Cley Sunday 8th January 2012 – 1st Leg Winter Accumulator & Matthews Cup
After an excellent series of matches over the holiday period it was back to Cley for more of the same we hoped and a repeat of our previous match there in mid-December but this time we were made aware of how fickle this fishing sport can be. A cool cloudless sky with the sun rising over Salthouse Heath met members for an early 9:00 a.m. start to catch more of the ebb. A nice picture but we all new all this brightness was going to push the big whiting out. A slightly lower turn out than of late met at the Cley beach car park but that was not unexpected as the other regulars had to recover “brownie points” lost during the holiday campaign. Even so a good turn out along with yet another new member in Ashley Vertican although he did have a couple of skirmishes with the club a couple of years back but this time he says it’s serious especially as he has forked out for some new Rite Gear, welcome aboard!
A brisk westerly which had for a time turned north westerly overnight gave us a good fishing sea providing a residual 5-8 feet swell from the monstrous seas of mid-week. Pegging for a change was to the right (east) in front of the wreck to hopefully repeat the mid-December catches on this stretch. During the pegging there was a little apprehension about selecting the wreck as the water looked shallow and would certainly give us some white water at the bottom. A very short walk for most and setting up was straight forward on the gentle shingle bank left by the ebbing tide. As usual everyone was more than ready for the off with a few even jumping the gun, no disqualification here with 5 hours to go.
With an obvious sand bank 100 – 150 yards off it was a gentle lob for everyone into the intermediate gully. All were full of expectancy as “no hat” Attew (peg 5) pulled in a treble shot within minutes of the start, 2 sizeable dabs and an under-sized whiting. Little did we know at this stage that the latter (undersized whiting) would be a source of frustration throughout the whole match. Next to card was “yoda” Thomas (peg3) who managed a just sizeable dab which was repeated for a few casts but no real serious fish. Even at this early stage the pattern of the match was being determined as the odd undersized whiting could be seen being returned. However, small dabs were the order of the day as they at least counted but you needed a bucket full to record serious points.
It was soon obvious to all that for most it was going to be a dire match as the small dabs started to dry up and whiting after whiting up to 26½ cm started to appear in numbers. Although, it was relatively a good day for “the consultant” Allison (peg8) previously “dereham man” who had managed one small dab which had matched his catch of the previous day on a boat out of Gt. Yarmouth. The high order end pegs just to the right of the wreck had found some fish with “new gear” Vertican (peg10) picking up a few dabs including a 25cm specimen along with “sandy coke” Loke who had found a nice 29cm whiting. The majority were having a bad day including “inspector” Morse (peg7), “end peg” Allen (peg6), “silver fox” Neave (peg2) and “smooth” Conway (peg1). A rather dejected “smooth” with an over-night head was suffering from a lack of his normal array of baits relying primarily on fresh-outs instead of blows whose strategy of just targeting whiting was not paying off as only the 26½ cm versions were there at his end.
As the bottom passed and the light weed started to show “silver fox” picked up a few small dabs and then to everyone’s surprise he was holding up a plump 36 cm flounder worth a staggering 56 points putting him well into contention for the match. Further down the stretch “no hat” could not match his good start but “inspector” managed to get a hat trick that is a treble shot of rockling although one was undersize. “end peg” managed to find something sizeable and scrapped out a small rocking whilst “the consultant “ found a good whiting to overtake his previous day’s boat score. However, the man to watch was “sandy coke” who was finding some good dabs along with some sizeable whiting and collecting match winning points. With an hour to go “smooth” called it a day, he had one small dab and his whiting tactics had not paid off this day but he had saved his blank.
With clouds drifting in from the west and the tide starting to flood the sizeable whiting started to play ball in the final ½ hour with “new gear”, “the consultant”, “inspector” and “yoda” picking one or two up to and on last cast. All that could be heard then was “we should have been starting for 5 hours from now” as gear was starting to be packed up. However, it was Peter “sandy coke” Loke who was the star of the day as he hauled in 4 good whiting in the dying minutes including a 34 cm beauty to go with his other 3 whiting and dabs. He therefore took the honours with 4lb 1oz from 14 fish. A distant second was John “silver fox” Neave with 1lb 14 1/3 oz from 6 fish who could not find another fish after his cracking flounder. Final podium slot went to Tony “yoda” Thomas with 1lb 4 1/3oz from 8 fish whose perseverance with small dabs and a whiting last chuck managed to just overcome Ashley “new gear” Vertican by 5 points. However, Ashley did have a sizeable dab and whiting last cast which he did not bother to record, he won’t be doing that again. Heaviest flat on the day was John’s 36cm flounder and heaviest round Peter’s 34 cm whiting.
A relatively good day which brought us back to earth from the matches over the holiday period. This will make us think twice about pegging Cley wreck over low water with no real tide but then that is another day and no doubt totally different conditions. Next match is the January teams of 5 at Salthouse on Sunday 15th January 2012 fishing 10:00-3:00 so please ensure you are there if you are in a club team. The following Sunday 22nd January 2012 is the North Norfolk Team Challenge at Kelling fishing 9:00-2:00. This is a prestigious event where the top 10 points scorers from the club will count for the Avenue Angling shield. The boys from down south are threatening to do the business so we need to muster the strongest team possible so please give your support. This will also be an Open match along with a raffle for club funds so please bring along a prize.
Club Match Result Top 5
1st Peter Loke 4lb 1oz
2nd John Neave 1lb 14 1/3oz
3rd Tony Thomas 1lb 4 1/3oz
4th Ashley Vertican 1lb 2 2/3oz
5th Ivan Allison 1lb 2 1/3oz
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