Congratulations to Charlie Grant, 12, who whilst on his annual Family holiday with us at Anglers Paradise caught his biggest ever fish, a personal best 29lb Wels Catfish!!
Charlie caught the Catfish on Luncheon Meat soaked in spotted fin smokey jack over spray from the Easy Access Lake.
**Take note ‘all’ on how he is presenting the Catfish – Superb pictures Charlie, showing us how not to hold Catfish!!**
It is vital that young anglers come into this wonderful pastime of ours and engage with nature. At Exe Valley Fishery they are catering for those first timers with a lake dedicated to young family fishing adventures. Chris Guest sent me this news story following on from young Haydo’s adventure.
“Fun in the Easter Sun, Haydo & grandpa went fishing and Haydo caught his first trout on Lobbs Lake at Exe Valley Fishery, a brilliant place to take kids for their first fishing adventure, this lake is bait or spinner, we float fished with some soft pellets and it wasn’t long before he had his string pulled, a couple of fish later he was enjoying a well deserved Cola Ice Pop from the fishery freezer, check it out!!!”
There is of course the main fishing lake for the dedicated Fly Fisher with trout to double figures!
Always good to see young anglers enjoy success and boat fishing gives them a good chance of battling a larger than average fish.
Dan Welch enjoyed a short boat fishing session over high water off Ilfracombe. He landed a pleasing blonde ray into double figures.
His young son Solly hooked a conger; Dan Said ” which turned out to be the biggest fish he has ever had at 15lb 4oz I did have to give him a hand to wind this one in. He couldnt stop saying it’s a whopper!! Must have seemed massive to him”.
The below Charter boats all operate out of Ilfracombe giving access to exciting offshore sport for all.
The Pearson family enjoyed a fun flounder fishing session in the Taw estuary with Candy Pearson hauling a double shot of flounders and nine year old Ellie Pearson catching a whopper of 1lb 10oz.
The humble flounder can provide great fun for family fishing with no sophisticated tackle required as the fish can be caught in very shallow water. For great sport use a light carp rod or spinning rod with a 2 or 3 hook trace with size 2 fine wire hooks and a bunch of ragworm. The fish can also be caught using light float tackle set so the the bait trundles over the sand. LRF style tackle can also give an alternative challenge with artificial ragworm on the hook worked slowly through likely spots.
Summerlands Tackle are presently selling fresh locally dug harbour ragworm. Phone to secure your order if you suffer from a bad back it can ease the pain.
The autumn estuary can provide some fine sport for young anglers with flounder and school bass.
Ian Cairns won Triple Hook Clubs Junior Open Flounder competition with a fine flounder of 1lb 87/8oz. In second place was Roxy Mortimer with a flounder of 1lb 8oz. Joan Cairns won the ladies Open Flounder match with a flattie of 1lb 73/4oz. Christine Hancock was runner up with a flounder of 1lb 31/4oz.
Andrew Conibear took his son Thomas to the Taw estaury where they enjoyed sport with flounder and bass to 5lb 9oz.
Combe Martin Sea Angling Clubs annual fun fishing event on Ilfracombe Pier always brings plenty of smiles and this year was no exception. The title of the event explains what the day is all about nothing too serious just a few hours fishing with the chance to meet fellow anglers and special guests. The event focuses on young anglers so the competition is geared towards under 16’s accompanied by a responsible adult.
This years guests included Dominic Garnett who writes a regular column for the Angling Times and works with the Angling Trust to promote angling. https://dgfishing.co.uk/
(Above) Dominick Garnett gets involved coaching young anglers
Steve Dawe is an all round angler who has a particular interest in species fishing and is raising funds for the Stroke Association.
In January last year he started a fund raising challenge to catch 52 species of fish in a year and has surpassed this already landing his 64th species during this years event, a rock goby.(Below)
(Below)The Coastguard raised awareness of the need to take care at the waters edge offering advice to all who attended.
(Below)Ilfracombe Aquarium were at hand to identify any rare species caught and also hope to obtain specimens for the aquarium.
http://ilfracombeaquarium.co.uk/
High Street Tackle kindly sponsored the event with an array of prizes presented to the winners.
Fun Fish rules were – To reduce tangles CMSAC suggested 1 rod with 3 hooks, Barbless hooks preferred but not compulsory.
The top prizes were for the anglers under the age of 16 with the most points.
Points awarded: – 2 points first of each species, 1 point for second of each species.
Prize for longest fish – Lyn Wilson garfish – 57cm
Prize for heaviest fish – Lyn Wilson – garfish 9oz
Family prize for most points – A Family Ticket for Ilfracombe Aquarium -The Welch family with 51 points
Ross Stanway won the adults section with 16 points and was presented with a signed copy of Dominick Garnetts book Crooked Lines
Winner of the event eight year old Effie Welch (14 points) received an LRF rod, reel and line
2nd – Charlie Stanway 11 points
3rd – Solomon Welch 9 points
4th – Ben Clarke 8 points Joshua Jeffery 8 points
5th – Phoebe Dawe – 5 points Jordan Choules 5 points
This years event was once again a success with a really friendly atmosphere and plenty of fish caught to give the young participants encouragement. One of the events main targets is to introduce young people to a pastime that can provide a lifelong interaction with the environment as Dominick said to me if we recruit one young person into a life of fishing we have been successful.
The below pictures give a view of the event that is made successful by those who take part.
Some anglers take their dogs with them to the waters edge. Richard Mason brings his pet owl with him on carp fishing excursions to Stafford Moor.
Congratulations go to Bideford angling Club for organising a series of Junior Angling Matches on their home water Tarka Swims. The future of angling rests with these young people who will hopefully embrace a pastime that will bring a lifetime of enjoyment. Many thanks to Martin Turner for the report.
Results @ Junior match/coaching session No.3
1st Ruari Hewitt 8lb 2oz
2nd Will Richards 6lb 6oz
3rd Brooke Copp 3lb 9oz
4th Adam Wheeler 2lb 14oz
Ruari has fished with maggots on peg P for a nice bag of bream. Will, on the next peg, fished with a ledgered pellet and caught a lovely mirror carp for second place. Brooke fished with a feeder and landed a fine bream for third on peg R. 11 different young anglers have fished the, closely contested, 3 match series and Adam Wheeler has come out winner of the Junior Cup,with a points total of 30 ,in 2nd spot Tyler Scott on 29, 3rd Brooke Copp on 28, 4th Ruari Hewitt 24 5th Tomas Scott 22. Thank you all ,helpers and fishers, and Summerlands Tackle for your support.
A great start to the summer holidays for Jensen Bowden who fished at Horwood Lakes. First time coarse fishing and he managed to land 75 carp and tench altogether with the best mirror carp of just under 10lb, Jensen caught well on corn and waggler from the top lake. Cracking day.
20th February 2018 Saw the start of a new challenge for five young members of Great Torrington Army Cadet Force who decided to take on fly fishing for the skills element of their D of E Award scheme.
Prior to the course starting we arrange a Sunday morning visit to Monkokehampton Salmon Hatchery on the 4th February to learn about their work, kindly laid on by Charles Innis, who explained to the Cadets about the life cycle of the Salmon from egg to return, we looked at the setup and walked up river to see the weir, the Cadets found this visit very educational.
Over the past 5 months Cadets Sjt Daniel Lobb, L/Cpl Tyler Bolt, L/Cpl Jack Pledger L/Cpl Sam Newberry & Cdt Harvey Hodge have learnt and practiced all the skills needed to become proficient fly fishermen.
The course covered all elements such as types of rods, reels, lines leaders, knots, casting techniques and types of flies and how to fish them, which was then followed up by a day tying their own flies for them use on the two lake days.
The course also included two guest speakers, the first being Paul Carter, Environment Agency Water Bailiff who gave the Cadets an insight into his job role, Licensing and environment, the second was Allan Crawley Commons Conservators River Warden, Allan gave the Cadets an insight into his role and how they were working on better access for anglers along the commons riverbank. We also had a third speaker Keith Armishaw lined up from the fly fishing section of the Torrington Museum, unfortunately Keith was taken ill, the Cadets found Paul and Allan’s presentations really interesting. I’m sure Keith’s presentation would have been equally as good, we do hope Keith is on the road to recovery and wish him well for the future.
Months of hard work practising paid of on our two lake days, the first being at Simpson’s Valley Coarse & Trout Fishery nr Holsworthy on Saturday 26th May 2018
This was a good days fishing and despite it being hard work all five managed to catch a nice Rainbow Trout, the first fish of the day was caught by Col Ashley Fulford OBE, Chairman of the Army Cadet Force Association and Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Advisory Panel who joined us for the day being a keen fly fisherman himself.
The heaviest fish of the day was caught by L/Cpl Tyler Bolt, a nice Rainbow weighing in at 3 ½ pounds. Everyone went home excited having caught their first ever Trout, thanks to Paul Cozens & Andrew Moores for making this possible for us, we really appreciate it.
Our second lake day was held at Bratton Water Trout Fishery, Loxhore Cross, nr Barnstaple, This proved to be another cracking days fishing where after a slow start all five caught their second ever trout. The first fish of the day was caught by L/Cpl Sam Newberry and the largest was caught by L/Cpl Pledger. Thanks to Mike Williams for all his help setting this up and accommodating us on the day , really appreciated.
This Course is the third one we have run but this year we have built a lot more into it and it has gone so well these five Cadets have started buying their own kit and asking for more lake days in the future.
Great Torrington Army Cadets would like to express their sincere thanks to the following people for their help and support this year it really has been appreciated, thank you.
Charles Innis : visit to Salmon Hatchery
Paul Carter : EA Bailiff
Allan Crawley : Commons Conservators River Warden.
Paul Cozens & Andrew Moores : Simpsons Valley Coarse & Trout Fishery
Mike Williams : Bratton Water Trout Fishery
Keith Armashaw : Great Torrington Museum
Again many Thanks
Capt Trevor Cook ACF Instructor. Lt Matt Sanders OC Great Torrington Detachment
Great Torrington Army Cadets started fly fishing for D of E two years ago, buying six starter kits directly from Airflo at a special price thanks Glenda Evans (Airflo) and funded by a grant from Great Torrington Town Council.
We now have enquiries from Cadets about the next course.
From this years five Sjt Lobb has now used fly fishing for his Bronze, Silver & Gold Awards
L/Cpl Pledger for his Bronze & Silver
L/Cpl Bolt, L/Cpl Newberry & Cdt Hodge for Bronze.
