Drought Hit North Devon

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The River Taw showing its bones a couple of weeks ago. (photo Dr Mike George)

Whilst this long hot summer has its delights it also has a serious downside in that many of our local rivers are at all time low levels. In the short term this results in a catastrophic season for salmon and sea trout fishing and related businesses. It can result in fish kills when any pollution enters the watercourse, as there is minimal dilution. It also causes serious problems for fish farmers who often suffer heavy casualty’s as oxygen levels plummet in the high temperatures. Lakes are also prone to serious issues with oxygenating equipment sometimes required to maintain a healthy environment. If you have concerns about fish stocks or water quality ring the Environment Agency’s Hotline 0800 807060.

Local Reservoirs like Wistlandpound are also showing signs of a dry summer and this can be an advantage to anglers if they take time to look at the features that are uncovered as these can prove valuable at a later date when water levels return to normal. The same applies to rivers where depressions in the riverbed or location of boulders can be an indication of a place where salmon or sea trout could lie up when the river is at normal height,

 

 

Wistlandpound Reservoir view from top water level.

 

FISHTYTWO Challenge Update

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Congratulations to Steve Dawe who has been raising awareness for the stroke association via his challenge to catch 52 species.

Wayne has kindly been supporting my challenge since January 1st and posting links to my blog and although the species I have been catching having been spread across the west country a fair few have fallen from the North Devon and Somerset coastline. For anyone that hasn’t seen what I have been up to I have a website that covers information on my challenge, the charity I am supporting, a gallery and all my blogs from the year

https://stevedawe189.wixsite.com/fishtytwochallenge

This Monday I managed to land the 52nd species which in theory should be the end of the challenge, I will however keep trying for a few more while simultaneously raising awareness for the Stroke Association and stroke victims. The last month was pretty busy and with the summer in full swing I had planned to target a number of the summer species from boat and shore. I also had a couple of annual festivals to fish, the 2 day British Conger Club festival and The 3 day Shark Club of Great Britain festival. The conger festival based from Plymouth went pretty well and our team managed to win the team event, and having come runners up for the previous 2 years it was great to finally win. I also managed to catch a Goldsinny Wrasse to add to the species list so a good event all round.

Then it was the shark festival and with tricky angling conditions I managed for the first time to blank during this event, but every cloud has a silver lining and with some persistence I managed to sneak out a Scad and Grey Gurnard. No good whatsoever to me during this festival but a huge bonus for the challenge, so it was a bit of a result. Another of the species that had managed to elude me more recently was the Blenny and a trip with the LRF gear finally paid off when I managed to connect with several, a bit like buses.

With the target now at 49 I knew that species 50 had to be the Blue shark and with a couple of trips booked out of Looe surely I could exercise the ghosts of the shark festival and get one. Sure enough I managed a shark a trip, not big girls but very welcome none the less.

With number 50 done and dusted I set my eyes on a Tope and my first trip booked from Minehead targeting tope from Lundy was cancelled due to lack of interest, that was a real set back. My second Tope trip was from Lyme Regis and with no others booked the pressure was on the skipper. Fortunately, lady luck was on my side and despite only two tope being landed I managed two of them, not huge but this challenge isn’t about size just species. That was number 51 and I could almost see the end in sight, I switched tactics to try for my first ever Undulate Ray and once again Neptune took pity on me and delivered several of these stunning rays to give me species 52.

 

 

 

Torridge Salmon Season -No Extension

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The Environment Agency have decided not to extend the salmon Fishing season on the River Torridge this year. Over recent seasons anglers have enjoyed an extension to the season from  September 30th to October 14th and this has been a welcome addition with good numbers of salmon landed. The decision will come as a bitter blow to fishery owners and local businesses who receive welcome revenue from visiting anglers. It is to be hoped that dwindling stocks of salmon will recover and that this decision will be of benefit to salmon stocks.

This season has been a very poor fishing season as a result of the prolonged drought conditions that have persisted since May. The start of the season was blighted by snow melt and very high water. In the longer term it is to be hoped that weather conditions results in good fishing once again. Such weather conditions have been experienced before with older generations recalling the drought of 1976 when rivers and local reservoirs ran very low.

 

A fine salmon caught at Liittle Warham during last years extension.

Reel Deal tope sport off Ilfracombe

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The Veals Mail order Team enjoyed a fantastic day Tope fishing out of Ilfracombe with Daniel Hawkins of Reel Deal Charters

Simon Lynch relays that the day started off well with numbers of small Tope around the 20lb mark, along with a few Bullhuss. After a couple of hours Dan decided to up the anchor and move off. He suggested big mackerel baits at the second mark and we were soon rewarded with some lovely Tope around 30lb, it was non stop action all afternoon with double shots on-board. Simon Lynch landed a new personal best of 41lb.

Bait was supplied by Ammo Baits.

Stafford Top Catches

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(Below)Zac Rastall caught six carp from Swim 5 (Lord Island) on Beatties lake up to 23lb 8oz caught on Mainline link 14mm wafters over a handful of Mainline 15mm Hybrid at a short distance.

(Below)Harry Burston  fished on the pads swim 11 on Beatties lake  on a 24 hour ticket and banked three carp up to 21lb 7oz caught on Sticky baits krill wafters

(Below) Nathan Oliver and Jason Crawford  fished on swim 14 (beach 1) swim on lodge lake they had 5 fish out up to 23lb caught on Mainline milky toffee pop ups coated in almond goo fished over 3kg of cell , Jase was using particles & Sticky baits krill.

North Devon Match Group Championship No.7 Highampton Fishery Results

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1st Nathan Underwood 67lb 6oz

2nd  Martin Turner 53lb 1oz

3rd John Lisle 47lb 1oz

4th Neilsen Jeffery 45lb 2oz

5th John Forster 43lb 8oz

6th Stephen Craker 38lb 8oz

7th Ken Cocks 37lb 14oz

Another scorching weekend lead to a close match , Nathan lead from the start catching steady on BOG paste on the pole from peg 8 beside the stanchions in the deeper water. Martin managed 2nd, fishing the pellet waggler up to the island on peg 11 . John lost several fish but landed 11 in the reeds on peg 13 for 3rd , all on paste on the pole. Neilsen Jeffery drew outside the chalet on peg 4 and had some big fish in the shallow margins on hard pellets for 4th spot.