Mark Jones is leading Combe Martin SAC’s lure fishing competition sponsored by Ilfracombe’s High Street Tackle with a bass of 64cm. This 60cm beauty is his most recent success for the lure fishing enthusiast who has registered several good fish into the competition. With just over a week of the competition remaining I feel other club members will be trying to oust mark from the top spot and win the top quality lure rod that is up for grabs.
Ross Stanway enjoyed success on the lure landed several in an evening session the best of 4lb 9oz fell to a Patchinko 125 Surface lure.
PERCH FISHING OPPORTUNITY!
Roadford Lake will be open for PERCH fishing during August. The 730 acre water has a large head of Perch, and some real specimens, with fish well over 3lbs having been caught in the past. It’s the ‘unknown mystery’ that makes this opportunity so appealing – the potential of a real monster uncaught stripey! Half a days test fishing has produced lots of fish to just over 3lbs so there will be plenty of action! They have never been targeted before!
The Perch fishing is by boat ONLY and boats can be booked on 01409 211507 at a cost of £15 for the day. Day tickets are £10 per person per day and available from the self service permit room at the Activity and Angling Centre. We have a petrol engine which is available at £9 per day or you can bring an electric engine. Oars are provided. Don’t miss out on this opportunity – it’s only for one month!
To view the Perch Fishing Regulations visit http://bit.ly/roadfordperch
I have been looking forward to getting back out onto the rocks after a bass on the lure and today I made my first foray. It was great to once again scurry across the rocks as the tide dropped to low water timing my arrival to coincide with the bottom of the tide.
Water clarity was great and I was full of confidence as I searched the water starting off with a Patchinko surface lure and alternating through shallow divers and soft plastics. I gave each of my favourite spots ten minutes or so before moving along the shoreline as the tide began to push in over the boulders.
Despite a lack of interest in my lures confidence remained high and even if a bass did not intercept my offerings it was good to be out in the warm sunshine taking in the splendid scenery. A pair of peregrines swooped above beside the steep cliffs hunting an unfortunate pigeon that was I believe lucky to escape on this occasion.
I had reached my final rock and as the tide rose it was to time to go as I had stated I would be home at around 7.30pm and it was now 6.30pm. One last cast! I had just changed to a shallow diving plastic; as the lure came close to a boulder ten yards out a savage take was followed by a screaming reel and a bent rod. A bass of around five pound battled for cover and won its freedom as the hook hold gave way. I recast to the same spot and to my surprise had a repeat performance as another bass hit the lure hard. After a spirited battle a three pound bass was brought to hand and on this occasion was destined to arrive on our dinner plate pan fried with new potatoes and fresh salad just over an hour later. I only take two or three bass for the table each year returning the vast majority especially any fish of over 7lb.
The catch raises a couple of questions. Was it the result of a change of lure or just being in the right place as a shoal of bass happened to arrive where I was casting?
Earlier in the day I had visited Danny Watson at High Street Tackle and selected a couple more lures to try out. On this occasion it was an old battered lure that had done the trick. I tend to rely on half a dozen lures, a couple of hard plastic shallow divers, a couple of soft plastics and a couple of surface lures. The lures I take will to some extent depend on the chosen venue.
Combe Martin SAC Member Jonathon Stanway caught this fine bass on a white laggin dragon soft plastic.
Ross Stanway was delighted to land his first lure caught bass of year a handsome silver bar of 5lb 3oz that was tempted using a Dolive Stick.
If you are into lure fishing Danny Watson has a terrific selection at High Street Tackle.
Lure fishing enthusiast Mark Jones got his season off to a flying start luring five bass to over 4lb. This is an encouraging sign so early in the season as it is often May before the bass start succumbing to lure fishing tactics.
Looks like the 2018 November Lure Fishing was a great success once again many thanks to Zenia for her enthusiastic write up! Several first this year with carp on a lure and a golden tench.
💥WINNER OF THE NOVEMBER 2018 LURE WEEKEND💥
The Individual Winner of the whole Competition was **DAVEY MEADES** who caught 6 Species altogether which included a 43cm Rainbow Trout, a 35cm Blue Trout, 2 Rudd at 12cm and 13cm, a 14cm Golden Rudd, a 11cm Perch and the fish that determined his win was a 17cm Golden Tench which was the 1st ever Lure caught Golden Tench to be caught in the history of Anglers Paradise!!
Quantum, Costa and Anglers Paradise Sponsored this Event meaning Davey Won a Week’s Holiday for 2 at Anglers Paradise and a huge range of Quantum Tackle, including a Rod, Reel, Lures and Clothing, a Pair of Costa’s Sunglasses and lots more, he had to take his Prizes in 2 trips as he couldn’t carry it all!!
Damon’s Team Captain was Fladen’s very own Pike King – Nathan Edgell, who was extremely proud of his Team Member to Win the Competition!
Special Thanks to Quantum and Costa for being so generous with the Prizes.
MASSIVE CONGRATULATIONS to DAVEY MEADES for WINNING THE 2018 LURE WEEKEND!!
The Runner Up of the Lure Weekend 2018 is **SCOTT WAY** Winning with 5 Species amounting to 180.5cms consisting of a 51.5cm Pike, a 35cm Tiger Trout, a 16cm Perch, a 39cm Blue Trout and a 39cm Rainbow Trout.
Massive CONGRATULATIONS to Scott, this was his first ever Lure Weekend with us too!
Scott was in Team Fox Rage with Captain Ben Humber who was very proud of Scott’s determination and dedication till the very last whistle!
This Catergory was Sponsored by QUANTUM who we’d like to say a massive Thank you for the very generous Prizes donated to the Event.
WELL DONE SCOTT!
**FISH OF THE WEEKEND** AND **THIRD PLACE**
Now THIS is a catch that has made Anglers Paradise history! Andy Payne has done it again! Not only is he the only man to have ever caught and landed a Catfish on a Lure but this year he’s caught this stunning 22lb Common on a lure making him the 1st to have ever caught a Carp on a lure at Anglers Paradise!!!
It was a magical fishing moment that I for one feel blessed to have been there and share it with Andy. Andy caught the lure caught Carp from the Bottom Lake at Anglers Eldorado.
Team Captain Kev Cox from Fox Rage as you can imagine was thrilled to bits and very proud of his team member Andy to catch such a species like this on a lure!!
This was without a doubt the Winner for the new Catergory – Fish Of The Weekend – Sponsored by FOX RAGE.
Andy also came THIRD in the overall Competition catching 5 Species to 160.5cm consisting of a 17cm Perch, a 34cm Blue Trout, a 32cm Golden Trout, a 10.5cm Rudd and the 67cm Common Carp Wining more prizes from the very generous Quantum!
CONGRATULATIONS ANDY AND WELL DONE ON A TRULY AMAZING CATCH AND MAKING ANGLING HISTORY AT ANGLERS PARADISE!!
🎣💥THE WINNING TEAM OF THE LURE WEEKEND💥🎣
The Winning Team of the 2018 Lure Weekend is Team Fox Rage with Team Captain Ben Humber leading them to VICTORY!!
It was the closest Competition EVER, Team Ben Humber WON with 9 Species to include Pike, Perch, Common Carp, Blue Trout, Rainbow Trout, Tiger Trout, Brook Trout, Golden Rudd and Rudd.
To tell you exactly how close it was, Team Fladen with Captain Nathan Edgell also caught 9 Species so in the end it had to come down to literally cm’s!! Team Fladen amounted to 253.5cm but Team Fox Rage won it with 286.5cm – it was so, so close!! Kev Cox’s Team had 8 Species and Savage Robbie Northman’s Team also had 8 Species which is superb angling for all the Team Members – they all fished their socks off but The Winners were TEAM BEN HUMBER – FOX RAGE – WELL DONE TO EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU!!
The Fish that secured their Win was another surprise Common Carp caught by Ian Paynton from the Trout Lake bumping their species up to 9!! Ben’s Team consisted of Dion Cooke-Martin, Nicky Lock, Ian Paynton, Lee Paynton, Mark Hawitt, Scott Way, Dom Cooke and son Dylan who are now the 2018 Team WINNERS!
A Big Shout out to all the Team Captains for doing a Fantastic Job and well done to all of the Anglers for fishing it until the very last second – pure dedication to Fishing!
Thank you to all the Sponsors for yet again great Prizes for this Catergory – Quantum, Fladen, Costa, Drennan, Savage Fishing Gear and Fox Rage.
Bring on next year!!!
The BIGGEST PIKE caught at the 2018 Lure Weekend was caught by the one and only DION COOK-MARTIN measuring 62cm from Valhalla.
DION was in Team Fox Rage with Captain Ben Humber leading him to Victory!
DION won some pretty special prizes from the Sponsors of this Catergory **Fladen and Costa** including a Fladen Rod, Reel and a pair of Costa Sunglasses – Thank you so much to Fladen and Costa, for the amazing Prizes, DION is a very happy boy.
WELL DONE DION – YOU DID US PROUD!
Looks like a crackinglure fishing weekend at Anglers Paradise – Full results to follow as soon as Zenia compiles a full report!
WHAT AN AWESOME 2018 LURE WEEKEND!!
The Lure Weekend has officially finished, and what an amazing Weekend it was!!! The Anglers fished their socks off and the Captains did their Teams PROUD!
I honestly don’t know where to start, I’m missing everyone already, it’s a weekend where Anglers from across the Country join us and we all share the passion of Fishing, make friends, laugh (alot!!), Fish, and have a ‘Ruddy’ good time!
This was the BIGGEST 5th Lure Weekend at Anglers Paradise and it couldn’t have gone better, I want to thank every single one of you for being a part of our Lure Family, I honestly feel so blessed to have the opportunity to Host such a great Event and meet such wonderful people doing it, thank you for making my job such a pleasure!!
A MASSIVE Thank you to the Team Captains who did us so so proud – Nathan Edgell aka the Pike King who represented Team Fladen, Ben the ‘Stinky’ Humber who represented Team Fox Rage, Robbie Northman who represented Team Savage and Kev Cox who represented Team Fox Rage who sadly couldn’t make the presentation as had to be taken to Hospital. The poor chap had Flu all weekend but tried his best to battle the Weekend out but it defeated him on the last day and turns out he has severe Pneumonia on both lungs, he’s now back and home resting and on anti-biotics – Kevin – thanks for doing an awesome job despite feeling how you were – we wish you a speedy recovery and please rest!!
The Team Captains did a SUPERB job yet again and the results of the Lure Weekend will be trickled out throughout the week – so watch this space, I need a day to recover and then I’ve got 100’s of pictures to sort!!
Thank you to John Deprielle from Fladen who was our Professional Photographer of the Event, he’s taken some amazing pictures that I can’t wait to share with you!!
Thank you to the Costa Boys – Adam Sinclair and Ben Bagham who joined us and gave some amazing Prizes for the Winners inc 5 Pairs of Sunglasses!!
Thank you to all the Sponsors – Fladen, Fox Rage, Savage, Costa, Quantum and Drennan – The Prizes were absolutely Phenomenal this year and the Winners went home with massive smiles with all their goodies!!
Thank you to the Adjudicators – George Crisp, Paul Oglesbee, Ashley Bunning, Paul Tegg and Jamie Noone – You ALL did a superb job and made sure everything went to plan!
Thank you to the Staff at Anglers Paradise – Especially Kit Edmonds the Chef who made sure the Anglers were fed – the Food was amazing and Kit didn’t stop from 6am right the way to 8pm!!
Not forgetting my husband who helped me massively to make sure everything ran smoothly – I couldn’t have done it without him!!
There were some great catches and you won’t believe the surprise catches until you see them!! All to be announced and REVEALED in the coming days!!
The European Lure Fishing Show 2018 was held at Bristol last weekend and I was fortunate to visit the show with fellow Combe Martin SAC members Nick and Jack Phillips. This is the second year of the show and after hearing good reports from last year I thought it worth taking a look. The event focus’s on Lure fishing and Fly Fishing with an extensive range of products on display along with talks and demonstrations.
The best side of these shows is undoubtedly the opportunity to meet up with fellow anglers and swap tales with old friends.
We took time to listen to two talks; one on world wide fishing with Dave Lewis of Sea Angler with Dave giving sound advice on chasing those bucket list fish that take anglers to some stunning locations.
The second talk was delivered by Henry Gilbey and was a thought provoking one that revolved around the wearing of life-jackets. Henry told of two young brothers who tragically died whilst fishing off the North Cornish coast. The fact that Henry knew the mark well and that he had intended fishing it that day undoubtedly struck a cord. I know Henry and he is passionate about his fishing and has like most keen sea anglers had a few near misses.
After listening to Henry I visited the Art of Fishing stand and purchased two Crewsaver Buoyancy aids. One for myself and one for my son James. After close to fifty years of fishing I am all to aware of the statistics with anglers drowning every year I ask myself how likely am I to become one of those stats? The life jackets are not cumbersome and after a few minutes you forget you have them on. Why would you not wear one Henry asked? £70 is but a small price to pay if it saves your life?
It was noticeable that very few anglers attended Henry’s talk on safety at sea. I am sure that if Henry had been waxing lyrical about lure fishing many would have sat hanging on his every word. Health and safety isn’t sexy but it was probably the most important topic on the agenda and most chose to ignore it!
Strangely in all the years I have been fishing on the coast I have given only passing thought to my own safety. Yet I have had nightmares about fellow anglers being washed into the sea whilst I stand helpless on the shore. What would you say to their nearest and dearest?
Perhaps it is for others that you should don that life saving vest for lets face it if you get washed into the sea on a dark and stormy night without a life jacket your not going to worry for long.
A short film shot in conjunction with the RNLI on the North Devon Coast was a true eye opener as to what happens if you fall into the water wearing waders. I will share the film on my Facebook page when it is released. Take a few moments to watch.
Great to see Mark Underhill present and chatting to enthusiastic anglers about his first season at Wimbleball lake.
(Above) Angling Trust Blogger, Author and angling guide Dominick Garnett