Combe Martin SAC member Ian laird landed this stunning 39lb 12oz from a North Devon rock mark. This is the second tope caught this week and bodes well for the coming weeks with more anglers hitting the shoreline over the festive period. I will take this opportunity to remind anglers of the dangers of shore fishing with cold water, surging waves and big fish a dangerous cocktail.
Shore caught tope are hard won fish that often require many hours of dedication to hook and land. Ollie Passmore has been targeting tope this season and has been rewarded with this fine specimen of 32lb 2oz.
“All the hours,effort and money chasing tope this year, i finaly land one and a cracker at that 32lb 2oz🎣 very sketchy landing this fish in the swell with great effort from @chuggehh who tailed the tope but he got hooked up also, causing the fish to be unhooked below me! so quick desicion to jump down to the waters edge before waves would of washed it away. Luckilly after getting wet it was safe on the rocks. Quick weigh and photos and it went back strong. It’s a Dream come true and what makes me love being out fishing on this coast.”
A mild breezy weekend saw flounder dominate local sea match results. There were plenty of flounder caught and some decent bass to over 4lb.
BIDEFORD ANGLING CLUB
December Rover Results.
1st Dick Talbot bull huss 8 lb 3 1/2oz
2nd Graham Snow flounder 1 lb 3 5/8oz
3rd Terry Dymond flounder 1 lb 3 1/4oz
APPLEDORE SHIPBUILDERS ROVER
Eighteen anglers fished in Appledore Shipbuilders Monthly Rover and flounder dominated the results with lots of school bass also caught.
1st – James Atkinson – flounder 1lb 14oz
2nd- Jazza John – flounder 1lb 91/4oz
3rd – Josh Atkinson – flounder 1lb 75/8oz
Juniors
1st – Jack Pike – flounder 1lb 47/8oz
Triple Hook Club – Ladies and Junior flounder Open
Ladies
1st – Marilyn Wotton -flounder 1lb 157/8oz
2nd – Joan Cairns – flounder 135/8oz
Junior
1st – Ian Cairns – flounder 1lb 25/8oz
Combe Martin Sea Angling Club held their AGM at the White Lion Braunton where fourteen members attended to hear a summary of the previous years fishing and to set ideas in motion for the year ahead.
2018 Club award winners:-
Best Specimen from the shore – Kevin Legge – conger 28lb
Best specimen from a boat – Rob Scoines – spur dog 18lb 2oz
Best specimen by a junior – Joshua Jeffery – thin lipped grey mullet 4lb 6oz
Best bass – Kevin Legge – 9lb 9lb 2oz
Best mullet – Joshua Jeffery – thin lipped grey mullet 4lb 6oz
Best flatfish – Matt Jeffery – flounder 1lb 14.75oz
Best wrasse – Ross Stanway – ballan wrasse 4lb 7oz
Best ray – Jonathon Stanway – small eyed ray – 11lb 2oz
Best cod – Rob Scoines 12lb 4oz
Best rockling – Rob Scoines – 1lb 9oz
Merit Award has been won by Daniel Welch for his success over a wide range of species from both boat and shore.
Top six specimens – Daniel Welch total – 646.737 Runner up – Ali Laird – 634.913
Top Six mullet – John Shapland – 631.906
Subscriptions for the coming year are :- Family £15. Senior £12.00. Senior Citizen – £5 Junior £1.00
The clubs full calendar of events will be formulated by mid December incorporating ideas from the membership at the meeting.
There was a full debate around a few suggested changes to specimen weight sizes and the following amendments were agreed.
Boat pollock to be reduced from 12lb to 10lb
Shore – spotted ray to be reduced from 5lb to 4lb 8oz
Shore – Thick Lipped mullet to increased from 4lb to 4lb 4oz
Shore – thin lipped mullet to be increased from 3lb 8oz to 4lb
The club are also introducing a new fish of the season prize for all club members.
A full report should appear before long on the clubs website. The club would like to thank Sakuma Tackle and High Street Tackle who have supported the club throughout the year.
For details on joining the club visit their website – www.cmsac.co.uk
http://www.highstreetackle.co.uk
Combe Martin SAC member Ian laird enjoyed a hectic session on a local rock mark catching a brace of Huss numerous dogfish and a few small conger. The rough weather should encourage a few larger fish close inshore with the next set of bigger tides likely to bring in a few spurdog.
Dan Walbridge headed to a remote rock mark on the North Devon Coast and enjoyed a successful session landing seven dogfish, a 6lb bull Huss, a bass, rockling, pollock, small conger and had a whiting bitten clean in half by something larger. Tope, conger or spurdog?
Paul Hutchings enjoyed a blank session but enjoyed the company of a cormorant that enjoyed feasting on scraps of bait. Paul tells me that the bird enjoyed blue and mackerel but declined squid strips. Whilst I find cormorants an unwelcome visitor on inland lakes and rivers I enjoy seeing them on the open coast where I feel they belong. There presence inland is a major issue but how much of that is man kinds fault in decimating baitfish numbers?
Winter League – Comp 1: November 2018:
A big well done to the twelve Appledore Shipbuilder members who braved a cold North East wind to secure some good fish.
Results:
1st – Graham Snow Mullet 4lb 9 1/4ozs
2nd – Josh Atkinson Small Eyed Ray 8lb 2ozs
3rd – Josh Atkinson Small Eyed Ray 7lb
It was a busy day in the estuary with several local clubs holding competitions on Sunday November 18th. The river has been in fine
form for flounder over the past couple of weeks with some really good catches.
Paul Hutching’s and his friend Andrew McKenna landed 41 flounder during a recent session along with four bass to 4lb. The biggest flounder fell to Paul and scaled 1lb 14oz.
Cyril Petherick competition
Results.
1st Andy Sanders flounder 2 lb 100%
2nd Andy sanders flounder 1 lb 13oz 90.625%
3rd Antony Smith flounder 1 lb 11 1/4oz 85.156
32 seniors fishing and 4 juniors with 29 fish weighed.
Barnstaple Triple Hook – Flounder Open
1st – Kevin Hancock – flounder 1lb 9oz
2nd Dennis Toleman – Flounder 1lb 81/2oz
Braunton Small Boats
Braunton Small Boat and Angling Club. Eight members fished a flounder competition.
1st Andy Hold 1lb 10oz,
2nd Jack Phillips 1lb 6oz
3rd Tracey Phipps 1lb 3oz.
