Tales of the Tamar      by Tom Worthy of Plymouth Angling

Plymouth Anglers have been all over the West Country this month catching some cracking fish from both north and south coasts. Boat fishing has seen some nice plump Cod come to the side of the boats along with the Ling, Pollock on the other hand are plentiful around the 5lb mark but very few double figure fish have been caught. The sun has also been a bonus but the expected big shoals of mackerel inshore have been far and few between. Some marks have proved better than others for the summer species, Berry Head has seen more mackerel than most and a lot of smaller Pollock and big Ballan Wrasse are being landed from local rock marks.

Around the Marks

Halton Quay and Lop well Dam, loads of small Bass are being caught and returned from these marks on Lugworm, not many over 4lb are being landed.

Mountbatten Pier, one of Plymouths easily accessible and popular marks is seeing a lot of small Pollock / Bass and some decent size Wrasse to floated sand eel and Ragworm baits.

A happy Owen Basset age 16 with his float caught 4lb Bass from Mountbatten Pier

To be truthful most of the marks in the river and the sound are producing at the moment, although not a lot of big stuff there’s been a lot of sport available. You never know there is always a big fish going to show up somewhere as I’ve just heard of a big John Dory has been landed from Elphinstone Car Park.

The cliffs and the rock marks are throwing up some nice big Ballans at the moment; Tina Rimmer has caught and released the biggest I’ve heard so far this month from a rock mark in the Sound a whopping 8lb fish. There have been also many around the 6lb landed, on a nice warm sunny day junior angler Ed Bennett proudly shows off his 4lb Ballan wrasse totally embarrassing his dad and granddad in the process.

 In the rivers and the Estuaries we have a load of Mullet and Gilthead bream, most of the mullet are being caught using a float of ledgering method with bread as bait, another concept taking the stage at the moment is fly fishing for the mullet using a bread imitation. St Budeaux angler Lee Jelf with one of his many caught river Mullet.

 Manadon junior angler Charlie Gray with his 3lb Gilthead bream which was the biggest of four he caught during that session.

As mentioned earlier a lot of Plymouth anglers are trekking off to the north coast and the Bristol channel to target the big fish available which we don’t readily see much of in Plymouth, Tope, Smoothhounds and small eyed ray. Rob Yorke, (Legend) is one of those anglers and here he is with a pair of double figure fish caught on one of his recent forays to distant shores. Notice the gently sloping grass verge in the back ground.

 Plymouth and District Shore League    www.plymouthshoreleague.co.uk

With a marked improvement in the weather over heat two of the 2010 shore league, saw 16 specimen rated fish pass through the weighing officers hands. Craig Pope was the captor of a tasty looking sole of 3-2-8 putting Craig in an early lead for the events best specimen trophy on 180.35%. Best of the rest was Mark Ash with a Huss of 12-15-8 followed by Rob Yorke with a small eyed of 10-1-0. Kingfishers Ray Dower took the best Mullett of the weekend with a 4-4-8, best Gar which appear to be a little late this year was Terry Carters 1-4-8. Bass are always good to see at the weigh in and Raiders Lee Vosper took the biggest of the heat with a fish of 6-5-8.

After two heats now division 1 leaders Stonehouse (52) narrowly lead Roving rods B (49), with Raiders 3^rd on (47) and Roving rods A in 4^th with (44).

Division 2 leaders Stonehouse (40) lead Seafarers (36) with Rodbenders rebels in 3^rd on (20)

Top 3 fish this heat were:

C Pope           Roving Rods A         Sole    3-2-8 (180.35)

M Ash             Marl / Pot Black B     Huss   12-15-8 (144.09)

R Yorke          Rodbenders              S/Eyed           10-1-0 (125.78)

Next Match Date: July 24^th – 25^th 2010

Boat Scene

Eva Rowe from Crownhill had a great first day out boat angling recently on Ian Holmans charter boat “ Bounty” Not only did she catch this nice Cod of 18lb, she also bagged amongst her catch a Ling of 15lb and a Conger of 50lb.

 There are also some nice size whiting around east of the stone, on the West Rutts and as far inshore as the halfway wreck. Steve Webber had a nice one over 3lb on my boat Juno on one of the inshore wrecks.

Plymouth Angling held an impromptu inshore boat comp last week end for about half a dozen local boat skippers, the target was Ballan Wrasse and the outer limits suited the smaller boats so inside of Rame head was the fishing area. Although many fish were caught only a couple were brought to the scales, the biggest was 4lb 7oz caught by Martin Neal and the eventual comp winner. Next month it is intended to hold a Conger team event, further information from within the store.

 Finally, i have stumbled upon a gem for those that have not already found this south west diamond. SWSF is a forum of anglers that are friendly and helpful in more ways than one, organised meets in the south west on a regular basis for both shore and boat anglers, informative and funny with most sharing everything helpful they can in a genuine way to assist fellow anglers. There is no hard selling or forum posters selling their wares, just a honest bunch of anglers from the south west having fun. Have a look if you’re not already a member you may be pleasantly surprised. www.southwestfishing.co.uk

Until Next month

Regards

Tom

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 5^th 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:

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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

These are the planned trips booked this year onboard Plymouth Charter Boat Crusader.

March 31st

April 22nd

May 12th

June 16th

July 21st

August 11th

September 8th

October 6th

November 3rd

December 8th

Full details and cost per trip are available in Store.

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

1^st   D. Clegg   10lb Small Eyed Ray

2^nd   G. Jones   23lb 11oz Conger eel

3^rd   G. Tippett   2lb 8oz LSD

4^th   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 8^th 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 2^nd 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

Saturday 21st August
Saturday 4th September

Saturday 18th September

In the event of over subscriptions, second day Sundays, will be announced at a later date. Each event also has a back up date, just in case the weather hampers play

2010 Fixtures:

Rod Bags

Team Daiwa Rucksacks

We are a main stockist of Berkley lines:

Whiplash Braid

Trilene

Trilene Flurocarbon

Large range of Poppers, Chug Bugs, Divers and Surface lures:

Storm

Daiwa

Rapala

Sidewinder

Also in Stock: Soft and Hard Baits

Redgills and Afterburners

Storm Wildeye Shads

Jelly Worms

Berkley Power Worms

Plus many many more……..