Welcome back to the hounds of Devon seas

The hounds are here, and I don’t mean a reincarnation of the famous mythical one from Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle’s Baskerville Hall.

I’m talking about the lean mean ones that come close to our shores in late spring and summer to feed on the plentiful supply of crustaceans that inhabit our waters.

The pick of the week and early leader in our fish of the month competition kindly sponsored by Sidewinder Lures and Newbarn Farm Angling Centre is the 14lbs 1oz fish caught by Kev Madeley of Brixham SAC.

A fish that might well have beaten Kev’s if it’s captor had not left his scales at home was estimated at around 16-17lbs and landed by Tristan Rowe. Other anglers landing this hard fighting sport fish this week include Ross Stewart, Chris Wagstaff and Dan Hale.

Smoothhounds, however, are not the only target of shore anglers with father and son duo Chris and Archie Sweetland visiting one of the harder to get marks in the Bristol channel and both finding some lovely Small Eyed Rays.

Another angler, Gary Knott also fished the Bristol Channel, albeit an easier mark, Gasworks beach at Minehead, where he also found Small Eyed Rays feeding, along with Pout and Dogfish.

The other prized summer fish is the Gilthead Bream and the best recorded this week was a super fish of 5lbs 8oz landed by Dave Fortune of Brixham SAC.

The summer species are showing in really good numbers for boat anglers with members of Honiton SAC getting afloat, both on the south and North Coasts. On the south coast, Mackerel, Black Bream, Cuckoo Wrasse and Tope were found, whilst Mike spiller made a last-minute trip aboard Lorna Doone out of Watchet, where he landed the Grand Slam of Rays.

For those who do not know, this involves catching the four main species of Ray found in the Bristol Channel: Blonde, Small Eyed, Thornback and Spotted in one session.

Kennick Flyfishers were out again on anther round of their Snowbee Top Rod competition, this time fished at Blagdon Reservoir on the edge of the Mendip Hills near Bristol. This was a boat competition fished in difficult conditions with all the fish coming from the top end of the lake.

Of the nineteen anglers who fished, nine failed to catch. However, with some fish coming to the net, the winner was Alec Hoare of Abbotskerswell with three fish for 10lbs, Alex Venn was second and Robert Gale third.

There was a prize for the best Pike of the day, which can often be a nice bycatch when flyfishing, the best fish was a fine 15lb specimen landed by Peter Brown from Brixham.

Newton Abbot FA members were busy last weekend with a two-day match at their Rackerhayes complex, where the victor was Duncan Arnold with a weight of 69lbs 15oz, JJ took second spot with Daryll Pattie third.

Please remember to email your entries for the FOM competition to johnsherlockfish@gmail.com