Many thanks to Jason Small who allowed me to use these pictures he took whilst fishing from Ilfracombe Charter boat Reel Deal. The party enjoyed a great days varied sport on a very calm day off Combe Martin. The spectacular sea cliffs east of Combe Martin are amongst the highest in the country and provide a fantastic backdrop to a days fishing.
Reel Deal has been making all the headlines with catches of porbeagle shark off the Cornish coast but when the weather doesn’t play ball there is plenty of variety fishing the grounds in the Bristol Channel. A recent session saw anglers land plenty of coalfish and pouting with some brightly coloured wrasse to put a smile on the anglers faces.
Richard Scarce boated a fine 20lb thornback whilst fishing off Ilfracombe aboard John Barbeary’s Ilfracombe based Charter boat “Bluefin”.
There are still a few spurdog showing with an 18lb specimen caught on Bluefin by James Mayhew.
The first few bass of the season have been tempted by lure anglers and to celebrate the fact Danny Watson has launched a lure fishing competition. Details below.
High Street Tackle are running a lure fishing competition!
The first one to run from now until May 10th.
The winner will be the biggest fish caught from the shore on a lure that has been bought from High Street Tackle.
To enter you must submit a picture of the fish, details of the lure and weight of the fish.
Pictures will be displayed on our Facebook page – we will not disclose any location information even if it is provided.
IMPORTANT – please ensure that all pictures are sensible ones – blood etc is not a good look.
It will also be assumed that all bass are treated as per the requirements of the law – we do not wish for any controversy to be raised by any of your pictures.
I understand that there may be some openings for dishonesty but hope that all who are interested in taking part can help to ensure that the winner is deservedly judged so.
We have not decided on the exact prize yet but it will obviously be related to lure fishing and be worth the effort of sending an honest photo – we would like to think that this may continue throughout the year!
Please feel free to contact us should have any suggestions etc.
This 55lb 12oz tope set new best for Dan Hawkins boat Reel Deal whilst fishing for shark. The fish was tempted by Alan White on a whole frozen Ammo mackerel and is a for-taste of the summer sport that is to come off Ilfracombe when the mackerel shoals arrive in numbers.
It’s been a great start to the sharking season for anglers aboard charter boat Reel Deal sailing out of Ilfracombe.
With a couple of big porbeagle already caught this season a party off anglers headed down to North Cornwall for the chance of another big early season shark. It wasn’t long before the Ammo supplied chum brought a shark to one of the baits. After a short tussle the first fish managed to shed the hook. But this wasn’t the end of the action as a big shark approached the boat later in the day nudging the floats as it circled around in the rubby dubby trail. Frustratingly the big fish seemed uninterested in the baits and the anglers thought their chance had slipped away. But with time ticking towards home time one of the frozen Ammo mackerel was taken and a long battle commenced with each angler taking fifteen minute turns on the rod.
Eventually the mighty fish was glimpsed in the clear water.
Dan has a policy of releasing all shark at the side of the boat to minimize stress to the fish ensuring that these awesome fish will continue to hunt the clear waters off the rugged North Cornwall coast.
The huge fish was estimated at 450lb and was tamed on top quality tackle supplied by Veals Mail Order and tempted on bait supplied by Ammo Baits. The landing of the shark was team effort by Clive, Shaun, Paul,Dean and Daniel.
Dan Hawkins can reach the sharking grounds off Cornwall in the speedy purpose built 9m Colne Catamaran powered by 2×150 HP Mercury outboards in around two hours giving anglers a full days fishing with plenty of pollock and other species to catch whilst the rubby dubby works its magic.
Andrew Atkinson landed the biggest spurdog of the day at 15lb 6oz when Appledore Shipbuilders fished on John Barbeary’s Bluefin off Ilfracombe. The spurdog packs are still present in good numbers providing welcome sport.
Dan Hawkins Charter Boat Reel Deal has arrived in Ilfracombe for the summer season and has got off to a flying start once again targetting the big porbeagle that hunt the waters off the North Cornish coast. On Thursday April 6th Mark Watts hooked a huge porbeagle estimated at 350lb and successfully brought the fish to the side of the boat where it was carefully released. The fish was tempted using Ammo mackerel and chum on a 10/0 owner hook.
More pictures and further details on this capture to follow later!
Holsworthy Sea Anglers enjoyed a great day on Bluefin with skipper John Barbeary out of Ilfracombe. This was the clubs last session on the spurdog this season. With Club Members Steve Dawe, Steven McDonald,Brian Hopcraft,Stuart Lockyer ,Graham Verral, Paul Smith, soon to be member John Doswell, and Paul Cozens. The boat went straight out to the spurdog mark this time as we picked a lot better tide and could stay there all day. The spurs started coming in thick and fast right away with John kicking it off with a cracking 19lber on mackerel. Everyone caught steady all day on squid and mackerel baits with equal amounts of spurs and doggies, a token conger to Graham Verral and a lonely bull huss to Paul Cozens.Graham Verral had the biggest club spur at 19lb and second highest bag of them with 20 in total, most spurs went to Steven McDonald who ended up with 25 on mackerel baits and a total between us of 115. The club thank John Barbeary for another good day at sea.
