Tope continue to provide exciting sport off Ilfracombe as Ian Tyldesley director of Ammo Baits discovered when he traveled up from St Ives to fish aboard Ammo Baits sponsored boat Reel Deal. Dan Hawkins put the anglers on the fish despite breezy conditions that made fishing a little uncomfortable for some of the party. In addition to tope the anglers also landed several bass.
Anglers are enjoying some great tope sport off Ilfracombe with these hard fighting predators now abundant. Tope have been landed up to 37lb with every chance of bigger fish as the season progresses there is even the chance of one of these fish from shore marks if anglers are prepared to set their stall with a big bait and wire trace.
Wednesday night is steak night at The Rising Sun at Umberleigh and an ideal place to catch up on he latest news from the River Taw. Landlord Julian Zealey is a keen angler and is always worth chatting with for the latest news from the river.
At least two salmon were landed from the Taw on June 29th including a 12lb fish from a middle river beat to the rod of Roland Eustace and 10lb salmon to the rod of Trevor Smith from the Mole. Several school peel have also been caught over recent days from beats throughout the river system.
Richard Johns landed a 9lb salmon from the Weir Marsh and Brightly Beats of the Taw along with a couple of sea trout to 2lb 8oz.
The last Thursday of each month sees a get together of salmon anglers at the monthly soiree with canapés and beers from 5:30.
On the Middle Torridge Stuart Eynon shared a catch of seven salmon from a middle river beat.
South West Lakes Trust Coarse fisheries Jennetts Reservoir and Lower Tamar Lakes are both producing fine carp of over twenty pounds. Barry and Liam Lonsdale had a cracking session at Lower Tamar landing fourteen carp using sticky baits Manilla Boilies. Biggest was a 23lb 2oz common carp to Liam. Barry best was a stunning 21lb fully scaled mirror carp.
Chad Savage has been hauling the 20’s from Jennetts in the last couple of months. This 22lb 3oz common is one of fourteen different 20lb+ fish that he has banked in just eight short sessions.
The coming weekend sees South West Lakes Trust host a carp fishing pairs competition running from Friday to Sunday see home page events for full details.
Dan Hawkins Charter Boat Reel Deal arrived in Ilfracombe early this summer and after much effort made the headlines with the boating of a huge porbeagle estimated at 450lb. Since then the shark have proved elusive and a move to deeper water resulted in a blue shark estimated at 80lb being brought to the side of the boat.
Dan informed me that the general fishing has now improved with the arrival of mackerel in greater numbers. Fishing marks off the North Devon coast has resulted in turbot, gurnard, whiting, haddock, codling, tope, smoothound, huss and of course the ever plentiful dogfish.
Stafford Moor is undoubtedly one of the areas most prolific carp fisheries with a steady stream of twenty pound plus fish reported each week. The latest reports from Joanne Coombes come with plenty of images of captors and their carp.
Richard Mason had a successful session using Whealy fishy baits boilie’s landing 12 fish to 27lb 15oz.
Gareth Simpson landed several carp to 26lb using home made boilie’s.
Donna Blythe and her husband enjoyed success using Sticky baits boilie’s. Donna landing a personal best mirror carp of 19lb 8oz. Her husband Chris landed a carp of 25lb.
Adam Hilton fished the summerhouse swim on Beattie’s lake using home made boilies to land this fine mirror of 23lb 10oz.
Dan Spearman, Chay Boggis and Kyle Bishop enjoyed a hectic session at a local rock mark landing an incredible fifty-three smoothounds between low water and high water. The fish were tempted on a mixture of frozen peeler crab and hardback crab.
These hard fighting members of the shark family seem to have increased in numbers over recent years, one of few good news stories regarding fish stocks.
Mackerel numbers have been very patchy so far this year though this can change dramatically at any time. Recent weeks have seen water clarity reduced as a result of the annual may bloom. A few bass are being tempted by lure anglers from marks all along the coast.
Gavin Colwill regularly travels to Blakewell Fishery from his home at Bude and has an intimate knowledge of the fishery. Gavin followed up on his recent 38lb bag of trout landing a brace of double figure trout weighing 18lb 5oz and 13lb. I suspected that catching these big trout on a regular basis was not entirely down to luck and this was confirmed when I spoke to joint fishery owner Richard Nickell.
The key to success is keen observation of the trout in the venues crystal clear water and waiting for that big fish to cruise past before carefully dropping a suitable fly within the fish’s path. It’s then a case of tense anticipation hoping to glimpse the opening and closing of the mouth before setting the hook.
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
