Jon Patten traveled from Barnstaple to the Welsh coast to fish the Celtic deeps aboard Andrew Alsop’s famous boat Whitewater. He was fortunate to enjoy a great days fishing landing his first blue shark of 85lb along with a small porbeagle of 45lb. As is often the case the highlights of the day were about more than just fish with Jon reflecting on the sights of dolphins and a whale circling the boat. It would be very interesting to know what could be caught from the waters several miles to the West of Lundy if a prolonged effort was made?
Brad Laughton has been having great success on day ticket venue Jennetts reservoir, just outside Bideford, Devon. Brad recently caught 10 fish over two day sessions all landed using a hinged stiff rig cast tight to the far margin over a bed of QC Baits red candy boilies. The three commons attached weighed 25lb, 22lb 14oz and 20lb. Top Angling Brad!
25lb
Brad Laughton
22lb 14oz Brad Laughton
Brad Laughton 20lb
Whilst not North Devon fish I could not resist putting up these fish caught at Old Mill Near Dartmouth a water I fished once twenty odd years a go with some success. The two fish look fitting captures from this Old atmospheric water.
John Kneebone and Amy Maunder had these stunning mirrors from syndicate water Old Mill reservoir Near Dartmouth, Devon, part of the South West Lakes Trust portfolio. Amy’s was 20lb on the nose and John’s 18.04. both fish were caught on Mainline Essential Cell boilies.
Anglers Paradise offers a wide variety of species as can be seen from the latest reports sent to me by Zenia.
Golden ide – orfe (Leuciscus idus). 5lb 2oz
Ellis Titheridge, aka Essex Boy, celebrated his 40th Birthday in style when he caught an amazing Personal Best 5lb 2oz Golden Orfe from the Specimen Tench and Orfe Lake, smashing his previous Personal Best of 1lb 14oz. Ellis caught the Golden Orfe using a Maggot Feeder Float with a 8inch hook length. Ellis said ‘It was by far the best present I could wish for!’. Ellis also caught this rare and stunning Two Tone Tench on the same day.
Alex Bishop 56lb catfish
Alex Bishop, 18 from Southend had a VERY memorable session with his Dad Garry on the Day Ticket Specimen Cat Lake. Between them, they had two 56lb Cats, a 32lb Cat and a PB 31lb Mirror! So they both left with New Personal Bests! Alex caught his PB 56lb Cat on the last morning as pictured, you can see by his smile, he was one happy Boy! Alex used 2 Halibut Pellets to catch the Beast.
55lb catfish
James Perry came to us in search of his ‘1st’ ever Catfish and certainly did just that and caught a 55lb Cat from the Specimen Cat Lake. James caught the Monster using Paradise Baits Catastrophic Dumbells and Halibut Pellets. James would have been happy with any sized Cat but to catch a 55lb Cat for his 1st was a Fishing Dream made true.
56lb 3oz Catfish
Part of our Estate Team Thomas Winspear, 25, went on the Specimen Cat Lake on his day off hoping to catch another PB. Well, he certainly did that and beat his previous 42lb Cat with this 56lb Cat. Thomas caught the Monster on Meat with a Fruit Pop Up on a Simple Running Ledger Rig.
Full report on the Pallatrax carp open held at Tamar Upper Lake. Thanks to Ben Smeeth for the write up.
Dave James and Craig Lacey receive £2000.JPG
Tamar New Boys win £2000 at Pallatrax Carp Open!
24 pairs of anglers took part in the second competition of the year with defending champs Phil and Sam Gilhespy looking to continue their very good record having won the competition twice in four attempts. Leading up to the competition Upper Tamar had sprung into life producing lots of fish up to 25lbs – hopefully this was a sign of good things for the weekend ahead!
During the water craft draw all anglers received a free Pallatrax goody bag with a range of their products and a complimentary 24 hour session on Lower Tamar. With the draw completed anglers were transported to their swims, an hour of baiting, marker rodding, spodding and spombing followed with the official start of the competition at 4pm.
Conditions seemed really favorable when it began and there were good prospects of catching lots of fish all around the lake. Friday evening came and went with odd fish caught in different areas of the lake but nothing consistent for any pair. Saturday was much the same with high winds and heavy showers not improving the catch rates. This did keep all the competitors really close together and all in with a chance of the £3500 prize money! The lake went flat calm on Sunday morning with a lot of carp seen cruising, and a lot of dog biscuits hitting the water to no avail!
There was a real tussle for the lead between Craig Lacey/Dave James, Jason/Leanne McEvoy and Danny Clarke/Nick Singleton. All three pairs had banked a couple of fish with only 20 hours to go before Danny managed another to take the lead before Craig and Dave landed two fish to move clear. Jason and Leanne stormed back with a brace of fish on Sunday morning to move just behind the leaders before the final horn sounded at 1pm. It was a tense finish to the competition which produced just shy of twenty fish. The angler pressure really showed and put the fish off the feed!
Dave and Craig, on their first trip to Upper Tamar, were first out of the draw and chose to fish peg 13 on the Devon Bank which was a new swim created especially for the competition opposite the ever popular bird hide swim. They managed to bank 4 fish for 43lbs and also lost another fish at the net. In what was a really hard weekends fishing they fully deserved the win and vowed to be back in September for the next Pallatrax Open to defend their title!
All the anglers enjoyed a free BBQ during the presentation of the prizes and trophies.
It was great to see some new faces to the venue and some returning competitors. A huge thankyou to Pallatrax for sponsoring the event and to our marshalls (Bob D, Bob O, Terry, Steve G, Ian, Amy and Roger) who did an excellent job transporting tackle, weighing fish and helping out throughout the weekend.
Dave James and Craig Lacey
Scott Bowden and Jamie Rusling
Aaron and Ashley Bunning
1st Dave James and Craig Lacey 4 fish for 43.00lbs Peg 13
2nd Jason and Leanne McEvoy 4 fish for 37.11lbs peg 25
3rd Nick Singleton and Danny Clarke 3 fish for 29.12lbs peg 4
4th Darren White and Taro Bell 2 fish for 20.05lbs peg 23
5th Jamie Rusling and Scott Bowden 1 fish for 16.07lbs peg 18
6th Phil Gilhespy and Sam Gilhespy 1 fish for 15.08lbs peg 1
7th Ashley Bunning and Aaron Bunning 1 fish for 13.10lbs peg 19
8th Constantine Nitoit and Darby 1 fish for 10.07lbs peg 21
The next Pallatrax Open is 23-25 September and it is another pair’s match, we are now open for entries but be quick!! 01566 771930
Martin Turner won Bideford and District Angling Clubs Monthly coarse section match at Melbury Reservoir with an impressive haul of 32lb. Kevin Shears was second with 25lb 5oz and third Colin Gorman with 8lb. Winning tactics for Martin were caster with long pole for roach and hybrids. Ground-bait feeder for a bag of skimmers took the runner up spot for Kevin Shears.
Seven members of Wistlandpound Fly-fishing Club fished their summer evening competition on their home water. The event was a measure and release competition that was won by Colin Combe with 50″ an inch ahead of Dave Mocks 49″.
The warm cloudy conditions are proving ideal for carp anglers across the region with Stafford Moor as always providing some fine sport these are the latest reports sent me by Joanne Combes.
Aarron Rundle
Aarron Rundle had 5 carp in 24 hours using mainline cell from the beach swim on Beattie’s lake.
Michael Toms
Michael Toms fished on Beattie’s for 36 hours had several carp up to 22lb 12 oz fishing with sticky baits krill boilies 16mm.
Tope continue to provide exciting sport off Ilfracombe as Ian Tyldesley director of Ammo Baits discovered when he traveled up from St Ives to fish aboard Ammo Baits sponsored boat Reel Deal. Dan Hawkins put the anglers on the fish despite breezy conditions that made fishing a little uncomfortable for some of the party. In addition to tope the anglers also landed several bass.
David Brooke took top spot in Combe Martin Sea Angling Clubs fish of the month competition with a specimen smoothound scaling 15lb 1oz. In runner up spot Dan Spearman with his thin lipped grey mullet of 4lb 15oz and in third Derek Ferrett with a smoothound of 11lb 14oz.
Stafford Moors Sunday Open on 3rd July saw some excellent nets of fish; full report from Joanne Coombes below
We had a continental payout today. We had 25 guys fishing .
The winner was Mike Iacono (pictured below) on Woodpecker peg 32 with 183lb fishing 8mm pellet on the waggler.
In 2nd place was Tim Hagg on Tanners peg 9 with 122lb 1oz
In 3rd place was Tony Burslem on Woodpecker peg 36 with 159lb 15oz
In 4th place was Andy Webb on Tanners peg 13 with 118lb 8oz
In 5th place was Mark Cullerton on Woodpecker peg 16 with 155lb 14oz
In 6th place was Dave Stockton on Tanners peg 35 with 109lb 6oz
Our silvers winners were : Tim Hagg on Tanners 9 with 7lb 9oz & Bruce Hunt on Woodpecker peg 26 with 12lb 6oz.
Fridays residents match today on Tanners lake had a great winning weight from Steve Pearce peg 36 with 137lb 13oz fishing 8mm pellet on the bomb well done Steve! who has actually won the residents match 3 years in a row! Please see full match results below.
Overall
STEVE PEARCE Peg 36 Tanners: 137lbs 13oz
PETER VERNON Peg 9 Tanners: 122lbs 4oz
KEITH NEEDHAM Peg 11 Tanners: 90lbs 9oz
ALBERT PEARCE Peg 3 Tanners: 73lbs 14oz
BILL PEARCE Peg 35 Tanners: 73lbs 0oz
LUKE BURFORD Peg 30 Tanners: 71lbs 2oz
JOE LONERGON Peg 18 Tanners: 48lb 12oz
Mid Week Open Wednesday 5th July
What a glorious day weather wise. Had so many great weights as you can see in the full match report below. Well done to Nikki Miller who bagged himself 169lb 6oz from peg 9 fishing 8mm on the waggler.
Seven members of Wistlandpound Fly-fishing Club fished their summer evening competition on their home water. The event was a measure and release competition that was won by Colin Combe with 50″ an inch ahead of Dave Mocks 49″.
