Ali Laird landed this superb small eyed ray weighing 9lb 7oz on a recent trip over the border to Somerset.
Early Summer Sea Sport
The warm weather has seen sea anglers enjoying some fine sport from both beach and estuary with numerous specimen small eyed ray landed from marks in Somerset during daylight hours. In North Devon most ray are caught after dark as a result of water clarity. The waters East of Foreland Point are generally far more turbid encouraging fish to feed more readily in daylight.
The estuary is providing sport with bass and grey mullet. Recent years have seen gilthead bream caught on a regular basis a species that gives an awesome scrap when hooked on light tackle. Small crab and worm baits are favoured.
Dan Miles Redmore fished a Somerset beach to land four small eyed ray weighing 8lb,9lb 2oz,9lb 5oz 10lb 11oz( Pictured).
Cameron Atkinson landed a fine 4lb 5oz gilthead bream when he fished from a boat in the Taw and Torridge estuary.
Latest Sea Reports
Appledore Shipbuilders monthly Rover
James Atkinson won Appledore shipbuilders monthly Rover with a small eyed ray of 9lb 61/4oz. In second place was Richard Boone with a fine wrasse of 5lb 47/8oz and in third Andy Sanders with a thornback ray of 6lb 5oz.
Bideford Angling Club Monthly Rover
Plaice at home?
Ian Hooper fished a popular North Devon Mark to land this handsomely marked plaice tempted using king ragworm. He also landed small bass, whiting and smoothound. Whilst many anglers make the long trek to catch plaice from Chesil beach and other South Coast Beaches it is surprising what can be caught in our own waters here in North Devon. The use of smaller hooks and worm baits can bring a wide variety of species to the shore and who knows perhaps there are a few specimen plaice to be caught. I have heard eye witness accounts from divers seeing very large plaice off our coast. Perhaps we just need to adapt to unlock the secrets of the coast.
LATEST SEA ANGLING NEWS
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.
An ugly surprise!
One of the delights of sea angling is the unexpected and Kody Chugg had a surprise when this ugly fish grabbed his bait. The fish is a tadpole fish occasionally caught along the North Devon Coast with the biggest I have heard of locally weighing just over 1lb. The Combe Martin SAC club record for tadpole fish is 1lb 1oz caught by Paul Blake the boat record is 1lb 1oz caught by James Fradgely Gubb
The British Record for the species is boat caught 1lb 6oz and shore caught 1lb 12oz.
ON THE COAST
There are rewards for those who are prepared to brave the cold and venture out onto the rocks and beaches along North Devon’s coast.
Whiting,dogfish, conger and huss are dominating catches with a few spurdog beginning to show and don’t write off the chance of a big bass.
Kyle Bishop landed this 28lb tope back in October after numerous blank outing in search of these hard fighting shark. (Above) Still every chance of one of these before the end of the year!
Several bull huss have been tempted over recent days including this fine specimen to the rod of Ollie Passmore that weighed 9lb 1oz. ( Below)
(Above) Young Archie Porter with a fine 7lb bull huss caught from a local beach.
FISH FROM THE SHORE
Kyle Bishop landed this specimen bull huss weighing 12lb 5oz whilst on a trip to a local rock mark where Dan Spearman also enjoyed success landing a fine pollock of 4lb 7oz and a plump pouting of 1lb 2oz.
Ben Partridge went out after the tope and thought he was into one when the clutch screamed off, turned out to be a decent smooth hound weighing 9.2 picture taken and back she went! ( Below)
INSPIRING CHAT LEADS TO TOPE
Ross Stanway fished Ilfracombe Pier with me on Tuesday evening and we chatted at length about tope fishing. The following night Ross was inspired to head back out to the coast with his good friend Daniel Welch. The decision proved to be a good one as Ross was rewarded with a fine tope of 34lb 1oz. The fish was tempted using half a mackerel presented on 8/0 Sakuma Manta extra hooks.
To lose what you never had!
I read somewhere that you cannot lose what you have not had a fact that makes a mockery of losing a fish. Yet any angler will know that to lose a big fish can at that moment seem like a major disaster. Over the years most anglers will have suffered that deflating moment when the line falls slack or all goes solid when the life on the end of the line is gone.
Strangely looking back it is these lost fish that often linger longer in the mind than the big fish that are successfully landed. Losing fish is generally down to bad angling, occasionally down to bad luck.
On a calm November night several years ago I was stood upon an old stone jetty hoping to make contact with a tope. An hour into the flooding tide the rod tip nodded and the ratchet sang out as something headed out to sea with my flounder hook bait.
The rod arched over and line poured from the reel. Never before had I felt such awesome power. Stood leaning into the fish, the rod straining, the line cutting out into the dark waters of the Bristol Channel. A hundred yards or more of line melted from the spool despite the application of as much pressure as possible. Tension mounted as the reels spool began to look decidedly low on line! Eventually the fish stopped far out in the murky waters of the night.
Application of constant pressure persuaded the fish to come my way and line was gradually won back to be lost as the fish surged away making shorter runs as it began to tire. After what seemed an eternity I began to feel that the battle was going my way.
Eventually the angle of the line began to point at a deeper angle into the dark water as the mighty fish weakened. Anticipation grew as we hoped for a glimpse of mighty fish on the end of the line. Suddenly to my dismay all went solid with just twenty yards outside of the top rod ring. I pulled as hard as I dare but this brought no response; slackening the line brought a glimmer of hope as line was pulled seawards and the rod once again surged in the hands. Hope was short lived though as once again all went solid when I attempted to retrieve line. After a few minutes there was no life transmitted through the line.
Twenty minutes later I was forced to pull for a break and hope. The line parted with a crack and I was left with that sinking feeling of loss. I am sure that the fish was a huge tope fifty pounds plus or maybe more. Bad luck or bad angling, to my knowledge there were no serious snags, an old pot rope was I imagine the snag?
If I had put on more pressure perhaps the fish would have been a few vital feet higher in the water?
A couple of years later I was to lift a huge fish from the sea, a record-breaking tope of 66lb 8oz to the rod of my good friend Kevin Legge. I cannot help but wonder how big that fish was I lost that November evening for I have both held the fish of dreams and lost one too.