Monday 17th April 2006

BABBACOMBE PIER
By Dave Walsh

Fished Sat 15th April from 7pm - 10pm. Caught one small dogfish and only had two other bites. No one else caught. Tried Mackerel, sandeel and squid baits in all combinations.

PRINCESS PIER
By Simon Rice

Me and six of my mates fished Princess Pier from 5pm till 10pm on Saturday, tried everything but to no avail. Not even any small pollack down side of wall. Did hear of two mackerel being caught at hopes nose, but this was two fish between a lot of anglers. A local diver told us that sandeel's were around on bottom,so hopefully mackerel will be inshore soon.

Some of us also tried Berry head, but no mackerel there either !

Tuesday 11th April 2006

MEADFOOT BEACH
By Andy Borman

Fished Thunderhole, from the rocks on Sunday 9th April. Warmed up by 9am, beautiful fishing weather.

Using whole joey on a 5/0 pennel rig on paternoster and a mackerel fillet on a 5/0 pennel on a running ledger. Out from 6 to 11am. Strong bite at 7am on the joey but struck and played 'tug of war' with the bait, the lower hook not having caught in the fishes mouth. Recovered the bait head only. From tearing of bait and pressure on striking this may have been a ray (or large doggie?)

Will try this venue and tactic again, probably starting a few hours earlier or starting 9-10pm.

GENERAL ROUND UP
By Simon Baker

Well, what can i say...after last mondays catch of mackerel i was sure this week would be good, how wrong could i be!? I am off work at the moment so have been out fishing in Torbay every day this week, and caught precisely NISH!

I have spoken to many good folk along my travels all who have had the same experience. High tide, low tide, half days, all day,float, bottom, spinners, plugs, NO JOY.

There are some bait fish around, seen sand eels in fairly large numbers on the pier at Babbacombe and along Princess Pier.

This morning (monday 10th)my spirits and those of many tourists were lifted at the sight of 2 or 3 shoals of mullet(about 300-400 fish in all) swimming round the inside harbour at Princess Pier, accounting for water magnification they all averaged around 3lb mark...very cool to watch, if not a little frustrating.

Only other thing to report is that i have had a lot of squid taking mackerel strip baits all around the bay, they hang on but let go, but at least you get to watch your float go under now and again!!!

BRIXHAM BREAKWATER
By Jez Terry

Report for the 8th of April 2006, Brixham Breakwater.
So its been 2 months since I've been fishing and scene as we had some sun me and my fishing buddy went down to the breakwater to see if the fish were biting, well it seemed that they were biting but we couldn't catch the buggers lol, any way we ended up staying until late evening and my friend had 1 pout an I had something come off at the bottom of the breakwater, all in all it was an awesome day just being out in the very fresh air again, not catching didn't matter. So bye or now, tight lines an all that lol, hope my next report brings better news.

Monday 3rd April 2006

BABBACOMBE PIER
By Steve Watts

Originally had planned to do hopes nose friday but after driving around there to check it out thursday afternoon and seeing three trawlers scooping up everything i decided not to bother and ended up on the pier instead.

S set up rod for bottom fishing and casted it out and then got the float set up underway and within 20 mins i managed to hook into a dogfish,30 mins later rod tip going again reeled in and to my surprise i had a mackerel on not a bad size neither and just as we were reeling in to pack up for the night i had a small whiting, all caught on bottom with mackerel strip and squid combined. Enjoyable nights fishing.

PRINCESS PIER
By Simon Baker

Down to the pier at 10 am, after 1 hour of gales blowing in my face and no bites i packed up and went.

On a more cheery note i caught a 4lb 8oz sea trout this morning on West Hoe pier in Plymouth(monday), Good start for April let it continue!!!!!