Sea Anglers have been enjoying varied sport along the coast with thin lipped mullet providing top sport in the estuaries. On the open coast bass and smoothound are giving good sport with spider crab among the best baits. Ali Laird landed a bass of 7lb 10oz and Ross Stanway a bass of 7lb 12oz.
Paul Hutchings landed a brace of smoothound on dirty squid from a local beach the best 10lb 3oz.
Thick Lipped grey mullet can offer superb sport for specialist anglers in local harbours and rock marks.
Apologies for the short break in output due to a week long fishing excursion in Havnnes Handelssted, Northern Norway. I will put a blog post up on the event in due course but in the mean time here are a few pictures of our adventures including the capture of a huge cod weighing 41lb to the rod of North Devon angler Rob Scoines who tempted the huge fish on a lure and light spinning rod purchased from Summerlands Tackle in Westward Ho!
(Below) Wayne Thomas cod 38lb
Ross Stanway landed a fine ballan wrasse of 4lb 14oz from a North Devon Rock mark when he made an early start attempting to add new species in the clubs Species Hunt. Big ballan wrasse have been scarce over recent seasons with very few caught near the local specimen rating of 5lb.
It is unclear whether numbers have declined significantly or if less are caught because less anglers target them? In the clearer waters of Cornwall , South Devon and the Isle of Scilly large numbers of wrasse are tempted using soft plastic lures. It may well be worth trying for the species over some of North Devons Rocky marks during periods with improved water clarity.
Most wrasse are tempted using legered worm or crab baits.
John Shapland has a narrow lead in Combe Martin SAC’s Species Hunt with 25 species but concedes that its getting harder to add to the tally.
The thin lipped grey mullet above is a new PB for John.
Among Johns catches was this strange looking clingfish, his first of the species.
Daniel Welch is in runner up spot with 24 species.
In third place is Ross Stanway with 17 species
Fourth Rob Scoines with 12 species
(Above) Lee Holden with a spotted ray – Lee is currently fifth in the species Hunt with 11 species!
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.
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.
Cameron Atkinson won Appledore Shipbuilders latest Boat Competition with a fine tope of 35lb 4oz. In runner up spot was Michael Hammett with a tope of 33lb. Third place was taken by Michael Toogood with a bull huss of 10lb 4oz.
Combe Martin SAC are holding a species Hunt between July 1st and September 3rd with the prizes to be presented at the clubs annual Fun Fishing Event. The event is sponsored by High Street Tackle Ilfracombe.
After the first week of the event numerous species have been caught from both boat and shore. The leader after one week is Daniel Welch with 11 species.
1st – Daniel Welch – 11 Species
2nd = John Shapland – 8 species Rob Scoines – 8 species
3rd – Louis Rooke – 6 species
4th – Ross Stanway – 5 species
5th -Wayne Thomas – 4 species
6th Lee Holden – 3 species
7th = Ali Laird – 2 species James Thomas – 2 species
Of course getting out fishing on these summer nights is a pleasure in itself with an extra incentive to hunt down the many species that swim off our coast. Image above courtesy of James Thomas.
Tim Poat has set a potential new British Record landing a 15.8 gram connemara clingfish whilst fishing North Devon’s top LRF mark Ilfracombe Pier. The current British record stands at 10grams and Tim has submitted a claim to the Angling Trust’s record fish committee.
Tim tempted the fish on a piece of ragworm fished down the side of the wall on a very calm evening as the tide was ebbing.Tackle was Impact Ajing 5762 Lrf rod Shimano Sahara c2000s reel Gosen 9lb Maxbeat braid All purchased from Art of fishing in Wadebridge Hook size 16 tied directly to the end of the line 7 gram weight about a foot above the hook.
LRF(light rock fishing) Fishing has grown in popularity over recent years and offers a whole new perspective to sea angling with the use of ultra light tackle and finesse not traditional associated with sea angling. One of the joys of LRF fishing is catching an amazing array of species.
Another aspect of LRF fishing is that even moderate sized fish give a spirited tussle on the this tackle and you could call it Light-Rod Fun Fishing.
The last few days have seen mirror calm seas for boat anglers who have been enjoying some great sport with tope on Ilfracombe Charter boat Reel Deal. Skipper Dan Hawkins has also put customers in contact with porbeagle’s. Unfortunately the fish have thrown the hook early before being brought to the boat. If conditions remain calm I am sure we will see numerous porbeagle shark brought to the side of the boat and maybe even another thresher shark.
