Torbay Festival sees fantastic fish landed

Firstly, the Angling Trust Small boat competition at Salcombe and I must start with an apology for giving the wrong information last week for the team winners. The updated result is that the best team was Matt Parry and Dean Bailey, of Plymouth Sound SAC, with a combined percentage of 207 per cent The other results remain the same with the winner being Scott Lowry with a Huss and a Dogfish for 210 p[er cent, with Dean Bailey and Nick Miller taking the next two places. The ladies Prize was taken by Claire Lowry with Alleigha Proctor taking the junior prize.

The other competition was the big one, the Torbay Festival which was fished over nine days with an area from the Dorset/Devon border to Plymouth. Some fantastic fish were weighed in with two fish over 200 per cent The overall winner was Phillip Cocker with a shore caught Red Gurnard of 2lbs 4oz, 225 per cent The Best Wreck fish was won by Paul Cashmore with a Scad of 1lbs 10oz, Gary Harding took the inshore boat prize with a fantastic Turbot of 24lbs 2oz and the shore prize was won by Kevin Vowles with a Three Bearded rockling of 1lb 13oz. Rebecca Hooper-Jones took the ladies prize. A full list of the winners in the many categories is available on their website. The organisers of both competitions would like to thank all sponsors.

Gilthead Bream are still showing in our estuaries with Josh Johnson finding them to 6lbs 14oz along with Mullet to 5lbs 9oz. Tony Phillips fishing with peeler crab had his fish of 4lb. Dan Patrick who has targeted Giltheads many times this year turned his attention to the rarer Couches Bream and landed seven fish in a session with the biggest being a new Brixham SAC record of 1lb 13oz. Dan also landed a superb Golden grey Mullet of 2lbs 1oz.

On the boats, our Joe’l out of Paignton has been visiting the wreck and finding plenty of Pollack, Bass and Cod. Nick Williams, fishing inshore, boated a fine double figure Bull Huss. Siver Halo, skippered by Matt Forrester out of Torquay, has been targetting Tuna under the CHART tagging programme with David Foyle and Warren Potter bringing them to the side of the boat where weights were calculated at 170lbs and 230lbs respectively before the fish were given time to recover before being released.

Newbarn Angling Centre is thriving under its new owners with Jamie Saint visiting this week and landing five Carp in a session to just over 20lbs using Krill boillies. Simon White fished his favoured Upham farm to bank a lovely Mirror Carp of 30lbs 6oz.

There is still plenty of time to get your entries in for the September Fish of the Month competition kindly sponsored by Sidewinder Lures and Newbarn Angling Centre. Please email pictures and catch reports to johnsherlockfish@gmail.com