Tales of the Tamar by Tom Worthy of Plymouth Angling
The tides of winter are now turning and with this little bit of sun a lot more of us are now venturing out of our winter hibernation and have been putting a line in the water. Although the fish are not here yet in any great numbers, we are starting to see the odd decent fish come to the scales. A few changes have been happening in the store over this winter, I have decided to specialise in sea angling only and got rid of all the fresh water tackle and baits, this has now given me space to put a whole new range of sea lure rods and reels plus associated end tackle.
Around the Marks
The Tamar Bridge is still quiet at the moment, the odd thornback and pin whiting are being caught. Further up river at Halton Quay we are seeing some schoolie Bass and flounder. The same can be pretty much be said of Lopwell Dam.
The river again is still quiet with Devils Point being the most productive area, thornback ray, Dogfish and whiting are being caught. Herring are being caught around sunrise and sunset, but again not in any great numbers. Pollock can be caught on the float with Ragworm.
Mountbatten Pier is getting a lot of attention from anglers but i think that is down to the sun rather than the amount of fish being caught from here. Ballan Wrasse are being caught on the bottom or by float to bunched Ragworm. Pollock to 3lb have been caught this month from here. Quite a few of commercial netters have been laying their gear quite close to the southern side of the pier at night.
Thats pretty much it really from the shore marks, Mullet are now in all the marinas and estuaries, some large fish are amongst these shoals. The beaches are not producing much at the moment, the odd whiting and dogfish, Beesands seems to be fishing better than Slapton at the moment.
Competition Scene
Castaways SAC have got their season underway with a monthly breakwater competition. Tickets for the 100 places are available from Plymouth Angling and Seaview Angling at £12.50 per angler. This is a great opportunity to fish one of Plymouths landmarks which is not normally accessible to the public. This month’s competition was again a popular event and was fished in fantastic sunshine and blue sky, however the fishing was not as prolific as some of the anglers hoped. Some cracking fish came to the scales, especially the winner D. Clegg with his 10lb small eyed ray.
Results for Aprils Competition
1st D. Clegg 10lb Small Eyed Ray
2nd G. Jones 23lb 11oz Conger eel
3rd G. Tippett 2lb 8oz LSD
4th K. Hare 2lb 4oz Pollock
The prize table went down to 8 Places, the junior winner was:
Z. Bond 2lb 14oz Spotted Ray
The next Competition is on 8th May 2010, this is to be a night match. Timings and rules in tackle shops.
Plymouth Angling Inshore Boat Competition
The next competition will take place on Sunday 2nd May, this will be a wrasse match. Full details in store.
Plymouth Angling Monthly boat trip report
After Crusader put us on the big Pollock last month everyone had high expectations for this trip as the tides looked really good. On the day the weather was not, so it was postponed until the following week. When we did finally manage to push out through the morning mist into glorious sunshine we had a great day, although a lot smaller tides and Pollock were few the Ling however did play and we managed a good day out. Steve Webber had the biggest at about 15lb.
Enjoy the sun and your days out fishing
Tom
Plymouth Angling
