Latest report from Ben Smeeth of South West Lakes Trust.
Lee Graver had a cracking weekend at Lower Tamar landing 7 carp including this stunning 27lb 13oz common. Lee had some smaller fish which are coming through from stocking in recent years which were in superb condition including a lovely 14lb mirror. Lee was using Specimen Carp Baits boilies at 120 yards range with Westcountry Leads. Top angling Lee!
Please find the latest catch report for Wimbleball from Danny Ford. Plenty of fish showing in the narrows from the old pontoons down to Bessoms. They are holding off the weed bank 10 yards out. Anglers have been doing well with nymph patterns, Diawl Bach in particular, fisher either on a midge tip or intermediate.
The fish off for the Orvis Boat Pairs was held on Sunday, Steve Ebdon, and Andy Gooding taking 1st place with Pete Kempton and Phil Sharpe runners up. Steve and Andy won a season ticket for 2017 while Pete and Phil take home a lovely Orvis access reel and a £50 gift voucher. Both boats chose to fish the top end of the lake, with Steve and Andy doing particularly well drifting from the old pontoons to the bouy in Bessoms. Well done!
Wimbleball hosted their final competition of the year on Saturday, 4 Anglers attended the boat comp which ran from 10-4.30pm. 18 rainbows were caught with a return of 4.5 per angler!
1st Danny Ford 6 fish for 8lb 1oz
2nd Ed Trickett 5 fish for 7lb 4oz
3rd Dave Ridgway 4 fish for 6lb 1oz
4th Howard James 3 fish for 5lb 9oz
(Comp results will be included in next week’s report)
Wimbleball will stay open for November and fishing will be available from boat and bank at a reduced price. £8.50 for 2 fish, second permits may be purchased. Boat prices TBC.
Tony Welch visited Melbury very recently and sent in this catch report to South West Lakes Trust:
‘On my latest trip fishing the Devon South West Lakes Trust waters I decided to head to Melbury Reservoir. I spent two nights on the picturesque lake and struggled on the first night fishing in horrendous rain. After a change in the weather and also a change of tactics I managed 6 takes over the last 18hrs catching a number of nice commons to 19lb 5oz using Mainline Baits Essential Cell with home made Mainline Polaris hook baits over the top. “Melbury is another gem in the Southwest Lakes Trust portfolio, a very enjoyable trip!’
North Devon Match Group Championship No 9 Tamar Lake Devon Bank
North Devon match Group members enjoyed some top rate silver fish sport at Upper Tamar fishing the Devon bank. Many thanks to Martin Turner who makes the effort to send me the results and image for each competition; much appreciated.
Neilsen Jeffery , winning catch mainly roach from the Devon Arm on the whip to hand, very close second Tom Downing with over 300 small perch and roach short line on the pole. Good back up weights on feeder and pole tactics in challenging conditions.
Results
1st Nielsen Jeffery 33lb 12oz
2nd Tom Downing 32lb 14oz
3rd Christopher Morris 26lb 13oz
4th Martin Turner 20lb 12oz
Gerald Gough sent me this report on a spectacular catch from an undisclosed South West Lakes Trust Water in North Devon. Fishing on Saturday October 1st as heavy rain beat across lake Gerald landed 5 carp weighing 17-12,18-00, 20-03, 21-00 and 37-12 caught on a popped up snowman rig about 4 inches off the bottom using 18mm fish boilies.the big carp took about 30 minutes to land from 100 metres out tremendous fight over which I had very little control , I didn`t see the fish until it popped up in front of the net STUNNING FISH safely returned.
Gerald was fishing alone and was unable to get a decent picture of the fish as rain and wind made for poor photography conditions. Gerald has sea fished for many years making some excellent catches of specimen sea fish from all along the coast of North Devon and has turned to carp fishing in recent years as the dangers of sea fishing from remote rock marks has become less appealing.
Wistlandpound Fly Fishing Club held their Beeny Trophy competition at Wimbleball Reservoir on September 25th.
Colin Combe won with 6 fish for 8 lb 12 oz and Danny had 6 fish for 8 lb 10 oz and was runner up. 8 people fished and all by boat.
Heavy rain showers punctuated the day.
Please find the weekly catch report for Wimbleball from Danny Ford. We have been seeing some great sport in front of the bridge on dry flies, claret and black hoppers being the most productive, with foam daddies also taking their fair share of surface feeding trout. Rod average is 2.6 with the boats showing a return of 2.8. Water temp continues to drop and is showing 16.5°C
Regular anglers Tom and Bob (season tickets) had a bumper day from the boat on Friday with both anglers achieving a full bag fishing hoppers on a southerly wind in front of the bridge. Fish were showing everywhere during the spells of cloud cover and Tom commented that is was one of the best days he has had this season, well done both!
From October 1st, our boat availability will be from 9am-5pm 7 days a week. We may start to bring a few off the water so please book to avoid disappointment. October is one of my favourite times to fish on the reservoir, with many of the larger fish starting to show. Last year Steart bay was producing good bags, one to try!
Danny Ford
Wimbleball Countryside Warden
Jon Ogbourne and Peter Coleman Smith enjoyed a cracking day in the Wistlandpound Clubs Boat . Taking fish from from all shores of the lake. Side opposite boat slipway particularly product fished tight in under the trees. The shallow bank to the left of the stream also provided some fruitful drifts including a first ever treble hook up! All fish coming to traditional loch style tactics with a size 12 claret bumble by far the most successful fly on the middle or top dropper, followed by a gold head black and peacock spider on the point. Nice ripple all day with helpful wind and broken sunshine. Ended up with 32 brown trout to the boat + 1 Rudd. Biggest 14″. A very special fishery declared the pair of anglers.
Carp live to a very good age with fish known to live close to 70 years one of the oldest carp is recorded was the well known fish ‘Raspberry’ caught from the famous Redmire Pool and aged at 67 years old.
Ben Smeeth sent me this report of a carp from Lower Tamar Lake near Bude.
Chris Martin sent in these pictures of his dad Phil with a mirror from Lower Tamar caught 20 years ago and amazingly we think it’s the same fish caught very recently now at 25.08!! Well done to Phil
Thirty three anglers fished the wind and rain swept waters of Upper Tamar Lake competing for a splendid array of prizes. Below is an excellent report of the event from Ben Smeeth Countryside and Angling Manager from South West Lakes Trust.
Barry and Ben O’Connor have won the September 2016 Pallatrax Carp Open at Upper Tamar Lake after finishing second the last time they visited Tamar.
Friday afternoon saw 21 Pairs eagerly await the draw for the much anticipated final competition of the year. Conditions looked really good, a warm breeze pushing away from the dam looked like it would favour a lot of pegs particularly towards the far end of the lake. The lake had been fishing really well leading up to the competition with Dan Gay and Nigel Woods recording 20 carp the previous weekend and Jason and Leanne McEvoy landing 9 fish the day before the competition. Whilst pegging and cutting swims a lot of fish were seen, particularly in the quarry, the far end, off the lookout tower and also at the end of the arm with some really good fish in among them.
With the welcome briefing done, Barry and Ben O’Connor were first out the draw and opted for swim 14, opposite the bird hide on the Devon Bank.
There were two spare pegs at the end of the draw to give everyone a good choice of swim. Anglers were then transported to their swim by staff and marshals and the horn went to sound the beginning of the competition at 4pm.
It took an hour for the first fish to be banked and what a cracker it was for Nigel Woods and Matthew Bull on peg 12. A mint condition 16.02 common.
This was followed 15 minutes later by newcomers Dan Young and Matt Wyld on the new quarry swim peg 11. A 9.01 common was in the bag and they were off and running!
Dan Gay and Lee Graver were also off with the 9.12 common from peg 9 on the second point. Barry and Ben O’Connor also banked a fish early at 11.08
Plenty of fish being caught all-round the lake and a great start to the comp! Through the first night there were fish caught steadily all over with Danny Clarke and Nick Singleton managing a brace including a lovely 16.13 common to take them into the lead from peg 8.
Past winners Scott Bowden and Jamie Rusling were off and running with a 5.14 common from the second swim on West bay (peg 18) and Barry and Ben O’Connor had two more fish and sat in second place.
Into Saturday and Dan Young and Matt Wyld bagged their second to move into third place with an 8.04 common. By this time the wind had really picked up and was thrashing down towards the far end of the lake making the seed drill and second point area hard to fish.
During Saturday there were fish for Mike Trew (peg 5), Danny Clarke (peg 8), Scott Bowden (peg 18) and three more for Barry and Ben O’Connor to move them clear at the top.
There were also first fish caught at Tamar for Tim James on Peg 1 (Pallatrax) with a lovely ghost common of 16.01 and Shaun Pimm (AKA Tackle Bridgwater) with a cracking 17.09 common by the pontoon on peg 22.
Saturday night proved to be the turning point with Danny Clarke and Nick Singleton managing two more fish the O’Connors were not to be outdone and landed five fish including a 15.14 common to move well clear of the field and over the 100lb mark! This was despite the torrential rain and rising water levels! It really did rain – anglers awoke to find rods under the water and alarms submerged, not to mention a flood in Jamie Ruslings bivvy!!
Nigel Woods and Matt Bull caught the fish of the competition on Sunday morning at 23.02 from peg 12 – congratulations to Nigel landing his first 20 from the venue.
Sunday morning didn’t produce many fish with just the odd one or two being picked off around the lake – the wind completely changed and was heading towards the dam at this stage favoring the dam swims. Phil and Sam Gilhespy managed a couple and lost a couple which would prove to be costly.
The horn sounded at 1pm and all the competitors were collected and taken back to the car park. Gary Vogel had prepared some burgers and hot dogs for everyone which were well enjoyed!
I would like to thank all the staff and Marshalls who worked tirelessly over the weekend Gary Vogel, JCB Bob, Terry and Martin Reid, Gandolph Bob and Steve Gliddon. Thanks to the café staff also.
Thank you to Simon and Tina at Pallatrax for their sponsorship and association with the competition.
The final leader board is pictured.
Many Congratulations to Barry and Ben O’Connor who had 12 fish for 118.01 and they scooped the £2000 first prize
Danny Clarke and Nick Singleton who have finished third twice before were runners up with 6 fish for 59.02 and they collected £1000
Local anglers Nigel Woods and Matthew Bull were third with two fish for 39.04 and took the £500 third prize.
Largest fish (not finishing in the top three was Shaun Pimm 17.02 and he won a £50 Pallatrax voucher. Smallest fish also winning a £50 Pallatrax voucher was Scott Bowden with a fish of 5.13.
All in all, a great weekend, I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did and I look forward to the next one in March 2017. We are taking bookings now on 01566 771930
Jason Tee has been in fine form at day ticket water Jennetts reservoir, Bideford, and has landed seven 20lb+ fish in his last couple of visits all on boilie hookbaits with the largest going to 27.03.
Ben Pearman fished a 48hr session at Slade Reservoir to celebrate his birthdayand was rewarded for his effort with 4 carp the biggest being a fine common weighing 23lb 12oz all caught on sticky baits krill.