Cley Saturday 29th September 2012 – Sid Ernie Cup
For a change a short report for a match that was short of members, short of fish and short on just about everything else. A late switch from our traditional Sunday slot to Saturday to enable members to fish the Gorleston Tackle Open as well as fishing the club match but this didn’t quite go to plan. Unfortunately, lack of brownie points, holidays and work commitments intervened and the lowest turnout for some time gathered at Cley beach car park. Even the weather gods were against us with a strong gusty westerly and not putting any of the predicted north in it to give us a resemblance of a bass sea but it was dry. What made matters worse was the clear and bright blue sky and a lack of colour in the water, both a recipe to put fish off and we all knew we were in for a gruella.
Fishing just over the bottom is a good state of tide to fish this venue with some good bags of bass being caught here recently. Taking advice from “young” Henry pegging was in on our usual stretch west from the boats requiring just a short hike and no real effort. With extreme bird activity out to sea we were all optimistic that there really was fish out there and some of them would at least going to head our way. With a fast ebbing tide all were able to comfortably park themselves on the shingle at the water’s edge and follow the tide. At the whistle everyone used their own individual Cley tactics but in the strong cross wind a 40 to 60 yard cast seemed to be the order of the day. First casts appeared to predict what was to come with the vermin out in force and traces coming in stripped.
This was to determine frequency of casts although some were going to adopted the obligatory flounder walk to try and buck this trend. It soon became apparent that this could work as “sand eel man” (just for the day) Loke (Peg 1) managed to get his small lug and wrigglers through the vermin charge and record a small dab on his second cast. Things looked promising as “yoda” Thomas (Peg 2) had a double shot of dabs also on his second cast with one undersize but the other a nice 27cm version.
At this stage the spectacle of sea birds out to sea just west of the wreck was drawing our attention as their actions were getting more and more ferocious. A flock of couple of dozen garnets were making repeated dives into the sea in spectacular fashion at around 80 to 100 yards. It was just like watching those Country File or Wild Life programmes and was a pleasure to see this on our coast line. They had managed to locate a shoal of either mackerel, herring or sand eel and the tide was bringing them our way. First thoughts were of fresh mackerel and Lokie was out like a shot, casting his feathers into the midst of this fury resulting in one sand eel and much to his disgust no mackerel. With the shoal heading into the match stretch “yoda” placed his bait amongst the activity but to no avail and no lucky bass. Looks like it was a shoal of sand eels heading west and the garnet activity soon petered out and it was back to waiting for rods to nod.
Cast after cast produced nothing as rigs came in stripped or with the occasional red vermin on board. “yoda” managed to double his score with another small dab and “silverfox” Neave (Peg 3) managed to break his duck with 2 small dabs in quick succession. Then with the tide ebbing even faster the fish just switched off and even the vermin seemed to go to ground. It was time for the early afternoon siesta and the occasional flounder walk but none of this resulted in any action. The only action came when “bass man” Lawes came strolling along the beach taking the boys out for a walk along with rods and bait of course. Seeing our rather depleted numbers he offered to join us, paid his dues and was soon ensconced on Peg 0 knowing that one good fish could do the business.
Well the ebb was soon finished and the flood had started at which time we thought that surely they would come on again but that was just wishful thinking. The tide had yet to turn to switch them on so rods stayed static and like before bait was being retrieved intact. At the whistle the result remained as it was 3½ hours earlier with Tony “yoda” Thomas taking the honours with just 11oz from 2 fish. Next was John “silverfox” Neave with 8 1/3oz from 2 fish followed by Peter “sand eel” Loke with 2 1/3oz from 1 fish. Heaviest flat club points went to Tony for his 7oz dab and there was no round fish caught except the sand eel caught by Peter but unfortunately that was on his spare rod whilst feathering and did not count. Unfortunately, Matt’s 1 ½ hour session didn’t result in a prize bass this time but at least he aired the boys!
Another match where the sea looked perfect but just did not produce. It appears you have to have the period when the tide switches direction in the session as this seems to wake the fish up. In this match we had none of this and there was no other variable like sea state to bring the fish on. We now have this info for futures as well as trying to accommodate Open events in our schedule so hopefully we’ll get it right next time.
The next club match is at TRIMINGHAM on SUNDAY 7th OCTOBER fishing 12:00-5:00.
The North Norfolk Sea League teams of 5 kicks off on SUNDAY 14TH OCTOBER at BACTON fishing 10:00 – 3:00 so if you are not yet in a team or know of a team wishing to participate please contact the club committee. Please note that this year’s North Norfolk Sea League will be run by Holt SAC.
Club Match Result Top 5
1st Tony Thomas 11oz (2 Fish)
2nd John Neave 8 1/3oz (2 Fish)
3rd Peter Loke 2 1/3oz (1 Fish)
(No other weighers)
Please use this link for full set of club match results … Holt SAC Match Results (29Sep12)
Please use this link for current league table… Holt SAC League Table (29Sep12)
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