Dishing out the awards for angling excellence

The Angling Trust Wyvern Region annual presentation has seen awards given for the best fish recorded by clubs during the previous year. The evening was well attended with over 50 people from most of the 20 affiliated clubs enjoying the event.

It started with an enjoyable presentation from the Angling Trust’s Steve Rathbone explaining how the Talent Pathway is an incentive to get junior anglers on the road to international shore angling.

The presentation and a sumptuous buffet was followed by an extensive raffle at the end. The top prize of the evening, the Castle Trophy, was won by junior angler Joshua Johnson of Rodbenders SAC with an absolute fantastic Gilthead Bream weighing 9lbs 15oz.

Best lady angler was Sharron Green of Castaways SAC with a Whiting of 1lb 15oz and the best shore-caught fish was a Thin Lipped Mullet of 4lbs11oz caught by Alfie Jeans of West Bay SAC. The Best Bass was a fish of 13lbs 13oz caught by John Adey of Torbay and Babbacombe SAC.

Pleasure anglers have had a bit of a hard time of it with the recent storms, although Luke Rossiter braved the elements and landed a couple of good fish, a Bull Huss of 8lbs 8oz and a Small Eyed Ray of 6lbs 6oz. Reports from most beaches are of small whiting, Dogfish, with the odd Huss and ray also showing.

Freshwater anglers are faring quite well with some good fish being reported. Spring Pond’s water levels are being controlled to maintain a constant depth and good catches have been reported with good numbers of Carp to around 6lbs on both feeder and pole tactics.

Winter is a good time to target Perch and several fish to around 3lbs have been landed, one of those to the rod of Lee Sharland. The Perch here reach in excess of 4lbs and maybe even bigger, why not give them a visit and try for that big one.

Newbarn Angling centre is fishing well despite, the weather. The specimen pool is producing fish in excess of 20lbs and Willow pool produced a nice Carp to junior angler Harry Sharp, who visited with his dad. Harry was fishing with a hired whip and maggots as hookbait, showing that you don’t need fancy or expensive tackle to catch fish and enjoy this wonderful sport.

Newton Abbot FA’s latest match was won by Gary Webber with a bag weight of 10lbs 8oz, with Sam Powell second and James Hammond third.

The Fish of the Month winner for January will be announced next week, entries for February’s competition kindly sponsored by Sidewinder Lures and Newbarn Angling Centre are now being taken. Please email your pictures and catch reports to johnsherlockfish@gmail.com