A short session on the rocks produced plenty of dogfish for Rob Scoines and myself. Conditions seemed perfect with the seas having settled nicely following the weekend storms. A pleasant surprise was this near specimen rockling of 1lb 9oz that fell to Rob along with pollock of a couple of pounds. There a bound to be a few spurdog and bull huss about but getting through the dogfish and small conger is as always a challenge.
Kody Chugg landed this fine small-eyed-ray of 9lb 9oz whilst fishing a North Devon Rock Mark.
Combe Martin SAC member Ross Stanway fished with his brother Jonathan on damp and drizzly evening with a lively sea. Jonathan hooked a Conger of 10lb 8oz early on in the evening; his biggest to date having not really done much eel fishing. I joked. “Imagine what one 3 times the size fights like!”. Ross then illustrated his point landing an eel of 30lb 3oz!
(Above)Ross Stanway with a proper conger – 30lb 3oz
Dan Miles Redmore landed this stunning 8lb 7oz bass from a local shore mark.
(Above) Ollie Passmore with a double figure conger from a local shore mark.
(Above) Ross Stanway with a fine bull huss of 11lb 9oz tempted whilst bass fishing with a light weight 2oz to 4oz bass rod.
John Shapland has a slender lead in Combe Martin SAC’s two month long species hunt sponsored by Ilfracombe’s High Street Tackle adding the a above gilthead bream to bring his total to 33 species. Dan Welch is currently on 30 species but will am sure be gong all out to catch up.
http://www.highstreettackle.co.uk
Dan Miles Redmore enjoyed a trip up over the border and landed a fine brace of small eyed ray scaling 12lb 4oz and 9lb 14oz.
Spring time is the best time to head out and catch a big bull huss as Combe Martin SAC member Kevin Legge did recently catching this handsome huss of 10lb 1oz during one of his recent sessions.
Huss are a far more welcome catch than their relative the Lesser spotted dogfish that devour anglers baits spoiling the chance of something better. Huss can be tempted on a wide range of baits with big squid or mackerel baits favorite. In the murky waters along the Somerset coast near Porlock and Minehead these fish can be caught throughout the day. In North Devon’s clearer waters night time is undoubtedly best with rough ground more likely to bring results.
Rick Blackmore (Below) also targetted the species landing several in recent weeks topped by this specimen of 12lb 13oz.
Ian Hooper fished a popular North Devon Mark to land this handsomely marked plaice tempted using king ragworm. He also landed small bass, whiting and smoothound. Whilst many anglers make the long trek to catch plaice from Chesil beach and other South Coast Beaches it is surprising what can be caught in our own waters here in North Devon. The use of smaller hooks and worm baits can bring a wide variety of species to the shore and who knows perhaps there are a few specimen plaice to be caught. I have heard eye witness accounts from divers seeing very large plaice off our coast. Perhaps we just need to adapt to unlock the secrets of the coast.
The Atkinson Family Fished a local rock mark in search of an eel, huss or a late spurdog. Andrew Atkinson caught 3 spurs to 11lb 12ozs and Cameron Atkinson caught not only his first shore caught spurdog but he managed 2 spurs to 11lb 14ozs (new pb), Josh Atkinson managed to tick off the eel with a small one around 15lb and the huss with one about 4lb meaning we achieved all target species. Also had loads of dogfish!
James Atkinson enjoyed success when targetting spurdog tempting a specimen of 10lb 13.5oz using squid, mackerel and herring cocktail.
Late winter is a good time to target specimen ray as Combe Martin SAC member discovered when he hooked this specimen small eyed ray of 10lb 4oz. (below)
