Several colourful wrasse have been caught by anglers fishing the rocky coastline near Ilfracombe with Paul Lorrimore landing a beautiful fish of 3lb 15oz.
Antony Smith took the top two spots in Bideford Angling Clubs twenty four hour sea rover with smoothound scaling 9lb 12.5oz and 9lb 9oz. In third place was Tarrant Wotton with a bass of 6lb 7oz.
Results: BDAC Coarse Section Monthly Competition.
1st Keith Mountjoy 20lb 10oz
2nd Tyler Scott 19lb 3oz
3rd Matt Cross 12lb 10oz
4th Martin Turner 11lb 12oz
5th Martin Rushton 10lb 3oz
6th Steve Bailey 9lb 1oz
17 anglers fished , Tarka Swims , George’s lake was used for this months match, the forecast rain held off but humid conditions led to a tough day . Keith drew peg 16 and had a nice net of mainly bream and skimmers, on soft pellet on 11metre pole for victory over the consistent Tyler on peg 18, Matt managed to land 5 carp and lose 5 on peg 2 for 3rd spot.
Midweek Evening Series No.1
Tarka Swims Results
1st Keith Copland 14lb 9oz
2nd Tyler Scott 13lb 8oz
3rd Stuart Sharp 13lb 7oz
4th Richard Jefferies 12lb 4oz
5th Martin Turner 9lb 13oz
6th Steve Ashton 8lb 7oz
13 fished . Keith takes an early lead in the summer league with a pole caught carp net on corn off peg 24, Junior member Tyler’s 2nd place bag was mostly of bream , pole on peg 16. Stuart’s 3rd place net fell to pole and running line tactics on peg 19, conditions were extremely wet although mild. Lets hope for better weather in future rounds,
Eighteen seniors fishing in Appledore Shipbuilders monthly Rover that was won by Jazza John with a bull huss of 10lb 2oz. James Atkinson took second and third with small eyed ray of 8lb 8oz and 7lb 7oz.
Bideford Angling Clubs Rover was won by Paul Downing who caught a smoothound of 9lb 10oz. Stephen Found was runner up with a bull huss of 9lb 4.25oz and Tarrant Wotton third with a smoothound of 8lb 12oz. Forth place went to Tom Downing with a smoothound of 8lb 6oz and fifth Tony Gooch with a huss of 7lb 2oz. Pail Ackland was sixth with a smoothound of 6lb 13oz.
Bideford Angling Club members are saddened at the death of Arthur Johns aged 71 who had been a keen member since joining as a junior in the early sixties. He was a keen sea angler and specialised in catching the wily grey mullet. He was the secretary of the North Devon Sea Angling League for over twenty years and I enjoyed my regular chats with him when collating reports for the NDJ.
Many thanks to Bideford Angling Clubs Pete Skinner who sent me this warm tribute to Arthur.
Arthur (Art) Johns 1949 – 2020 (71) Arthur first joined the club in the 1960s as a junior before joining the merchant navy, he rejoined in the mid 70s and has remained a member ever since. He was a hard worker for the club and held many posts in his time including junior cup organiser, Xmas comp and festival organiser, fish recorder and cup custodian, Chairman , president and Vice President the post he held when he passed away, he also worked hard for the club when we had our clubhouse behind the bar and various other jobs. He was secretary of the North Devon Sea Angling league for over 20 years, a job he was very proud of. Arthur was a keen sea angler, fishing a lot with his great friend Mike Squires, another Angling club stalwart who sadly passed away a short time ago, after which Arthur stopped fishing, he told me once that it wasn’t the same anymore, Arthur liked all types of fishing but he particularly enjoyed the intricacies if mullet fishing at which he excelled, winning many club competitions with specimens of the species. He was a great member of the club, with a keen interest in encouraging youngsters into our sport, he will be sorely missed.
Bideford Club was founded in the early sixties and is one of North Devons’s largest and most successful clubs with a multi discipline membership. The club runs two lakes for the use of members and has done a great deal to promote angling for local juniors.
The clubs lakes are disabled friendly, with all platforms being accessible.They are currently in the process of replacing existing platforms, with specific wheelchair friendly ones as recommended by the British disabled Angling association, who have accredited our site.
They run regular Coarse, Sea and Game fishing competitions.
Membership can be obtained by contacting Pete Skinner :- [email protected]
or by calling into Summerlands Tackle or Anglers Heaven.
2020 season. These must be paid before fishing TARKA swims or entering club run competitions.
Juniors Under 12. Free
Juniors. 12—18. £5 Sea , game competitions £10
Concessions 65+. £5 TARKA new members. £55 Concessions 65+.
£50 ( 1st year only) TARKA existing. £30
Concessions 65+. £25
Match results @ Wooda Lakes,
1st Martin Turner 55lb 6oz
2nd Thomas Scott 32lb 8oz
3rd Steve Bailey 31lb 15oz
4th Keith Copland 25lb 4oz
5th David Bailey 23lb 9oz
6th Colin Gorman 19lb 11oz
7th Ian Owen 15lb 7 oz
8th John Lisle 14lb 11oz ,
14 keen members endured another Sunday of wind and rain. The prolific Wooda Lakes produced the goods again! Martin Turner fished on lake 4, alternating between feeder and margin pole , a 20 carp net sealed victory, Second place and top weight on lake 3 was another pole caught 11 carp net for up and coming Junior member Thomas Scott , Our Secretary Steve also on lake 3 found some nice edge dwelling carp in the closing stages of the event for third spot. April’s monthly match see’s us back at Tarka Swims.
Nathan Clements secured first and second in Bideford Angling Clubs Monthly Sea Rover with thornback ray scaling 10lb 41/2oz and 6lb 7oz.
In Appledore Shipbuilders monthly Rover it was Jack Sharrock who secured victory with the only fished registered between the fifteen anglers a thornback ray of 6lb 6oz.
George Hunton secured victory in Combe Martin SAC’s Winter Rover 2 landing a Bull Huss of 8lb 7oz. In runner up spot was Mark Jones with a thornback ray of 8lb 8oz. Plenty of other fish were caught by the nine anglers who fished including dogfish, conger and rockling.
1st Antony Smith spotted ray 4lb 8 1/2oz
It was a pleasure once again for Pauline and I to attend Bideford & District Angling Clubs presentation night and to be made so welcome. Such events are vitally important to the social fibre of angling clubs enabling members and families to join together to enjoy a little fun and banter whilst reflecting on the achievements made by members throughout the year. It is not just about the fish caught but also about recognising the huge amount of effort invested by club members. BIdeford Club is a long established club that has its own waters for coarse anglers, a thriving sea section and a game section that travels across the South West to target trout on the fly.
There were some outstanding fish caught throughout 2019 including a bass of 15lb 6oz to the rod of Tarrant Wotton, a club record couch’s bream of 15oz to the rod of Nathan Clements and a rainbow trout of 14lb 11oz to Matt Sander. John McCullum won the Clubs Game Fishing Trophy with 49 points. Martin Turner secured the clubs Match Mans Cup with 108 points and young Tyler Scott won the club Sam Vaughan Cup for most Match points by a Junior with 42 points. Dick Talbot won the clubs sea league with 49 points. There were a huge number of certificates awarded and trophies congratulations to all of the winners. Let’s hope 2020 is just as productive for club members.
A winner takes all raffle was won by Reg Sutton who kindly donated the proceeds to the RNLI in memory of local angler Cameron Atkinson who sadly lost his life late in 2019.
