Sea angling emerges from the winter gloom

A little bit of sunshine and warmer weather certainly brings sea anglers out of hibernation, as this past week has shown.

Although the winds have been predominately in the East, a few nice fish have been brought to the shore or side of the boat.

Any angler who knows me will be aware of the fact the Smoothhound is one of my favourite fish and I was pleased to see a new boat record aboard Stewart Pike’s boat Orca out of Beer this week, a superb fish of 12lbs 4oz falling to the rod of Richard Evans. Hopefully I will get some this week from the Bristol Channel, where some of the bigger fish are beginning to show.

Local rock marks produced some nice Ballan Wrasse for Ethan Hammond of Brixham SAC, whilst Gary Phippard, fishing a similar spot, found a Bull Huss of 9lbs 3oz. Mike Head fished in the South Hams and found another Thornback Ray eager to take his bait, and in the same area Rickly Keeling landed four nice spring Plaice with the biggest tipping the scales at 3lbs 3oz.

Honiton SAC fished their latest club match at Charmouth on a somewhat peculiar night, some anglers found fish whilst others had a complete nightmare and blanked. Top spot went to Karl Allen with 209.9%, Tom Travers second with 131.4% and Barry Hawkins third with 110.7%. Paul Salmon took the pool money with a Dogfish of 1lb 11oz.

The Flyfishing season is continuing to produce some lovely Rainbow Trout, as Kennick Flyfisher member Alex Venn found when he visited Wimbleball Reservoir, where he banked seven fish with two magnificent Rainbows, both going over 7lbs.

Spring Ponds latest round of their Silver Fish League saw Dean Bradford taking the honours with a bag weight of Roach weighing 16lbs 14oz, Jason Fay took second spot with 14lbs 8oz and third was Luke Halliwell with 13lbs 6oz - his net included half a dozen nice skimmers. Successful bait on the day was maggots fished at various depths.

Newton Abbot Fishing Association continued its matches with round four of the Winter League at Goodiford Mill Fishery, where Jamie Pearce came out triumphant with a weight of 150lbs 14oz. Next was Gary Webber with 89lbs 12oz and third Sam Powell with 67lbs 2oz.

The Wednesday Rover Sweepstake was fished at Bradley Pond with Nigel Jeffrey the victor this time with 9lbs 5oz. Gary Webber and Paul Taylor took the next two places with 6lbs 120oz and 3lbs 11oz respectively. Paul Taylor grabbed the prize for the biggest Perch, a fish of 1lb 7oz.

Carp are really beginning to feed now and are showing all around the Rackerhayes complex and at Newbarn Farm Angling Centre.

The winner of the Fish of the Month competition will be announced next week when all last weekend’s fish pictures have been received. Entries are being taken now for the April competition kindly sponsored by Sidewinder Lures and Newbarn Farm Angling Centre. Please email pictures and catch reports to johnsherlockfish@gmail.com