Socially distancing anglers land great fish

Another week of fine weather and the easing of lockdown restrictions has given anglers the opportunity to get out and about all over South Devon.

The charter Boat Silver Halo out of Torquay has managed a couple of trips with single anglers on board, adhering to Government social distancing guidelines.

Skipper Matt Forrester reports these have been mid-range trips fishing wrecks and although the fishing has not been easy the anglers found pollack to a decent size with a fish of around 12lb going to the rod of Peter Munday and another of just under 10lbs to Liam Powles. The skipper himself getting into the action with a cod.

The beaches and other shore marks have proved a little more difficult, after I had written last week's report the spider crabs made an appearance doing their usual job of robbing anglers' bait and cutting off hooks with their claws. Their numbers seem to be diminishing and a few decent fish have now been caught.

Tom Stebbens fished an evening on his own in the South Hams landing a fine bull huss with Tommy Griffiths fishing a similar area and landing a 9lb 2oz smoothhound.

Mackerel are showing around the Bay although the catches appear sporadic. Some anglers are travelling further afield with reports coming in of rays and smoothhounds being caught in good numbers from the Bristol Channel. I managed to get out again only managing a few undersized bass which were all returned to grow bigger hopefully better this week.

Newbarn Angling Centre have had another good week with many anglers fishing the various pools.

The specimen lake has produced many fish including a fine fish of 23lbs 8oz to Oakley Hunt followed by a fish many know as 'Goldie' weighing in at a fine 23lbs 8oz. Alex Forest and Jay Harban also got in on the action with carp in excess of 16lbs.

On the match lake, Jack Bro landed a beautiful golden linear koi carp at around 10lbs. A young lad named Logan Brennan fished Island Pool on a short three-hour session and caught a fine bag of 46 silver fish. Manager Angela Perkins says the carp have not yet spawned although other venues are reporting that they have spawned and are feeding again.

The tackle shops are still open for bait via their favoured ring-and-collect methods. All sea and freshwater live baits now seem readily available.

With the weather set fair, we have a great opportunity this week to get out there and land some good fish. I look forward to getting some good catch reports via my Facebook page.

The Government are looking at lifting lockdown restrictions further this coming weekend. I will report any changes to the way we fish next week in the meantime it may be worth keeping an eye on the Angling Trusts website.

Tight lines and stay safe.