Thirteen year old Jack Pike enjoyed a day afloat on his father Kevin Pikes boat a 21ft Orkney Day Angler he landed a fine spurdog of 15lb 2oz and a tope of 21lb 14oz. Cameron Atkinson also shared the days sport landing a smoothound of 14lb 6oz while Andrew Atkinson boated a fighting fit smoothound of 15lb 1oz.
Horwood Lakes have just opened and provide superb fishing for carp and tench. The latest match held at the venue was won by Nathan Underwood with 44lb 13oz. Neilsen Jeffrey was runner up with 31lb 6oz and was Kevin Shears third with 20lb 11oz and in forth John Forster with 20lb 4oz.
Day tickets for the lakes are available from Summerlands Tackle Westward Ho!
Richard Budge won this years Putsborough Open competition organized by Combe Martin Sea Angling Club with a specimen smoothound scaling 10lb 5oz. Runner up in the event was David Brooke who landed a fine small-eyed ray weighing 10lb 1oz. Richard Budge secured the pool with his smoothound weighing 10lb 5oz and a small-eyed ray of 8lb 4oz that also secured third prize. Thirty eight anglers fished in the competition that was generously sponsored by Sakuma Tackle, Ammo Baits, Braunton Bait Box,chillcheaters and Veal’s Mail Order and Combe Martin SAC providing £150 prize money. Competitors enjoyed ideal conditions and landed a good number of small-eyed ray and dogfish with a few smoothound.
FULL PUTSBOROUGH RESULTS
1st – Richard Budge – smoothound 10lb 5oz
2nd – David Brooke -small eyed ray – 10lb 1oz
3rd – Richard Budge – small eyed ray – 8lb 4oz
4th – David Brooke – small eyed ray – 8lb 2oz
5th Robert Hancock – small eyed ray – 6lb 153/4oz
6th – Dan Dan Miles Redmore -small eyed ray -6lb 71/2oz
7th – David Brooke – small eyed ray 6lb 7oz
8th – Graham Snow – dogfish – 1lb 141/2oz
9th – Andrew Atkinson – small eyed ray – 6lb 5oz
10th – Graham Snow – dogfish 1lb 13oz
11th – Chris Slade – small eyed ray- 6lb 1oz
Stephen Jenkins – small eyed ray – 6lb 1oz
Pool – Richard Budge smoothound 10lb 5oz & small eyed ray 8lb 4oz
Junior prize – Jack Phillips – dogfish 1lb 8oz
Jason and Leanne Mcevoy have been warming up for the £3500 Pallatrax carp Open at Upper Tamar on 1-3 July with a fine run of form at the venue. They managed 9 carp in their last session to just under 20lb with a new PB for Leanne and they are currently in mid session and Leanne has gone and done it again! This stunning 25lb Mirror falling to Leanne’s Future baits boilie from the Lookout Tower Swim on the Cornwall bank. So far they have banked 7 fish with Jason landing a cracking 21lb common.
Anglers Paradise is without doubt North Devon’s number one venue for Catfish with the species present in many of the lakes on the complex including several that are open to day ticket anglers. The most prolific day ticket lake is probably angler’s Eldorado that has a large population of these hard fighting fish to over forty pounds.
Jon Patten visited the lake for a day session with his son Reef and landed seven including fish of 27lb and 26lb.
The Day Ticket Nirvana Cat Lake is less populated but has far bigger fish with fish rumoured to exceed 60lb within its moderate size. The lower population means that these fish are harder to tempt and night sessions can be worth the effort.
Recent catches from this lake include these as reported from Anglers Paradise by Zenia Gregorek daughter of the complexes father Zyg Gregorek who built the fishery from what was an empty lake back in 1981.
Alison Pearson, 41, a Human Resources Manager for a Charity, from Mansfield, Nottinghamshire only went and smashed her Personal Best Cat with this 48lb 8oz Catfish from the Day Ticket Specimen Cat Lake! Ali said–“Mick and I decided to target Cat’s as they seemed very active on the complex! After a slow day on Octopussy on Wednesday (where I had caught my previous PB), my hubby asked if I fancied fishing the Specimen Cat Lake, I said yes of course and we made our way down the lane on Thursday morning!!! At around 1pm, my rod screamed off…after an epic battle, the Cat was in the net (thanks to my hubby for landing it for me!). I was overjoyed when we weighed the fish and it was 48lb 8oz…smashing my previous PB! It was a day’s fishing I will never forget!!! I caught the cat on a blowback rig with Hybrid bottom bait and Krill pop up.”
Kim Mainwaring, 52 from Wales also caught an Amazing New Personal Best 52lb Catfish from the Day Ticket Specimen Cat Lake after following advice from Estate Manager Joe. Kim Said – “After holidaying in Anglers Paradise for the last Seven Years, 4 years ago was when I caught my personal Best 37lb 12oz Catfish, so the aim this year was to catch a Bigger Cat! After some top tips from Joe, we headed down to the Specimen Cat Lake for the day. Within 2 hours, I beat my PB with a Monster 52lb 2oz Catfish!!! I caught her on 2 Cubes of Luncheon Meat – Amazing Feeling”. Kim was also the 1st Female to Win Our Fish Of The Week Competition so far this Year.
Shore anglers are enjoying some fine sport with smoothound packs prowling their regular haunts all along the coast. CMSAC member Dan Spearman landed a personal best specimen of 13lb 6oz. Fellow member Matt Jeffery also landed a smoothound of 10lb 6oz.
Lee Watts won North Devon Leagues Champion of Champion match with a smoothound scaling 12lb 4oz. Steve Luxton was runner up with a hound of 11lb 4oz.
Thin Lipped grey mullet are now providing sport in the Taw and Torridge estuaries with baited spinners the tried and tested tactic. Recent seasons have seen specimens to over five pounds landed.
Mackerel are being caught off Ilfracombe but numbers are patchy at the moment with Pollock also being tempted on feathers. Garfish are also being tempted by anglers float fishing off the pier.
I fished a short LRF session with fellow Combe Martin SAC member Rob Sciones and whilst I failed to tempt any fish Rob tempted a fine bass of 6lb 3oz using a single king ragworm presented on a weighted jig head.
Dan Spearman landed a corkwing wrasse of 9oz. These brightly coloured wrasse are often caught by LRF anglers and do not grow to a large size the British Record standing at 360 grams. (Approx.12oz). The more commonly caught ballan wrasse seem to have declined in North Devon waters with large specimens seldom reported in recent years. Five pound plus fish were relatively common thirty years ago. The number of wrasse caught could be in part to a lack of anglers targeting the species as commercial fisheries do not generally target the species.
Kevin Shears won an Open match at Little Comfort Farm near Braunton organized by John Forster with a 48lb 8oz net of predominantly silvers. In runner up spot was Andy Gray with 41lb 1oz and in third Nathan Underwood with 39lb 10oz. John Lovel was forth with 21lb 4oz and John Forster fifth with 18lb 13oz. This picturesque venue is nestled in a quiet valley and has a very healthy population of rudd, roach, bream and carp and is an ideal venue for new comers to coarse fishing especially family’s. John Forster is holding a second open match at the venue on June 18th and can be contacted on 07447132528.
Dan Hawkins Charter Boat ‘Reel Deal” has moved to Ilfracombe for the summer season and has taken customers in search of porbeagle shark from marks West of Hartland Point. The early season big porbeagle proved challenging with several huge fish hooked but not brought to the side of the boat. Perseverance eventually brought its reward however when a huge porbeagle estimated at 450lb was successfully brought to the boat. The huge shark was carefully unhooked and returned to the sea where it swam strongly away. The fish was attracted to the boat using rubby-dubby supplied by Ammo baits. The shark took over 150yards of 50olb b.s line on its first run and was tamed by two anglers. Alex Steal hooking the fish and playing it until he passed the rod to his mate David Brooks who brought the battle to a successful conclusion. The fish was hooked less than a mile from the rocky shoreline and was tempted used a Pollock hook bait.
Another couple went through their wedding blessing in a very fishy way at Anglers Paradise. Emma and Mark from Bookham, on holiday decided to bid for and won a designer wedding dress at one of our charity auctions and then decided to have a wedding blessing down at the Koi Lake, revised vows are taken very seriously amongst anglers, substituting the normal vows for:-
Dearly beloved we are gathered here together in the sight of God, nature, fellow fisherman and fish to renew our eternal vows and proclaim your everlasting love.
Do you Emma promise to take Mark for good days and bad days, big fish and small fish, blank days and loads of fish.
Will you look after each other’s tackle, wash it and clean it after use
And do you promise to honour and obey and go fishing every day
I now pronounce you fisherman and fisherwoman, husband and wife and with this net I now re-join you for ever and a day.
The weather stayed fine for the couple, needless to say Mark proposed officially to Emma and they now await a date, Good luck and Best Fishes to both of them.
Blakewell Fishery is in top spring form with anglers enjoying fine sport as summer sunshine raises the water temperature encouraging good hatches of fly. Gavin Colwill from Bude a regular visitor to the fishery landed a fine brace of rainbows weighing 16lb and 14lb part of six fish bag that totalled 38lb.
The Fisheries Spring Competition saw some fine bags of trout despite the bright sunshine that was enjoyed by the competitors. Chris Rorstad won the events top prize of a twenty fish season ticket for Blakewell with a six fish bag weighing 18lb 2oz. In runner up spot was Stuart Avion with six trout for 17lb 6oz and third Neil Young with six for 16lb 11oz. The day was punctuated with a BBQ where anglers enjoyed their food and few beers whilst discussing past and future forays in search of trout.
Numerous double figure trout have featured in catches over recent weeks with some large fish glimpsed in the clear water as they cruise the margins.
BRATTON WATER
John Vaughan took top spot at Triple Hooks Clubs Fly fishing competition at Bratton Water with a four fish bag of 12lb 4oz that included a rainbow trout of 6lb. Robbie Hancock was runner up with a four fish bag of 11lb 3oz and Dennis Toleman third with four trout for 10lb. Bags were a mixture of brown trout and rainbow trout with fish moving well early and late in the day.