Landing great fish from the beach

Beach anglers are once again showing us the way this week with some cracking fish being caught. Harley Hayward visited North Devon and landed a new personal best Small Eyed Ray weighing in at a superb 12lbs 10oz.
Other Rays reported from the shore this week are Spotted rays falling to the rods of Chris Wagstaff, Aaron Colhoun and Budleigh Salterton’s George Drew, who also landed a Tope and a Small Eyed Ray. Smoothounds are still around and a couple of good fish fell to the rods of Dan Hale and young Lee Baker this week. Newton Abbot Angler Arry Pat also managed to get among the Rays with a fine Thornback.
Bass anglers have been out in force fishing the beaches and estuaries using a variety of methods, with the most successful being lures fished after dark, these hard fighting fish have fallen to the rods of Tim Whittle, Tony White, Alex Hayman, Rick Weston and John Rundle. A few Grey Gurnards have been reported this week and, although a small species, they are always a pleasure to catch.
Boat angling seem to be quiet this week, although Graham Dyer of Brixham Bait and Tackle fished the wrecks aboard a private boat and found the Pollack and cod eager to take the soft plastic lures with The Sidewinder Candy King once again being the go to lure.
Torquay’s Marcus Ward took his Kayak out from Salcombe chasing the Gilthead bream and managed several up to about 2lbs.
Newbarn Angling centre continues to produce fish with young Jack Gove catching his first Carp, which weighed in at 19lbs, not quite the magical 20!
Fishing often throws up a few surprises and this week has given us a couple, firstly when fishing with sandeel down the side of a wall Mic Tredgett, hooked and landed am 11lb 9 oz Conger eel. Secondly, and more surprising, Damion Fryer using his light lure rod and a small jig was fishing the River Otter for wild Brown Trout when his Lure was taken by a Bass.
There has been some good news for Torbay this week with the announcement that the Torbay Sea Angling festival is on this year, subject to government guidelines and will be fished from the 3rd to the 12th of September with a prize table valued at over £9,000 to be won.
The Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science has announced this week that Torquay Charter Boat Silver Halo will be taking part in the catch tag and release programme fishing for Blue Fin Tuna, the British record for which is a huge 851 lbs and has stood since 1937. This is a fantastic opportunity to fish for these hard fighting sportfish.
Please keep sending your catch reports and pictures for the fish of the month competition to johnsherlockfish@gmail.com, this competition is kindly sponsored by sidewinder Lures and Newbarn angling Centre.