Eighteen club members took part in Combe Martin SAC’s Blow Away the Excess competition over four days with shore and boat an option. Ross Stanway secured first and second place taking home over £90 for a blonde ray of 14lb 1oz and a conger of 18lb 4oz. Dave Brooke was third with a bull huss of 8lb. Mark Jones landed a spurdog of 7lb 13oz.
Storm Diedre failed to keep members of Combe Martin Sea Angling Club from the shoreline to compete in their Christmas Competition. Mark Jones secured victory with a thornback ray of 10lb 7oz. The fish won him a voucher from https://cokerscreations.co.uk and choice of a secret Santa prize donated by members. In runner up spot was myself(Wayne Thomas) with a dogfish scaling 2lb 9oz and in third Dave Brooke with a bull huss of 7lb 9oz. Ross Stanway weighed in a small- eyed-ray of 7lb 2oz for forth.
1st-Mark Jones – thornback ray – 10lb 7oz
2nd– Wayne Thomas – dogfish – 2lb 9oz
3rd– Dave Brooke – bull huss – 7lb 9oz
4th– Ross Stanway – small-eyed-ray – 7lb 2oz
5th– Jack Phillips – dogfish – 2lb
6th– Jack Phillips – dogfish – 1lb 15oz
7th– Mark Jones – thornback ray – 6lb 15oz
8th– Jack Phillips – dogfish – 1lb 14oz
9th– Nick Phillips – dogfish – 1lb 14oz
10th– Dan Welch – flounder 1lb 3oz
11th– Nick Phillips – dogfish – 1lb 10oz
Fifty eight anglers lined the banks of the Torridge estuary to compete in Bideford Angling Clubs Christmas Competition last Sunday with twenty four flounder registered. The winning angler Owen Hare was a junior who landed a flounder of 1lb 71/2oz. Runner up was Stephen Found with a flounder of 1lb 63/4oz, third Darren Burslem with a flounder of 1lb 31/2oz and forth Robert Bowden with a flounder of 1lb 31/2oz. The club were very appreciative of the behind the scenes work of Paul and Lisa Downing and to the sponsors.
Barnstaple Triple Hook Clubs Christmas Flounder Open attracted a field of fifty anglers all keen to secure a turkey dinner. The results were the best for many seasons with plenty of quality flounder weighed in. The top ten all recieved a turkey.
1st – Richard Chapel – 2lb 13/4oz
2nd- Nigel Gullen – 2lb 7/8oz
3rd – Steve Luxton – 1lb 143/8oz
4th – Max Peake – 1lb 13.75oz
5th – Dennis Toleman – 1lb 127/8oz
6th – Darren Short – 1lb 125/8oz
7th – Kevin Hancock – 1lb 121/8oz
8th – Dave Mock – 1lb 113/4oz
9th – Isabel Luxton – 1lb 113/4oz
10th = Cleo Babb – 1lb 101/2oz
I have been reporting on these estuary flounder competitions for many seasons now and have often noted the contrast in the average size of flounder caught between the two estuaries. This year the results show a marked difference in fish sizes with the top ten flounder caught from the Taw in Triple Hook Clubs Open all bigger than the winning fish from the Torridge. Both rivers share many common characteristics yet seem to produce different sized flounder potential?
Combe Martin Sea Angling Club held their AGM at the White Lion Braunton where fourteen members attended to hear a summary of the previous years fishing and to set ideas in motion for the year ahead.
2018 Club award winners:-
Best Specimen from the shore – Kevin Legge – conger 28lb
Best specimen from a boat – Rob Scoines – spur dog 18lb 2oz
Best specimen by a junior – Joshua Jeffery – thin lipped grey mullet 4lb 6oz
Best bass – Kevin Legge – 9lb 9lb 2oz
Best mullet – Joshua Jeffery – thin lipped grey mullet 4lb 6oz
Best flatfish – Matt Jeffery – flounder 1lb 14.75oz
Best wrasse – Ross Stanway – ballan wrasse 4lb 7oz
Best ray – Jonathon Stanway – small eyed ray – 11lb 2oz
Best cod – Rob Scoines 12lb 4oz
Best rockling – Rob Scoines – 1lb 9oz
Merit Award has been won by Daniel Welch for his success over a wide range of species from both boat and shore.
Top six specimens – Daniel Welch total – 646.737 Runner up – Ali Laird – 634.913
Top Six mullet – John Shapland – 631.906
Subscriptions for the coming year are :- Family £15. Senior £12.00. Senior Citizen – £5 Junior £1.00
The clubs full calendar of events will be formulated by mid December incorporating ideas from the membership at the meeting.
There was a full debate around a few suggested changes to specimen weight sizes and the following amendments were agreed.
Boat pollock to be reduced from 12lb to 10lb
Shore – spotted ray to be reduced from 5lb to 4lb 8oz
Shore – Thick Lipped mullet to increased from 4lb to 4lb 4oz
Shore – thin lipped mullet to be increased from 3lb 8oz to 4lb
The club are also introducing a new fish of the season prize for all club members.
A full report should appear before long on the clubs website. The club would like to thank Sakuma Tackle and High Street Tackle who have supported the club throughout the year.
For details on joining the club visit their website – www.cmsac.co.uk
http://www.highstreetackle.co.uk
Combe Martin SAC member Ian laird enjoyed a hectic session on a local rock mark catching a brace of Huss numerous dogfish and a few small conger. The rough weather should encourage a few larger fish close inshore with the next set of bigger tides likely to bring in a few spurdog.
Dave Brooke landed a fine tope of 34lb 1oz to secure first prize in CMSAC’s Autumn Rover. Matt Jeffery was runner up with a flounder scaling 1lb 145/8oz. Equal third were Rob Scoines with a bass of 7lb and Wayne Thomas with a rockling of 1lb 81/2oz.
(Below) Matt Jeffery with his flounder scaling 1lb 145/8oz
(Below) Rob Scoines caught this personal best bass of 7lb from a North Devon mark along with two other bass, a codling and two pouting.
I was fortunate to be fishing with Dave and Kevin Legge when the tope was hooked. Always good to share in the excitement of such a moment. The fish gave a hard fight running over my lines in the process which caused a few anxious moments before Kevin could lift the fish from the water. Always a good idea to get all lines out of the water when someone hooks a tope. Fortunately neither of my rigs snagged the bottom as the fish was encouraged towards the shoreline. We also landed dogfish, small conger, huss, pouting,pollock and rockling. The best rockling weighed 1lb 9oz and fell to my whole squid bait fished close in hoping for bass or huss.
The next few months are amongst the best in the Sea Anglers year with a wide range of species to target. Tope, spurdog, huss and conger are all to be expected with large fish baits and wire traces advised. Top baits for tope are flounder. fresh rockling, Launce or whole mackerel.
(Below)Mark Jones fished a North Devon Beach to land a personal best small eyed ray off 11lb 10oz.
(Above) Still time to catch bass on lures. This fish was tempted by local lure enthusiast Mark Jones.
Bideford & District Angling Club – 24hour Rover Result
1st Andrew Clements flounder 2 lb 1oz
2nd Rob Harris bull huss 7 lb 10oz
3rd Andrew Clements dogfish 1 lb 14 1/2oz
Combe Martin SAC member Ian Laird enjoyed his first flounder session of the season landing several fish on light tackle from a mark in the Taw estuary.
Combe Martin SAC’s Lyn Fish Competition saw competitors fishing between Hartland Point and Watchet with some fine fish registered from both boat and shore.
The winner of the event was Jack Phillips (above) with a fine thick lipped grey mullet of 4lb.
Runner up was Alex Mcleish with a stunning boat caught pollock of 10lb 10oz
3rd – Dan Miles Redmore – Blonde ray 10lb 6.5oz
4th – Nick Phillips – Thick Lipped grey mullet 3lb 2oz
5th – Mark Jones – small eyed ray – 7lb 5oz
6th – Matt Jeffery – dogfish – 2lb 1oz
The after competition meet up and presentation was held at the Rising Sun Lynmouth where competitors enjoyed a fine platter of delicious food.
(Above) A grey mullet caught bu myself on the Saturday of the competition when a strong North East Wind made fishing difficult.
(Above) First light bass fishing with the lures.
John Shapland landed this fine thick lip of 4lb 4oz on a recent trip. The next couple of months are without doubt my favourite time to get out fishing with a wealth of fish to target. Bass and mullet have to be close top of the wanted list and reports would indicate that there are a few about.
2 BITES TODAY!!! Johns exciting report.
“first pulled the tip around hard and kept on going took the rod from the rest and into the water!!! time I got to it I lifted into nothing!!! heart beating like mad and shaking like a leaf, rebaited and re-cast then bang!!! tip right around and fish on!! followed the fish down stream but my landing net was miles away by now, a great scrap ensued with some awesome runs. I managed to beach her on the shallows and carried back to the landing net for a rest then release and weighed in at 4lb 2 oz
most happy with this old warrior.”
Rob Scoines enjoyed a session at a local rock mark ctaching several bass to 4lb 2oz and a small bull huss.
