Beesands Ley - any pike in it?

[Baz T]

Have fished Beesands beach on the odd occasion, and heard that there may be pike in the ley behind the beach. It does look a very pikey water however. Does anyone know if there are any pike in it?

[pingu]

If thats the large body of water that i know as slapton ley then yes it does
was talking to a piker at the canal last year and he was promoteing there as a good pike water
dont know tickets/access etc though
and yet to try

dave

[Noel]

Used to be a famous place (Slapton Ley). Mick Brown mentions it in one of his books. Used to be able to fish it on boats that you could hire.

But a few years an education centre or something took over the place and fishing was stopped apparently.

I never got to fish there unfortuately.

[Baz T]

I knew about Slapton Ley, having fished it once before, many years ago. Slapton Ley is behind Slapton beach (funnily enough) and Beesands Ley is behind Beesands beach, surprise surprise..ha ha.
You could only fish Slapton Ley by booking and hiring a boat from the field centre, however the tree huggers decided several years ago that they would ban fishing on they ley, as apparently anglers were interfering with the breeding birds etc. I was recently in contact with Slapton Ley field centre, and they have decided to ban fishing there for another 5 years, until 2014 at least. The member of staff I spoke to was most sympathetic to our cause, and was on the side of the anglers, and he himself would have allowed pike angling with perhaps a close season when the birds were breeding on the reserve. Apparently the company that runs the Ley also run Paignton Zoo, so whilst they are happy to keep wild animals from another country captive, they do not want anglers fishing for pike on their water (the next part is deleted due to swear words). The 2 members who have the biggest sway on the committee are more businessmen than those who are aware of countryside mattters, hence the ban on angling.
So, if anyone does know if there is any pike in Beesands Ley, and not Slapton Ley which you might as well forget about for the next 5 years, could they let me know. By the way, I wanna be first on the water if they ever do re open it to anglers....imagine the size of the pike, and the fishing that could be had after a 10 year ban, as it has already had a 5 year ban so far.

[Baz T]

and..thanks for the replies pingu, and Noel, started getting my hopes up when a couple of people replied. I may phone Kingsbridge tackle shop, as they may know. Other than that may take a drive down one morning, and try a few lures. Apparently it is free to fish, just normal EA rod licence required (perhaps its free as there are no fish in it!!)