Sad farewell to Ravenswood for Torbay sea anglers

This month sadly sees the end of an era for sea angling in Torbay. Paignton Sea Anglers say farewell to their clubhouse Ravenswood in Cliff Road after some 40 years.

It seems that, as with many businesses, running costs are to blame for this demise. Sadly also for organisations such as this, membership is down on previous years and the number of juniors taking up this wonderful sport also seems in decline.

Paignton SAC are moving to a temporary base in the Palace Place Social club where all activities undertaken at Rasvenswood will continue until they find a new permanent home. All members and friends are invited to a final party night on Saturday, November 23.

Last week saw the first of this winter’s flounder recorded for Brixham SAC member Dan Patrick fishing a local estuary. This session also produced one of those surprises that an angler loves and that was in the form of a Gurnard, which he has never caught at that mark in nearly 40 years of fishing.

Two other Brixham SAC members had good results last week with Martin Lobb fishing the Bristol Channel and having plenty of action with Dogfish and Conger eels, whilst Jason Upham fished locally, landing plenty of Mackerel and a specimen Dogfish of 2lbs 9oz.

In what seems an eternity, I managed to get afloat with my fishing partner Scott Harris on Tommo Wright’s charter boat out of Watchet, where we had a great day on the various species of ray that inhabit those waters, as well as Dogfish, Congers, Whiting and late Smoothhounds.

The weekend saw the annual Natiosal flounder Championships take place on the River Teign, the results are only just filtering through as I write this, so I will give a full report next week, although it appears that more fish were caught than last year.

Spring ponds in Rocombe held the first round of their Silver Fish League with Jason Fay finishing top rod with a weight of 13lbs 2oz, Dean Bradford and Chris Packer taking the next two spots with weights of 9lbs 8oz and 7lbs 14oz.

It has been a busy couple of weeks at Newton Abbot FA with several matches taking place, notably the final round of the Four Seasons Carp League. The final round was won by Lloyd Radford with two Carp for 45lbs 10oz, including the biggest fish, a stunning Common carp of 29lbs 2oz.

After all four rounds, the overall winner was Andy Short with a weight of 174lbs 14oz, second was Matt Dore with 123lbs 12oz and third Harley Kitt with 107lbs 2oz.

The latest round of the Wednesday Rover Sweepstake saw Gary Webber take the honours with a weight of 5lbs 4oz. Paul Taylor and James Hamon took the next two spots with 3lbs 4oz and 3lbs 2oz respectively.

Please email your pictures and catch reports for our Fish of the month competition kindly sponsored by Newbarn Angling Centre and Sidewinder Lures to johnsherlockfish@gmail.com