Exeter Canal - Set lines found and removed!

Dom and I were told yesterday that the EA have removed set lines from the Double Locks area of the canal. They were set for pike as they had snap tackles baited with dead roach. Anybody who fishes the canal should be on the lookout for anything/anyone suspicious. If you do see anything untoward then please gather as much info as you can. Numbers of people, descriptions etc and report it as soon as possible.
EA 24hr Hotline number = 0800807060
Exeter EA number (not 24 hrs) = 01392444000
Exeter and District AA hotline = 07967251443

Lair of the Water Wolf/Tackle sale

Friday 17th December
Something different this month, we have moved the date of the meeting to the 17th of December as it is Christmas eve or something the following week. Bah Humbug! We are going to screen the excellent underwater film "Lair of the waterwolf" by Dean Burman and also the chance for everybody to unload some of their second hand tackle. We also have a copy of waterwolf very kindly donated by Dean as one of the prizes in our sensational raffle.
Doors open at 7.30 film starts at 8.00 there will be a £2 charge for PAC members and £3 for non-members. Any tackle that is sold 10% of sale price to be donated to club funds.

The Greatest of Thanks!

I would just like to say a massive thank you to Mr Pete Climo for Friday night's talk. Despite a less than impressive turnout (weather, apathy, whatever) he gave an absolutely fantastic talk! This man has not only caught some amazing pike but he has done it consistently over a number of years and he was quite willing to explain exactly how he has done it. His talk was interesting, entertaining and informative. Any regions who are looking for a speaker that will blow you away then I would suggest you look no further. Once again thanks very much Pete.

Still on despite the snow!

Tonights meeting is still on despite the snow and rumours of snow!
I would just like to thank Cullompton Carp and Coarse for the late donation of a couple of lures for tonights raffle. It promises to be a good one so see you all there and wrap up warm.

Pete Climo this Friday

Doors open at 7.30, Talk starts at 8, there is a charge on the door of £2 for PAC members and £3 for non-members. We will also be holding our raffle with some great prizes including a signed copy of Neville Ficklings book Big Water Pike Fishing.
Please note that all pike or predator anglers in the area are welcome to come along to Devon PAC meetings whether PAC members or not. Our aim is to make the Devon PAC a friendly group that exists to support pike, pikers and pike fishing, get our views/aims across widely, and provide a way for pike/predator anglers to meet each other socially (and then go fishing).

Tiverton Canal (or "More hits than the Beatles!")

Thanks to the few who turned out on a cold sunday to Tiverton canal especially Paul AKA "Shrek" from the LAS. A shame that even less pike showed up than fishermen. However a fun session was had with Dom eventually taking the pot with 3 pike on the bank for a grand total weight of 4lb 2oz!
Lots of half hearted knocks, hits and takes, suggested that the pike were as unimpressed with the cold as we all were. Still a good time was had by all and the general feeling was that a few joint ventures with the Lure Anglers Society could be on the cards.

Tiverton and District AGM Update.

Well Dominic and I attended the AGM on Friday night with good results. We met a nice bunch of anglers who were interested in what we had to say and who have agreed to adopt the pike rules and handling guidelines that we had prepared for them. I ended up being voted onto the committee, but that can only be a good thing really. Watch this space for the ressurection of the Tiverton and District annual Pike match!

Exeter & District Pike Match

Tiverton and District AGM

This Friday 12th November is the AGM of Tiverton and District Angling. 7.30pm at Tiverton Conservative Club. At the moment the club have no rules in their handbook relating to pike angling, care and welfare etc. We have written to them with a view to addressing this. Also we would like to bring up the question of what seems to be a fairly haphazard approach to the bailiffing of the canal.
Any members of the club who would like to come along and support us would be very welcome.

November Lure Match

NOVEMBER IS LURE TIME!

LURE FISHING OPEN MATCH

Sun November 21^st Meet 7:30 am at Sampford Peverell car park (next to park). Fish 0800 -1500. This is a roving match,

●Only Lures or Flies permitted.

● Please bring scales and, if possible, a digital camera

NB: Entrants must have valid club permit and the usual EDAA rules apply

(i.e.: you MUST have a large net & unhooking mat, etc)

Any other queries: 07804 240986

£5 ENTRY - ALL WELCOME!

Novembers Meeting - Pete Climo

"Lure Fishing for Big Pike" by Pete Climo
Friday November 26th at The Barge Inn, 93 High St, Halberton, Tiverton, Devon EX16 7AG
We are very lucky to have Pete Climo as our guest speaker for November
Petes Background: Caught first pike in 1962 as a school boy. Personal Best 42.5 from Llandegfedd in 1988 on a spinner. The biggest pike to be caught on a lure at the time. Best pike on a bait 34.14, best pike on fly 32.8 from Chew. President of PAC from 1994 to 1997. Brought Llandegfedd to the attention of Pike anglers through an article in Coarse Fisherman in 1985 as part of a 13 year long campaign to open the Reservoir for Pike fishing. Reservoir finally opened in 1988 for 2 weeks – 4 forty pounders and 15 thirties were caught. In 1989 awarded PAC ‘Pike Angler of the Year’ award jointly with Bob Jones for work on Llandegfedd. In March 1990 invited by Welsh Water, together with Bob Jones, to lead an attempt on the British Pike Record at Llandegfedd. One of the Welsh Water guests Gareth Edwards, secured the record with a pike of 45.6. Beat the British Eel record in 1969 with a fish of 7.15. An original member of Jack Hilton’s Redmire Pool Syndicate between 1968-1974.

Doors open at 7.30, Talk starts at 8, there is a charge on the door of £2 for PAC members and £3 for non-members. We will also be holding our raffle with some great prizes including a signed copy of Neville Ficklings book Big Water Pike Fishing.

Please note that all pike or predator anglers in the area are welcome to come along to Devon PAC meetings whether PAC members or not. Our aim is to make the Devon PAC a friendly group that exists to support pike, pikers and pike fishing, get our views/aims across widely, and provide a way for pike/predator anglers to meet each other socially (and then go fishing).

A BIG thank you.

Many thanks to everybody who turned out to the meeting last night. We were treated to a very informative and entertaing talk by Mr Fickling, followed by a lively Q&A/discussion session covering a variety of topics from pike conservation and the merits of single vs treble hooks through to the popularity of facial hair amongst pike anglers (thanks Rob!) Neville also signed copies of his latest book for people and very kindly donated a signed copy for the raffle at the next meeting. Once again thanks for attending everybody, especially Nigel who drove all the way from Truro. See you all at the next one.

First Meeting

The first meeting of the new season is this Thursday 21st October and we are lucky enough to have Mr Neville Fickling to give us our first talk/slideshow of the season. The meetings are held in the function room at The Barge Inn, 93 High Street, Halberton, Tiverton, Devon, EX16 7AG. Doors open at 19.30 and the talk starts at 20.00. Everybody is welcome PAC member or not, there is a small admission charge on the door £2.50 for members and £3.50 for non-members, we also be holding our raffle with some great tackle as prizes.
We have put together a quite extensive and ambitious programme of events for this season with some great speakers, a film screening/tackle sale and a comprehensive range of matches, competitions and social fish-ins, so we look forward to seeing some of you there.

Newsletter

As we dont have an e-mail address for all the regions members we have decided to step back into the dark ages and send out a newsletter via the postal service! My daughter is folding letters and putting them in envelopes as I write this. I have used the official PAC membership list to get everybodys address, so as long as you are up to date on that list you should receive your newsletter within the next couple of days certainly before the end of this week I would hope. If you havent received your copy by the weekend then please e-mail me with your membership number and address.
Plans are also afoot for a couple of matches/competitions in the next couple of months including the resurrection of the South-West regional trophy, so check the blog regularly for more details. Anyway I look forward to seeing everybody at the first meeting of the new season.

December Meeting

We have decided that it would be a good idea to have the December meeting earlier in the month so as not to clash with the festivities. Also we are planning something a little different, a second hand tackle sale, a chance for you all to palm off your old tat on somebody else! Or looking at it another way a chance to get some last minute christmas prezzies. A small percentage of everybodys sales will be given to the regions kitty. The date we are thinking is Friday 17th December.
This will be followed/interspersed with a screening of the incredible short film Lair Of The Water Wolf this is what the films author Dean Burman has to say about it "I came to the conclusion that most of our native species have been covered in one way or another. So once again i donned my scuba gear and headed off to film an infamous freshwater legend The Pike (Esox Lucius). Lair of the Waterwolf was a real labour of love, even the aspect of diving in water that could drop to 3oc didn’t deter me from filming this amazing creature. Spending day after day in two territories I finally witnessed and captured some unique behavioural footage. This was the filmmaking i’d dreamt of knuckling down to some real, testing hard work and uncovering secrets that helped to change peoples impressions of my subject. Lair of the Waterwolf went on to win 8 international film awards to date, including North Cyprus, Belgrade and again at Moscow. It also won the appreciation of eminent Natural History filmmaker Peter Scoones at the British Underwater Film Festival and some sequences are featured heavily in the primetime, blue chip BBC one series ‘The Nature Of Britain’ with TV personality Alan Titchmarsh"

We are hoping that if he is available Dean will come and talk to us about the making of the film or if not that he will sign a copy for us to raffle. More details will be released nearer to the date. If we do not already have your e-mail address and you would like to be sent the Devon Region newsletter which will be starting in September then please e-mail me devonpiker@yahoo.co.uk

More News for Winter!

We are very pleased to announce that our second speaker for the coming winter will be Pete Climo, I have just spoken to him and he has told me he is planning a brand new talk for us entitled "Lure Fishing for Big Pike". The date for the talk is Friday 26th November. We will be releasing more details start times etc nearer to the date. See you all then.

More details for next week

Regarding the friendly/lure/jerk match next weekend.
Ok after speaking to Rob about this Jerk/Lure match the details are as follows
Meet 6am at the Lime Kilns car park, fish through till 2, £5 per person entry, winning team takes all.Team size will be decided by how many people turn up. (According to Rob the winning team buys the beers!) Above is a picture of Rob with a fish smaller than most of his lures!

EDAA pike rules apply
(i.e.: you MUST have a large net & unhooking mat, etc)

First speaker confirmed for the winter!

I know it seems like a long way off and I have no wish to dismiss the summer before we have had it. But I am very pleased to announce that renowned big fish angler and celebrated angling journalist Mr Neville Fickling has agreed to come and give us a talk for our first meeting of the new winter season on October 21st. More details will be released nearer to the date but I was so pleased that I just had to let everyone know.

Team Jerk! Or does size matter?

A good friend of the Devon region Rob Darby who works for local tackle wholesaler Swift Tackle has been in contact with me with the idea of having a small (5inch and under) lure VS Jerkbaits/Larger Lures match on Exeter canal on Sunday June 6th. If anybody is interested in taking part they can either contact me here or e-mail rob direct at bionic.legx@googlemail.com

Finally the Match report!

Sorry about the delay but after a busy week at work and fishing finally here is the match report. 7.30 am on a cold and grey may sunday morning saw a motley crew of pike anglers gathering in the lime kilns car park by Exeter canal. Not a massive turn out but good to see some new faces.
(L to R) Ian N, Steve, Dave, Baz, Dave, Dom, Rob(Norbz), Ian and finally Seb and Marlena his girlfriend/ghillie.
We decided to make the event a pairs match- a good move, I thought, because it added a cooperative spirit as well as a further element of surprise. 9 anglers split into 4 pairs and myself Ian N fishing and taking pics but not competing as I didnt have a partner. At the start 7 headed towards the turf locks end and Rob and Seb headed towards the double locks (nothing to do with the nearest pub being that way?)Everyone had bites, but the fish seemed to be pecking at lures rather than trying to murder them. Top man on the day was Barry Thomson with two jacks like peas in a pod at five and a half pounds each

Rob Darby took the best pike at over seven pounds on his travels towards Double Locks.

Over the course of the match almost all people caught fish (sorry Seb)
All in all we had a terrific day out on the canal and in spite of less than spectacular results, the whole event was fished in the right spirit, with good banter and excellent sportsmanship. In what other match would you see anglers helping to net and weigh fish for rival teams?

Pike Match

Thanks to everybody who turned out on what was a grey, cold and uninviting morning to take part in the May Lure Match.

Just a couple of pics to whet your appetites a proper report to follow but its not raining at the moment so I am going fishing!

Spring Lure Match

THE DEVON PIKE ANGLERS CLUB PRESENTS:

2010 SPRING LURE MATCH!

FRIENDLY COMPETITION

Sunday 2^nd MAY,

Meet at Lime Kilns car park 7:30am (8:00 start 14:00 finish)

ENTRY: £5/ £6 Non PAC Members (pay on the day)

●Prizes for best fish & best total weight

●Only Lures or Flies permitted.

● Please bring scales and, if possible, a digital camera

NB: Entrants must have valid club permit and the usual EDAA rules apply

(i.e.: you MUST have a large net & unhooking mat, etc)

Any other queries: 07804 240986

A Big Thank You

Thanks to everybody who attended the last meeting and to John for his interesting and informative talk, also for the 10lb 4oz brown and 6lb rainbow trout he donated as raffle prizes!
Also a big thank you to Swift Worldwide andSakuma who gave us some pike-flies, braid and other tackle.

Last meeting of this season :-(

Pike Angler’s Club Meeting:
Friday 26th March at the Barge Inn, High Street, Halberton, Doors open at 7.30 Talk begins at 8.00 Admission charge £1.00/£2.00 Non Members. This month’s speaker is local big game fisherman John Gilmore. He will be giving a talk on fishing for exotic species in Far Off Places. (Thailand/Mexico/Maldives/Tobago/Kenya/Mauritius/Egypt/Cuba/Florida)

He has also done a lot of fishing in the Channel Islands for Bass/Turbot/Tope/Bream/Brill/Cod/Pollock/Conger etc. As well as the talk there will be tackle/lures on hand to demonstrate the different methods of fishing he undertakes
We will also be having our monthly draw for lures and other tackle prizes. All you have to do to stand a chance of winning is attend the meeting and buy yourself some raffle tickets.

Thanks

Thanks to everyone who attended on Friday night, and a big thank you to Dom for a very informative, entertaining and amusing talk which was enjoyed by all those present. At the moment we are finalising details of a speaker for what will be the last meeting of this season. Hope to see everybody there on Friday March 26th

Final spec for february's meeting.

February Pike Angler’s Club Meeting:
Friday 26th Feb at the Barge Inn, High Street, Halberton, Doors open at 7.30 Talk begins at 8.00 Admission charge £1.00/£2.00 Non Members

This month’s speaker is fishing writer and regional officer Dom Garnett. In addition to subjects such as lure and fly fishing for pike and other species, much of his best photographic work will feature, including some much loved Westcountry fishing locations.

One lucky angler will also win the “money can’t buy” prize of a day with last months speaker Julian Chidgey on an exclusive big pike water for which there is a four year waiting list. All you have to do to stand a chance of winning is attend the meeting and buy yourself some raffle tickets. We also have a couple of ABU jerkbaits as prizes.

The Lures were kindly donated to this months raffle by Richard at EXE Valley Angling, 19 Westexe South, Tiverton, EX16 5DQ, Telephone 01884 242275

Win A Day Pike Fishing!

The next regional meeting is on Friday 26th Feb at the Barge Inn, High Street, Halberton, Doors open at 7.30 Talk begins at 8.00 Admission charge £1.00/£2.00 non members
Our speaker this month is our very own regional officer Dom Garnett who will be giving a talk on various methods of fishing for a variety of species including fly-fishing for pike. Sure to be a very interesting and informative talk.

Win A Day out with Julian Chidgey
Also last months speaker Julian Chidgey kindly donated a very special raffle prize, the chance to win a day out pike fishing with him later in the year on a very exclusive lake for which there is a four year waiting list! This is a “money cant buy” very special prize and all you have to do to stand a chance of winning it is attend the meeting and buy yourself some raffle tickets.

A Great Big Thank You!

I would just like to say a great big thank you to everyone who attended the first meeting, I hope you all had a good time and also thanks to Julian Chidgey for a very entertaining and informative talk. The next meeting is scheduled for Friday February 26th when our own RO Dominic will be speaking. £1 entry on the door.
Also for anyone who missed this announcement, the main raffle prize for February is one that money just cant buy!
The lucky winner will be taken later in the year for a days pike fishing with Julian on an undisclosed lake for which there is a four year waiting list! Make sure you are there at the next meeting to buy some tickets for that draw.
See you all then.

Directions

To get to tonights venue from the M5, exit at junction 27 take the A361 (north Devon link road) signposted for Tiverton, Barnstaple. Take the first exit signed for Sampford Peverell and Tiverton Parkway railway station. At the top of the slip road there is a mini-roundabout, take the first exit (left) stay on this road through sampford peverell. Halberton is the next village you come to (after approx 1.5 miles) The Barge public house is on the left hand side on the first major junction in the village. If anybody needs help finding us give a ring on 07716394355.

Here at last!

Well after what seems to be a very long wait the first meeting is here at last!
Just to refresh everyone’s memory the initial speaker is Drennan cup contender Julian Chidgey. Meeting in the bar area from 7:00pm, with doors opening to the function room at 7:30 pm and closing at 11:00 pm. Speaker will start at around 8:00pm.

We will also be having a raffle with the lure prizes kindly donated by Exeter Angling Centre

Please vist their website at www.exeterangling.co.uk

Happy New Year

Wishing everybody a very happy and prosperous new year.