Angling presentation night for Brixham SAC

A big thank you to Brixham SAC for inviting me to their presentation evening at their clubhouse. It was great to meet all who turned up and to put faces to the names of those who have kindly sent in pictures for this column over the past four years.

The standard of angling is very high in the club and it is difficult to mention so many here. However, Jason Upham stands out as being one of the best, taking well in excess of ten trophies.

Roy Repton remains the best Mullet angler, whilst among the juniors, Maisie Upham, Ethan Hammond Ashton Ingram and Grace Patrick are catching some wonderful fish and are the anglers of the future. I look forward to meeting up with a few from the club and catching some fish with them over the course of the next year.

The fish of the month prize for April goes to Martin Lobb of Brixham SAC with his Thornback Ray weighing 13lbs 10oz from the shore, a fish bigger than many will catch in their lifetime. This competition is kindly sponsored by Sidewinder Lures and Newbarn Angling Centre, entries are now being taken for the May competition, please email catch reports and pictures to johnsherlockfish@gmail.com

Father and Son duo of Chris and Archie Sweetland travelled to the Bristol Channel in search of Smalleyed rays and in a short session had five between them, with Archie showing dad how to do it with four of the five and the biggest fish weighing in at 9lbs 8oz. Chris, however, did manage to land a surprise Turbot.

Also fishing the Bristol Channel, albeit further up in the mud, were the Torquay duo of Tom Stebbens and Phil Mingo, who had a good session with plenty of Thornback Rays.

On the South coast, Scott Harris found a plump Flounder of 1lb 9oz and Totnes lure angler Tony White is finding Bass at various venues eager to take his lures.

On the boats, anglers are still finding medium sized Pollack, Bass and a few Cod on the wrecks aboard Siver Halo and Spot On out of Torbay.

Newbarn Angling Centre has produced a fine Ghost Carp of 15lbs for Jamie Saint, Rob Mann had three Carp to 18lbs and Steve Mann showed that you don’t need fancy tackle to catch Carp. Fishing with an old rod and reel, using a small float and a lump of luncheon meat, he landed a linear mirror carp of 16lbs.

At Newton Abbot FA’s Wapperwell Water, a recent junior match saw 15 youngsters catch over 96lbs of fish, mainly on the pole, including some nice perch up to about a pound in weight.

The best Carp this week was a fish of 33lbs 10oz and was also caught on older light gear, this time 5lb line and a size 14hook.

The charity match fished on Island Pond and Dores backwaters was won by Dom Holmes with a weight of 33lbs 5oz, Dom also had the biggest Tench a fish of 6lbs 9oz. Luke Helliwell and Mark Cousins took the next two spots with weight of 25lbs 4oz and 23lbs 3oz respectively.

With the weather warming, I hope more anglers will be out and about and fishing whether in salt of freshwater and I look forward to receiving your pictures.