Devon
Paradise for Anglers
As
a birthday treat, I recently went to Anglers Paradise in Devon with
my partner Helen - and what a weekend we had!
With an early 5.00am
start on the Friday for the long trip south, we arrived at 9.00am -
and what a beautiful place it was.
We were welcomed by Ziggy, the owner, who made us feel at home straight
away with a complimentary glass of his homemade wine (which was excellent
- just what you need at 9.00am, although he does warn you not to drink
any more than 4 glasses a day, as it's pretty lethal).
He then sorted my
fishing fees, which are very reasonable at approx £4 per rod,
per day. This gave me access to all the waters apart from the specially
priced lakes.
He then showed us
to our apartment - Fisherman’s Panorama - it was beautiful with
a fully fitted kitchen, Chesterfield Settee’s, television, spa
bath and to top it all - a lovely four poster bed.
We also had access to the on-site swimming pool and car parking straight
outside the door.
After that it was
down to the fishing. I nipped into the on-site tackle and bait shop
to get the essentials and then I was off, leaving Helen to explore the
rest of the site.
I wanted to catch
a personal best carp so I decided to fish on the Carp Lake, there was
six anglers on this 6-acre lake, and unfortunately we all blanked, but
there was something special about this  place,
I didn’t feel disappointed at all, if anything - I couldn’t
wait for the next day.
That evening we
had tea in the apartment and then went to Ziggy’s African theme
bar, which has loads of original artefacts on the walls and a long bar
made out of bamboo, also he has a pool table and music to entertain
all.
The whole bar area
has stuffed fish in display cabinets which are the records of Anglers
Paradise and also some of the big fish Ziggy has caught on his travels.
It was a great evening
talking to all the fellow anglers and hearing their fish stories, the
general opinion was “what a great place”.
I woke up the following
morning with a thumping head, be warned... Ziggy was not lying when
he said “don’t have more than 4 glasses!” it really is
hangover gear.
I decided to fish the Easy Access Lake today, and I had the whole lake
to myself. There were fish bubbling everywhere, I was informed it had
plenty of double figure carp also Wells Catfish to 40lbs and numerous
specimen sized orfe and tench.
I set up two carp
rods, one with a method feeder, the other with luncheon meat, then sat
back nursing my hangover.
I had quite a few
line-bites which filled me with excitement, especially after blanking
the day before, so I moved my bait a bit closer in and straight away
I had a run on the method feeder.
I struck and hooked
into a good fish, but after 10 minutes playing, the hook came out, I
was disappointed, but at least it showed the fish were there. 5 minutes
later my luncheon meat rod sprang into life and I landed a 7lb mirror
carp, this certainly put a smile on my face.
I didn’t manage
to get that personal best, but still had a great day.
Saturday night we
decided to stay in and have a Chinese takeaway and because of the long
journey home in the morning - not visit the bar!
Looking in the Anglers
Paradise brochure to see which lake I should fish on Sunday, and as
I only  had
about 4 hours fishing time, I decided to fish the Float Fishing Lake,
which states that no-one has ever blanked on this lake with some anglers
having over 300 fish in a day...
The lake was a really
coloured and it was very windy, so I set up in a sheltered spot and
pre-baited my swim with maggots, in went the float with a nice worm
on the hook and no sooner had it settled, it dipped and I landed a lovely
3lb blue orfe (a P.B.), now this is what I had come for.
I re-baited and
dropped in again, within 30 seconds it was under and I was playing another
lovely fish, this continued for the next 3 hours, fish after fish, mainly
golden orfe or goldfish, all around the 1lb mark, with the biggest reaching
approx 2lb.
It was brilliant,
just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, the float went
under again, I struck and fish set off like lightening, stripping line
off the reel, after 5 minutes I slipped the net under a lovely 4lb common.
It was getting close
to packing-up time, so I did the usual “one last cast” routine...
 on
with a juicy worm, in went the float and it buried straight away - a
carp I thought... but when the fish broke the surface to my amazement
it was bright yellow, I had caught my first ever Golden Tench, weighing
approx 2lbs - another personal best.!
What a brilliant
weekend. People might say “it’s a long way to go for a weekend”
but let me tell you, there is something about Anglers Paradise that
gets you hooked, whether it’s the friendly atmosphere or whether
it’s the fishing I don’t know, but I cannot wait to go next
year.
For more information
about Anglers Paradise see www.anglersparadise.co.uk
or telephone 01409 221559 for a brochure.
I truly recommend
any angler to try it.
Good fishing to
you all
Damian Durrant
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