An excellent report from John Deprieelle on the recent lure competition at Upper Tamar.

Upper Tamar kayak comp

The first kayak event on Upper Tamar reservoir has been and gone and despite all attempts from mother nature, the event was a success.

When fishery manager Ben Smeeth gave me the thumbs up to organize a kayak comp on the stunning venue set in Cornwall near Bude, I was delighted. This 80 acre reservoir is home to some of the biggest Perch in the Southwest but locating them can be tricky at times. With Kayak lure fishing becoming increasingly popular this was the perfect opportunity to get afloat and see if we could find a few of the dark destroyers.

The eve of the comp wasn’t looking good though as 50mph plus winds howled across the venue. That night I lay in the tent worrying that all my plans might be shot down in flames. As expected some people cried off as for some it was a long journey to just turn around and go home but the die hard anglers were there on time and it was left to the group to decide what to do. We decided to at least head out and give it a shot and test the water so to speak. I might add at this point that Savage gear had kindly donated free goodie bags consisting of T tail fat minnows and cannibal shads for all entrants. On top of that there was a prize for the biggest fish caught on one of the said lures.

We all launched into the white water being blown around like paper hankys but just 10 mins into the comp Bristol angler George Osborne hooked into a fish that not only smashed his previous PB but also caught it on the cannibal shad. The fish weighed in at 4lb 5oz and 44cm. One very happy angler and an incredible fish to set the pace. From there on people started to catch steadily and fish of almost every size graced the boats from just ounces going up in every pound class right up to another fish of 4lb 4oz caught by Lee Garner.

It wasn’t all fun and games though as the weather did claim some of us and over a thousand pounds worth of fishing tackle now sits at the bottom of Tamar reservoir. Four rods and reels, a box of lures, a set of car keys and lots of tears(mainly mine) were the price to pay but everyone took it in good spirit and the fish gods returned us with big fish as compensation.

As the afternoon came the winds finally gave up and for an hour we sat on a flat calm lake as if nothing had ever happened. The fishing slowed up but one final fish just under 4lb marked the end of an enjoyable, eventful day. We ended with two fish over 4lbs, ten fish over 3lbs and loads of fish over 2lbs.

I had hoped for a fun event which wasn’t too competitive with a lot of laughs and I think I achieved just that.

The biggest single fish of the day went to Tony Chesworth with a massive spawned out fish of 47cm(3,14).

The biggest fish caught on a Savage gear lure went to George Osborne measuring in at 44cm (4lb,5oz).

Dom Garnett kindly donated a signed copy of his book for the smallest fish and this was also caught by George Osborne at 14cm.

In 3^rd place was George Osborne who looked like he was going to clean up.

In 2^nd place was Adam Moxey with a string of fish to low 3’s

And 1^st place went to Lee Garner who certainly had the lions share .Everyone who placed went home with goodies from Savage Gear, Costa, Cash and vouchers from Culm Valley angling.

Plans are already in place for an autumn event but these competitions can only exist with your support so watch this space. Massive thanks to Ben and Gary at SW lakes, Richard Taylor at Savage gear, Danny Parkins for the Costa prizes and Culm Valley angling.

John Deprieelle

(Northern John)

Competition Organiser

Local perch fanatics John Deprieelle and Martin Cox enjoyed a days perch fishing from the boat at Upper Tamar last week. John sent in this report to South West Lakes Trust:

‘It was a pretty windy day with high gusts and I almost called off but as it was the first warm day after a sharp frost it had to be worth a go. The water temp was really low which can make things difficult (can you hear the excuses building up?) but after an hour or so the first fish of the day was in the net. The choice of lures was a lot smaller than I would normally use and we had to switch to drop shotting on a very slow retrieve to get bites as the fish were hugging the bottom and in really deep water. After searching out most of the lake we got a slow but steady rhythm and ended the day with a bag full of small fish, lots of nips and plucks and 2 really good fish up to 3lb 6oz. A lot of effort from dawn to dusk but well worth the reward for these stunning hard fighting perch’.