Sea Anglers are catching some good fish from the North Devon shore line with huss, spurdog and conger amongst catches.
Prospects for the coming month are excellent if the Westerly winds persist.
Combe Martin SAC member Ross Stanway enjoyed a session at a local shore mark to land several ray including three small eyed ray of 8lb 8oz and a brace of spotted ray.
Bideford Angling Club Monthly Sea Rover
January Rover results
9 angler’s fished
1 fished weighed
1st Stephen Found Dog 2lb 3 1/2oz
Combe Martin SAC member Ross Stanway enjoyed a short session at a North Devon mark where he landed four ray the best a small eyed ray of 9lb 1oz. He also caught dogfish and whiting.
The sea angling calendar was dominated by flounder this weekend with The Dan Miles Redmore Memorial Competition and Triple Hook Clubs popular Christmas Turkey Open both coinciding on Sunday 18th December. These competitions tend to signify the end of the flounder season on the Taw and Torridge Estuary. It has not been a particuarly productive flounder season this year with very few large flounder tempted. Flounder fishing tends to be cyclical and after last years bumper season it is no surprise that this year has been slower.
Good news has been a significant number of codling in the lower estuary with catches close to those of past decades. It will be interesting to see if there is any improvement of cod numbers on the open coast.
The seasons on the coast seem to so hard to predict, I would suggest anglers try and think out of the box and try different things. In last weeks bitter cold weather good numbers of garfish were being caught from Ilfracombe Pier. Garfish were once thought of as summer fish now they seem to be caught more often in late autumn into winter. Bass are present all year along with grey mullet and ray can be caught from beaches all year.
Bidefords 48 hour results
1st Nathan Clements Flounder 1lb 7 1/4oz
2nd Julien Stainer Flounder 1lb 6 7/8oz
3rd Stephen Found Flounder 1lb 6 5/8oz
Combe Martin Sea Angling Clubs Christmas Competition was won by David Brooke who caught a small eyed ray scaling 7lb 13oz. Daniel Welch took second and third with a dogfish of 1lb 15oz and a bull huss of 5lb 11oz. Fourth was Ross Stanway with a dogfish of 1lb 10oz.
TRIPLE HOOK CLUB -CHRISTMAS TURKEY OPEN
Thirty-Three anglers fished the ever popular Christmas Open Competition with the top ten winning their Christmas Turkey.
1st – Nathan Clements – Flounder 1lb 7.25oz
2nd – Julian Stainer – Flounder 1lb 67/8oz
3rd Stephen Found – Flounder 1lb 65/8oz
4th Dennis Toleman – Flounder 1lb 63/8oz
5th Kevin Hancock – Flounder 1lb 51/4oz
6th Mark Beer – Flounder 1lb 5oz
7th Christine Hancock – flounder 1lb 4oz
8th Nigel Gullon – flounder 1lb 21/2oz
9th Andrew Smith – flounder 1lb 11/2oz
10th – Robbie Hancock – flounder 1lb 11/4oz
November 48-hour results
1st Jon Stevens Spotted Ray 4lb 7oz 98.610%
2nd Jon Stevens Spotted Ray 3lb 13 1/2oz 85.416%
3rd Andrew Clements Dog 2lb 8 1/4oz 83.854%
Combe Martin SAC are hosting an Open Competition on November 12th. The boundaries are in line with the clubs boundaries. Old Severn Bridge to Lands End. The competition is catch and release with a photo of catch required along with a witness to the capture. Booking in is via the clubs facebook page, via phone or in person via High Street Tackle Ilfracombe.
See Combe Martin SAC Website for relevant specimen sizes ( Note for the competition dogfish specimen size is 3lb 8oz)
Entry fee is £5
October and early November can offer some of the best mullet fishing of the year as these fish often feed hard prior to the onset of winter. In past decades the end of October signalled the end of the mullet fishing season but now these wily fish can be caught throughout the year. Harbours and rock marks are well worth fishing throughout North Devon.
NEWS (longer post than normal but please read and share if you can)… Sea safety has been brought right to the forefront this week and I cannot reiterate again how grateful I am that all ended well last weekend. FIRST NEWS Just to remind everyone that we stock two sorts of life jackets instore, both Crewsaver and both the automatic type which we recommend, different sorts all available to order too. Rearming kits are available and Appledore Station will also be holding a lifejacket clinic, date to be confirmed…**Payment plans are available for lifejackets please see below for details. SECOND NEWS As many of you are aware Simon is an Appledore RNLI crew member and Appledore Station will be bringing the boat along side Appledore Quay this weekend from 3.30pm – 5pm so please pop down and have a look around and make a donation if you can. **We are aware that everything is all a bit tight at the moment and payment plans are available instore for lifejackets (subject to eligibility) Please ask for details in store. A donation is also made to Appledore RNLI for each one purchased from us at Summerlands Tackle. Thanks for reading.
Following on from my previous post Jamie has asked if I could share the below on my website.
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/lyndse-and-jamie-steward-rnli-ilfracombe?utm_term=mPZrnaDY8 please could you share this on your page and help me raise money for the RNLI ilfracombe as they saved my life on Saturday night the least I can do is raise them some money. I will be walking 100k with my wife in the lakedistrict to help them like they helped me. 🙏 also I want to try and raise awareness on an anglers safety and try and get as many anglers as I can to buy a crew saver life jacket or floatation device. These should become an essential part of our kit. Regards Jamie
Since publishing my initial article on this near miss I have received considerable feedback and believe that the local RNLI will be launching an awareness campaign on safety. I will liaise with them to help promore awareness of the dangers and how to increase survival rates if things go wrong.
Local tackle shops are joining in the general effort to raise awareness.
Quay Sports posted the below guidance
and enjoy your angling.
Simon McCarthy at Summerlands works on the lifeboat and has been involved in many local rescues and is keen to offer advice to any anglers who vist the shop at Westward Ho!