Exmouth?

[Greenheart]

Took my daughter back to Exeter University today. While there I went into Exeter angling centre to get a few bits & pieces. Whilst I was there I asked how the mouth of the Exe was fishing. The guys there reconed that all the Flounder had been trawled out for pot bait & that other than the occasional schoolie Bass it was not worth fishing. I had been meaning to have a go down there & give it a try as I had not fished the Exe for years. Not so sure now. Anybody else got any info on the Exe? It used to be brilliant.

[pingu]

only place heard of fish is right at mouth, orcombe point area although not caught myself need a boat i think???
I have been trying myself for a while and failing really badly( i:e Nothing this winter at all) so dont know if this helps
keeping ears open for any info as really want a good flatty from local river
sorry GH


dave

[yanros]

The Exe, like the Teign, suddenly almost stopped producing flounder last season. Why? Well I'll tell you. Just to be on the safe side I'll add that I have no proof of these points but they seem to be common knowledge locally.

The Exe is no longer dredged and the mouth around the bar is silting up although this may not be a great barrier to the flounder.

Recently an Exmouth Charter boat fouled it's prop on an obstruction near the bar. When divers went down to free it they found large quantities of gill net wrapped around the prop. These are being used to net flounder to use as pot bait!! How scandalous is that???

Also remember that all this area is within the Exe bass nursery area so fixed gill netting is illegal. A funny thing then happened. Within days of the nets being removed flounder were being caught further up the river.

If you look further up the river near the wreck of the South Coaster you'll see a strange grey work boat. On it you'll see pipes and tanks. This is known locally as the Sucker Boat.

What it does is vacumn the river bed for crabs and sucks them up in huge quantities. So what of the tanks?? Well these contain a chemical which forces the crab to peel.

I have crab tiles in this area and when the Sucker is working I get alot of crabs which are all milky white inside. When the Sucker stops working, no milky crabs.

A friend was talking to a guy from English Nature there recently who told him they were quite aware of this practise but were powerless to stop it because the Sucker is a licensed boat. I've also heard of trawlers targetting the flounder for pot bait.

So trawlers in the approaches, nets across the mouth, giant vacumn cleaners sucking up the crabs and chemicals interfering with the natural peeling process.

Strange, why are there no flounders??????????

[Greenheart]

Cheers guys, all very depressing stuff!!!

[pingu]

the local clubs comps on the exe today, will be interesting whats weighed in
will hopefully post good news

[Greenheart]

I shall wait with baited (No pun intended) breath. Are you fishing it Pingu?

[pingu]

sorry no , used up pass on saturday and missus worked sun

[pingu]

well just got results of comp
16 peeps fished over midday high , most fishing sea front an a cold wet day
1 (6oz) flounder landed in last 10 mins from mark higher up estuary
nothing else at all

[tommy a]

Thats is *hite why dont they do something about them poxy netts - makes me well mad !! One day Im going to move to the coast with the mrs and become a fisheries man !! Stop the buggers !!!

[Greenheart]

Yep, makes me too, used to be a nice venue. Same all along the south coast. Fished Hengisbury head a couple of months back & there was a boat putting fixed nets out either side of the long groyne within casting distance & the trawlers come in so close down Chesil, that you have to watch where you cast!!!!