Always good to see young anglers enjoy success and boat fishing gives them a good chance of battling a larger than average fish.
Dan Welch enjoyed a short boat fishing session over high water off Ilfracombe. He landed a pleasing blonde ray into double figures.
His young son Solly hooked a conger; Dan Said ” which turned out to be the biggest fish he has ever had at 15lb 4oz I did have to give him a hand to wind this one in. He couldnt stop saying it’s a whopper!! Must have seemed massive to him”.
The below Charter boats all operate out of Ilfracombe giving access to exciting offshore sport for all.
Bideford and District Angling Club Coarse Section Monthly Competition @ Tarka Swims George’s Lake Results
1st Keith Copland 7lb 2oz
2nd Dean Siford 3lb 5oz
3rd Graham Currington 2lb 4oz
4th Martin Turner 1lb 13oz
5th Pete Slade 15oz,
16 fished this event in a bitter Easterly wind which appeared to switch the whole lake off . Leading up to this ,the first match of the year on Tarka ,most members were optimistic for a decent match. Keith was fishing his first match after an operation on his right wrist, he drew on the point peg F and fished a cage feeder with micros and red maggot for 2 nice bream late in the match to snatch victory from Dean Siford on the next peg who also found a nice bream and some roach on the tip.Third spot went to Graham Currington who fished the pole and maggot around 8 metres on peg Q for a net of small silver fish. Martin Turner drew in the shallows on peg A and landed some small carp for 4th place.
Lure fishing enthusiast Mark Jones got his season off to a flying start luring five bass to over 4lb. This is an encouraging sign so early in the season as it is often May before the bass start succumbing to lure fishing tactics.
Reel Deal has once again put anglers in touch with the large porbeagle shark patrolling the North Cornish Coast. Following on from the huge fish estimated at 500lb Peter Hearn hooked a shark estimated at 250lb. The shark was beaten using sponsors Penn Tackle supplied by High Street Tackle. The shark were attached to the boat using Ammon Chum mix and Ammo frozen mackerel hook baits.
A cool Easterly breeze failed to dampen the spirits of anglers aboard Wild Frontier off Ilfracombe skipper by Mark Hutchings. Their efforts were rewarded with a fine small eyed ray coming to the net closely followed by the first Tope of the season which took off like a rocket. Both fish landed by young Daniel Smith. They also boated several conger to 18lb and huss to 10lb.
There are encouraging signs along the coast with smoothound showing from regular marks a couple of weeks earlier than expected. Ian Hooper and Nick Job fished a popular local shore mark and landed several hounds to almost 7lb and Cameron Atkinson landed a good hound in Appledore Shipbuilders Competition. ( See Results Below).
Combe Martin SAC Member Mark Jones ventured out with his lure rod and was pleased to Catch and release a pleasing bass of over 4lb.
Reel Deal Skipper Dan Hawkins took a party of anglers in search of an early shark and succeeded with Ross Needs from Bristol bringing a huge porbeagle estimated at 500lb to the side of the boat after a battle lasting 2hours and 10 minutes. The fine fish was carefully unhooked and released and swam away strongly. (Below) See video on Facebook Page).
(Above) Cameron Atkinson took the top three places in Appledore Shipbuilders Monthly Rover landing a dogfish of 2lb 71/8oz for first a smoothound of 7lb 81/4oz for runner up and a dog of 2lb 6oz for third. 19 fished the competition.
Bideford monthly rover results
1st Paul Downing thornback Ray 10lb 6 115.277%
2nd Dick Talbot bull Huss 9lb 101/2oz 96.562%
3rd dick Talbot dog fish 2lb 9oz 85.416%
4th Paul Downing thornback Ray 6lb 5oz 70.138%
5th Jon Stevens dog fish 2lb 0 1/2oz 67.708%
6th Andrew Clements thornback Ray 5lb 11 1/4oz 63.367%
(Above)Paul Downing with a fine thornback of 10lb 6oz
Combe Martin SAC members Mark Jones and Craig McCloughlin fished off Scotland’s West Coast and enjoyed success with some huge skate. Fishing on one and a half days ( second day was cut short due to bad weather) the four anglers boated five skate with Marks estimated at 193lb and Craig Mc Cloughlins 191lb. The other skate were between 136lb and 188lb.The fish were tempted using three whole mackerel sent to the Bottom in 500ft of water using 4lb of lead, 80lb b.s braided line and rod to match.
“These creatures totally ruin your back,arms,legs and joints. Never experience a fight like it!!!!”.
These awesome fish are all carefully returned and are now thriving in the deep waters off the Scottish Coast. It is sad to reflect that fish as big as these once swam in the waters of the Bristol Channel but were wiped out by overfishing.
