Combe Martin SAC member Jamie Steward enjoyed Spring ray action from a Bristol Channel Mark landing a personal best blonde ray scaling 13lb 9oz.
Wimbleball Hardest Fighting trout in the West?
Late May is undoubtedly the best time to be in the English Countryside as natures lush greenery takes on that fresh vivid green hue that lasts a few fleeting weeks. The country lanes are lined with delicate white cow parsley and an abundance of late spring and early summer flowers.
Pauline and I were taking a short break on Exmoor. I was indulging in a few hours fishing at Wimbleball whilst Pauline relaxed in the sunshine and wielded the camera to capture a few images.
We arrived at the lake close to midday and set up beneath a bright blue sky as a cool breeze ruffled the lakes surface. I was surprised to see very little surface activity but elected to set up a floating line as I thought the trout would be likely to be in the upper layers.
The lake had risen several feet since my previous visit a fortnight ago as a result of persistent rainfall. I fished a team of three flies on a 12ft leader using a Montana on the point and two buzzers on the droppers. After twenty minutes without a pull, I changed to an olive damsel on the point and speeded up the retrieve. This brought an immediate response with a small wild brownie coming adrift after a brief tussle.
After a short coffee break I again changed tactics extending the leader around four feet and tying a bead headed buzzer to the point, a diawl bach to the middle dropper and a bright yellow blob to the top dropper. I cast this out and fished a very slow retrieve just keeping the line tight and watching the tip for movement.
After five minutes the line zipped tight and a rainbow erupted from the surface in a flurry of spray the reel singing as line evaporated through the rings. A handsome full tailed rainbow was eventually netted and admired.
The next three hours saw me bank five more trout to over five pounds all of them giving thrilling battles in the clear water. It was satisfying to have once again found the right tactics for the day which is after all what this wonderful game is all about.
We packed up late afternoon and headed to the George Inn at Brompton Regis that is now in the capable hands of Trudi and Mark Underhill. This delightful historical country Inn oozes history and has been carefully renovated to retain its character. Our large room looked out over a splendid Exmoor landscape as swifts and swallows swooped around this peaceful quintessential English village.
Several other anglers were enjoying an ale in the beer garden when we arrived and chatted enthusiastically about rainbow trout that took them to the backing as they drifted the lake on one of the Wimbleball fleet of boats.
We finished our day with a delicious meal in the busy bar relishing the sounds of laughter and chat after months of pandemic induced silence.
The combination of stunning fishing for some of the hardest fighting rainbows in the West and superb accommodation close by will I am sure prove very popular over the coming seasons.
Big Rivers Bring Silver Tourists
The Taw and Torridge are both running high following the recent spell of heavy rain but as the rivers drop and clear salmon and sea trout should start to show in good numbers. Jack Hillcox was fishing a River Taw beat with his father Simon who was acting as ghillie.
Simon told me ” The one thing better than catching a salmon is acting as ghille when your son lands one.We had half an hour left before I had to drop him at Tiverton Parkway and were just philosophising how we had a great day and fish didn’t really matter ….then wham! A memorable day and hoping we all have some action over the next week or so.”
The salmon was returned quickly and swam away like a rocket.
As the rivers drop salmon and sea trout will settle into known lies where for a few days they will be catchable. Im sure a few good brown trout will also seize the salmon flies like this fine brown tempted by a seasoned Torridge fisher.
I fished a middle Torridge Beat as the sun started to rise above the trees and had a couple of good pulls on a brass tube fly. The colour was perfect but the river is running just a little high and should be perfect within two or three days. Despite the lack of success is there a better place to be than in the river as the English countryside reaches early summer perfection?
After posting this I received news that Jamie Walden tempted a fine salmon of 16lb from Little Warham Fishery.
Double Figure smoothound
Jon Stevens landed a fine brace of double figure smoothound fishing a North Devon mark over the recent big spring tides the best hound scaling 11lb 2oz.
Big brace of spring small eyed includes club record!
Combe Martin SAC Member Mark Jones took a trip up channel in search of Spring ray and landed a stunning brace of small eyed ray scaling 13lb 15oz and 12lb 1oz both fish were “caught on a flooding tide both rods went at the same time the first rod I played and landed a lovely male small eyed at 12lb 1oz. Was really hectic for 20 minutes caught on Braunton Bait Box dirty squid and ammo sandeel! “.
The larger of the two fish sets a new club record for Combe Martin SAC.
BIG BASS FROM THE SURF
Liam Loveday tempted this stunning 13lb bass from a North Devon surf beach. The fish took a peeler crab bait presented on a 4/0 Chinu hook cast 30yards into the surf an hour before high water. The fish gave a strong account for close to ten minutes before being beached safely.The fish measured 87cm.
This is an encouraging catch from the surf early in the season.
Personal best bream and tench double!
Steve Dawe was due to go boat fishing on the same trip as myself last Monday but when the trip was cancelled due to strong winds Steve diverted his efforts to Lower Tamar Lake in search of specimen bream. Steve has invested many hours attempting to catch an illusive double figure bream. Below is Steve account of the trip.
“Last night a spur of the moment trip in blustery conditions resulted in 2 personal bests. I finally tracked down the Bream and landed fish of 8lb 6oz and 10lb 8oz losing another fish before the shoal moved. The next take was a PB Tench of 8lb 2oz, i am going be on cloud 9 for rest of May now! Soon forget all those blanks when you get payback. Shame the bloody camera lens kept fogging up”.
Watt a Carp!
North Devon angler Lee Watts fished Colebrooke fishery at Cullumpton and banked the carp known as paw print at 35lb 4oz along with a a common carp at 25lb 8oz both caught on grizzly test baits and Lees home made leads.
Bulldog Trout Fishery Latest Reports
Bulldog Trout Fishery is gaining a reputation for producing quality trout fishing as illustrated here from the latest report sent over by fishery owner Nigel Early.“At the end of the day nothing like a quite cast or two on my lake, time to reflect how lucky I am. Had my friends down from Evesham fishing today sadly one no longer with them having passed away and is sorely missed. A toast to Rodger during a break.
Well done to Bill for the biggest fish a Magnificent brownie of 10 lb plus,”
(Below) Krystian and his mates traveled from Yeovil to fish Bulldogs trout Lake were well satisfied with a great day with all three anglers taking four fish bags scaling;ing 17lb 9oz, 17lb and 15lb 12oz.The trout averaged between four and five pounds.
(Below) South Molton Bishop Mike Clothier tempted a fine brace of rainbows scaling 4lb 8oz and 8lb.
North Devon Match Group Versus Bideford AC Report from John Forster
North Devon Match Group Versus Bideford AC Report from John Forster
At the mega Stafford Moor Fishery Friends we had the first interclub against Bideford AC
With the Draw being done with Bideford choosing the bag with even numbers and the 2 lakes being used being Willow and Woodpecker of we went ,i drew peg 1 on Woodpecker which is a bit of a hit and miss peg , however i liked the look of it and hoped for the best
as the match progressed there was a fair bit of banter flying between the carp boys who we re also fishing a match on the speci lake actually really nice guy ,
i had set up 3 pole lines and a hybrid line and started on the method hitting 2 in the first 15 minutes ,
The pole lines were very quiet so back onto the tip this was the story all the way through the match
I would liketo say a big thanks To Martin Turner for sorting this for Bideford
To Jo and Paul for all the work they put into making Stafford one of if not the best Fishery in the UK ,
But at the end of the day NDMG 200 PTS BIDEFORD 151 POINTS
at the end i weighed in 112lb 03 to win the section and Nathan Underwood had 133.07 to win the Lake ,
Lake Winner
Woodpecker Nathan Underwood 133.07
Willow Paul Morris 112.00
Section Winners
Woodpecker
John Forster 112.03
Phil Bailey 127.05
Woodpecker
Christopher Morris 94,07
Martin Turner 76.12
