Tales of the Tamar by Tom Worthy of PLYMOUTH ANGLING
Introduction
Firstly let me wish all readers a massive happy new year, here’s hoping you manage to get that target fish we all dream of in 2010.
While the rest of the country was going through snow blizzards and plummeting temperatures, here along the south west we were still enjoying relative warm weather. Then we also got a bit of a chill and a downpour of snow in early January, but this didn’t really affect the fishing in the Tamar as we were enjoying bumper catches of whiting, the odd codling / Flounder and now the Dabs were starting to come on. Flounder reports from Kingsbridge were good and quite a few were also being caught in the associated estuaries. The pacific Saury (bluey to us) was proving an ideal bait in the Tamar as anglers were reporting from all marks as this was out fishing most other baits.
Around some of the Marks
Tamar Bridge, This mark is fishing its socks off at the moment, so much so on decent tides the whole area has been packed with anglers. The floating pontoon at Saltash is giving up some cracking fish, dabs are being caught on rag and black lug. Codling are being caught on bait combinations of black lug / bluey / squid. Flounder on Ragworm and the whiting are grabbing everything. The whiting are up this end of the river in massive numbers and it now seems that the pins are getting to the baits first and becoming pests.
Anglers on Sankeys yard and the Pier have had some codling and a lot of whiting pretty much the same as the pontoon, a few nice thornbacks and pouting have also come from here.
Trevor hard with his 5lb 8oz Codling from the floating pontoon at Saltash, Trevor caught his fish during the early hours using black lug tipped with squid on an outgoing tide with a 1up 1down rig.
Mashfords yard at Cremyll, Some Codling have been reported from here on lug and squid baits along with many whiting. Taff Black had a 7lb 10oz Thornback ray from the grass area just before the snow came, Taff had this on a cocktail of fish baits and worm.
Competition Scene
Wyvern Division beach match at Slapton & Beesands This annual competition was held again as the first comp in the New Year. I believe over a hundred competitors turned out for what is always a well run and organised event enjoyed by all. This year was no exception as I enjoyed myself, hot food from the BBQ all day washed down with a piping hot cappuccino. Ok so the fishing was crap to put it bluntly, all I had caught was an under sized whiting and Bass. The wind and sea state didn’t help as there was an offshore wind right into your face and the waves were quite high. You couldn’t see if you had a bite if you ever got one at that, I was the only one around my area to catch anything. I was at the monument end of Slapton and heard to the left of me with half an hour to go some angler had managed a whiting and a flounder, well that’s a winner i thought, id had phone calls all day from mates on Beesands that only a few whiting and the odd dogfish had been caught. All in all a nice day out for a BBQ to start the year off, let’s hope next year fares better and someone might do something about those fishing boats ploughing the seabed of our local beaches.
Plymouth and District Shore League (Heat 9),
Flounder and Whiting dominated the fish returns on heat 9. Biggest Flounder and best fish of the heat was Maurice Shreeve with a fish of 3-5. Best of the Whiting went to Joe Hobbs with a 1-10-8.
Stonehouse are knock-out cup winners for 2009, congratulations to them.
Elphinstone Car Park, Whiting , Pollock and the odd codling are showing from here, one good news about here the caravans from the Christmas fair have long gone so there is loads of room again.
Kingsbridge Flounder
Plymouth Angler Mike Pean had a good session up at Kingsbridge using farmed rag worms. He had five flounder out ranging from two at about a pound, 2lb 10.5oz, 2lb 11.5oz and a personal best of 3lb 7.5oz. All the fish were weighed on certified digital scales and returned.
Competition Scene
Wyvern Division beach match at Slapton & Beesands This annual competition was held again as the first comp in the New Year. I believe over a hundred competitors turned out for what is always a well run and organised event enjoyed by all. This year was no exception as I enjoyed myself, hot food from the BBQ all day washed down with a piping hot cappuccino. Ok so the fishing was crap to put it bluntly, all I had caught was an under sized whiting and Bass. The wind and sea state didn’t help as there was an offshore wind right into your face and the waves were quite high. You couldn’t see if you had a bite if you ever got one at that, I was the only one around my area to catch anything. I was at the monument end of Slapton and heard to the left of me with half an hour to go some angler had managed a whiting and a flounder, well that’s a winner i thought, id had phone calls all day from mates on Beesands that only a few whiting and the odd dogfish had been caught. All in all a nice day out for a BBQ to start the year off, let’s hope next year fares better and someone might do something about those fishing boats ploughing the seabed of our local beaches.
Division 1 Table Division 2 Table
Stonehouse 232 Pot Black B 154
Roving Rods A 199 Marlborough Construction 144
Rodbenders 198 Seafarers 116
Raiders 184 Roving Rodders 104
Roving Rods B 184 Plymouth Angling Seniors 93
Kingsbridge 180 Rodbenders Rebels 85
Naval Stores 174 Kingfishers 52
Plymouth 111 Plymouth Angling Pirates 51
Pot Black A 102 Roving Rods Jnrs 0
Plymouth Ang YG 83 Saltash WMC 0
Top 10 Specimen List
M. Shreeve Roving Rods A Flounder 3-5-0 147.22%
J. Raines Plymouth Angling Flounder 3-3-8 143.05%
S. Dann Naval Stores Flounder 3-1-0 136.11%
A. Plant Stonehouse LSD 3-4-0 123.81%
J. Hobbs Pot Black A Whiting 1-10-8 120.45%
R.Chant Naval Stores Flounder 2-9-0 113.88%
A. Green Roving Rods B Whiting 1-9-0 113.63%
B. Collins Seafarers Whiting 1-9-0 113.63%
A. Hobbs Roving Rods A Flounder 2-8-0 111.11%
S. Fredericks Rodbenders Pouting 1-8-0 109.09%
Remaining Heat Matches
Heat 10 January 9 / 10th
Although the final heat for this year has now finished, the results were not available by the time this report was complete, next month will contain all final results and hopefully the fixture dates for the 2010 Plymouth Shore League.
Plymouth Angling Federation Open Flounder Competition
Date: 24 January 2010
0600 until 1600
Sign on at any of Plymouth’s Tackle Shops
Weigh in at the Stonehouse Creek Club (same as shore league)
Entry £5 seniors and £1 for juniors
Cash and Prizes
Well that’s it for another Month
Enjoy the fishing
Regards
Tom
