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.
On a stormy winter day small still-waters can offer the chance of excellent sport with hard fighting winter rainbows. Jeff Pearce and I met up with Dominic Garnett from the Angling Trust and his father John at Blakewell fishery where we hoped to connect with one of the recently stocked specimen brown trout. Our arrival coinciding with strong winds and heavy showers a full English breakfast in the cafe beside a glowing woodburner was a welcome option and enabled us to chat at length about blogging, photography and the intricacies of fishing. We discussed the most important aspects of a fly. Dominic stressed the importance of a quality hook and its trout attracting features. Whilst I agreed with these vital ingredients I stressed that the most important aspect is that the angler has confidence in the fly or lure. This generally leads to the angler fishing well keeping the fly in the water instead of constantly searching the fly box for inspiration. Dominic had also brought along his angling mascot the General who often features in Dominic’s musings in the acclaimed Fallon’s Angler magazine.
Eventually the call of the great outdoors became too strong and we ventured out to the lake. To our relief the water was still clear and had not been adversely affected by the torrential rain that turned the nearby river into a raging torrent.
The instant action we had all anticipated did not immediately occur and it was half an hour before Jeff hooked the first trout of the day. A pleasing rainbow a fish that thrives in the cold waters of winter.
Dominic and I had both expected the trout to respond to larger lures with perhaps a touch of colour. The trout had not read the script however and my first two fish and Jeffs were all tempted on small black flies or buzzers.
Many consider winter days to be drab and colourless but this is often far from true as winter sunshine and rainbows illuminated our day bringing pleasing winter vistas.
This was not one of those days when the trout attacked our offerings with gusto this was one of those days when persistance was essential. As the hours passed all too quickly the tally of trout slowly grew with the four of us eventually banking a dozen trout to just over 2lb.
Anglers Paradise are very proud and pleased to share with you that they have just given away £8500 to the following local charities :-
Devon Air Ambulance – £2500
Food Banks Okehampton and Holsworthy-£2000
Black Torrington Surgery Elevator – £1500
Exeter Hospiscare – £1000
Halwill Primary School – £1000
Halwill Parish Hall – £500
We’d like to thank all our customers for their generosity throughout the year. All year we continue to raise as much as we can at Anglers Paradise through doing Raffles, Quiz Nights, we also raise most of the money during our annual Netting week through events like Archery, Bingo Night, Race Night, Quiz Night, Treasure Hunt, Tombola, Pool and Darts competitions etc.
Pictured is Zyg and Rose Gregorek and Daughter Zenia, Brian Kneebone of Devon Air Ambulance, Sally Hill from Blake House Surgery, Head Teacher of Halwill Primary School Ruh Alford, Sarah Gainsbury and Roger Young of Holsworthy Food Bank, Reginald Harnel of Okehampton Food Bank and Jill and Paul Voaden of Hospiscare.
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.”
Neil Harvey and Mark Lamude banked 7 fish between them from the double swim 1 up on lodge lake at the weekend. All caught on Mainline cell tipped with corn glugged in cell juice.
(Below)Tony Welch who was here with friend Shaun who Had a few fish out from swims 2 and 3 on the dam wall on Beatties lake up to 23lb in a 24 hour session caught on essential B5 Q.
(Below) Joanne Combes with one of her first carp from her own venue!
Christmas Match yesterday at Wooda Lakes in horrible wet and windy conditions. The match was spread over two lakes, lakes 3 and 4. The winner on lake 3 was Simon Poynter with 73lb 2oz and runner up was Kevin Wilton with 61lb 2oz. The winner on lake 4 was Barry Lee with 61lb 12oz and runner up was Dean Vickery with 58lb 6oz. Overall winner on the day was Simon Poynter.
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
North Devon Match Group Winter League No 3 @ Oaktree Fishery Results
1st Kevin Shears 41lb 8oz
2nd Tom Downing 38lb 5oz
4th Ken Cocks 25lb 8oz
5th Martin Turner 24lb 14oz
6th Stuartshelley Burridge 20lb 4oz
The 20 anglers that attended this event were pegged on both top and bottom ponds . The fishing proved tricky in the wet blustery conditions, Kevin has once again come out on top with a 7 fish catch, from an un-fancied peg on the top pond dam ,to pole and corn . Tom Downing has drawn on the bottom on peg 19 and landed a similar catch on feeder and pole for 2nd. John Forster fished the feeder on peg 7 casting to the island for 3rd. 4th spot was Ken Cocks also on the top pond on peg 7.
Aaron Bunning continued his great form on Upper Tamar lake on the Cornwall and Devon border. Aaron caught two carp on his most recent visit, one chunky common at 23lb 12oz and one long lean common at 19lb 14oz. Both fish fell to 20mm Scopex Squid Wafters tipped with fake corn over a scattering of matching freebies.
Twenty Five of Blakewell Fisheries regular anglers attended the fisheries popular Christmas Competition where they enjoyed an unseasonably mild winters day with cloudy Skies that should have been ideal for trout fishing. Those anglers prepared to persevere and try different flies enjoyed a successful days fishing with six anglers taking their six fish limits. Small dark flies proved to be most effective with black and green combinations proving most productive.
The winner of the competition was Paul Grisley who banked six trout for 15lb 8oz. In runner up spot was Graham Turner with six for 13lb 10oz and in third Andy Facey with six for 13lb 5oz. In forth place was John Buxton with six for 12lb 7oz.
The competition was punctuated by a delicious chilli con carne meal followed by mulled wine and mince pies. John and Richard Nickel thanked all competitors for their valuable support following a difficult summer season when many thousands of pounds worth of prime quality stock fish were lost as a result of exceptionally high temperatures. They talked of ambitious plans for the coming season with bank side improvements, weed cutting and of course every endeavour to ensure the fisheries stock fish are of the highest quality as the season progresses.
(Below) Small dark flies like this Black and peacock variant proved successful.
(Below)
The coming weeks should see some excellent fishing with several stunning big brown trout stocked.
(Below) Winter Trout Fishing at Blakewell
