Sidmouth Angling club

Sidmouth Angling Club members appreciated the better weather as they competed in the CJ competition, which had been postponed from February.

The beach competition was set as an evening competition, 6-10pm, with simple best fish wins and all fish weighed on the beach so they could be returned alive.

Mackerel and garfish were jumping up and down only 20 yards out from the beach and Barry Trevett started strongly with a good tub gurnard and a garfish on his first cast (pictured below), setting the standard.

Branscombe has been fishing very well recently, producing some good bass on plugs and smoothound over 8lb on big crab baits, however, they must have known the anglers were going because they didnt turn up! Instead a mixed bag of pollack, mackerel, garfish, scad, dogfish, bull huss and gurnard all made it to the scales.

The heaviest fish was a 1lb 9oz LSD landed by Bill Caser and the smallest must have gone to Trevett with a garfish only just the size of the hook! A good session was had by all with the winner being a garfish of 14.5 ozs from Chris Atkins.

l The bottom fishing along Lyme Bay can be a little hit and miss at the moment, so take float gear too, as there is still plenty of sport to be had from the mackerel and garfish that should remain for another month or so. Bass have been biting well on a mix of plugs worked in close around the rocks and river mouths. It’s also time to hunt out a big sole. Reports from Lyme Regis area suggest they have already moved in, so get some fresh worm and give it a go as it gets dark.