few target the elusive hard fighting tope that haunt the waters of North Devon. A tope from the shore is perhaps the greatest challenge for the dedicated shore angler unless of course you include the remote chance of hooking and beaching a porbeagle shark!
Martin Pearce has struck gold in mid October first beating a fine tope of 31lb 4oz and then following it up a few days later with a fine specimen of 42lb 8oz. Landing a tope is seldom a solitaire event and Martin was very appreciative of a help in hand from his mate Darren Bell who tailed both fish. The fish were tempted using whole mackerel on Varivas big mouth extra 8/0 hooks. Both fish were tempted from undisclosed North Devon Rock Marks.
Nick Hart reports from just over the border at Exe Valley Trout Fishery.
Showing the adults the way is up and coming junior angler Seth Mayhew-Tuson, age 16, who has just won our heat of the Greys Junior Bank National supported by the Angling Trust. Seth has picked up many tips having become part of the England Youth Fly Fishing squad, using this knowledge to great effect to secure top spot with 3 fish weighing exactly 10lb.
Seth Mayhew-Tuson, (Above)
The fish were caught within 2 hours so Seth also gained himself an extra 2lb 8oz time bonus to finish well ahead of the field. His successful tactics included an intermediate line and mixed up retrieve (mainly slow figure eight) with a combination of Blobs and Nymphs fished around the deep water inlet.
In second spot was last year’s third placed angler, Toby Bennett, with two fish weighing 5lb 14oz. He caught these quickly, also in the deep water inlet using a floating line but couldn’t add to his bag before the match finished at 1pm. Toby is studying fisheries management at college and is an incredible caster winning a major tournament earlier this year with a cast of 32 metres!
Meanwhile the youngest angler, Charlie Cooper, couldn’t get the fish to stick and lost 3 before finally netting a 2lb 14oz Trout to collect third prize of a fly line and line snips. This was a fantastic effort and the ten year old will now progress on to the 2017 final to be held next April. Charlie used an intermediate line to catch his fish and it was great to see Seth helping out the younger anglers after he had completed his limit. This is what competition fly fishing is all about, sharing, learning and meeting new people.
(Above)All the boys received something from Greys fly fishing and we threw in a few prizes. These are the fly anglers of tomorrow and need as much encouragement as possible.
The Pier
Ilfracombe pier is not a venue I often fish these days but it is a venue that has a certain appeal. I have many fond memories of the venue that has to be the most heavily fished venue along the North Devon coast and it is undoubtedly for this reason that it has over the years produced an outstanding track record.
Being a veteran I can of coarse remember the pier in its heyday when you could fish from the Victorian structure at any state of the tide in pretty well any weather conditions. The beauty of the pier was that you could turn up and fish being confidant that you would have company. It was the social hub of North Devon’s sea angling community easily accessible, safe and at times productive.
Of course back then we didn’t value what we had taking it for granted like many things in life that are only really appreciated in hindsight. I value the memories of those cold winter nights on the pier and witnessing some fine fish caught. I also look back with a tinge of sadness at the lovely people and characters I fished with who are no longer with us; I won’t mention names but those who were there will share my sentiments.
Ilfracombe lost a huge asset with the demolition of the pier a place where people fished and others strolled to watch us watching our rod tips. Some inquiring what we had caught, some understanding the fascination; others perplexed at the fools who wasted hours staring out to sea.
Those who were there in those distant days will still remember and visualize how it was when anyone mentions the North End or by the Club hut. Beneath the water there were of course always tales of the mighty conger that lurked within the structure eels that divers glimpsed as they explored. Strange that the biggest eel recorded at 42lb was caught from the pier in 2015 long after the pier was demolished.
( Note Chris Wilson refers to an eel of 56lb has anyone got a record of that?)
I fished the pier with Rob Scoines on October 26th the main reason I chose the venue was because I had a few leftover harbour ragworm left from a flounder fishing excursion. With news of a few red mullet being caught I thought why not try the pier might even catch a sole. It was a very calm mild night after a week or so of easterly winds. We offloaded the van and ambled the few yards to the lower landings. There were a handful of other anglers already set up in the hot spot on the corner so we set up where there was space.
I fished two rods one with small worm baits the other with a larger offering of mackerel, to be exchanged for a fresh pouting shortly after catching one on the worm baits. The worm baits brought a steady succession of small whiting, tiny pouting and a solitary dab. Danny Watson from High Street Tackle chatted enthusiastically about prospects for the coming winter. Fellow CMSAC member Ross Stanway turned up with his young son Charlie. We chatted about old times and made plans for future forays. Young Charlie caught a few whiting; bringing a smile to his face.
When we packed away at the end of the night beneath the deviant structure of Damien’s Verity Rob commented that it wasn’t his favorite venue. It’s not mine and the fishing was poor but it still has a certain value as an easy sociable venue where good fish are sometimes caught.
Match 1 on JRS a horrible windy day
just a couple of pictures from it courtesy of of John Forster. Very good weights from all around the lake considering the bitter cold east wind.
1st Chris Morris 47 .13
2nd Steve Barrell 35.08
3rd Steve Hayman 35. 07
4th John Forster 32 00
5th Tom Downing 31 10
6th Gary Thornton 20 01
7th Nielsen Jeffery 16, 03
8th John Lisle 12 08
John Westhead
John Westhead returned to angling after a fifteen year break and was delighted with his 17lb 4oz first ever carp caught up on lodge lake using good old mainline cell boilies.
Chris Blythe
Chris Blythe fished Lodge Lake with his wife Donna and had a few fine carp out of Lodge Lake up to 22lb using Sticky Baits Krill 16mm boilies.
Harry Collins had 5 fish out in 24 hours fishing Beatties lake up to 21lb 1oz using cc moore live system and mainline cell boilies.
Latest report from Ben Smeeth of South West Lakes Trust.
Lee Graver had a cracking weekend at Lower Tamar landing 7 carp including this stunning 27lb 13oz common. Lee had some smaller fish which are coming through from stocking in recent years which were in superb condition including a lovely 14lb mirror. Lee was using Specimen Carp Baits boilies at 120 yards range with Westcountry Leads. Top angling Lee!
Match Report No 4 – By Ian Owen
Date: 22-10-2016
Venue: Stafford Moor – Tanners
This match saw the anglers go to the much loved Stafford Moor Tanners lake.
A match venue which had seen some big hauls over the summer months but with the very dramatic drop in temperature it would be a testing day for all taking part.
A cold and foggy outlook but with the sun shine trying to break through and warm the water up.
The match was as predicted very slow however the silvers where coming out and Ian Owen was slowly making an early impact having caught some very nice roach and skimmers.
Keith Copland also started to catch having attracted the perch, also catching was Craig Lamey, it appeared this could be a three horse race with no carp showing at this time.
As the day went on it was the same situation as the three guys kept catching although slowly and still not managing to attract the much anticipated carp.
A great match at a lovely venue ended up seeing all silvers. The results:
1st Place – Ian Owen 9lb 10oz
2nd place – Criag Lamey 8lb 4oz
3rd place – Keith Copeland 6lb 4oz
Keith Copeland
Great fishing well done boys off to Hair Pie next week.
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