Chris Davis won Stafford Moors over 50’s Festival achieving an amazing total weight of 400lb 6oz over the week. In runner up spot was Adrian Marshall and in third Martin Heard. There were some stunning nest of fish caught during the festival with Oak Lake fishing particularly well with Adrian Marshal putting together a haul of 164lb 2oz. Chris won £1000 plus a Maver luggage set donated from Steve Bowen (Maver), a £50 voucher also donated by Neil Stones. Neil donated another £50 voucher for second place winner Adrian Marshall.
Anglers Paradise is well known as one of the countries top angling holiday destinations attracting anglers and their families from far and wide. The lake also has extensive opportunities for the day ticket angler with some of North Devon’s biggest carp. The Kracking carp lake is not an easy water but its resident carp are well worth the effort holding specimens to over fifty pound. The latest reports for the fishery indicate some superb results.
Mick Whitfield with his 45lb 2oz mirror carp
5C’s Member, Mick Whitfield, 45 from Exwick had a Red Letter Session on the Kracking Carp Lake catching a personal best 36lb Common followed by a personal best Mirror of 45lbs 2oz!! This was Mick’s 1st ever session on the Kracking carp lake, he fished Peg 3 and pre-baited with Paradise Pellet and a Kilo of Cell Boilies using a White Pop Up on a New Rum Rig from Custom Made Carp Rigs. Mick caught the 36lb Common at 2.30am during a very misty night, Mick carried on fishing into his 2nd Night and prayed his luck would continue, and it did because at 4.30am as the sun started coming up his right hand rod slowly went off again, Mick hooked into the Fish and knew it was Big as it gave him a good fight, as soon as Mick saw the Fish he knew it was another PB, a Huge Mirror and it weighed in at 45lb 2oz.
Mick Said – “Another PB, I smashed it with my common at 36lb but smashed it again and have now joined the 40 club, just turned 45 Years Old and now I have a Stunning PB 45lb 2oz Mirror to match! It was a memorable session a double red letter day, that I still haven’t stopped smiling from!”
Jacob Wise 26lb 4oz Common carp
Jacob Wise, 36 from Gloucestershire, caught this Stunner of a Common at 26lbs 4oz, from the Day Ticket Xanadu Lake and as you can see, he was one VERY happy Man! Jacob caught the Common on a Paradise Baits Pink Stink Wafter, dropped in the margins after spotting a fish, with a small handful of maggots over the top for good luck. Jacob said “We’ll be down for a week in 2 weeks time so hopefully my luck will continue…”
Mick Whitfield with his 36lb common carp
There are always surprises in fishing even in a relatively small lake like Kracking as Carl Loftus discovered as reported below by Anglers Paradise
11lb 8oz Kio
Carl Loftus, 51, from Stockport who caught an amazing Personal Best and also a BIG SURPRISE 11lb 8oz Koi from the Kracking Carp Lake, a Fish that we are all puzzled by as to how it got in there but what a fish!!
Carl’s Story –
“On Saturday I fished the Kracking Carp Lake with my wife and friend Maggot Mick. Saturday was fishless for me but on Sunday, I noticed the Lilly pads moving so I put some mixers and watched, then to my surprise, I saw a BIG Koi taking off the top, so I brought one of my rods in and set up my stalking rod.
The Koi spooked but I watched it for an hour or so, when it returned it took a mixer so I placed my oily floater next to where it had taken from and it took it straight away!!
It gave me a 5 minute fight and I couldn’t believe when it weighed in at 11lbs 8oz happy days!!”
Thirteen year old Jack Pike enjoyed a day afloat on his father Kevin Pikes boat a 21ft Orkney Day Angler he landed a fine spurdog of 15lb 2oz and a tope of 21lb 14oz. Cameron Atkinson also shared the days sport landing a smoothound of 14lb 6oz while Andrew Atkinson boated a fighting fit smoothound of 15lb 1oz.
Jack Pike with a 15lb 2oz spurdogCameron Atkinson with a smoothound of 14lb 6oz
Horwood Lakes have just opened and provide superb fishing for carp and tench. The latest match held at the venue was won by Nathan Underwood with 44lb 13oz. Neilsen Jeffrey was runner up with 31lb 6oz and was Kevin Shears third with 20lb 11oz and in forth John Forster with 20lb 4oz.
Day tickets for the lakes are available from Summerlands Tackle Westward Ho!
Richard Budge won this years Putsborough Open competition organized by Combe Martin Sea Angling Club with a specimen smoothound scaling 10lb 5oz. Runner up in the event was David Brooke who landed a fine small-eyed ray weighing 10lb 1oz. Richard Budge secured the pool with his smoothound weighing 10lb 5oz and a small-eyed ray of 8lb 4oz that also secured third prize. Thirty eight anglers fished in the competition that was generously sponsored by Sakuma Tackle, Ammo Baits, Braunton Bait Box,chillcheaters and Veal’s Mail Order and Combe Martin SAC providing £150 prize money. Competitors enjoyed ideal conditions and landed a good number of small-eyed ray and dogfish with a few smoothound.
FULL PUTSBOROUGH RESULTS
1st – Richard Budge – smoothound 10lb 5oz
2nd – David Brooke -small eyed ray – 10lb 1oz
3rd – Richard Budge – small eyed ray – 8lb 4oz
4th – David Brooke – small eyed ray – 8lb 2oz
5th Robert Hancock – small eyed ray – 6lb 153/4oz
6th – Dan Dan Miles Redmore -small eyed ray -6lb 71/2oz
7th – David Brooke – small eyed ray 6lb 7oz
8th – Graham Snow – dogfish – 1lb 141/2oz
9th – Andrew Atkinson – small eyed ray – 6lb 5oz
10th – Graham Snow – dogfish 1lb 13oz
11th – Chris Slade – small eyed ray- 6lb 1oz Stephen Jenkins – small eyed ray – 6lb 1oz
Pool – Richard Budge smoothound 10lb 5oz & small eyed ray 8lb 4oz
Junior prize – Jack Phillips – dogfish 1lb 8oz
Jason and Leanne Mcevoy have been warming up for the £3500 Pallatrax carp Open at Upper Tamar on 1-3 July with a fine run of form at the venue. They managed 9 carp in their last session to just under 20lb with a new PB for Leanne and they are currently in mid session and Leanne has gone and done it again! This stunning 25lb Mirror falling to Leanne’s Future baits boilie from the Lookout Tower Swim on the Cornwall bank. So far they have banked 7 fish with Jason landing a cracking 21lb common.
Anglers Paradise is without doubt North Devon’s number one venue for Catfish with the species present in many of the lakes on the complex including several that are open to day ticket anglers. The most prolific day ticket lake is probably angler’s Eldorado that has a large population of these hard fighting fish to over forty pounds.
Jon Patten visited the lake for a day session with his son Reef and landed seven including fish of 27lb and 26lb.
The Day Ticket Nirvana Cat Lake is less populated but has far bigger fish with fish rumoured to exceed 60lb within its moderate size. The lower population means that these fish are harder to tempt and night sessions can be worth the effort.
Recent catches from this lake include these as reported from Anglers Paradise by Zenia Gregorek daughter of the complexes father Zyg Gregorek who built the fishery from what was an empty lake back in 1981.
Alison Pearson, 41, a Human Resources Manager for a Charity, from Mansfield, Nottinghamshire only went and smashed her Personal Best Cat with this 48lb 8oz Catfish from the Day Ticket Specimen Cat Lake! Ali said–“Mick and I decided to target Cat’s as they seemed very active on the complex! After a slow day on Octopussy on Wednesday (where I had caught my previous PB), my hubby asked if I fancied fishing the Specimen Cat Lake, I said yes of course and we made our way down the lane on Thursday morning!!! At around 1pm, my rod screamed off…after an epic battle, the Cat was in the net (thanks to my hubby for landing it for me!). I was overjoyed when we weighed the fish and it was 48lb 8oz…smashing my previous PB! It was a day’s fishing I will never forget!!! I caught the cat on a blowback rig with Hybrid bottom bait and Krill pop up.”
Kim Mainwaring, 52 from Wales also caught an Amazing New Personal Best 52lb Catfish from the Day Ticket Specimen Cat Lake after following advice from Estate Manager Joe. Kim Said – “After holidaying in Anglers Paradise for the last Seven Years, 4 years ago was when I caught my personal Best 37lb 12oz Catfish, so the aim this year was to catch a Bigger Cat! After some top tips from Joe, we headed down to the Specimen Cat Lake for the day. Within 2 hours, I beat my PB with a Monster 52lb 2oz Catfish!!! I caught her on 2 Cubes of Luncheon Meat – Amazing Feeling”. Kim was also the 1st Female to Win Our Fish Of The Week Competition so far this Year.
Shore anglers are enjoying some fine sport with smoothound packs prowling their regular haunts all along the coast. CMSAC member Dan Spearman landed a personal best specimen of 13lb 6oz. Fellow member Matt Jeffery also landed a smoothound of 10lb 6oz.
Lee Watts won North Devon Leagues Champion of Champion match with a smoothound scaling 12lb 4oz. Steve Luxton was runner up with a hound of 11lb 4oz.
Thin Lipped grey mullet are now providing sport in the Taw and Torridge estuaries with baited spinners the tried and tested tactic. Recent seasons have seen specimens to over five pounds landed.
Mackerel are being caught off Ilfracombe but numbers are patchy at the moment with Pollock also being tempted on feathers. Garfish are also being tempted by anglers float fishing off the pier.
I fished a short LRF session with fellow Combe Martin SAC member Rob Sciones and whilst I failed to tempt any fish Rob tempted a fine bass of 6lb 3oz using a single king ragworm presented on a weighted jig head.
Dan Spearman landed a corkwing wrasse of 9oz. These brightly coloured wrasse are often caught by LRF anglers and do not grow to a large size the British Record standing at 360 grams. (Approx.12oz). The more commonly caught ballan wrasse seem to have declined in North Devon waters with large specimens seldom reported in recent years. Five pound plus fish were relatively common thirty years ago. The number of wrasse caught could be in part to a lack of anglers targeting the species as commercial fisheries do not generally target the species.
Kevin Shears won an Open match at Little Comfort Farm near Braunton organized by John Forster with a 48lb 8oz net of predominantly silvers. In runner up spot was Andy Gray with 41lb 1oz and in third Nathan Underwood with 39lb 10oz. John Lovel was forth with 21lb 4oz and John Forster fifth with 18lb 13oz. This picturesque venue is nestled in a quiet valley and has a very healthy population of rudd, roach, bream and carp and is an ideal venue for new comers to coarse fishing especially family’s. John Forster is holding a second open match at the venue on June 18th and can be contacted on 07447132528.
Dan Hawkins Charter Boat ‘Reel Deal” has moved to Ilfracombe for the summer season and has taken customers in search of porbeagle shark from marks West of Hartland Point. The early season big porbeagle proved challenging with several huge fish hooked but not brought to the side of the boat. Perseverance eventually brought its reward however when a huge porbeagle estimated at 450lb was successfully brought to the boat. The huge shark was carefully unhooked and returned to the sea where it swam strongly away. The fish was attracted to the boat using rubby-dubby supplied by Ammo baits. The shark took over 150yards of 50olb b.s line on its first run and was tamed by two anglers. Alex Steal hooking the fish and playing it until he passed the rod to his mate David Brooks who brought the battle to a successful conclusion. The fish was hooked less than a mile from the rocky shoreline and was tempted used a Pollock hook bait.
Anglers Paradise is without doubt North Devon’s number one venue for Catfish with the species present in many of the lakes on the complex including several that are open to day ticket anglers. The most prolific day ticket lake is probably angler’s Eldorado that has a large population of these hard fighting fish to over forty pounds.
