Answers on a Postcard. Fishing at Hope's Nose

Hope's Nose - A Devon hot spot!

I set off to Hope's Nose near Torquay with a couple of friends, Dave and Nick, last week. Whilst they opted to fish with feathers for the mackerel, I set up a pair of 2 hook flapper rigs baited with ragworm in an attempt to catch flatfish and wrasse. A couple of short 60 metre casts positioned my baits on a clean sandy area at the edge of the rocks. With both rods on the rest I set about tackling up a third rod, a spinning rod and reel loaded with braid and on to this I tied a Dexter bass wedge. Casting this around near the rocks to try and tempt a bass or pollock kept me amused but it wasn't long before one of the rods in the rest started to nod. A small fish was swung to hand and upon inspection it had us all baffled as to its identity. Internet research during the last few days has revealed it to be either some sort of bullhead or gurnard. I'm still uncertain so if you think you know, please get in touch! Back to the fishing and both Dave and Nick were catching plenty of mackerel. My two beach rods remained motionless for the rest of the day despite changing the bait and casting around several times. I did lure a couple of large mackerel on the Dexter though, which were great sport on light tackle. A quick visit to a Mexican restaurant in Torquay and it was back in the car to come home. Another trip is planned for later next month.

Keeping us guessing - The mystery fish

Targeting Silverfish at Plantations Lakes, Kingston Seymour

My friend Mark Bartlett and I set off for an early morning silverfish session on the Main Lake at Plantation Lakes, Kingston Seymour, with skimmer bream and bream our main target.
We got to the lake at 7am and lucky the lake was still quite empty, we saw a few fish moving so opted to fish pegs 4 and 5. I won the draw and picked number 4. To make our friendly match a bit more interesting, we set a rule that we could only fish with the top 6 sections of our poles!
With everything setup we started our 4 hour silverfish match. I plumbed a top 2 line in the margin and fished casters just off bottom trying to target the big perch which patrol the margins! I also plumbed a swim on my top 4 out in front of me which was going to be my main choice for the bream ans skimmers.
I mixed up a kilo of the new Sensas Lake and Sweet Fishmeal groundbait and introduced 3 medium sized balls on my top 4 line.
Down to my right, in the margin swim I started to flick in some casters and dead red maggots. I tackled up with a 4x12 Preston Chianti float, 0.13mm main line and 0.11mm hooklength with a size 18 Drennan Silverfish Maggot hook.
I was instantly getting bites from roach and rudd and soon had a few in the net. I kept the bait trickling in and was lifting and dropping the rig so my hookbait fell at the same rate as the free offerings. Mark was also straight into a good run of roach and we also had decided to fish a longer groundbait line as I had. This got him some early skimmers and he was soon into an early lead.
My margin line produced a 1lb rudd and a 1lb roach in successive bites but Mark's bream had him clearly in front at this stage.
I swapped to my longer line and setup with a 4x16 KC Belter float, with 0.13mm mainline and a 0.mm hooklength to which I tied a size 16 Drennan Silverfish Pellet hook and fished soft expander pellet over the groundbait and used a small Matrix Toss Pot to deliver a small amount of damp micro pellet with every put in.
I caught a few good skimmers and a bonus crucian carp and swapped between both the lines trying to keep up with Mark, who was also catching steadily.
I went back to my margin line and opted to fish on the deck, this produced a couple of very decent skimmers, just as Mark's swims had gone a bit quiet! I saw that I had been catching on my 6mm soft expanders which I prepare, so he hopped off his box and stole some, typical!!
As the final whistle sounded we both thought we had won, we hauled our keepnets out and looking at our bags of silvers if was hard to call! To keep things fair we called it a draw, between us we had caught nearly 80lb of silvers in 4 hours! Excellent sport and I'm sure it won't be long before we are back again to have a rematch!

Gone Fishin'

Just two of Toby's net full of slabs

Thursday saw all three of us getting some fishing in. Whilst Dan headed off for a bit of trout fishing, myself and Toby set about targeting carp and bream using both surface fishing and method feeder tactics. I managed half a dozen decent carp on floating crust, whilst Toby filled his keepnet with twenty eight good sized bream between 2lb and 4lb and a couple of large carp, the best, a fish of over 15lb. Yet more success for the new Dynamite Baits Red Krill Groundbait, that has proven very effective on all of our local lakes recently.

Dynamite Baits Red Krill Groundbait - Bream love it!

Major Clubs Competition. Fly Fishing on Rutland Water

Dream fish! A Rutland rainbow

It's always been a dream of mine to fish at Rutland Water. Famous the world over for its superb trout fishing, this Midlands reservoir covers a little over three thousand acres and it was here that the latest Major Clubs competition was to be held. The Bristol Reservoirs Fly Fishers Association team had asked me to fish for them and so I set off for what I hoped to be a successful trip and to realise a dream. I just hoped I wouldn't be disappointed, but I need not have worried. Arriving the day before the competition for a quick practise session, I was straight in to the fish. Orange Blobs tempted my first Rutland rainbows and so the next morning I woke up both excited and quietly confident. Six teams were taking part, thirty six anglers between eighteen boats and after some breakfast we all took to the water. The day passed quickly, exploring a new water and trying several different areas proved both equally enjoyable and daunting but I found fish and ended the day with five trout for 12lb 8oz. All taken on Rutland Buzzers. A pleasing days catch and made more so upon finding out that my contribution had helped our team to second place, finishing just behind the British Army's team who took the number one spot. A fantastic result and a really good couple of days. A long held dream realised in superb style! Information about Rutland Water and the fishing available, can be found at both www.rutlandwater.org.uk and www.anglianwater.co.uk

Rutland Buzzers fooled my fish

Barbel Fishing on the Wye. New Dynamite Baits CarpTec Boilies on Test

A brace of summer Wye barbel

A cold, hay fever, heavy rain and a flooded River Wye. Good reasons not to go barbel fishing! But I went anyway and I'm glad I did! I wanted to try out the new Dynamite Baits CarpTec Boilies on the Wye's plentiful stocks of barbel. Recently the brightly coloured, fruity flavours, like the Banana, Plum and Strawberry boilies, have been a hit with both the carp and tench in our local lakes and I thought the fishy baits in the range might work well on the river. I was right! A couple of short afternoon/evening sessions have produced the first barbel of this season with fish to 8lb 4oz hoovering up both the Mussel & Shellfish and Spicy Squid flavours. Chub have also approved of these new baits, a fish of just over 4lb being the biggest so far. A resounding success for these boilies and I'm sure the dark red coloured Crab & Crayfish flavour would do the business as well. Tackle wise all the fish were taken on 10lb breaking strain Sufix Synergy reel line with size 8 Drennan Super Specialist Barbel hooks tied to 12lb breaking strain fluorocarbon hooklengths and fished with running 3oz Korda Big Grippa leads. A tried and tested, tough, reliable set up. So, give these new boilies a go! They're all available now and with eight different flavours and colours to choose from there's something for most species.

Fly Fishing in France

A French bleak

A trip to Fleac in Poitou-Charentes, South West France, to visit family last week, provided the opportunity for a bit of fishing. My brother-in-law is lucky enough to live on the banks of a small limestone stream and I was fortunate enough to have packed my travel fly rod. A chance not to be missed! Chub, roach and bleak were plentiful and provided a few enjoyable hours of good sport on the dry fly. Not quite the monster carp or catfishing that this country is famous for but a bit of fun none the less!

A decent roach on the fly

Beginners Luck for Birthday Boy. Trout Fishing on Chew

A bright sunny day for Toby's birthday and the two of us set off to Chew Valley Lake for a day's boat fishing. Waving goodbye to Jon and leaving him to look after the shop we jumped in the car for what was only Toby's second trip fly fishing, the first being two years ago and resulting in Toby's first ever rainbow trout. Eager to catch again, Toby tackled up a single fly on a fluorocarbon leader whilst I opted to fish a team of three flies. The morning passed quickly, but with no fish to show for our efforts and so we popped into Woodford Lodge for something to eat. After lunch we wasted no time in motoring to the North Shore area of the lake and were soon hooking some fish. A few trout managed to slip the hook but come the evening we had netted six rainbows, four for Toby and two for me. Beaten by a beginner!! A good day out and great to see Toby enjoy a type of fishing he doesn't get to do very often.
I fished the fourth round of the Chew evening series last week as well and had two fish for 7lb, enough to push me up to tenth place overall, out of over thirty participants, so I was very pleased with that!

Toby's birthday present, a personal best!