Dan Spearman visited the South Wales Coastline ( Before the local lockdown) to target the fantastic ray fishing on offer. His journey was rewarded with this fine specimen blonde ray that pulled the scales to 17lb 5oz. The welsh coastline seems to be far more productive than the North Devon coast in recent seasons with ray, tope and smoothound fishing all making the headlines. Is this in part due to more anglers fishing or is it a better fishing area to due a healthier fishery environment?
Combe Martin SAC members Rob Scoines and Chris Bond joined a party of anglers aboard Charter Boat Lorna Doone out of Watchet and found blonde ray on the feed. Several ray were caught including a 15lb 10oz blonde for Rob and a 17lb 2oz blonde from Chris.
Triple Hook Clubs Annual Christmas Turkey Competition was plagued by raging flood waters that made fishing conditions challenging. Despite this several good fish were brought to the scales by the thirty-seven competitors ensuring turkeys for the successful anglers. John Passmore won the competition with a flounder scaling 1lb 91/8oz. In runner up spot was Julian Stainer with a flounder of 1lb 81/32oz.Third was Junior angler Ian Cairns with a flounder of 1lb 71/4oz and in forth Antony Smith with flounder of 1lb 41/2oz. In fifth was Tarrant Wotton with a flattie of 1lb 43/4oz and in sixth Mark Beer with a flounder of 1lb 31/4oz.
Shore sport along the North Devon coast has been slower than expected with the water coloured following recent winter storms I expected to be swamped with pictures of specimen fish. CMSAC member Dan Spearman caught this blonde ray of 12lb 11oz. James Gubb Fradgley caught a pleasing whiting of 1lb 8oz. This weekend see CMSAC and Triple Hook Club holding competitions it will be interesting to see what is tempted.
Dan Spearman
Ollie Passmore enjoyed success on recent shore trips landing a pleasing blonde ray of 8lb 14oz and a conger of 16lb 2oz.
Lewis Grimwade landed this 12lb 5oz blonde ray from a shore mark near Ilfracombe. This year has been a great one for blonde ray with several caught from North Devon Rock marks and beaches.
Simon McCarthy was delighted to land this 12lb 10oz blonde ray from a North Devon Surf Beach. It has been an excellent season for ray on North Devons beaches with several blonde ray among the small eyed ray.
Twenty anglers competed in Combe Martin Sea Angling Clubs week long competition to catch the best mixed brace of specimens. The event was held in conjunction with the Lyn Sailing Club with proceeds split between Combe Martin SAC and the 1st Lyn Scout Group. Several anglers invested a degree of effort into seeking out specimens from both boat and shore.
The presentation was held at the Ancient Mariner at Lynmouth as part of the Lynmouth Maritime Festival. The winner of the event was James Fradgley Gubb who boated a fine specimen tope of 50lb and a blonde ray of 12lb 12oz a combined rating of 210%.
Results –
Kyle Blackmore travelled to the Chesil Beach to secure victory in Bidefords monthly Rover. I have heard a reports of several good local fish over the weekend and will publish as soon as I get full details.
Bideford Angling Club 24hour results
1st Kyle Blackmore – Blonde Ray 17lb 11oz 147.395%
2nd Dick Talbot plaice 1lb 3 1/2oz 60.937%
I joined seven fellow members of Combe Martin Sea Angling Club aboard Ilfracombe Charter Boat Wild Frontier Two skippered by Mark Hutchings. With a brisk South West Wind forecast and a substantial swell surging onto the coast I was a little apprehensive regarding the day ahead as we climbed aboard. Any fears soon evaporated however as we steamed out of the harbour appreciating the stability of the broad decks of the catamaran that gave plenty of room for all anglers on board.
Heading up channel we all gazed at the towering cliffs East of Combe Martin that are I believe amongst the highest sea cliffs in the UK. It was apparent that the recent weather has impacted on these wild and rugged cliffs with plenty of scars indicating recent rockfalls.
Our first stop in the lee of these cliffs brought only limited action with just a few dogfish grabbing our baits. A strong wind made fishing difficult at times causing the boat to swing on its anchor as it swirled with gusts riffling the sea as they sped towards us. The sound of the mighty swell pounding the foot of the cliffs provided a dramatic soundtrack as we savoured a hot drink whilst watching nature acting out its daily drama.
The easing tide signalled time to head out deep to target the spurdog packs. We lowered our baits into deep-waters and soon started to get savage indications as hungry spurdog seized our offerings. The sun broke through, rods bent and life felt pretty good out there on the water.
Hectic sport continued until once again the increasing tide pull forced a move to more tranquil waters. Closer inshore sheltered once again by the towering cliffs we targeted ray on sandy banks. Club secretary Nick Phillips was first into action boating a pleasing small eyed ray that was followed a short while later with a tackle testing blonde ray of 14lb 2oz.
A few conger and the inevitable dogfish followed before we once again headed out to deeper water for a second time rounding off the day with more action landing spurdog to 14lb 8oz.
The next couple of months should see spurdog sport continue with every chance of some bigger specimens close to twenty pounds. Ilfracombe Charter Boats Wild Frontier 2 ( www.bristolchannelcharters.co.uk) and Bluefin will soon be joined by Reel Deal moving down after the winter season out of Watchet.
Paul Lorrimore described his latest session as dream fishing! A huge swell made fishing difficult but undoubtedly brought the fish on the feed. Paul landed twenty conger to 12lb, seven bull huss the best two weighing 9lb 14oz and 12lb 10oz along with a blonde ray of 12lb 10oz. All were caught on frozen Ammo baits bought at High Street Tackle.
