Cley Sunday 29th January 2012 – 4th Leg Winter Accumulator & Foreman Cup
After a hectic holiday period of Open matches it was back to the pure club scene for a change. The weather was being rather kind to us, overcast with a chilly light Easterly and as we all gathered at Cley a burst of wet drizzle came in for good measure. With Gorleston, a SAMF Challenge and work begging some of the regulars there was surprisingly a reasonable turn out gathering at Cley beach bus shelter. Strange place to have a bus shelter but there’s a lot of history behind this one. With gibes directed at the organiser for being uncharacteristically late, it was rookie “no buddy” Turk who was having the timing and navigation problems yet again. He had managed to find Cley windmill and not the beach but that was soon rectified and in no time was belatedly off to his peg, nice to see the enthusiasm Andy!
The sea had plenty of colour and with the wind in the easterly quarter the sea was nice and smooth with a 2-3 foot swell. Fishing top down should give us plenty of fish but could deter the round fish. After our poor experiences in the last match here when we fished around the wreck it was back to our traditional pegging stretch, west of the car park and from the far boats towards Blakeney Point. With an easy walk along the top of the tide line everyone was soon set up on the small shingle ridge just above the high water mark. At the whistleless off (it’ll be back next match) everyone seems to have learnt the lesson and 60-80 yards was the norm. With the drizzle easing off we were all ready for a pleasant but rather chilly session.
With an ebbing tide we all knew that the old reliable Dab would be there but we were all hoping that the rod rattling whiting were going to make an appearance. However, it was soon apparent that it was going to be a Dab day as “bassman” Beeton (peg 8 ) could be seen casting back single and double shots. “yoda” Thomas (2) along with “the consultant” Allison (5) and “no buddy” Turk (7) were into single Dabs but “no hat” Attew on end peg 1 was again doing his trick and hauling in double shots although they were not particularly big. After a quiet start “new gear” Vertican (3) began to find a fish or two and so did “end peg” Allen (4) with singles and doubles coming in at pace. His combination of smelly bait and small yellow tails seemed to do the trick encouraging slightly better specimens and good points on his card.
As the tide started to ebb the faithful Dabs were still there but they started to shrink as multiple undersize versions began to appear; remarkable how they can take even a size 2. Although fish were still around the lower order pegs others were having a torrid time in particular “silver fox” who came wandering along the beach to see his fishing partner “no hat” without a single fish on his card. Even “inspector” Morse was despondent as he witnessed “bassman” pulling in fish every cast whereas his card was hardly touched and contemplating if it was all really worth it, stick at Peter!
As slack water started to appear it was obvious that the whiting were not there and that it was going to be just a Dab day or was it? “yoda” had being steadily catching the odd Dab which included a slinky 29cm specimen giving a useful 28 points and well in contention for biggest flat of the day and a very useful 5 points for the league comp. until he heard a yell from “new gear” on next peg 3. There he was holding up a monster flounder of 38cms worth 64 points around 1lb 5oz making that 29cm Dab look rather miniscule and giving him the biggest flounder of the season, well done Ashley! His mates, the Kings Lynn boys, fishing just down the coast at Salthouse were soon made aware of his success as all they were only finding these small Dabs.
As usual slack water was slow with few fish appearing but some did show as the tide once again took hold. However, as the water dropped further the swell started to pick up and we could soon see where all the banks and gullies were situated. It is at times like this that you do realise that you were really fishing just those few yards too far out, maybe next time we’ll get it right. With the current seriously picking up the fish certainly went to ground and it was a matter of luck if you could entice one to feed in the dying minutes of the match. An exciting nip and tuck match was being had on the low peg numbers between “no hat”, “yoda” and “end peg” in these last moments and it was this luck that won the day.
In the end it was the man with the catch consistency at the start of the match who took the honours in Bill “bassman” Beeton with 3lb 9oz from 18 fish. Not far behind was a man starting to show his form again in Ivan “end peg” Allen with 3lb 3 1/3oz from 16 fish. Final, podium slot on the day went to Sam “no hat” Attew who managed to overcome “yoda” by just 2 points with a 20cm Dab on his last cast recording 3lb 1/3oz from 17 fish. Heaviest flat on the day went to Ashley with his stonking 38cm Flounder and there were no sizeable round fish caught. A total of 99 sizeable fish (98 Dabs and that amazing Flounder) were caught weighing all together 18lb 10oz. In the club league it could not be tighter at the top, with Dene on SAMF Challenge duty Tony managed to retake the lead with 304 points from Dene on 301 points followed by John (Neave) on 266 points with 6 matches left.
For most, not a bad match and a distinct improvement on the last one with both fish numbers and weather albeit a bit chilly. Next match is at Kelling on Sunday 5th February 2012 fishing 10:00-3:00 which is the 5th Leg of the Winter Accumulator and Teams of 5. Weather looks like it is going to be decidedly chilly even more so than this last match so please check out club mobile for confirmation of match. If you are in a club team please ensure you are there and please note that this will be a pure Team and Club event and not an Open. Please note also that the match originally planned for the 12th February has been cancelled due to members wanting to fish the Fountain in Kent on that day. To compensate for this a new match has been added on Saturday 11th February at Cley fishing 10:00-3:00 as advertised in the last newsletter.
Club Match Results Top 5
1st Bill Beeton 3lb 9oz
2nd Ivan Allen 3lb 3 1/3oz
3rd Sam Attew 3lb 1/3oz
4th Tony Thomas 2lb 15 2/3oz
5th Ashley Vertican 2lb 5oz
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