Bidefords Evening comp on Tarka Swims was won by Colin Gorman on peg E with a weight of 10lb 9oz, one good bream and a carp on prawn, fished on a method feeder, 2nd place went to Craig Crash Lamey on peg X with 9lb 3oz, Craig unfortunately landed a large carp after time which would have been enough for victory. 3rd place went to Pete Slade on peg A.
12 people enjoyed another warm evening and our league leader is Keith Copland on 50 closely followed by Peter and Colin both on 46
Ian Blewett landed the above 5lb 12oz grilse whilst fishing for sea trout at a quarter to midnight on a Middle Taw beat. The recent rain has encouraged a trickle of salmon and sea trout into both the Taw and Torridge. Two salmon of 5lb and 11lb were caught on a Middle Taw beat on Friday. Rumours are circulating of a 14lb + sea trout from the River Mole?
On the Torridge four grilse were tempted from a Middle River Beat despite the river being very low.
Calm sea have enabled Ilfracombe Boats to get out and put anglers amongst the fish. Dan Hawkins Reel Deal often ventures down to the mouth of the Bristol Channel where large numbers of mackerel and pollock have been caught along with tope and bass.
Gary Mills and friend Dennis were here on the beach swim on Beattie’s Had 11 fish out between them up to 21lb on Cc Moore live system boilies.
James Snell (below) landed 12 fish in a 48 hour session from the Dam wall on Lodge lake using Nash & C R Baits p to 17lb 4oz.
Trevor Walker, 61 from Wakefield landed this gorgeous 6lb 3oz Koi from the Koi Lake – An awesome picture of colourful fish.
William Leonard, 18 from Harlow, Essex had a very successful week catching a variety of exoctic species including this stunner!
William caught this very rare and unusual 3lb 8oz Two Tone Golden Tench from the Specimen Tench and Orfe Lake using the traditional lift method with an Allcock Aerial Match Centrepin and handmade float. The bait of choice was sweetcorn fished in the margins.
Jacob Wise in this picture is an Angler who does love to catch eels, this one was from the Octopussy Lake, there are eels the Lakes up to 6lbs may be more!
John Forster with a pleasing net of carp and tench from Horwood lakes. Day tickets available from Summerlands Tackle.
Joanne Combes at Stafford Moor writes” Steve Pinn AKA The bivvy tramp up on lodge lake on the sunset swim. He had in 3 nights Here at Stafford Moor Fishery in Dolton & had out 44 fish yes 44 in a 3 night session up on the sunset swim on lodge lake fishing with Sticky Baits Krill boilies. Fab session ”
(Above)Solomon Storrie who was here with dad John and friend Ian. They had 9 fish out from the summer hut swim on Beattie’s Lake fishing with Main line cell and Mainline salmon & shrimp boilies.
Solomon had a new pb of 16lb 9oz.
Keith Copeland won Bideford’s Monthly Coarse Match at Tarka Swims with 14lb 14oz a bag that contained two good-sized carp. Martin Turner was runner up with three carp for a total of 12lb and John Lisle third with 4lb 11oz.
Keith fished with double maggot on peg M using a pole in the margins he landed 2 good carp to register his 1st victory.
Martin Turner caught 3 carp on running line tactics using banded pellets for 2nd.
John Lisle landed one carp on corn for 3rd , Matt Cross had a fine perch of 2lb 3oz along with roach to take the silvers bag.
Current points John Lisle 98 Martin Turner 81 Steve Bailey 65
Summer evening on a trout lake in early July lush green vegetation surrounding the mirror calm surface. Swallows swooping over the water with trout cruising clearly visible in crystal clear water.
I was enjoying an evening at Blakewell with their resident instructor Jeff Pearce. Jeff was as always kitted out with the latest top quality tackle from Snowbee a Spectre 5 weight rod matched to a 2 to 5 weight thistledown fly line that has recently won a prestigious European Fly Fishing Trade Award.
I had elected to contrast Jeff’s top of the range modern tackle by bringing along a 7ft Scottie Split Cane rod that I purchased from a work colleague last year. I later discovered that the rod had once been owned by Richard Mann a regular at Blakewell who sadly passed away last year. Whilst I am not a devout advocate of vintage tackle I do have a fondness for angling history and split cane rods have a certain feel that is somehow more in sync with nature than the steely modern perfection of carbon fibre.
We had decided to restrict ourselves to dry fly only on this warm and sultry evening planning to savour the visual delights of this method. It is surprising that so many anglers miss out on the best trout fishing summer has on offer by concentrating their efforts during the daytime hours often fishing office hours between 9.0am and 5.00pm when they could arrive at 5.00pm and fish until dusk when the fish undoubtedly become more active.
After a days work that had entailed a meeting in Plymouth I was relieved to eventually arrive at the lake at close to 6.30pm where I found Jeff chatting to a couple of visiting anglers.
Trout were clearly visible, some cruising and others were suspended lethargically almost motionless in the water
I tied a small grey duster to my 4lb point and worked the fly line until I had found the range of the target trout. Jeff was soon into action tempting a fish on a small caenis imitation. After a pleasing tussle a beautiful spotted brown trout of a couple of pounds was being admired.
It was obvious that the actively cruising trout were the fish to target as they were we guessed on the lookout for food. After a few refusals I dropped my fly into the path a cruising fish and watched as it nonchalantly swam up to the fly and slurped in my offering. The satisfying tightening of the line and well-bent rod followed this delightful moment of deception. This was the first decent sized trout I had hooked on the old Scottie as previous outings with the rod had been on the river where I had relished catching 4oz wild browns. This 2lb plus rainbow was a more severe test for the rod though I lent into the fish with total confidence enjoying every moment as the old cane absorbed every lunge.
As we fished on Jeff enjoyed success with a small sedge pattern twitching it a few times and then pausing. This often provoked a rise from the trout and a well bent rod. I followed suit tying on a sedge pattern myself and casting to active trout. This was fascinating fishing watching each fish’s reaction to the fly. There is surely no more enjoyable way to catch trout than with the dry fly?
Image by Jeff Pearce
As the sun slowly sank the trout became more active as the air-cooled and more flies hatched around the lake. There was no hurry to catch fish as we enjoyed the ambience of the summer lake. Chatting about fishing here and there and hatching plans for fly-fishing excursions in both saltwater and fresh. Jeff is a dedicated fly angler and relishes catching on this method above all others.
As the sun sank we took the opportunity to capture images of reflections in the water as the summer day ebbed away. A pair of kingfishers flashed across the water a pleasing glimpse of blue and orange. A heron wheeled above the trees emitting a primeval cry and resembling a pterodactyl that once flew millions of years ago. Such summer evenings are to be savored as the evenings once again begin to shorten as summers glorious peak of perfection passes.
Kody Chugg tempted this bass of 4lb 6oz from a local rock mark using a whole squid presented on a pulley rig. The next couple of months should see plenty of bass caught along the coast to anglers using a wide variety of tactics. In recent seasons the number of bass tempted on lures has increased with double figure fish amongst them. There was a time when the general consensus was that big bass generally fell to bait this no longer holds true. Bass can be found over a huge range of venues with large specimens often moving into unsuspected areas under the cover of darkness. In these areas a degree of stealth can certainly pay dividends.
