Its been very quiet from the shore over recent weeks with poor weather deterring many anglers from venturing forth. The water temperature is up for the time of year and this could encourage a few fish close inshore to start feeding. Ollie Passmore found success landing this fine small-eyed-ray of 10lb 4oz. His good friend Kody Chugg also succeeded landing a fine bass of 8lb that was carefully released after a quick picture.
Jon Stevens landed this fine small eyed ray during a session at a North Devon Rock mark.
Ollie Passmore enjoyed a ray fishing session to remember beaching seven small eyed ray to 8lb 11oz and three spotted ray to 2lb 9oz.
Combe Martin Sea Angling Clubs annual Putsborough Open has become a popular date on the local angling calendar and this years event attracted 49 competitors from all over the West Country. Once again the club were lucky to have good conditions with heavy rain that fell in some areas of North Devon skirting the beach. A heavy swell that pleased the surfers before darkness fell made fishing a little challenging at times but did not seem to deter the fish from feeding.
Each year it is good to see familiar faces on the beach and several commented to me that it was great to be there on such a night and to catch a fish would surely be a bonus. The fishing proved to be productive for some with small eyed ray, bass, smoothound, turbot and dogfish caught from all along the beach. No exceptional specimens were caught this year to match previous catches that have included double figure small eyed ray, tope to over forty pounds, blonde ray to over 10lb and huss and conger into double figures.
The winner of this years competition was Ross Stanway with a dogfish of 2lb one of several he landed that also won him the pool for the best brace with his second dogfish weighing 1lb 14.5oz.
The event was generously sponsored by Sakuma and Ilfracombe High Street Tackle enabling the top twelve anglers to walk away with a fine array of tackle in addition to the £100 first prize and £50 second prize in cash.
The top twelve were :-
1st – Ross Stanway – dogfish 2lb
2nd – Andrew Atkinson – small eyed ray – 6lb 10oz
3rd – Ross Stanway – dogfish 1lb 14.5oz
4th – Julian Druce – bass 5lb 1oz
5th – Gary Andrew – small eyed ray – 6lb 1oz
6th – 7th Dan Welch & Ross Stanway – dogfish 1lb 13oz
8th – 9th – Gareth Pike & Andrew Clements – dogfish 1lb 12oz
10th Joe Toop – small eyed ray – 5lb 11oz
11th – 12th Colin Emery & John Stanway – dogfish 1lb 11oz
The club would like to thank the owners of Putsborough beach for allowing us to hold the event and I would like to thank all those who made the effort to come and fish many traveling a good distance to be there. A special thanks to all who have sent me pictures of the event including the stunning image of two anglers admiring the setting sun taken by Callum Gove.
Dan Welch joined fellow Combe Martin SAC member Ross Stanway in search of a specimen ray. Whilst not reaching specimen size this 7lb 4oz small eyed ray made it well worth getting the rods out on a wet and windy evening.
Kody Chugg landed this fine small-eyed-ray of 9lb 9oz whilst fishing a North Devon Rock Mark.
Ian Hooper fished a local shore mark to land dogfish, whiting and this fine small eyed ray of 9lb 1.5oz. The fish was tempted using peeler crab presented on a pulley rig on a 3/0
Autumn is a prime time for the sea angler with a wide variety of species to target. The past week has seen local anglers enjoy success along North Devon’s rocky coast. Dan Spearman (Below) was among these anglers landing a bull huss of 9lb 3oz and a conger of 18lb.
Fellow Combe Martin SAC member James Thomas landed good pollock of 2lb 13oz along with numerous conger whilst fishing a rock mark near Ilfracombe. (Below)
Kody Chugg landed a small eyed ray (Below)
I targetted grey mullet that are one of my favourite sea fish and tempted a specimen of 4lb 13oz using quiver-tipped bread flake.
Autumn is one of the best months for the shore angler with plenty of species to target from both the open coast and estuary. Several ray have been landed from Ilfracombe Pier so I suspect local beaches could bring excellent results. Big bass and conger could also show on many beaches at this time of year with the outside chance of a tope. Below are a few recent catches from the North Devon Coast.
(Above) Ollie Passmore landed this fine small eyed ray of 9lb 13oz whilst fishing from Ilfracombe Pier a mark that can throw up a wide variety of species during the Autumn months.
(Above) James Thomas with a small eyed ray of 6lb 15oz also caught from Ilfracombe Pier.
Above – Brad Munden landed this small eyed ray of 10lb 8oz.
Above -John Shapland landed this stunning red mullet from a local shore mark.
Above -Rob Scoines fished the Taw estuary and found the flounder on the feed landing several to 1lb 6oz.
Graham Snow won Appledore Shipbuilders Monthly Rover with a thick lipped grey mullet of 3lb 6oz. Jazza John was runner up with a flounder weighing 1lb 107/8oz and Graham Snow third with a thin lipped mullet of 3lb 51/4oz. This success for Graham Snow seals victory for him as this years club shore champion with 46 points. James Atkinson and Andrew Atkinson are runners up with 24 points each.
Graham Snow also dominated Bideford Angling Clubs monthly sea match landing thick lipped mullet of 3lb 6oz and 3lb 5/7oz to take first and second and thin lips of 3lb 51/4oz and 3lb 5oz for third and forth. Dick Talbot took fifth with whiting of 1lb 3oz.
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.