A Winter Day – Pike

 

The cold light of dawn brought with it frosted car windows and icy roads. It seemed the traditional day for pike fishing sat beside the calm waters of a lake. My good friend Paul Blake joined me for a day at Lower Slade reservoir where our alarms bleeped out as a few jacks graced our nets.

South West Lakes Trust have updated their pike fishing regulations for Slade and other stocked pike waters. Treble hooks are now allowed in conjunction with wire traces. Braided line with a minimum breaking strain of 40lb breaking strain is now compulsory. These measures are in-line with good practice across the pike fishing community, the strong braided line reduces the chance of losing fish and improves bite indication reducing the risk of deep hooking.

SEA ANGLING RESULTS

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Combe Martin SAC members braved rough weather over the weekend in their search for specimen fish. Ross Stanway won the competition with a specimen small eyed ray scaling 10lb 15.5oz. (109 %) Shane Hookway was runner up with a conger of 19lb 14oz (99%).

Bideford Angling Clubs January 48-hour Rover results 

7 angler’s fished 

1 fish weighed 

1st Stephen Found  Small-eyed ray 9lb 4oz  102.777%

 

The WYVERN  REGION OPEN SHORE MATCH was held at Slapton Sands in South Devon and attracted 130 entrants. I will post a full report on the match later this week when I have the full results.

 

Sea Angling Catches –

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Sea Anglers are catching some good fish from the North Devon shore line with huss, spurdog and conger amongst catches.

Prospects for the coming month are excellent if the Westerly winds persist.

Combe Martin SAC member Ross Stanway enjoyed a session at a local shore mark to land several ray including three small eyed ray of 8lb 8oz and a brace of spotted ray.

Bideford Angling Club Monthly Sea Rover

January Rover results 

9 angler’s fished 

1 fished weighed 

1st Stephen Found Dog 2lb 3 1/2oz

Bideford Coarse Match Results

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January Monthly Coarse Section
Competition Results:
Tarka Swims:
1st Kevin Shears 14lb 15oz
2nd Warren Thornton  14lb 3oz
3rd Les Polden  13lb
4th Paul Elworthy  12lb 11oz
5th Keith Mountjoy 9lb 9oz
6th Nathan Underwood  7lb 8oz
7th Antony Bentley  6lb 6oz
Our first competition of the year was well attended, with 21 anglers braving the weather.
Conditions were colder than recently, with heavy showers, George’s lake has fished hard , although roach have fed all over., and top weights close.
Kevin has put together a lovely net ,of mainly silver fish , for victory on peg 19 using pole and maggots.
Warren 2nd place, on peg 13 , was also a pole fished maggot catch , including several smaller carp.
Les finished in third spot , and won his section.

Coastal Access Issues

When I started fishing from the North Devon Coast close to fifty years ago access to the coast was not a major issue with many marks freely accessible. During the 1980’s and onwards issues started to arise as the numbers of anglers fishing increased with many travelling long distances to fish the marks. Sadly, some of the anglers showed little respect for private property and sometimes left litter and in some cases broke down fences to gain access.

During recent years some marks have been operated on a permit only basis with an annual fee charged to allow access to private land to fish. Permits are generally obtained by local anglers who tend to respect the owners and their property accepting that times have changed and that to gain access to fish a charge is perhaps the new normal.

These access issues have perhaps been highligted further since COVID and lockdowns increased coastal visits by the general public.

In some cases certain areas have been closed to angling to ensure maximum potential use of the venue for commercial purposes. There are concerns that anglers breaking the rules regarding access to closed areas could jeopardise access to wider areas.

I hope that those reading this will know of the areas and appreciate the issues. It would be sad if those who have invested in permits and follow the rules are denied access to several prime marks due to anglers fishing a couple of marks that have been closed off. Once access is lost it is seldom regained.

Respect of private property is essential if anglers wish to maintain access to the coast.

Some areas of South Devon have become virtual no go areas as a result of anti social behaviour by a minority it is to be hoped this does not happen in North Devon.