Slapton serves up an angling feast

As all local sea anglers know, Slapton Sands looks a very fishy beach but can be very fickle.
Last weekend, however, the whole beach came alive with anglers catching good fish everywhere. Honiton SAC travelled West this month to Slapton for their monthly competition with the added bonus that it was for the Dennis Rutter Memorial trophy.
From the very first cast, the fish were biting and all 16 anglers caught some good fish, as well as the expected Whiting and Dogfish. Several double figure Bull huss were landed along with Spotted Rays, Small Eyed Rays, Smoothounds and some early Spurdogs weighing up to 5lbs. The best fish was a specimen Pout of 104.66%, which fell to the rod of the eventual winner Coilin Berry. The fun fish pool for the evening was won by James Trevett with a Whiting of 1lb 4oz.
The surprise fish of the day was a rare Blue Skate weighing 7lbs 10oz landed by a delighted Terry Hartnell, a frontrunner in our Fish of The Month competition kindly sponsored by Sidewinder Lures and Newbarn Angling Centre. If you have caught something better, please email me pictures and details at johnsherlockfish@gmail.com
Chesil beach continues to fish well with plenty of Whiting being recorded as well as Cod and Rays. Saleem Ail fished a session and was rewarded with a nice Blonde Ray for his efforts. Chris Wagstaff travelled to the Minehead area, where he found Small Eyed Rays eager to take his bait. Tristan Rowe has been out and about on the South coat finding some late season Smoothhounds, as well as a nice Bull Huss.
Newton Abbot Fishing Association members have been busy with a couple matches. The Wednesday rover was held on Bradley Pond where Gary Webber had top weight of 17lbs 8oz followed by Shane Harper with 16lbs and Duncan Arnold with15lbs 1oz. The same venue was used for their NAFA bonus classic where top weight was10lbs 40z to the rod of Duncan Arnold with Lee Dance Next with 7lb 14oz and Adam Gilpin in third with 7lbs 10oz. Spring ponds at Rocombe’s latest silverfish match was fished in far from favourable conditions with the water heavily coloured from the recent rain and a very low temperature. Jason Fay took top honours in this one with 16lbs 2oz of Roach with a few Perch, second was Chris Packer with 11lbs 8oz and third Mark Saunders with 8lbs 2oz. Maggots and casters were the best baits with fished on a pole. The next open silver fish match is on December 16.