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Combe Martin SAC hosted their annual Fun Fish on Ilfracombe Pier in conjunction with the 2022 Sea Ilfracombe festival. The event was once again a resounding success with several families taking part in the Fun Species competition.
Special guests on the day included Mat Mander Chief Officer of Devon & Severn Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority and the Ilfracombe Area Coastguard. The event gave the opportunity for members of the public the talk with the guests about the valuable work that they do.
The event was generously supported by High Street Tackle, The Angling Trust and Ilfracombe Aquarium.
The whole aim of the event is to give the opportunity for young anglers and their families to participate in angling. The Angling Trust provided Certificates, Angling books and caps. High Street Tackle provided a top prize for the overall winner of the event along with numerous prizes for all who took part. Ilfracombe Aquarium gave a family entry to be used by the winning family at a time of their choosing.
The competition started promptly at 3.00pm as the tide receded from the landing stages. Close to twenty anglers of all ages cast out and fish came regularly from the start. Eight species were registered including, pollock, ballan wrasse, pouting, corkwing wrasse, rock goby, tompot blennies, Shanny and dragonette.
Smiling faces lit up what was at times a grey afternoon as dark clouds drifted above with occasional drizzle.
Small ragworm baits proved most effective with mackerel and squid also producing good numbers of fish.
The competition closed at 5.00pm with the prize presentation at 5:15pm.
The winning individual was Effie Welch who was presented with a superb Rockfish LRF rod and reel donated by High Street Tackle. The winning family were the Stanway family, Ross, Charlie and Jake who received a family ticket for Ilfracombe aquarium.
All junior anglers who took part received a prize and each family were presented with a book on Angling from the Angling Trust.
The club hope to host the event again next year and thank all those who made the effort to attend.
Combe Martin SAC Fun Fishing event is on September 4th details below. Would be great to see you on the day.
Final Junior event of our summer series:
Some of our amazing supporters at Quay Sports in Barnstaple donated money raised at their 1st Anniversary Fundraiser. They raised an impressive £1122 in ONE day and we’d just like to say a massive thank you to Toby, Harrison, Chris and Mark L and the rest of the store team for continuing to fundraise for Children’s Hospice South West.
Thomas Cooper is an up and coming Junior angler who has caught several smoothound and a ray during recent visits to North Devons beaches,
Young Solly Welch aged 8 fished with his father Daniel from their Private boat and caught three fine bass on lures bought from High Street Tackle. The bass of 57cm and two of 58cm put Solly into second place in Combe Martin SAC’s lure fishing competition sponsored by High Street Tackle.
Combe Martin SAC Lure Fishing Competition
1st Daniel Welch three bass – 195cm
2nd Solly Welch three bass 158cm.
3rd James Corner – 2 bass 122cm
