Thirteen club members fished all along the North Devon and Somerset Coast Line in this Summer Rover and it was thin lipped mullet that dominated the prize table at the Rising Sun Lynmouth. James Hunter took the top two places in the event with thin Lipped grey mullet of 4lb 1oz and 3lb 12oz. In third place was John Shapland with a thin-lipped mullet of 3lb 11/2oz.
Daniel Welch tempted a thick lipped grey mullet of 3lb 7oz and a colourful wrasse.
Kevin Legge landed a brace of small eyed ray the best scaling 8lb 2oz and Rob Scoines a brace of small eyed each weighing 7lb 11oz.
The roving competition as with all Combe Martin SAC competitions was a catch and release event. Far better than the old days when the carcasses of fish were brought back to the scales. Fortunately we are still managing to meet up for a chat and pint afterwards. Many thanks to the Rising Sun for a delicious spread of sandwiches and hot chips. Much appreciated after a hard days fishing.
Fifty eight anglers descended upon Putsborough beach for the annual Combe Martin Sea Angling Club Open and they met with ideal conditions. The east wind that had blown for several days had abated and the sea was calm as everyone gathered in the car park to book in.
It was good to chat with a few anglers who I had reported on over the past twelve months on this website. The nice thing about this competition is that it has a really friendly vibe with anglers meeting up, sharing tales and making plans.
Combe Martin SAC give special thanks to their sponsors; Sakuma, High Street Tackle, Veal Mail Order and Kevin Legge. Thanks also to Putsborough Sands for allowing the use their venue once again. The club also wish to thank all who took part with many anglers travelling a considerable distance to fish the event. Really pleased to hear several cheery “see you next year” as anglers sped off into the night at the end.
The fishing proved to be pretty good as well with most anglers catching fish and more than enough to match the impressive array of prizes on offer at the end. Over thirty small eyed ray were caught, one blonde ray, several smoothound to 5lb 8oz and of course plenty of dogfish.
1st – Matt Druce – blonde ray -11lb 41/4oz
2nd -Dale Kiff – small eyed ray – 7lb 14oz
3rd – Gareth Pike- dogfish – 2lb 5oz
4th – Garry Andrews – small eyed ray – 7lb 1/2oz
5th – Matt Druce – smell eyed ray – 6lb 151/2oz
6th – Dan Welch – small eyed ray – 6lb 15oz
7th – Dan Redmore – small eyed ray – 6lb 12oz
8th – Colin Emery – dogfish 2lb
9th – Lee Holden – dogfish 1lb 15oz
10th – Gareth Pike – dodfish 1lb 14oz
Nick Smith – dogfish 1lb 14oz
Ben Putman – dogfish 1lb 14oz
11th – Ross Stanway – small eyed ray – 6lb 21/2oz
12th – Ben Putman – small eyed ray – 6lb 10z
Colin Tanton – small eyed ray 6lb 1oz
Junior prize – Ollie Laird dogfish – 1lb 15oz
Best Brace -Matt Druce – Blonde Ray 11lb 41/2oz & small eyed ray 6lb 151/2oz Total = 163.4%
Below are a few pictures and comments from the night I will add as I get more so please feel free to send images and comments I try to make this a site for the angling community.
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(above ) Dale Kiff
(Above) Nick Phillips
Mike Seatherton ( Above) – Fished Putsborough competition last night, really enjoyed it, managed to catch a few fish, smooth hound, small eyed ray and plenty of dog fish, biggest ray 4lbs 10oz,
Congratulations to all who got on the prize table!
(Above) Rob Scoines
(Below) Matt Druce and his winning fish , great turn out and thank you to all the sponsors and the usual suspects for a well organized event
Combe Martin Sea Angling Club Members Kevin Legge and Derek Ferret have a knack of finding quality fish from the North Devon shoreline throughout the year. their latest catches include a 9lb 10oz bull huss to Kev and a 7lb 4oz bass for Derek!
James Thomas won Combe Martin Sea Angling Clubs Spring Rover with a specimen small eyed ray weighing 11lb 13oz. James father Wayne Thomas took second and third places with a small eyed ray scaling 9lb 10oz and blonde ray of 14lb 2oz. The fish were all caught off Minehead aboard Steve Webber’s boat Osprey. The clubs party landed around 25 ray, small eyed, thornback and blonde ray. They also landed smoothound, bull huss and dogfish.
Wayne Thomas – small eyed ray 9lb 10oz(Above) Wayne Thomas – blonde ray 14lb 2oz(Above )James Thomas brace of blondes 12lb 15oz and 11lb 13oz
Shore anglers in the competition landed several quality fish the best and fourth place in the competition went to Daniel Welch who landed a small ray of 9lb 5oz. This bodes well for the clubs open competition at Putsborough beach next month.
With sport dropping off on the coast there was a low turnout for this club event with just seven members fishing marks all along the coast. Bites were few and far between for some members with small conger and dogfish providing most sport. Rob Scoines fished small baits close in to successfully target rockling landing close to a dozen the best three weighing 1lb 2oz, 1lb 1oz and 15oz to take the top three places.
Combe Martin SAC member Ross Stanway fished a rock mark near Ilfracombe and hooked a specimen conger weighing 22lb 8.5oz after carefully weighing the eel in a weigh sack it was time for a photo. The eel proved camera shy and took its opportunity upon being released from the weigh sack and in Ross’s words; “Took off like a Bob sleigh team down over the rocks.”
The eel was one of twelve eels caught with four of them over 10lb.(Above) 10lb eel that posed for the camera!
Ilfracombe shore marks are producing conger, whiting, dogfish and occasional ray. Proceed with caution particular if fishing at Capstone one of North Devon’s most productive marks but also one with many dangers.
There is still time to hook into a spurdog from shore marks all along the North Devon Coast and with things roughing up this week and evening tides and expect to get a few reports. Kevin Pike rose early at the weekend to tempt a fine spurdog of 10lb 4oz. Many thanks to Kevin for letting me use this excellent image.
Combe Martin SAC members fished their roving match at Clovelly on Saturday 28th January and it was Matt Jeffery who won the mixed brace competition with a plump dab of 11.5oz and a whiting of 1lb. The hoped for spurdog failed to materialize though Matt confided that something grabbed a whiting on his last cast of the night.
Combe Martin SAC Member and shore caught stingray record holder Guy Spriggs ended 2016 in style landed a fine brace of blonde ray scaling 12lb 4oz and 16lb. The fish were landed on 30th 31st December.
Thirteen members of Combe Martin Sea Angling Club set forth to fish as an icy cold North Easterly Wind lashed the coast. Fishing was hard going for most but Colin Emery and Liam Stevens consulted Google Maps to find a sheltered mark where they found some sport. Colin secured the top three spots with a specimen bull huss scaling 10lb 12oz and a plump dogfish of 3lb 2oz and a conger of 17lb 4oz.
