Heavy storms batter the fishing waters of Torbay and the South Hams

Unseasonal storms and wet weather have severely hampered the two big angling competitions in the Torbay and South Hams areas in the last few weeks.

The full results are in for the Torbay Sea angling Festival and, as expected, are dominated by shore caught fish, although boats did manage to get to sea on a few days.

The best fish overall taking the trophy, £750 and the winners fleece was Neil Hargreaves with a shore caught Bull huss of 13lbs 14oz. The winners of the next three categories all received trophies and £275.

Best fish from a wreck was Mike Johnson with a Scad of 1lb 13oz. The best inshore boat fish was a Small Eyed Ray of 12lbs for Chris Dateand the best shore fish was a Bull Huss of 12lbs for Tim Firman.

The new prize this year for the best Tuna went to Alan House for his catch, which was 79 inches in length and caught aboard Spot On Charters of Brixham. Many other prizes were won with all winners being presented on Saturday, October 4 at Hookhills Community Centre at 7.30pm.

The other competition affected by the weather was the Angling Trust Wyvern Small boat competition fished over two days at Salcombe and attracts anglers from as far afield as Wales and Liverpool.

Unfortunately, due to the weather, the decision was made for everyone’s safety to cancel the Sunday and make it a one-day competition fishing only inside the Salcombe Estuary. At the time of writing this, I don’t have the full results, which I will have by next week but I can confirm that the winner with a Mullet and Couches Bream was local angler Kevin Allen.

Organisers of both competitions would like to thank the kind sponsors, without whom these competitions would not be staged.

Exmouth SAC held their Exe Cup competition with Driss Rami being triumphant with a nice conger Eel. Tony White continues to catch some nice bass, his latest trip to a beach where he fished the surf, as usual his go-to lure was white in colour.

Course anglers are less affected by the weather and usually have either a good fishing umbrella of Bivvy in which to shelter. Those fishing at Newbarn have been taking advantage of the cooler temperatures and finding plenty of good Carp eager to take their Baits.

Craig Gilkes found some good fish topped with a large Ghost Carp of somewhere around 20lbs in weight. Danny Pipe and Luke Gilkes also found plenty of fish into the low 20’s. The new house boillies seem to being doing the business with the go-to flavour at the moment being liver.

Entries are still being taken for our Fish of the Month competition, kindly sponsored by Newbarn Angling Centre and Sidewinder Lures. Please email your pictures to johnsherlockfish@gmail.com