The lure of angling is difficult to resist

Lure angling is a form of our sport that is growing every year and one that anglers can get into reasonably cheaply with the variety of lure rods and lures on the market. Competitions and championships are held in both sea and freshwater.

One local angler, Tony White from Totnes, is an angler who loves his lure fishing for Bass so much that he recently spent the whole weekend in Cornwall fishing the Cornish Lure festival where he came a credible fourth with a Bass 61.5 cm in length, a fish I would estimate in the 4.5 to 5lb mark.

Tony is a very successful angler around South Devon, fishing both estuaries and open sea and finding many good Bass but this was not an easy competition to fish, not knowing the waters as well and travelling many miles over the weekend - well done.

Another angler finding the Bass locally this weekend was Brixham SAC member Michael Head, who fished a local mark to find them to 4lbs 10oz.

James Trevett of Honiton SAC, who has his eyes on the money in their year-long shore species hunt, has been chasing species that so far have alluded him with a degree of success. However, he has landed a nice Dover Sole and Red Bream.

Anglers travelling to the mighty Chesil Beach are still finding fish with Bass, Sole, Cod and Rays being caught amongst the Dogfish, Congers and Whiting.

Gary Knott landed some of these species on a recent visit along with some nice squid, which I am sure will be used successfully as bait later in the winter. Aaron Colhoun travelled to the upper reaches of the Bristol Channel finding Thornback Rays eager to take his bait.

Another angler fishing locally was Mateusz Schodowski, who fished Brixham breakwater, finding Conger Eels and surprisingly a nice Black Bream.

The Boats have been finding conditions hard with the autumn storms arriving early this year, but when they have managed to get out, the wrecks are producing Bass, medium-sized Pollack and the Tuans are around in such good numbers that skippers are reporting multiple hook-ups.

A boat that I have mentioned several times recently is Orca out of Beer and skippered by Stuart Pike, who has been finding some exceptional fish in Lyme Bay. His latest two are unusual for the area Spurdog of 7lbs 1oz to an unnamed angler and a Couches Bream for Honiton SAC member Kevin Dewey.

Stuart will be running some specialist Squid fishing trips shortly, if you want to give it a try look at his Facebook page for more details.

Entries are open for our Fish of the Month Competition kindly sponsored Sidewinder Lures and Newbarn Angling Centre. Please email your pictures and catch reports to johnsherlockfish@gmail.com