Many Thanks to Sakuma for their ongoing support of North Devon Angling News.
Prospects for the coming weekend are looking good with a wide range of species available to target. Weather wise Sunday is the best looking day with light winds and sunshine. Fish don’t always worry about the weather though and night sessions could be profitable for bass, huss, conger and ray.
Combe Martin SAC are holding an Open competition over the weekend so this will encourage a few anglers to get out and see whats about. Might even win a prize from the sponsors Sakuma and Ardosia slate.
(Below)Mark Jones fished a local rock mark and landed a fine smoothound and beautiful wrasse.
(below) John Shapland caught this fine grey mullet earlier this week.
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.
Fifty eight anglers descended upon Putsborough beach for the annual Combe Martin Sea Angling Club Open and they met with ideal conditions. The east wind that had blown for several days had abated and the sea was calm as everyone gathered in the car park to book in.
It was good to chat with a few anglers who I had reported on over the past twelve months on this website. The nice thing about this competition is that it has a really friendly vibe with anglers meeting up, sharing tales and making plans.
Combe Martin SAC give special thanks to their sponsors; Sakuma, High Street Tackle, Veal Mail Order and Kevin Legge. Thanks also to Putsborough Sands for allowing the use their venue once again. The club also wish to thank all who took part with many anglers travelling a considerable distance to fish the event. Really pleased to hear several cheery “see you next year” as anglers sped off into the night at the end.
The fishing proved to be pretty good as well with most anglers catching fish and more than enough to match the impressive array of prizes on offer at the end. Over thirty small eyed ray were caught, one blonde ray, several smoothound to 5lb 8oz and of course plenty of dogfish.
1st – Matt Druce – blonde ray -11lb 41/4oz
2nd -Dale Kiff – small eyed ray – 7lb 14oz
3rd – Gareth Pike- dogfish – 2lb 5oz
4th – Garry Andrews – small eyed ray – 7lb 1/2oz
5th – Matt Druce – smell eyed ray – 6lb 151/2oz
6th – Dan Welch – small eyed ray – 6lb 15oz
7th – Dan Redmore – small eyed ray – 6lb 12oz
8th – Colin Emery – dogfish 2lb
9th – Lee Holden – dogfish 1lb 15oz
10th – Gareth Pike – dodfish 1lb 14oz
Nick Smith – dogfish 1lb 14oz
Ben Putman – dogfish 1lb 14oz
11th – Ross Stanway – small eyed ray – 6lb 21/2oz
12th – Ben Putman – small eyed ray – 6lb 10z
Colin Tanton – small eyed ray 6lb 1oz
Junior prize – Ollie Laird dogfish – 1lb 15oz
Best Brace -Matt Druce – Blonde Ray 11lb 41/2oz & small eyed ray 6lb 151/2oz Total = 163.4%
Below are a few pictures and comments from the night I will add as I get more so please feel free to send images and comments I try to make this a site for the angling community.
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(above ) Dale Kiff
(Above) Nick Phillips
Mike Seatherton ( Above) – Fished Putsborough competition last night, really enjoyed it, managed to catch a few fish, smooth hound, small eyed ray and plenty of dog fish, biggest ray 4lbs 10oz,
Congratulations to all who got on the prize table!
(Above) Rob Scoines
(Below) Matt Druce and his winning fish , great turn out and thank you to all the sponsors and the usual suspects for a well organized event
Ross Stanway fished Ilfracombe Pier with me on Tuesday evening and we chatted at length about tope fishing. The following night Ross was inspired to head back out to the coast with his good friend Daniel Welch. The decision proved to be a good one as Ross was rewarded with a fine tope of 34lb 1oz. The fish was tempted using half a mackerel presented on 8/0 Sakuma Manta extra hooks.