Cley Sunday 11th December 2011 – Lloyd Durham Shield & Teams of 5
The 3rd Round of this season’s North Norfolk Sea League was always going to improve the club turn out and this was the case with 4 club teams now participating. Fishing Cley in December is always a hit or miss occasion for this notorious venue and there was certainly a lot of apprehension as team members gathered at the Cley beach car park. How wrong this impression was to be shown later. After an early morning down pour the weather had cleared up leaving us with a very chilly strong South South Westerly giving a nice flat coloured sea with a slight swell. An early 9:30 a.m. start to allow us to catch most of the ebb with low water at 1:58 p.m.
With the Skeggie Boys not being able to make a show for next year’s final the league is now fixed at 5 for that final in North Norfolk on weekend of 1st/2nd December 2012. Holt Crack Offs managed to muster a full team with Ivan “dereham man” Allison joining them and the club, welcome aboard Ivan. Unfortunately, other teams had problems fielding a full team but hopefully this was just a short lived problem.
For a change the pegging on the day was 3 sections to left, westward from the boats and 2 to the right either side of the wreck which was new ground for our club matches. With a fast ebbing tide it was for once an easy walk to the pegs along the hard shingle and sand at water’s edge. Some parked themselves high on the shingle bank expecting I guess some rogue surges but the majority set up closer to the water to avoid the slogging through the loose shingle. Even with such an early start everyone was more than ready for the whistle.
As with most venues along this coast, the first few casts would indicate if we were in for a good session or not, was this going to be the case this time. Everyone seemed to have got the hang of the North Norfolk venues now with the majority opting for a 60-80 yard chuck even Avenue Angling’s “chippy” Doy stranded on peg 1 who regularly hits the horizon. On the low order pegs it was a slow start but the dabs were there as the odd one or two started to show although not of any real size. Well slow for some except for “dickleburgh man” Camilleri on peg 4 who had 5 fish on his card in no time including a 29 cm whiting whilst all around him were struggling for numbers. “silver fox” Neave on peg 11 was also bucking the trend with a 35cm whiting early on as was “sparks” Hudson on next peg 12 who started to card some whiting along with a strange looking 30cm Poor Cod or was it a Haddock.
As the ebb took hold the dabs started to come in thick and fast with “steady” Carter and “scoop” Fenech showing the way on pegs 21 and 22. Others around them were getting the odd dab and flounder but they were also getting into the whiting with “sandy coke” Loke peg 13, “diver” Gedney peg 19 and “dereham man” Allison peg 20 carding some decent fish. In the middle of this group was poor old “inspector” Morse who was having a torrid time whose codling tactics were not paying off although he did land a couple of miniature versions. Also having a torrid time was “young henry” on peg 5 who could only find the odd dab and became further disillusioned as “yoda” Thomas sneaked in a nice 29cm flounder, “always knew you’d find a good flounder” he retorted. As for “salesman” Boycey on peg 9, he was also getting more and more disillusioned by the venue as he started to moan about what he was catching.
At the other end around the wreck, the activity was a little more intense with both dabs and whiting coming in depending on where you placed your baits. On low end peg 25 “big fish” Elliott was finding some reasonable whiting from the off whereas “no name yet” Ellis on next peg 28 was into the small dabs. As usual “bass man” Beeton on peg 29 was doing the business stacking up the dabs along with “last cast” Watts on peg 30. “last cast’s” distance tactics caught him out as he lost two sets in the wreck which probably cost him a section place in his personal duel with “bass man” through the remainder of the match.
To the right of the wreck on peg 33, “small hooks” Stannard using his wrigglers to great effect was also finding quality dabs and whiting but not in the numbers around him. Further down the stretch on peg 36 “captain” Ellis had found a few dabs and flounders and started to card some sensible whiting to get into contention for a section placing. However, it was the two on the end pegs that were really having a tussle with “smooth” Conway on peg 37 in his element by finding some small dabs along with some reasonable size versions. Even with this competition around him it was “ranger” Shorthouse who once again was showing the way whose initial tactics was yielding quality whiting with a cracking 41cm version for his 7th fish.
At this stage there was a subtle change in sea conditions and with 2-3 hours left the tide picked up slightly and some weed started to appear. Although the weed was a nuisance this change brought in the whiting all along the stretch. One of the first to benefit was “young henry” with a clever switch to straight fresh herring resulted in a treble shot of 29cm and 30cm dabs plus a 30cm whiting and 80 points on his card putting him well in contention for section A. “chippy” and “yoda” were having none of this and started pulling in the whiting and odd dab with “yoda” finding a nice 38cm specimen whiting but “young henry” took the upper hand as he carded further treble shots.
“salesman” fortunes also changed as he stated to haul in quality whiting which certainly changed his opinion of the venue. Unfortunately, this didn’t help him keep up with “sparks” and “silverfox” who were tussling with big whiting but “silverfox” grabbing a 35cm flounder worth 52 points settled that duel. Further along the stretch a change of tactics by “scoop” to sample the close gulley saw his card inundated with stonking whiting of multiple 34,35,36 and 37cm versions along with many lesser specimens enabling him to annihilate those around him.
The duel in section D between “bass man” and “last cast” was still intense although the quality of fish but not numbers was declining. “last cast’s” initial strategy of distance and entanglement in the wreck saw him gift section D to “bass man” who had targeted the whiting closer in throughout the match. In section E “small hooks” attempted to catch the others with 38 and 39cm whitings on bunches of wrigglers but had run out on numbers of fish. However, it was “smooth” and “ranger” who were steaming ahead in this section E but even a late 41cm whiting from “smooth” could not match “ranger”. His early whiting success and late 38 and 39cm whiting put him way ahead of “smooth”.
At the whistle after such a hectic match the individual winner was Dave “ranger” Shorthouse with 11lb 14 2/3oz from 24 fish closely followed by the first club member Paul “scoop” Fenech with 11lb 5oz from 28 fish. Final podium spot went to clubman Bill “bass man” Beeton with 9lb 15 1/3oz from 35 fish. On the teams front there was a tie for 1st place between HSAC Morston Creek and HSAC Rite Gear both having 7 points. 3rd place went to up and coming team HSAC Crack Offs with 11 points with Avenue Angling 4th on 12 points and a rather depleted HSAC Blakeney Bar 5th on 15 points. The top 3 teams after 3 rounds are HSAC Rite Gear (23), HSAC Morston Creek (24) and Avenue Angling (29).
This was an excellent match and blew away any myth that Cley could not perform as a match venue. One comment that was heard at the end of the match was that the match was one of the best had by the league. The appearance of the whiting certainly helped but all were surprised by the quantity and quality of this species. Although the fish were there they still had to be found and some were clever at this and their weights demonstrated this. In total there was 476 fish recorded having a combined total weight of 160lb which is almost an astonishing average of 8lb per angler.
It will be hard beating this match but the next one is the North Norfolk Team Challenge against Avenue Angling plus Ken Brown Cup and Open match at Kelling on Sunday 18th December 2011 fishing 10:00-3:00. Weather does not look good for that weekend (strong northerlies) so please check club mobile number (07899032984) voice mail for match status.
Individual Match Result Top 5
1st Dave Shorthouse 11lb 14 2/3oz
2nd Paul Fenech 11lb 5oz
3rd Bill Beeton 9lb 15 1/3oz
4th John Neave 9lb 9 1/3oz
5th Dene Conway 9lb 6oz
Club Match Result Top 5
1st Paul Fenech 11lb 5oz
2nd Bill Beeton 9lb 15 1/3oz
3rd John Neave 9lb 9 1/3oz
4th Dene Conway 9lb 6oz
5th Paul Hudson 9lb 0 1/3oz
Team Match Result Top 5
1st= HSAC Rite Gear 7 points
1st= HSAC Morston Creek 7points
3rd HSAC Crack Offs 11 points
4th Avenue Angling 12 points
5th HSAC Blakeney Bar 15 points
Team To-date Top 5
1st HSAC Rite Gear 23 points
2nd HSAC Morston Creek 24 points
3rd Avenue Angling 29 points
4th HSAC Blakeney Bar 40 points
5th HSAC Crack Offs 46 points
Please use this link for full set of results …
http://www.holtseaanglingclub.com/TT/NNTSL%2011Dec11.htm
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