January 2005

Sunday 30th Jan 2005 - Shore fishing update
By Michael (CHUBB) Ballard

BERRY HEAD

went down berry head on saturday at about lunchtime,caught nothing all day until dusk came and then it was that hour after dusk when it goes crazy with bites, died down a bit after that with sporadic bursts of activity every so often.
fish caught were a number of pouting ranging from small to relatively big, and nine dogfish caught on combinations on squid, sandeel and pouting (best bits were the tail and random chunks of shiny skin and flesh). left at midnight.

Monday 24th Jan 2005 - Shore fishing update
By Simon Day

BABBACOMBE PIER & ODDICOMBE BEACH

I fished Babbacombe pier last night between 4pm and 9pm. Between me and the others that were there dogfish, whiting, pouting and rockling's were caught from the bottom. There wasn't much activity and probably a bite every 30 min's or so. Baits were squid, rag, sand eels and mackerel.

After I finished at Babbacombe I went round to Oddicombe where there were 3 chaps fishing. Apart from one whiting things were quiet down there.

Sunday 23rd Jan 2005 - Shore fishing update
By Michael (CHUBB) Ballard

BERRY HEAD

Went down berry head at 1 o'clock (saturday), had nothing all day until it got to dusk then it went crazy with pollock coming in in good numbers up to 1lb on float with squid. on the bottom,as soon as your lead hit the bottom you had a bite, fantastic apart from most of the biting fish were small pouting. at one point i was getting a continuous bite indicating a small fish so i left it in the water with the fish on the hook then a huge bite hit the rod and i pulled up a nice 2lb 2oz doggie which promptly spat out the remainders of a small pouting that was on my hook.

Bites died down after a while with another nice doggie on squid. Nothing else but a couple more pouting.
A couple of guys came down and one was using sandeel and he caught a few doggies in quick succession, he also told me that he had been down berry head recently using lugworm and mackerel and he got a nice cod/codling (3lb approx.) left about 9:30.

Thursday 20th Jan 2005 - New Fishing Guide added
By Simon Day

Nigel Street has emailed me a guide for another fishing spot called Durl's Rock in Brixham. It contains lot of photos about how to get to it and some basic details about the area. We're both planning to fish there soon so we'll report back to you what we find.

Monday 17th Jan 2005 - Shore Fishing update

BERRY HEAD
By Michael (CHUBB) Ballard

fished the platform berry head between 2pm and 6pm (Saturday). Caught a whiting that was 1lb on ragworm and a 1lb 4oz pollock on squid and mackerel. Caught pouting when it got dark and even managed to hook a 1lb whiting and a 2oz pouting on the same hook!

Later i caught a very small pouting but on a huge bite, puzzling, but after looking at the pouting, it had a huge bite mark that had pretty much removed the head, kept it on as bait and got some real nice bites, i got a real nice fish as well but it flicked off as i was about to pull it out of the water!!!
on the whole, pretty good.

OXON COVE, BRIXHAM
By Darren Herridge

Rubbish! That's the only way I can sum up my evenings fishing on Sunday 16th. I went to the Freshwater Car park at Oxen Cove, and bottom fished rag for about an hour from 7pm to 8pm. Did not get a touch, then topped that off by losing my terminal tackle on a snag.

Tried float fishing with rag for a couple of hours, at all depths from 7 to 15 foot, again without a sniff, apart from a 3" pollack in near the rocks. I then managed to lose my float rig as well, so gave the fish (If any still exist in Brixham Harbor) what was left of my bait. Still, as Rex Hunt says "That why it's called fishing and not catching!" I'll be back.

PRINCESS PIER
By Simon Day

I float fished here Saturday between 3pm and 5pm and all I had was 1 bite which resulted in a very tiny Pollock. This place was very quiet!

Thursday 13th Jan 2005 - Shore Fishing update

There hasn't been much to report because the weather has been so bad the last few days. The good news is some reports are starting to trickle in now.

BRIXHAM BREAKWATER
By Nigel Street

Got up at 6.00am to collect some live prawns for an early bass/pollock session at the Breakwater. I didn't get a sniff in the 3 hours i was there. I'm afraid that the fried breakfast was calling else I would have stayed a bit longer.

BRIXHAM BREAKWATER
By Adam Slack

Did you know there is an open fishing competition on Brixham breakwater January 16th in aid of the tsunami victims. The comp is from 10 till 4pm adult £5 junior £2.50 all proceeds going to help victims. Plenty of good prizes,fishing tackle etc and a barbecue with raffle.

For more information please contact Andre Burke 01803 858521.

Tuesday 11th Jan 2005 - Admin update

Sorry for the lack of reports recently. My new car died on me and the misses will be giving birth any day now so for the moment fishing is on hold. As soon as I can get back out I'll post a report.

Thursday 6th Jan 2005 - Shore Fishing Update

BRIXHAM BREAKWATER
By Nigel Street

Fished the lighthouse on Brixham Breakwater from 10.15am to 2.00pm.The wind was really strong from the NW but that didn't stop the 20 or so mackerel taking the float fished half sandeel.Nor did it stop the medium sized Garfish...... Is it winter yet?

I fished along with another angler who was fishing on the bottom with Peeler, i saw him take a small Pollock but that was it i think.

The other angler and myself joked about catching Mackerel and Garfish this time of year, I actually blanked a few times this year in the height of the summer when there are loads of fish about.

Wednesday 5th Jan 2005 - Shore Fishing Update

BRIXHAM BREAKWATER
By Simon Day

Fished the breakwater last night between 4.30pm and 9.30pm. Plenty of Whiting and Pouting on a float but very few bites off the bottom. I was using squid and mackerel as bait (couldn't get any worms).

Most of the Whiting were around the 1lb mark and the Pouting were around ½lb. Float depth varied between 7ft to 12ft with the most Whiting biting around the 8ft mark. I was using size 2 hooks.

Tuesday 4th Jan 2005 - Shore Fishing Update

HOPES NOSE
By Nigel Street

Fished the left headland section of Hope's Nose on Monday 3rd from 7.45am to 1.15pm.
The weather was a bit overcast to start but the sun came up and all was well. Gusty NW wind which blew the tripod over, don't you just hate that when it happens, especially when you got a over £500 quid sitting on it!!
The usual large squid and worm baits only managed to hook 2 Doggies which was a little disappointing but it was a nice to fish the Nose again. That walk back up that hill doesn't get any easier does it, It takes me 13 minutes but that's hard work, especially when you got all the kit with you.
I think there were about 10 others down there fishing to my right, not sure how they did though.
I'll try again in the week as long as the weather is kind.

Monday 3rd Jan 2005 - Shore Fishing Update

BRIXHAM QUARRY
By Nigel Street

Fished the platform at Berry Head last night from 5.00pm - 9.30pm (Monday 3rd) along with 3 other friends, we were later joined by another 4 anglers so it was nice to see a good turn out. I think we all had numerous Dogfish,Whiting and Pout but that was about it. I was using baby squid and worn cocktails as usual but didn't hook the fish we were after.

ODDICOMBE BEACH
By Simon Day

Fished Oddicombe between 11am and 8pm Sunday 2nd Jan. There were also 5 others fishing from the forum so between us we had 12 rods out. The had caught 2 wrasse around 7am (best being 3lb 8oz) but between then and 4pm we had no bites at all. At 4pm one of the others caught a 1lb 8oz Flounder. It wasn't until 7pm that I finally caught my only fish of the night (dogfish).

Sunday 2nd Jan 2005 - Shore Fishing Update
By Nigel Street

I fished the evening tide on the breakwater on thursday 30th, the wind was quite strong from the NW which made long range casting easy with the big baits I was using.The first 30min I didn't stop,first came a small strap Conger about 8-10lb and thankfully it dropped off just as i was about to lift it up the wall, followed by numerous pout and whiting.One of the whiting was a good size too. I was using the good old squid baits,I've just started to use those Baby squid, some of them are only about an inch and a half long. I use between 7-10 of these baby's to make a nice long bait, mixed with a few worms and its a killer cocktail.

The action soon died off though at high tide which was slightly strange, the most action I had was 3 hours before!!!

Ok so that was Thursday, now on to Friday (New Years Eve) Woke up early around 6.00am and decided to fish Hairy Ledge at the very end of Berry Head, what a cracking venue to fish this is!! Those of you that haven't fished here before don't know what you are missing.CAUTION... You do need a rope to scale the 30-40ft vertical cliff face and it isn't for the faint hearted. I've taken some anglers here over the years and many didn't get down.
Anyway i started fishing at about 8.00am along with the 3 seals and the 30 or so Dolphins which swam past in the 4 hours I was there. I had good dogfish 4-5 times to squid bait and also numerous pout and small whiting.
Tight lines...

*Admin note* Thanks Nigel for such a great report, we all really appreciate it!

Juniors looking for friendly matches
By Wilf Hutchins

Our juniors are looking for friendly matches home or away. any junior under 16 really needs an adult to fish with.so i reckon a match with 6 juniors & 6 adults could be possible on many local venues do you know of any clubs who would give it ago.
good fishing

If anyone can help please contact Wilf Hutchins from the Kingsbridge s. a. c on this email address.

Saturday 1st Jan 2005 - Message from Admin

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
By Simon Day

I hope you all have had a great Christmas and New Year and I also hope you aren't suffering too much this morning :-)

I would like to thank everyone who has taken the time to submit reports over 2004 because without your help the site wouldn't be as successful as it is!

This site was launched on the 9th July 2004 and already TorbayFishing.Com has had over 20,000 visitors with the daily hits rising week by week.

2005 is looking like it's going to be a great year for this site so please keep those reports coming in!

FISHING ROUNDUP FOR THE WEEKEND