Craig McLoughlin who runs Braunton Baits enjoyed an action packed session at a local beach with his friends.
“Well what can I say about last night?”
It was especially Awesome!
A very very last minute fishing session with Mark Jones and Mark LaMude down the local beach, ended up with a fish a cast for me eleven ray landed five being blonde ray to 12lb and six small eyed ray to 9lb
Between us we had over 27 ray all on the braunton bait box Sandeel.
Six members of Combe Martin SAC enjoyed a boat trip off Minehead on board Osprey Skippered by Steve Webber. The day started off with a cool North East breeze that made for an uncomfortable lop on the water. Despite this fish came steadily to the boat all day with smoothound the dominant species at our first mark in Porlock Bay. The biggest of the hounds was a low double. A range of baits worked for the hounds with crab, prawn and squid all tempting these hard fighting members of the shark family.
As is always the case banter flowed freely throughout the day that kept spirits up when heavy rain fell for a short while and grey skies shrouded the hills. John Shapland boated a fine huss of 11lb 8oz. (Below)
After a couple of hours targetting the hounds Steve suggested a move to the sandbanks to try for a few ray.
It wasn’t long at our new mark before we found a few ray with small- eyed ray, thornback and spotted ray finding our baits.
(Below)
The best specimen of the day turned out to be a fine small eyed ray that gave a spirited tussle before reaching the net that was expertly wielded by Skipper Steve Webber,
As the tide flooded we made a couple more moves before anchoring off Dunster to try for the hounds again. The hounds here in the murkier water were very light in colour and whilst not so numerous appeared to be a slightly bigger stamp of fish.
As the day started to drift towards its conclusion the sun eventually started to break through and enable us to peel off some of the layers. Nick and his son Jack were not up until now enjoying good sport and seemed to have a knack of finding the dogfish that punctuated every ones day as always. Fortunately persistence eventually paid off and something bigger nailed Nick’s bluey hook-bait.
After several minutes of tension there was some disappointment when the hard fighting fish turned out to be conger of perhaps 10lb.
Everyone on the boat by now really wanted Jack to catch a decent fish and Steve baited Jack’s hook with a generously donated helping of peeler crab. After a few minutes Jacks rod was bouncing on the gunnels and at last Jack enjoyed a bending rod as a hound fought strongly before reaching the boat.
Shortly after this it was time to head back to Minehead with its tourists crabbing down the harbour wall and devouring ice creams in the hot sun. We couldn’t help but wish it had been this calm and still all day. We ended the day with a flourish as several hounds came to the boat with John Shapland having an uncanny knack of finding the hounds.
Craig McCloughlin runs Braunton Baits and has just posted this report.
Just got back from another Braunton Bait Box / FishTrek stingray trip abroad.
This trip wasn’t to disappoint!! We managed a lot of different species and a lot of personal best’s broken several times over
Between us we landed
Eagle ray to 25lb +
Butterfly ray to 80lb+
Stingray ray to 170lb
Smooth hound to 21lb 10oz
Hammer head shark
Benito
Lizard fish
And Rikki having the fish of the holiday with an estimated weight of 170lb
and whats even better – all the rods I built stood up to the battle
If Anyone is interested in a trip abroad please get in touch
Presents Our
Saturday May 12th
Fishing From 9.30pm to 1.30am
Cash Prizes Of £100 & £50
And Many Other Donated Prizes
2 Rods, 4 Hooks, Specimen Sizes
Entry £5 plus £1 Pool Best Brace
Phone Nick 814703 Or Wayne 850586
For More Details Please Check www.cmsac.co.uk Or Our Facebook Page
Please Respect Putsborough & Remove All Litter
Jon Stevens sent me this stunning image from Woolacombe Beach;
Searching for a Spring ray -without any luck. But always worth it on evenings like those
As spring sets in there is a good chance of catching an early ray from our local surf beaches. Steve Dawe shared these fine images of the sun setting as he waited the onset of darkness and chance of a ray. Whilst he blanked on this occasion the scene certainly illustrates that there is more to this fishing than just catching fish. You can catch up more of Steve adventures by visiting his blog in which he describes his adventures whilst aiming to catch fifty species in a year for charity :- https://stevedawe189.wixsite.com/fishtytwochallenge
Combe Martin SAC member Jonathon Stanway also targetted ray from a local rock mark and was rewarded with a personal best small eyed ray of 11lb 2oz. ( Below)
Ian Laird landed this fine 9lb 7oz small eyed ray whilst fishing a North Devon Rock Mark. He also hooked this dab that had tried to engulf a mackerel and herring cocktail presented on a 6/0 hook to 80lb b.s wire!
Josh Atkinson put in the effort to make several trips throughout the back end of October and he was rewarded with 2 decent specimens, these were a locally caught Bull Huss of 13-7-8 and an Undulate Ray of 11-12-8 from Dorset’s chesil Beach. Josh was not sure he would have landed the Huss if it wasn’t for the strength and quality of the Cox & Rawle meat hooks as most hooks would probably have bent out when lifting a fish of that size. The fish was lifted as it was too rough to get to the shoreline with the net. Both fish were also released to fight another day.
Thirteen club members fished all along the North Devon and Somerset Coast Line in this Summer Rover and it was thin lipped mullet that dominated the prize table at the Rising Sun Lynmouth. James Hunter took the top two places in the event with thin Lipped grey mullet of 4lb 1oz and 3lb 12oz. In third place was John Shapland with a thin-lipped mullet of 3lb 11/2oz.
Daniel Welch tempted a thick lipped grey mullet of 3lb 7oz and a colourful wrasse.
Kevin Legge landed a brace of small eyed ray the best scaling 8lb 2oz and Rob Scoines a brace of small eyed each weighing 7lb 11oz.
The roving competition as with all Combe Martin SAC competitions was a catch and release event. Far better than the old days when the carcasses of fish were brought back to the scales. Fortunately we are still managing to meet up for a chat and pint afterwards. Many thanks to the Rising Sun for a delicious spread of sandwiches and hot chips. Much appreciated after a hard days fishing.
Ali Laird landed this superb small eyed ray weighing 9lb 7oz on a recent trip over the border to Somerset.