Do the conger for some better fish, at last!

February is still doing its best to throw bad weather and awful fishing conditions at us, although there are signs that an improvement is on the way.

Many anglers this week have made Dartmouth and the South Hams their area of choice and it seems to have paid off with the conditions giving up a few nice fish, the best of these being a Conger Eel of 26lbs 4oz to the rod of Charlie Grey and a Bull Huss of 10lbs 9oz to Lloyd Carty.

Other notable fish from the same area included a Huss of 8lbs 6oz for Richard Ford, a Conger Eel of 20lbs 14oz for Kev Madeley and a Conger Eel of 11lbs 6oz for Aiden Lawrence. Karl Monk, fishing an Exmouth SAC match, landed a Bass on a whole squid with an up and over rig.

Last week, I mentioned the LRF anglers and this week a couple have been out and about with Aaron Spencer Slade landing a Painted Goby and Gary Phippard overjoyed with a rare Ring Necked Blenny.

Some members of Honiton SAC found a short window in the weather and managed a four-hour trip out in the Bristol Channel, where somewhere in the region of 150 Spurdogs were boated, with the best of around 18lbs to Dave Lee.

There is some exciting news for lure anglers in that over the weekend of the July 11-13, there will be a new competition with prizes for the biggest Bass, the top three combined, the biggest Wrasse and the best Junior. When I have more details, I will pass them on in this column.

Things have been a little quiet recently at Spring Ponds but they have just held round three of the Silverfish League with the honours going to Chris Packer with a bag weight of 12lbs 10oz. Second was Jason Fay with 10lbs 4oz, he was fishing pond 2, and third was Dean Bradford.

Newton Abbot FA held their Wednesday Rover Sweepstake match on Bradley Pond with Gary Webber taking top spot with 11lbs 6oz and also taking the pool money for the biggest Perch. Ethan Gilpin and Daryll Pattie took the next two places with 10lbs 30z and 5lbs 11oz respectively.

For the Carp anglers, five new Carp have been added to the stock of Island Pond, all in the region of 15lbs.

As I write this there are a few days of February to go, so I will announce the winner of the Fish of the month Competition next week. This is kindly sponsored by Sidewinder Lures and Newbarn Anglng Centre. Entries are now being taken for March, and hopefully a few more fish will be caught with conditions hopefully beginning to warm up.