Brixham Sea Angling Club triumphant in the Torbay Shield

The Torbay Shield is a long-standing inter-club competition traditionally fished for in October amongst the clubs in Torbay but more recently extended as far afield as Honiton due to the demise of some of the local clubs.

Last Sunday saw this year’s competition fished in cool conditions and a steady Easterly breeze in Torquay and Brixham.

Unfortunately, only four club entered this year, but it did end up with a good battle with not many fish being caught. Local club Brixham SAC were victorious with their team of Jason Upham, Shay Upham, Roy Repton, Luke Rogers, Michael Head and Harvey Cockram, beating runners up Honiton SAC by just five points.

Congratulations to them and let’s hope there are more teams fishing next year at Sidmouth.

Honiton SAC staged a Chesil Beach Rover competition, held over twelve hours. Eighteen anglers signed on and the event saw competitors fishing all along the length of Chesil. The majority and better fish came from the Western End with species such as Blonde Rays, Trigger Fish and Garfish.

The winner was Barry Hawkins with a total percentage of 322%. Tom Travers had the best fish, a Black Bream of 1lb 14oz and Adam Squance managed a lovely Blonde Ray. Also amongst the Blonde Rays was Newton Abbot’s Chris Wagstaff who managed several during his trip but none of the big ones that he was hoping for.

Young Oliver Cooper of Brixham has been amongst the fish again this week with a lovely Thick Lipped mullet of 3lbs 6oz. Chris Hawkes and Luke Southerden went out in search of Bass and both landed fish to just over 3lbs.

Father and son duo of Chris and Archie Sweetland had a rare pleasure trip after their recent team England duties and travelled to the Bristol Channel, where they were rewarded with plenty of Conger Eels and Thornback Rays.

I managed a trip to Brixham Breakwater with a friend, where we hoped to winkle out a few Mackerel and Garfish but, unfortunately, they refused to play ball. In order to catch something, we resorted to LRF tactics and managed six species in a couple of hours, these included Tompot Blennies, Sand Gobies and a Baillons Wrasse.

This year’s National Flounder Championship is to be fished at Teignmouth as usual on the weekend of November 22/23. with a jackpot of £1,000 for the best Flounder with many other prizes on offer.

Mike Spiller travelled a bit further afield for a boat trip and was rewarded with a good multi-species trip topped with a 3lbs 9oz John Dory, whilst nearer to home, James Trevett and Paul Salmon fished aboard Stuart Pikes boat Orca out of Beer and both landed Golden Grey Mullet of 1lb 10oz, setting a new boat record.

Don’t forget to email your pictures for our Fish of the Month Competition, kindly sponsored by Newbarn farm Angling Centre and Sidewinder Lures to johnsherlockfish@gmail.com