Kelling Sunday 5th February 2012 – 5th Leg Winter Accumulator
After many failed attempts the weather “gods” eventually got their act together and managed to distribute one of our weekend matches. Sods law certainly came into play when they decided to dump a chunk of frozen Atlantic over Eastern England on Saturday night. Any other night would have been fine but Saturday was just not on with team members travelling from far and wide. We all knew that the forecast had predicted these conditions and contingency plans were in place to be communicated via the club’s phone voice mail. Unfortunately, it was not found until Sunday morning that the phone was out of credit and voicemail could not be updated, sods law was again at work. Apologies to all for this and it will not happen again.
As it happened, the majority of the North Norfolk Sea League team members could not even get out of their homes so the teams match was postponed to be rescheduled to a date in the near future. I must admit in view of the conditions around the venue which were even worse inland they made the correct decision to not even attempt to travel. However, there was a small bunch of hardened club members who were desperate to fish as the sea promised to give us perfect conditions but very very cold. A smaller turnout than usual eventually gathered at the Muckleburgh Collection gate for a later than usual 11:00-4:00 fish. With the best catches at the Kelling Hard block house on the New Year’s Open it was decided to check this out. However, a quick excursion around to this venue would have seen us spending most of our time digging ourselves out. A quick detour across the wintry wastes surrounding Muckleburgh airstrip saw us back on our usual parking spot on top of the small cliff.
Surveying the surrounding snow drifts it was obvious that this was the best place to walk from and not very far. Eager to get started, “smooth” Conway bolted off, well just about, and soon had the stretch just to the right of the small cliff pegged, thanks Dene! Everyone quickly had their warm gear on, bait sorted, peg drawn and were soon slipping and sliding towards there pegs. Once on the beach everyone was amazed at the two 2ft snow drifts that had been built up along the 2 shingle banks reminiscent of one of our matches back in October of 2010. Negotiating these was surprisingly difficult as thick snow and sloping shingle just don’t mix. With a small tide just at the bottom there wasn’t going to be too much walking and everyone set up on the shingle just in front of the bottom snow drift. With a light wind off the land it made it very chilly but at least the overcast sky for a change gave us a remote chance of a few whiting.
After all these adventures it was down to the real purpose of all this effort which was supposedly to catch those fish and all were eager to get the whistle (back at last!) blown. With a flat calm it was obvious where everyone were going to cast at this early stage; the usual gentle lob. Even “class act” Thorburn returning after his winter sabbatical resisted hitting it to the horizon but he was checking out his new Anyfish Anywhere International rod so he had a motive. Some say the first cast dictates the course of a match and as end peg 7 “new gear” Vertigan (apologies for the “c”) pulls in a treble shot of sizeable the scene was set for the rest of the match. Although his next cast came in blank the next produced another treble shot whereby he was heard to mutter “won’t be using squid again …” In reply, “yoda” Thomas (peg 6) could only muster a small rockling and a small dab with “inspector” Morse (5) with just a single small dab.
Further down the stretch “class act” Thorburn (4) was putting his new rod to good use retrieving a number of single and double shots of dabs. On next peg 3, “dickleburgh man” Camilleri was finding fish at close range and his sparring partner “captain” Ellis (1) was certainly pulling in the fish as his white bucket was seen meandering up and down the beach. Less was known about “smooth” Conway (2) who was seen scurrying around which could only mean that he too was into the fish. However, it was “new gear” Vertigan who was showing us the way as he continued to pull in double and treble shots, not all sizeable but his score card was certainly mounting up. A quick check to see what he was using and “I’ve been checking this dab lark on the web” he says, probably also from chats with Dene and Henry. Small hooks, small baits and tipping off with the smallest bit of 2 week old blacks was his answer and it was doing the trick, this guy is keen! Need to cast further, need some casting lessons was his response, double shots, treble shots, really?
“yoda” Thomas and “inspector” Morse were struggling with only single Dabs and blank traces coming in. In particular “inspector” who has been having a torrid time of late failing to find fish in numbers and it was the same in this match. The only person who appeared to be really competing against “new gear” Vertigan was “class act” Thorburn who was finding the dabs with his new rod. However, as the tide started to slacken and the fish began to go off he began to resort to distance and his steady flow of fish dried up. Even alternating distances did not improve matters and he slowly slipped away from “new gear” so the moral here is ‘once you’ve found the fish stick at it’. We then saw a figure marching down the stretch which was unusual as it was “smooth” Conway who is renowned for sticking to his buddy puffing away so what had happened. Nothing really, his tactics of small baits and small hooks that had been reaping rewards of late was not really doing the business this time particularly as the tide slackened. He was locked in a duel with “captain” Ellis and was out for some inspiration.
Back at the other end “new gear” was still pulling in double and treble shots but “yoda” had got his act together by shortening his cast and moving the bait around resulting in a nice 29cm flounder on his card. This brought him within 30 points of “new gear” who started to get just a little bit concerned but he had no need to worry. As “yoda” pulled in dab after dab so did “new gear” but doubles not singles so instead of being reeled in he was stretching his lead. At the other end, “smooth” Conway managed to triumph over “captain” Ellis after finding a reasonable dab on his last cast.
In the end it was this late activity that was sufficient for Ashley “new gear” Vertigan to take the honours with 5lb 9oz from 29 fish. With his late charge Tony “yoda” Thomas took the next spot with 4lb 12 1/3oz from 25 fish. Final podium spot went to Paul “last cast” Thorburn who dusted off his break and put his new rod to good use with 3lb 2/3oz from 18 fish. Both the heaviest flat and round club points went to Tony with his 29cm flounder and a 18cm rockling. In the club league this success enabled Tony to take a slight lead on 333 points followed by Dene on 318 points, John Neave on 276 points and Sam Attew on 271 points.
After all the events of the morning this turned out for most to be a very enjoyable match. Having fish all through the match certainly helped to focus everyone and it made a real change to see some good bites. Lots of small dabs but good sign for the future. No sizeable whiting so looks as though that’s them gone for this season. The next match should be Saturday 11th February 2012 at Cley but a quick survey showed no support for this match so this club match has been cancelled. Next match will be on Sunday 19th March at Bacton fishing 9:00-2:00. Please check mobile voice mail on 07899032984 to confirm venue.
Club Match Results Top 5
1st Ashley Vertigan 5lb 9oz
2nd Tony Thomas 4lb 12 1/3oz
3rd Paul Thorburn 3lb 2/3oz
4th Dene Conway 2lb 14oz
5th Richard Ellis 2lb 12 1/3oz
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