Tales of the Tamar by Tom Worthy of Plymouth Angling
Another Month of very little fish, those that have been out fishing this month have had to travel to the Bristol Channel for Ray and Chesil Beach for Plaice. The occasional mackerel is coming off Hopes nose and Berry Head, to be truthful we are experiencing dire fishing in these parts from the shore and from the boat. It is not as if the fish are short of food supply, the drop off and the reef are full of Launce, Sand eel can be found all over the sound and you can walk out to the Eddy stone on the amount of Herring around. So where are the decent fish!!! I could get on my pedestal and say that the harbour and all marks / reefs / wrecks out to about 30 miles have got nets on them – which most of them have, or is it the water temperature is to cold, if that is true how come the small fish are everywhere. I know we can’t blame Gordon Brown for all the countries problems, but the older anglers around are saying it’s never ever been as bad as its been this year for the South West angler.
Around the Shore Marks
Halton Quay & Lop well Dam, small bass and green eels.
Tamar Bridge, some small bass and small Pollock
Pottery Quay & North Corner Pontoon, some small bass and the occasional thornback ray
Devils Point, Wrasse, LSD, Herring and small Pollock, Mackerel should be here soon
West Hoe Pier & Lion’s Den, LSD, Wrasse, Pollock and Conger, Bass
Elphinstone & Mountbatten Pier, LSD, Wrasse, Pollock & Conger. There are already Mackerel starting to come from both these marks.
Mullet are now in all the marinas and estuaries, some large fish are amongst these shoals
Boat Marks
This information comes from my own boat Juno ( Drop Off / Eddystone Reef / Hands deep / Inshore Wrecks) and from my two charter boat trips this month on Crusader (Deep Wrecks).
Plymouth Sound, Mackerel are few on the ground here, small Pollock are plenty along with some nice size Ballan wrasse & LSD. The Bass runs are not producing much even with live sandeels.
Drop Off, fished there a lot recently, not much conger around even on the low tides. Lots of Pollock around 2-3lb mark, there are mackerel there but they are not shoaling yet, i found the back of the Mew stone the most productive.
Eddystone & Hands deep, Loads of Pollock between 2-4lb, the place is alive with Herring and Launce.
Inshore Wrecks, You can fill your fish boxes quite quickly with 4lb Pollock from these if you’re that way inclined, not good if you’re looking for a bigger fish at the moment.
Deep Wrecks, We have had some nice fish off these but not in any great numbers. Ling to 18lb and Pollock to 14lb. Here is Nath Richards with a double figure Pollock and Tom jones with a double figure Ling.
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With this warmer weather coming in from the Atlantic, let’s hope it brings some bigger fish to our area; we certainly have got the feed waiting around for them.
Competition Scene
Castaways SAC have certainly got their teeth out with the Breakwater competitions, this event is going from strength to strength. Graham Tippet is the man behind the scenes doing all the leg work and organising, last month’s night time competition was again superbly ran. Looking to the safety of the anglers on what could be a dangerous mark, the comp was brought to a close 30 minutes early because the weather was deteriorating. I don’t think the anglers minded much as the fishing was not very productive that night, here is the comps results and a pic of Si with his winning fish.
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1st S Wengrandt LSD 3lb 1oz 102.8% £250
2nd G Hillon Conger 22lb 3oz 88.75% £150
3rd B Jones LSD 2lb 10oz 87.75% £100
4th P Hersey LSD 2lb 8oz 83.3% £75
5th M Brumby Pollack 2lb 1oz 68.75% £50
The next Breakwater event will be on June 5th 2010, from 6.30am to 2pm. Boat will depart from Mountbatten water taxi jetty at 0515. Entry fee for all anglers will be £12.50 and this will again be a cash back prize table.
Plymouth and District Shore League
Very shortly the much awaited shore league competition will start again. Teams must get their team registration in before the week-end start of round one at the end of May.
2010 Fixtures:
| Date | Sat HW | Ht | Sun HW | Ht | Cup |
| May 29/30 | 18.36 | 5.3M | 07.01 | 5.0M | |
| June 19/20 | 23.17 | 4.9M | 12.03 | 4.7M | |
| July 24/25 | 16.38 | 5.0M | 05.06 | 4.8M | |
| Aug 14/15 | 20.55 | 5.6M | 09.22 | 5.3M | |
| Sept 18/19 | 14.09 | 4.4M | 02.49 | 4.3M | |
| Oct 9/10 | 18.43 | 5.8M | 07.07 | 5.7M | |
| Oct 30/31 | 22.46 | 4.5M | 11.17 | 4.7M | |
| Nov 20/21 | 16.47 | 5.2M | 05.08 | 5.3M | |
| Dec 11/12 | 21.08 | 4.7M | 09.22 | 4.9M | |
| Jan 16/17 | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA |
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Finally here is a little mate of mine Cameron, his dad is Paul fenn an accomplished Gilthead Bream angler, which was until he took the boy fishing. Why is it kids always out fish their parents? Cameron 2 – 0 Daddy.
It looks like there is some good weather on the horizon, the Mackerel shoals will be here soon along with the full range of summer species, Enjoy your fishing.
Tom
Plymouth Angling
