The club lake has fished well, despite the Easter weather. Brisk Southerly winds ensured that the pegs on the left hand side of Georges produced the main frame results.
Paul’s trip up the link road from Tiverton proved profitable, he topped the field with a cracking mixed net off peg 6 ,fishing red maggot on the waggler and pole Nathan, once again, put a great net together on peg 11 fishing maggot on a short pole.
Keith made up the top 3 with mainly carp on 12 , he used bread then maggot over micros
We must thank Bideford ambulance for their rapid response to the incident at the end of the match .
Quay Sports Shop manager Chris Connaughton – Mono has recently returned from the almighty Gigantica. Fishing in very tough conditions with the lake not producing many bites Chris decided that Instead of using the usual spomb tactic to get a bed of bait out at around 100yards he opted to utilise our very own Hunter Pro FantaStik (throwing stick) to spread the feed to keep the fish moving as well as baiting up from the bank. This saw Chris land 3 carp to 34lb using his own Remix Baits Cellnapple pop ups alongside Mainline Baits freezer boilies.
Hard fishing for some took some time to realise we were on the lake I think then some action from mid day till end for many which made a close match at the end for all framing places. One or two extra fish could of have changed everything on the leader board.
Appledore Shipbuilders Easter cup was run this year for the first time as a multi day event .David Atkinson won the trophy with a 2lb 4oz Dogfish. Just pipping a 5lb 14oz Cod which was a nice surprise for Andrew Atkinson at this time of year. “Spring codling are frequently caught at this time of year, but this is the best one I’ve had in a long time”.
This May and September, we will be introducing carp fishing at Roadford Lake. This is an ideal, naturally beautiful location, just off the A30, perfect for anglers living in both Devon and Cornwall.
This will be a trial venture in a designated area at the lake, including 12 swims.
Set in the rolling Devon hills on the edge of Dartmoor, just off the A30, Roadford is primarily a brown trout fishery. Carp fishing is now being introduced as a trial across two months of the year – May and September 2023.
There is a large stock of carp in Roadford, and this period of carp angling will be used to monitor the carp and move them to other lakes for restocking purposes.
Carp fishing is permitted in 12 swims: on the west side of the lake, left of the old road of ‘Big Oaks’ and the Grinnacombe bank.
Fly fishing is not permitted in this area in May and September.
Fishery Information:
Address: Roadford Lake, Near Okehampton, Devon. PL16 0JL
Fishery Size: 738 acres
Number of Swims: 10 available for 24 hours and two day swims
Species: Carp
Fishing Times: Two months of the year – May and September 2023, 7am-7pm for day swims
Permits: Available online or from South West Lakes on 01566 771930
After one of the wettest Springs for many years the salmon season has got off to a slow start with the rivers unfishable for several of the early weeks. There have been a few salmon caught during brief windows of opportunity when river conditions have come right.
I have heard of at least two springers from the Taw system one from the Weir Marsh area and another on the Mole. With the rivers so high salmon will potentially have run far up the rivers and could be caught from areas where they have not been tempted for several years so early in the season
I headed to the middle Torridge and found the river running high but with a perfect tinge of colour. The dying daffodils told of how the early season had already passed as new spring flowers bloomed and lush green growth started to burst out on the bankside trees.
I glimpsed martins flying across the rural landscapes of spring as I drove to the water, another great marvel of migration.
It felt good to swing the fly across familiar lies and I initially felt a tingle of expectation. A momentary connection with a trout raised the pulse rate but as I fished on the reality of the salmon fishing these days descended. After close to three hours covering the water in near perfect conditions I couldn’t help thinking that ten years ago there would have been salmon here.
Perhaps the recent talks I have attended and television programmes documenting the demise of the salmon are taking their toll? Salmon anglers like salmon are resilient creatures and I know that I will back full of hope next time. Heavy rain is forecast again as I write this and the rivers will be back bank high soon. The longer term prospects for this season are good as the rivers should hold up well with May likely to be a great month to be at the river. Even if the salmon and sea trout prove elusive the brown trout fishing will be excellent. Brown trout to over 1lb 8oz have already been tempted by salmon anglers swinging large flies.
It’s well worth watching the Channel 5 documentary. A fascinating documentary about efforts to restore salmon rivers in Scotland.
(Below) Chris Tester tempted 3 carp up to 28lb from the inlet swim on Beatties lake , Chris was using Sticky Baits Manilla wafters and Maxattract baits slab liquid.
(Below) Paul Painter & son Jack who fished up on beach 1 swim 14 on lodge lake they had 12 fish out and both now have new pbs! Pauls new pb is a 33lb 2oz mirror and Jacks is a 30lb common using C C Moore live system boilies and frutellas.
Easter Friday match at HORWOOD, despite a early morning frost the main lake fished well.
Well done to Craig Lamey who managed 15 fish from peg 4 for a lovely weight of 93lb 8oz catching on the method feeder and short pole, Stephen Barrell managed 66lb 3oz from peg 1, Stuart Towers had four lovely condition fish for 40lb 6oz so some very decent ones are now showing.
Top lake fished much harder but this meant everyone was in with a chance of winning that lake right up until the final whistle, Keith Mountjoy weighed in 21lb 10oz for second just 7oz behind Neilsen Jeffery who had 22lb 1oz
Cracking days fishing and lovely to see a few new faces.
Many thanks to Rodney Wevill for the report below.
The Fluff Chuckers Yeti brown trout bank event was held on Roadford Lake on April 8th..
The weather forecast had been showing bright sun all day and that was going to make things a little more difficult.
But the day was warm with sun but a nice bit of cloud cover especially during the afternoon.
Anglers met at 8.30am for a 9.00am start in the main car park.
It was good to see many like minded anglers from Bristol, North Somerset, North Devon and from deep down in Cornwall with the same attitude, have a good fun day and if we catch a good one then we might even win a prize.
We fished from all different sections of Roadfords bank and what stunning country side surrounded us.
The fishing was steady in the morning but the afternoon seen a lot more fish to the nets.
A total of 80 Brown Trout were caught and all safely released for another day.
The competitive side of us boys started to show, all trying to find a bigger fish or just another one to the net before the 5pm finish.
We met back at the main car park to tally up the score cards and it was soon very obvious that things where going to be very tight indeed.
The longest fish was between Roger Truscott and Jack Welshman with Jack sneaking it by a couple of millimetres.
The most fish to the net was also extremely tight
With Simon Peters catching 16 fish and piping Mr consistent Roger Truscott by one fish with Wayne Thomas one behind that with 14 fish.
So a cheery end to a great day with some wonderful fishing with a great set of anglers.
A typical Roadford brownie
Final results
Longest fish Overall winner
Jack Welshman
Runner up
Roger Truscott
3rd
Pete Williams
Most fish caught winner
Simon Peters
Runner up
Roger Truscott.
Fluff Chuckers- Fly Fishing Fanatics would like to thank YETI for there help with the prizes for the event.
Trout Fishing South West Lakes Trust for their help and prizes
All that came and supported another great event
Notes from the waters edge :- My first trip to fish for trout on this large lake that supplies water for most of North Devon. Despite a wet Spring the lake is still well below top water level and If we get another dry summer prospects are concerning. I very much enjoyed the day finding plenty of brown trout that gave a good account on the light 5wt rod I was using. Most fish took a small black pennel fished on a dropper, my standard set up for early season brown trout being a small black lure on the point and two small black flies as droppers.
Always good to meet up with fellow fluff Chuckers. Special thanks to head chucker Rodney Wevill
