Combe Martin SAC held their presentation night at the Ebrington Arms at Knowle where members enjoyed a delicious meal followed by the presentation of awards. It was especially pleasing to be able to present young Joshua Jeffery with the award for best catch by a Junior and the the award for the best specimen grey mullet a fine thin lip scaling 4lb 6oz. The full list of award winners are listed below with some fine fish registered throughout the year.
Cod Trophy Rob Scoines Cod 12lb 4oz
Bass Trophy Ali Laird Bass 9lb 12oz
Mullet Cup Joshua Jeffery Thin Lipped 4lb 6oz
Conger Cup Kevin Legge Conger 28lb
Flatfish Cup Matt Jeffery Flounder 1lb 14 3/4oz
Shore Shield Kevin Legge Conger 28lb
Medway Cup Rob Scoines Spurdog 18lb 2oz
Ray Shield Jonathon Stanway Small Eyed 11lb 2oz
Specimen Shield Dan Welch 646.737%, Ali Laird 634.913% and Matt Jeffery 622.537%
Burgess Trophy Joshua Jeffery Thin Lipped 4lb 6oz
Wrasse Trophy Ross Stanway Ballan Wrasse 4lb 7oz
Scouse Shield Rob Scoines Rockling 1lb 9oz
D Kyte Award John Shapland 6 Mullet to 631.411%
Merit Award Dan Welch
Joshua Jeffery and his father Matt Jeffery proudly displaying their awards.
Blakewell Trout Fishery have introduced a new sporting ticket that entitles the angler to retain two trout and then continue fishing on a catch and release basis for the remainder of the day. The cost of a day’s fishing is £30.00 for the catch and release option or the same for a five fish bag when fishing must cease when bag completed. This enlightened move brings the fishery in line with many other Stillwater fisheries that have adapted to a changing market. Catch and release fishing allows anglers to focus upon quality time spent at the water’s edge away from the stresses of modern society. Perhaps this reflects a move away from material gain towards the actual experience of a day in the great outdoors.
Full report on my latest visit to the water with Snowbee ambassador Jeff Pearce will follow later this week.
Jeff Pearce with a hard fighting Blakewell rainbow trout
Bideford and District Angling Club Coarse Section Monthly Competition Results @ Highampton Fishery
1st Nathan Underwood 38lb 8oz
2nd Martin Turner 31lb 13oz
3rd Steve Bailey 22lb 3oz
4th Richard Jefferies 17lb 3oz
5th John Lisle 11lb 13oz
6th Ian Sedgewick 6lb 8oz
13 anglers fished the match that went ahead despite the strong North Westerly wind and squally showers. The reduced field allowed us to peg the leeward banks of both lakes meaning that most competitors had the wind off their backs. Nathan Underwood drew the point on the second lake and after catching 3 carp on paste on the pole , switched to the method feeder with a chocolate orange wafter to take a dozen more for a convincing victory. Martin Turner landed 8 slightly better fish on the fancied peg 4 on the 1st lake on 8mm pellet and bomb tactics for second place. 3rd spot went to club coarse section Chairman Steve Bailey on the 2nd lake, peg 8, margin pole carp catch on corn. The league after 3 matches stands as : Martin Turner 29 points John Lisle 27 , Richard Jefferies 20 Nathan Underwood 20
Wistlandpound Fly Fishing Clubs first outing of the season was to Wimbleball Reservoir high on Exmoor. With gale force winds, hail, sleet and icy rain punctuating long sunny spells it was a day to wrap up warm. We arrived shortly after 9.00am and a glance through the catch returns showed that sport had at times been frantic over the opening week of the season with plenty of limit bags and impressive catch and release sport. The size of trout was also promising with good numbers of fish over 4lb.
I decided to start directly below the permit hut close to where the boats are launched as this bank had a degree of shelter from the gale force wind that was sweeping across from the North West. A large bead headed black lure presented on an intermediate line seemed an obvious choice this early in the season and the trout seemed to agree as I was into a hard fighting rainbow of close to 3lb on just my second cast.
For the next half an hour I felt tugs at the fly on every other cast and briefly connected with another hard fighting rainbow before landing my second rainbow. At this point I was expecting to bag up within a couple of hours but the trout had other ideas!
I persevered with the same tactics for another hour but failed to get a pull. A move fifty yards along the bank brought an encounter with a stunning brown trout of close to 2lb that cartwheeled out of the water in flurry of spray. After a quick photo of the fish in the net it was returned and swam strongly away into the crystal clear water.
Talking to other passing anglers it was a similar story with sport drying up. I decided upon a move along the bank to where some other club members where fishing. Andre Muxworthy had already bagged up and told me he had landed all his fish within the first hour or so. Whilst I received a couple more pulls at this location my score for the day was to remain at a brace of good rainbows totalling 5lb 8oz.
The afternoon passed quickly by with clouds racing across the sky, Canada geese cackling on the lake and leafless trees dancing in the cold wind. After a day stood in icy water it was not too difficult to drag myself from the waters edge and return to the permit hut to weigh in.
Winner Paul Grisley with a 4lb 2oz rainbow
1st – Paul Grisley – Five trout for 15lb 8oz Best fish a rainbow of 4lb 2oz
2nd – Andre Muxworthy – Five trout for 14lb Best fish a rainbow of 5lb
3rd – Wayne Thomas – Two trout for 5lb 8oz
4th – David Eldred – Two trout for 5lb 4oz
Andre Muxworthy with the best fish of the day a full tailed 5lb rainbow.
I hope to return to Wimbleball in a couple of weeks when with luck the weather will be a little kinder. The fishing has been spectacular at times so far this season and even on this day when I and a few others struggled to catch one angler enjoyed a catch and release day with over twenty fish returned. Early in the season with fish often tightly shoaled up location is often the key with black and green lures very often successful.
Since my last report which was written whilst there was snow on the ground, we have had Storm Eric followed by the most glorious February weather. It has been lovely to see so many anglers fishing Anchor Lake in the sun. The lake is beautifully clear with the fish cruising just below the surface. All areas around the lake have been fishing well with a wide range of flies being successful along with a slow retrieve.
Chris Comber from Norton Fitzwarren visited Exe Valley Fishery for the first time during Storm Eric and managed to entice out this hard fighting Rainbow Trout.
Richard Carr from Wiveslicombe was given his permit as a gift and visited Exe Valley over the half term. Richard caught 4 fish with the biggest weighing in at 4 ½ lbs.
Anchor Lake Tactics
Throughout February a large number of flies have been working well with Bloodworm & Blob patterns continuing to be successful along with Sedge, Diawl Bachs, Damsels and Hares Ears. The fish have been close to the surface earlier in the day and moving down a little deeper when the sun is very bright.
Lobbs Lake Re-opening
After the huge weeding effort on New Years Eve I am pleased to say that Lobbs Lake will open for family fishing from Monday 1st April 2019. Lobbs Lake will have a separate permit to Anchor Lake and it will be an any method lake. As well as fishing on Lobbs Lake there will be bags of fish food for sale in the shop for those who would like to come and feed the fish.
Special Offers & New Permit Option
Starting today I will be trialling a 1 fish permit option as requested by several of our anglers, also any transaction of £25.00 or over will receive a voucher to use in the shop.
Fishery Notices
· Quick reminder to anglers that have taken up our Winter Permit Offer – there is less than a month to go to gain your free permit with the offer ending on 31.03.2019. You then have until 30.04.2019 to use your permit.
· Please can I remind anglers fishing Catch & Release that there are few separate rules. A copy can be found here.
· The pre-order menu will continue to be available until 31.03.2019. There is a copy below.
Thank you for taking the time to read this report. Sue x
Torridge Fly Fishing Club are friendly club of Fly Fishing enthusiasts who control fishing Upper and Lower Gammaton Reservoirs. The fishery provides excellent sport with spectacular views across the Taw and Torridge estuary.
Located at Gammaton Reservoirs ( 2 four acre lakes) .Annual membership £170. Members can keep up to 6 fish a week.
Day tickets £20 (3 fish) available from Summerlands Tackle, Westward Ho! & Tarka Country Pursuits , Torrington.
Membership enquiries to Mike Ball 07899 742757 . Email : [email protected]
Once again some stunning carp caught from Stafford Moor over the past week many looking extra good in that Spring Sunshine!
M J Luscombe who had banked four carp up to 24lb 4oz from the Dam wall on lodge lake all caught on Mainline cell with white fake corn in a 24 hour session.
(Below) Sam Gratton and his new personal best of 23lb from the Summer hut swim on Beatties lake caught on Sticky Baits Krill boilies .
( Below) Martyn Green fished on Lodge lake on swim 3. Martyn tempted 8 carp in 24 hours up to 25lb 3oz which is Martyn’s new personal best all caught on Mainline Cell & Nash coconut Creem boilies.
(Below) Neil Harvey fished up on swim 4 on the Dam wall on lodge lake this weekend. Neil had 5 fish out up to 23lb all caught on Mad Baits nutz aqua scrim & black gold liquid with lashings of corn.
(Below) Adrian Stockton had eight carp fish out from swim 4 on the Dam wall up on lodge lake up to 25lb 10oz (4 of Ade’s fish were 20lb plus) all caught on Sticky Baits Manilla boilies.
Many thanks to Martin Turner for his regular reports on the adventures of the North Devon Match Group.
North Devon Match Group Winter League No 6 Results @ Lower Slade Reservoir
1st Paul Elworthy 16lb 12oz
2nd Mark Richards 12lb 10oz
3rd Nathan Underwood 11lb 12oz
4th Martin Turner 11lb 4oz
5th Neilsen Jeffery 11lb 1oz
13 anglers fished.Gale force winds and driving rains kept the attendance down but lead to a close match .Paul Elworthydrew a peg on the road side near the dam and fished a tidy match with a feeder at range, sweetcorn hookbait and micro pellets feed, to catch a dozen skimmer bream plus some better roach for a clear victory. The next 4 places were separated by around a pound and a half ,Mark came out second with a pole to hand catch of 70 roach he was also pegged on the road side.Nathan Underwood was pegged in the shallower section and was able to fish a longer pole than most, his 3rd placed net was also mainly roach. The final winter league positions for 2018/19 are Neilsen Jeffery 110pts second Martin Turner 105 joint 3rd Chris Morris and Paul Morris 65
Cod Trophy Rob Scoines Cod 12lb 4oz 
