Wes Rogers and his friend Chris had a great session at Darracott reservoir where they banked four cracking carp all over 15lbs with the largest being 18lb 4oz. This small reservoir near Torrington has a good head of quality carp and can give good results to surface baits.
APPLEDORE SHIPBUILDERS
Paul Downing won Appledore Shipbuilders monthly Rover with a fine undulate ray scaling 11lb 121/8oz.
Graham Snow took second and third with thin lipped grey mullet scaling 3lb 145/8oz and 2lb 143/8oz
The junior prize was won by Jack Pike with a smoothound of 6lb 121/2oz.
Appledore Shipbuilders annual away trip fishing for the Gordon Harrower Trophy was held on Plymouth Breakwater where the fishing proved more challenging than expected. James Atkinson secured top spot with a thick lipped grey mullet scaling 3lb 8oz. Runner up was Chris Slade with a conger of 15lb 8oz and third Michael Hammett with a dogfish of 2lb 61/2oz.
Dan Redmore took first in Bideford’s monthly Rover with a plaice of 3lb 6oz. In runner up spot was Paul Downing with an undulate ray of 11lb 121/8oz and Graham Snow was third with a thin-lipped mullet of 3lb 145/8oz and third was Andrew Clements with a grey mullet of 3lb 6oz. Forth went to Graham Snow with a mullet of 2lb 143/4oz and fifth to Steven Found with a mullet of 2lb 61/4oz.
COMBE MARTIN SAC’s Fish of the month competition was won by Dan Spearman with a smoothound scaling 12lb 14oz. Runner up was Ollie Passmore with a hound of 12lb 6oz and James Hunter third with a thin lipped mullet of 4lb 1oz.
The latest news from Zenia at Anglers Paradise.
FROM BABIES TO THIS…A NEW COMPLEX CATFISH RECORD HAS BEEN CAUGHT, AND IT’S MASSIVE!!!
Huge Congratulations to our Estate Team Member Dion Cooke-Martin, 38 who has caught the Biggest Ever Complex Cat Record at a whopping 82lbs from the Main Carp Lake!!
Dion caught the Monster Wels Catfish using a 6ft Stalking Rod, size 6 barbless hook on a basic hair rig, with a Single Paradise Baits ‘The Twist’ Boilie fishing just off the island nearest the Boat House.
Dion caught the beast during the 5C’s Syndicate Match which he won too!
We are very proud that we have bred these fish from babies to THIS!! We stocked the Cats 20 years ago and introduced them to Anglers Paradise as Kittens the size of your finger which are now as big as this 82lb Cat – That’s some growing!!
WELL DONE DION – WHAT A MASSIVE FISH AND ANGLING ACHIEVEMENT!!! ANOTHER NEW CAT RECORD WITHIN WEEKS!!
On the river Torridge sea trout specialist Martin Weeks landed a fine sea trout of 10lb and lost a far bigger fish when the hook pulled free after the fish tried to empty his reel of line. Dr Jonathon Compson landed five sea trout averaging 1lb 8oz from an upper river beat and Paul Carter landed a 4lb grilse from a middle river beat. Graham Roberts also landed a grilse of 4lb and Adam Baron caught a 10lb salmon and a 3lb sea trout.
I fished a Middle Torridge beat and whilst I failed to tempt a salmon or sea trout I did manage to catch a beautiful brown trout of around 1lb. Unfortunately the picture suffered from some incompetence from me!
Anglers have been enjoying some rod bending action off Ilfracombe and Combe Martin with tope,conger and bull huss.
Oaktree Bottom Lake results from July 2nd Match.
Well done to Simon Poynter who won with 84lb 12oz.
2nd was Norman Martin with 55lb 1oz and 3rd was Barry Lee with 22lb 1oz.
No 3 Upper Tamar Devon Bank.
1st Neilsen Jeffery 30lb 9oz
2nd Martin Turner 27lb 12oz
3rd Christopher Morris 23lb 13oz
4th Paul Ware 21lb 12oz
5th Paul Elworthy 20lb 11oz
Neilsen fished a 5mt whip , near the bench peg on the Devon arm, with groundbait and caster, Martin caught a mainly roach net shallow on hemp. Chris fished a top kit to hand for 3rd and Paul’s 4th place was a feeder caught net of bream.
Combe Martin SAC member Dan Spearman landed this fine lure caught bass weighing 11lb to set a new personal best.
The lure was a Savage Gear 3-D Mullet. The fish was returned carefully to water. Dan also lost another large fish during the session.
From today (July 1st) anglers are allowed to retain one bass per day for the table. I would suggest that all bass over 8lb are returned alive with bass between 3lb and 6lb making the best fish for the table. Many anglers will I am sure continue to practice catch and release for much of their fishing.
Taw regular Ian Blewett landed a fine brace of salmon from a Middle Taw beat. The fish both carefully released were estimated at 11lb and 8lb and were tempted on a home tied size 10 gold cascade.
Several large sea trout have been hooked including a massive fish that was played for over ten minutes before it headed back down river towards the sea and parted company with the unlucky angler.
Well Done to Julian Winspear and Partner in Crime Caz Osborne who both had a great session on Eldorado’s Bottom Cat and Carp Lake catching 5 Cats to 30lb+ and 4 Carp to 20lbs, all on the popular and faithful Paradise Baits Catastrophic!
Caz caught her Personal Best and Biggest Ever Fish to date with this 25lb Wels Catfish and Julian had his Personal Best 30lb+ Cat and a 20lb Mirror to put the icing on the Cake!
Euan Mclachlan, 19 from Sunderland who caught his Biggest ever Fish, a Personal Best 41lb Catfish from the Day Ticket Specimen Cat Lake.
Euan’s Story –
“I have never ventured much further than the Easy Access on my previous visits to Anglers Paradise, with my catfish PB being a little over 25lb, however after consulting with some of the members of staff me and my two friends decided that the Specimen Catfish Lake was throwing up the odd fish and that’s what we’d like to target. Before I came I said to my dad that I’d like to beat my Catfish PB by at least 5 pound and reach the 30lb barrier, however a 40 would be out of this world!
At the start of the week we did a night where I managed to get a 32lb 4oz from down the margins on meat, however after seeing this fish I knew I had to give it another shot for a bigger one. So Thursday came, and we hiked all of the gear back down to the Specimen Cat and I pitched up in the same corner swim (peg 3) as I did before and flicked a meat rod down the left margin. After hours upon hours of single bleeps from little Perch etc, I decided I’d try and get some sleep. I managed to zone them out until about 6am in the morning when I was awoken to about 5 or 6 continuous beeps on the alarm and then a massive drop back. I struck into it and knew I had a decent fish on, and after taking me round the back of the island and through the reeds on the far side, a 20-30min fight resulted in a new personal best catfish of exactly 41lb, Anglers Paradise really living up to its name and reputation once again.
I just want to say thank you again to you guys for making the holiday so
special, from the help in the tackle shop all the way up to the welcoming
and accommodating nature of all of you down there.
I’ll sure be back again,”
WELL DONE EUAN – ANOTHER GREAT WINNER!!
Here he is with his Winning Fish and being presented his prizes by Zyggy
