Mill Park Pond near Berrynarbor is a superb silvers water with a good head of quality roach, skimmer bream and even a few chub. An Open match at the venue organized by John Forster saw Mark Capene secure top spot with an impressive haul of silver weighing 41lb 4oz. In runner up spot was Kevin Shears with 39lb 5oz and third Dave Jones with 26lb 4oz. Forth was John Forster with 23lb 7oz.
The next open is on July 23rd.
Stafford Moor is undoubtedly one of the areas most prolific carp fisheries with a steady stream of twenty pound plus fish reported each week. The latest reports from Joanne Coombes come with plenty of images of captors and their carp.
Richard Mason had a successful session using Whealy fishy baits boilie’s landing 12 fish to 27lb 15oz.
Gareth Simpson landed several carp to 26lb using home made boilie’s.
Donna Blythe and her husband enjoyed success using Sticky baits boilie’s. Donna landing a personal best mirror carp of 19lb 8oz. Her husband Chris landed a carp of 25lb.
Adam Hilton fished the summerhouse swim on Beattie’s lake using home made boilies to land this fine mirror of 23lb 10oz.
Stafford Moor regular Wayne Grinney took his four-year-old son Ned with him to fish the venues Beatties Lake. Young Ned enjoyed success landing a fine mirror carp of 22lb 11oz, undoubtedly with a little help from Dad. Great to see the happy face; a fish he will never forget.
Dan Spearman, Chay Boggis and Kyle Bishop enjoyed a hectic session at a local rock mark landing an incredible fifty-three smoothounds between low water and high water. The fish were tempted on a mixture of frozen peeler crab and hardback crab.
These hard fighting members of the shark family seem to have increased in numbers over recent years, one of few good news stories regarding fish stocks.
Mackerel numbers have been very patchy so far this year though this can change dramatically at any time. Recent weeks have seen water clarity reduced as a result of the annual may bloom. A few bass are being tempted by lure anglers from marks all along the coast.
Nielsen Jeffery organized an Open Match at at Clawford Fisheries on Thursday June 9th and the competitors used the day to remove some of the small carp from one of the four specimen lakes ‘Clawford Lake’ into one of the stock lakes, Tom Downing won the day with 20lb 8oz and Nielsen Jeffery was second with 19lb, around 400 small carp were moved. There is a friendly open on one of the four match lakes on the second and fourth Sundays of every month people can book in via John Ray’s website www.clawford.co.uk or via Nielsen Jeffery’s Facebook page. All are welcome with breakfasts available if booked.
Martin Turner won Bideford and District Angling Clubs midweek evening match at Tarka Swims with 4lb 14oz. In runner up spot was Kevin Shears with 3lb 11oz and third John Lovell with 3lb 10oz. Fifteen anglers fished the competition.
North Devon Match Group Formed to provide a weekend coarse fishing competition for local anglers. The group charges an annual joining fee of £10. Comps are arranged on the first and third Sunday of each month. We try to alternate between “natural venues ie. Local reservoirs Southwest Lakes Trust and day-ticket match carp type fisheries. The aim of the group is to provide a regular friendly match at affordable price on a selection of varied local venues. Results are scored in a summer and winter league format, also an overall year long Championship. Interclub events feature against Bude Canal Anglers and Tiverton. Cost per competition is fixed at £12.50p plus an optional £5 superpool . All matches are run on Sundays, standard match rules apply Summer comps are usually fished 10am to 4pm, winter comps end at 3pm, draw time is always 8.45am. Find the updated match calendar, contact details, results, photographs, points and accounts on our facebook page (North Devon Match Group), new members are always welcome. ………….
Geoff Waring fished from the Summerhouse Swim on Beatties to temp a fine 30lb 2oz mirror carp using the ever popular frozen mainline cell boilie’s.
Jason Barrett used home made boilie’s catch a 29lb 6oz mirror carp.
Gavin Colwill regularly travels to Blakewell Fishery from his home at Bude and has an intimate knowledge of the fishery. Gavin followed up on his recent 38lb bag of trout landing a brace of double figure trout weighing 18lb 5oz and 13lb. I suspected that catching these big trout on a regular basis was not entirely down to luck and this was confirmed when I spoke to joint fishery owner Richard Nickell.
The key to success is keen observation of the trout in the venues crystal clear water and waiting for that big fish to cruise past before carefully dropping a suitable fly within the fish’s path. It’s then a case of tense anticipation hoping to glimpse the opening and closing of the mouth before setting the hook.
Chris Davis won Stafford Moors over 50’s Festival achieving an amazing total weight of 400lb 6oz over the week. In runner up spot was Adrian Marshall and in third Martin Heard. There were some stunning nest of fish caught during the festival with Oak Lake fishing particularly well with Adrian Marshal putting together a haul of 164lb 2oz. Chris won £1000 plus a Maver luggage set donated from Steve Bowen (Maver), a £50 voucher also donated by Neil Stones. Neil donated another £50 voucher for second place winner Adrian Marshall.
