Zenia Gregorek sent this super picture of her eldest son Zaine Drury-Gregorek aged 8 joined his mum on the famous Koi Lake and caught his biggest ever Koi, Zaine caught the beauty off the surface with a dog biscuit, one proud Mummy!
Congratulations to Charlie Grant, 12, who whilst on his annual Family holiday with us at Anglers Paradise caught his biggest ever fish, a personal best 29lb Wels Catfish!!
Charlie caught the Catfish on Luncheon Meat soaked in spotted fin smokey jack over spray from the Easy Access Lake.
**Take note ‘all’ on how he is presenting the Catfish – Superb pictures Charlie, showing us how not to hold Catfish!!**
It is vital that young anglers come into this wonderful pastime of ours and engage with nature. At Exe Valley Fishery they are catering for those first timers with a lake dedicated to young family fishing adventures. Chris Guest sent me this news story following on from young Haydo’s adventure.
“Fun in the Easter Sun, Haydo & grandpa went fishing and Haydo caught his first trout on Lobbs Lake at Exe Valley Fishery, a brilliant place to take kids for their first fishing adventure, this lake is bait or spinner, we float fished with some soft pellets and it wasn’t long before he had his string pulled, a couple of fish later he was enjoying a well deserved Cola Ice Pop from the fishery freezer, check it out!!!”
There is of course the main fishing lake for the dedicated Fly Fisher with trout to double figures!
Always good to see young anglers enjoy success and boat fishing gives them a good chance of battling a larger than average fish.
Dan Welch enjoyed a short boat fishing session over high water off Ilfracombe. He landed a pleasing blonde ray into double figures.
His young son Solly hooked a conger; Dan Said ” which turned out to be the biggest fish he has ever had at 15lb 4oz I did have to give him a hand to wind this one in. He couldnt stop saying it’s a whopper!! Must have seemed massive to him”.
The below Charter boats all operate out of Ilfracombe giving access to exciting offshore sport for all.
The Pearson family enjoyed a fun flounder fishing session in the Taw estuary with Candy Pearson hauling a double shot of flounders and nine year old Ellie Pearson catching a whopper of 1lb 10oz.
The humble flounder can provide great fun for family fishing with no sophisticated tackle required as the fish can be caught in very shallow water. For great sport use a light carp rod or spinning rod with a 2 or 3 hook trace with size 2 fine wire hooks and a bunch of ragworm. The fish can also be caught using light float tackle set so the the bait trundles over the sand. LRF style tackle can also give an alternative challenge with artificial ragworm on the hook worked slowly through likely spots.
Summerlands Tackle are presently selling fresh locally dug harbour ragworm. Phone to secure your order if you suffer from a bad back it can ease the pain.
The autumn estuary can provide some fine sport for young anglers with flounder and school bass.
Ian Cairns won Triple Hook Clubs Junior Open Flounder competition with a fine flounder of 1lb 87/8oz. In second place was Roxy Mortimer with a flounder of 1lb 8oz. Joan Cairns won the ladies Open Flounder match with a flattie of 1lb 73/4oz. Christine Hancock was runner up with a flounder of 1lb 31/4oz.
Andrew Conibear took his son Thomas to the Taw estaury where they enjoyed sport with flounder and bass to 5lb 9oz.
Combe Martin Sea Angling Clubs annual fun fishing event on Ilfracombe Pier always brings plenty of smiles and this year was no exception. The title of the event explains what the day is all about nothing too serious just a few hours fishing with the chance to meet fellow anglers and special guests. The event focuses on young anglers so the competition is geared towards under 16’s accompanied by a responsible adult.
This years guests included Dominic Garnett who writes a regular column for the Angling Times and works with the Angling Trust to promote angling. https://dgfishing.co.uk/
(Above) Dominick Garnett gets involved coaching young anglers
Steve Dawe is an all round angler who has a particular interest in species fishing and is raising funds for the Stroke Association.
In January last year he started a fund raising challenge to catch 52 species of fish in a year and has surpassed this already landing his 64th species during this years event, a rock goby.(Below)
(Below)The Coastguard raised awareness of the need to take care at the waters edge offering advice to all who attended.
(Below)Ilfracombe Aquarium were at hand to identify any rare species caught and also hope to obtain specimens for the aquarium.
http://ilfracombeaquarium.co.uk/
High Street Tackle kindly sponsored the event with an array of prizes presented to the winners.
Fun Fish rules were – To reduce tangles CMSAC suggested 1 rod with 3 hooks, Barbless hooks preferred but not compulsory.
The top prizes were for the anglers under the age of 16 with the most points.
Points awarded: – 2 points first of each species, 1 point for second of each species.
Prize for longest fish – Lyn Wilson garfish – 57cm
Prize for heaviest fish – Lyn Wilson – garfish 9oz
Family prize for most points – A Family Ticket for Ilfracombe Aquarium -The Welch family with 51 points
Ross Stanway won the adults section with 16 points and was presented with a signed copy of Dominick Garnetts book Crooked Lines
Winner of the event eight year old Effie Welch (14 points) received an LRF rod, reel and line
2nd – Charlie Stanway 11 points
3rd – Solomon Welch 9 points
4th – Ben Clarke 8 points Joshua Jeffery 8 points
5th – Phoebe Dawe – 5 points Jordan Choules 5 points
This years event was once again a success with a really friendly atmosphere and plenty of fish caught to give the young participants encouragement. One of the events main targets is to introduce young people to a pastime that can provide a lifelong interaction with the environment as Dominick said to me if we recruit one young person into a life of fishing we have been successful.
The below pictures give a view of the event that is made successful by those who take part.
Some anglers take their dogs with them to the waters edge. Richard Mason brings his pet owl with him on carp fishing excursions to Stafford Moor.
Congratulations go to Bideford angling Club for organising a series of Junior Angling Matches on their home water Tarka Swims. The future of angling rests with these young people who will hopefully embrace a pastime that will bring a lifetime of enjoyment. Many thanks to Martin Turner for the report.
Results @ Junior match/coaching session No.3
1st Ruari Hewitt 8lb 2oz
2nd Will Richards 6lb 6oz
3rd Brooke Copp 3lb 9oz
4th Adam Wheeler 2lb 14oz
Ruari has fished with maggots on peg P for a nice bag of bream. Will, on the next peg, fished with a ledgered pellet and caught a lovely mirror carp for second place. Brooke fished with a feeder and landed a fine bream for third on peg R. 11 different young anglers have fished the, closely contested, 3 match series and Adam Wheeler has come out winner of the Junior Cup,with a points total of 30 ,in 2nd spot Tyler Scott on 29, 3rd Brooke Copp on 28, 4th Ruari Hewitt 24 5th Tomas Scott 22. Thank you all ,helpers and fishers, and Summerlands Tackle for your support.
A great start to the summer holidays for Jensen Bowden who fished at Horwood Lakes. First time coarse fishing and he managed to land 75 carp and tench altogether with the best mirror carp of just under 10lb, Jensen caught well on corn and waggler from the top lake. Cracking day.
