Chris Flook from Ivybridge in Devon caught his biggest ever Wels Catfish at 72lb 2oz from the Specimen Carp Lake at Anglers Paradise. Fishery owner Zyg Greogorek believes that this is the biggest Wels Catfish born and bred in the UK which is one of the offspring of an original stocking in the early 90’s following a long fight with MAFF to get official permission to stock them. The original fish were stocked as 10” babies which were born in the UK. A couple of original fish are now over 100lbs.
HUSBAND AND WIFE CARPY ACTION – Pat and Liz Curley always love fishing together and this year wanted to target the bigger Carp on the Main Carp Lake and that they did! Pat caught a pristine 26lb 9oz Leather Carp and a 22lb 3oz Mirror, while Liz caught her personal best Mirror at 25lbs 13oz! We’ll send Pat for some photography lessons though!!
PB GOLDEN TENCH – Russ Robertson-Browne was a very lucky man catching this beautiful personal best 5lb Golden Tench from the Tench Lake as the hook pulled right at the last minute when he was fighting it out of the lillies, but he still managed to have it in the net!! He hasn’t a clue how he managed to still have it in the net but said “he was the luckiest man in Anglers Paradise that day!!”
MAIN CARP LAKE BEAUTIES – The Main Carp Lake just continues to produce! Matthew Pearson joined us for his annual family holiday and had a session on the Main and caught this stunning 21lb 12oz Common and a 25lb 8oz Mirror. Both fish fell to mainline wafters in pva bags and made a great holiday memorable despite the weather!
Tom Leighton after 10 years of coming to Anglers Paradise finally caught his first ever ‘Twenty’, a 21lb 8oz beautiful Mirror from the Main Carp Lake and won our Fish of the week competition too!
Tom’s story –“I have been coming to AP for 10 years now and for the last 5 I have wanted to get a 20 pound Carp but always fallen just short. Having had lots of help and advice from friends I headed to Main Carp Lake to have another go. Setting the alarm for 5 o’clock I managed to get the swim I wanted Nevs point. I set up in the half dark and rain and started feeding the swim.
In the morning I hooked into a heavy fish. It fought hard and I got her in close and up to the surface to see a beautiful fish that must be a 20, then she came off! Much despair at the missed fish but I got the rod back out. This was followed by catching an 18 06 which cheered me up and then it went quiet.
At 16:00 the rod twitched a little and I struck it expecting a small fish to find there was a lump on the end. The fish new what it was doing burying me in the lilies 3 times but eventually it went in the net and weighed at 21 08. Jim said I looked like a kid on his birthday that came downstairs to find his new bike. Finally done it and great to do it on my birthday week!”
Sarah Robertson-Browne caught a personal best 20lb 2oz scaley Mirror Carp from Anglers Eldorado’s bottom Cat and Carp Lake 2. She’s only been fishing for the last couple of years and now she’s hooked for life!!
As Autumn descends and days grow colder many sea anglers hope to catch cod. Sadly cod have become rare along the North Devon shore line so if you want cod its best to head up Channel and get out on one of the many charter boats that operate. Dan Hawkins has relocated to Watchet after the summer at Ilfracombe and continues to find quality fish.
Massive thanks to Dan Hawkins, Reel Deal charters, for a great days fishing, Saturday 5th Oct, and finally helping me get my lump of a cod and pb @ 9lb 2oz after years and miles of trying. Thanks again to a great skipper who works so hard to get you on the fish.
Ian Collins fished Stafford Moors Beatties Lake to bank this magnificent carp of 33lb 10oz.
Woods and Ford win £2000 at Upper Tamar’s Mainline carp open
The third and final Mainline Baits carp open pairs at Upper Tamar took place from 4-6 October. 33 pairs turned out for the final event of the year with £3500 up for grabs. Anglers chose their swims, collected a mainline goody bag and were transported to their pegs. Fishing began at 4pm on the Friday and ended after 45 hours at 1pm on the Sunday.
The weather was rough to say the least, very strong winds hammered the anglers through Friday evening giving way to a much calmer Saturday and Sunday. The fishing was hard, but this made for a really great competition which went right down to the wire.
Nigel Woods and Rich Ford (Launceston) scooped the top prize of £2000 with 4 carp for a weight of 49lb 1oz from peg 20 on the Cornwall bank. Nigel and Rich’s win followed on from winning the July competition and finishing third in the March event to cap a fine year at the prolific venue.
They held off a fantastic late flurry from Dave Bellew and Steve Lovell (Somerset) who caught three fish on the Sunday morning to finish on 47lbs 12oz and less than 2lb behind the winners. Dave and Steve collected £1000 for the runners up spot.
Jeff Watts and Simon Sweet (St Austell) were third and won £500 for their 3 carp with a total weight of 30lbs 13oz.
Largest fish winning 2kg of Mainline spod and PVA mix was Daniel Comaneci (London) who had a cracking 21lb 14oz mirror carp. Smallest fish, winning 2kg of Mainline spod and PVA mix was Karl Yates (Bude) who had a 9lb 13oz common carp.
Section winners winning 5kg of Mainline freezer baits boilies were:
Mervyn Beal and Danny Peters
Jamie Rusling and Nick White
Ben and Matt Cooper
Daniel and Tiberiu Comaneci
Massive thank you to Mainline Baits for their sponsorship.
The next Mainline pairs competition is 27-29 March 2020 and bookings can be made on 01566 771930.
Distinctly autumn looking results for the sea angling club results on the first Sunday of October. Matt Thomas enjoyed success catching a plump 4lb codling from a North Devon mark on whole squid a promising sign for the coming months perhaps.
Bideford rover results
1st Julien Stainer flounder 1lb 10 1/2oz 82.812%
2nd Terry Dymond flounder 1lb 10 1/8oz 81.640%
3rd Andrew Clements flounder 1lb 10oz 81.250%
4th Terry dymond flounder 1lb 8oz 75%
Triple Hook Club – SWW Water Flounder Open
1st Mark Hancock – Flounder 1lb 8/2oz
2nd – Kevin Hmcock – Flounder – 1lb 61/2oz
3rd – Robert Hancock – Flounder 1lb 61/8oz
Appledore Shipbuilders- Rover
1st Jazza John – Flounder 1lb 12 1/4oz
2nd Terry Dymond – Flounder 1lb 10 1/8oz
3rd – Jazza John – Flounder 1lb 8 3/4oz
North Devon Match Group Winter League No. 1 @ Wooda Fishery
Results
1st Paul Morris 73lb 14oz
2nd Colin Cherrington 53lb 10oz
3rd Kevin Shears 47lb 14oz
4th Shaun Stenton 44lb 6oz
5th Damian Lawrence39lb 15oz
6th Ian Croxton 31lb 0oz
7th Wayne Murton 30 lb 6 oz
8th Chris Morris 29lb 8oz
9th Keith Copland 29lb 1oz
16 fished, Paul Morris has begun the Winter League campaign with a resounding victory on peg 2 ,the reed beds on lake 3 , he has fished the short pole with pellets , and switched to shallow occasionally.2nd place went to Colin on peg 9 beside the inlet on pool 4 , again a short pole job. Kevin’s 3rd place was on peg 3 on pool 3. Conditions were breezy but dry, and Wooda Fishery again produced a good match.
Wistlandpound Fly Fishing Club members travelled to Clatworthy Reservoir high on Exmoor and enjoyed some fine autumn sport. All members caught but it was those who were in the right place early in the day who secured the best bags of hard fighting rainbows. On arrival at the lake overnight showers were clearing away and a vivid rainbow stretched across the lake as autumn sunshine beamed down onto the lake.
I started my day at the top end of the lake and used a bead headed Montana on the point with a diawl Bach and black buzzer on the droppers. A floating line and 8lb b.s leader completed the set up. Casting out with a stiff breeze blowing from my left I retrieved the flies slowly delighting as the line drew tight and hard fighting rainbows surged to and fro before being coaxed in the waiting net. Within just over two hours I had completed my five fish bag limit and spent the next three hours taking in the scenery and atmosphere. White clouds drifted quickly across the vivid blue sky, I watched as three buzzards drifted high on the thermals mewing continually as they often do in late summer and early autumn. Brown and bronze hues are starting to appear amongst the green signalling that the seasons change is starting to paint the countryside. Hard to believe that another summer has drifted into the past. The last time we fished here was in the spring with summer to come.
Wessex Water Ranger Danny Ford told me that it had been an excellent season with good fishing and plenty of anglers returning frequently to enjoy the fine sport on offer. We are very fortunate to have Clatworthy and Wimbleball offering the region some of the best trout fishing in the country.
Result :-
1st -David Eldred – Five trout 11lb 3oz
2nd – Colin Combe – Five trout – 10lb 9oz
3rd – Wayne Thomas – Five trout – 10lb
4th- Dave Mock – Four trout – 9lb 14oz
5th – Andre Muxworthy – Three trout – 7lb 8oz
6th – Paul Grisley – Three trout – 6lb 14oz
7th – Nigel Bird – one trout – 1lb 15oz
I joined several members of South Molton Angling Club on a mild misty autumn morning at Bratton Water. Conditions were ideal for trout fishing and all members completed their three fish bags before the close of the competition. The water was gin clear and small imitative patterns resulted in the quickest full bags. The best trout caught was a stunning brown trout of 3lb 15oz that fell to my rod on just the second cast of the morning. Roger Bray tempted the best rainbow of 3lb. All fish fought hard and were in superb condition.
This picturesque and sheltered water should offer great sport in the coming months as autumn hues tint the wooded valley. Dry flies can work well right through the autumn with some stunning browns caught each season.
A short session to a local venue produced a pleasing 5lb 12oz bass tempted on a trout dead-bait. On autumn nights presenting big fish baits close in on light tackle is exciting sport. Not sure it matters too much what bait is used blueys, mackerel, squid and trout all work as would I suspect pouting or rockling. Use a light bass rod or carp rod, 20lb b.s main line with 30lb to 40lb b.s hook length. If there is current free-line the bait or use a small weight to keep the bait down. Use big hooks, 6/0 is ideal. Keep light off the water. Hold the rod and feel for bites, gentle tap is often followed by a heavy pull sighted as the fish moves confidently away with the bait. Its exciting stuff at close range.
