Flyfishing season casts off for the summer

Kennick Flyfishers kicked off their season with the first round of the Snowbee Top Rod competition at their home water Kennick Reservoir on Dartmoor.

Thirteen anglers fished on a chilly windy day, finding that the best tactics were floating or intermediate lines with either orange blobs or weighted green and black nymphs the flies that did the trick.

The deeper end of the reservoir was the holding area for the fish and five anglers caught their five-fish limit. Forty-seven fish were landed in total for an overall weight of 93lbs13oz. The best fish of the day was a Rainbow trout of 2lbs 14oz landed by John Hern of Exeter. John was also the winner on the day with Rob Gale of Ashburton taking second spot and Chris Bolt of Kingsteignton third.

Newbarn Angling Centre continues to produce fish with Paul King returning to Willow Pool and landing four lovely carp using sweetcorn and pellet on float tactics.

Three Carp fell to the rod of Peter Newton who was fishing the specimen pool, including a beautiful Ghost Carp. These were caught on ledgered boilies. Matt Fowaker fished the venue for the first time in 30 years and had a great time with Carp up to 16lbs 4oz on Banana boilies.

At Spring Ponds, anglers fished round five of their silver fish league with the winner being Jason Fay, who fished maggots on the bottom to land a bag weight of 20lbs 8oz, second was Dean Bradford with 17lbs14oz and third was Paul Blake with 13lbs. Both Dean and Paul were fishing shallow with maggots on the pole. The final round is on April 6 and with some regulars missing, there are a few spare places.

Beach Fishing has gone as bit quieter this week with local anglers heading to the South Hams and struggling to catch even a single fish. However, Michael Head of Brixham SAC landed his first Bull huss, a feisty fish weighing 9lbs 6oz.

Reports are coming in of a few Mackerel being caught on float tactics from Brixham Breakwater and various rock marks. A few flounders have been caught from the open sea near our estuaries, showing they are heading back to the rivers after spawning. The only boat fish of note was a 20lb Spurdog caught out of Minehead in the Bristol Channel.

I attended the Honiton Sac presentation night this week where, surprisingly, I picked up a couple of trophies. The evening was well attended by about 75 people, including many juniors picking up trophies, which is always good to see.

A new trophy was presented on the night for the best all round angler and was decided by the best five specimens from boat and the best five specimens from shore, this was won by James Trevett.

There are still a few days left for the March Fish of the Month competition kindly sponsored by Sidewinder Lures and Newbarn Angling Centre. Please email your pictures and catch reports to johnsherlockfish@gmail.com