Salthouse Sunday 16th September 2012 – Cockaday Cup
The first Winter series of Holt SAC club matches was played out on the shingle at Salthouse. A bright blue sky start to the day soon turned overcast with a slightly chilly south south westerly but certainly ideal conditions for contesting this venue. First on the scene was “class act” Thorburn who was doing his usual trick of charting up the rather unsuccessful local pleasurers along with his new mate Mitch. A possible contender as a new member if he could only learn to cast and we would probably nick name him “four paws” as his mate is a mutt who really does think he is a human. The regulars soon started arriving at Salthouse beach car park including new member Ade “the chair” Parrott with his very patient partner from the wilds of Northants via sunny Hunstanton, welcome aboard Ade.
In contrast to recent matches “young” Henry was there nice and early after being set free from his work duties but unfortunately he’ll have to be using his three wheel machine for at least another 6 weeks. Better luck next time but at least you’ll be keeping your fuel costs down. Henry was soon off like a shot to peg out our usual slot west from Great Eye in front of Little Eye, well done Henry! The winter season banter was soon going strong at the car park as some newly acquired contraptions were unveiled to make life easy for some of our “aging” and not “so aging” members. It was more like a trolley fest than a fishing match and first loading up was “Carters Camp” trolley, then “the Ellis” trolley and arriving rather late “small wheels” Watts trolley. However, the piece de resistance was “mobility” Morse with his green powered trolley which laid out tracks in the shingle firm enough for us all to follow. He said at the end “Only problem was climbing the steep bank but more air in the tyres would fix that and I have a bigger battery to improve the power”. Most intrigued at this was “class act” Thorburn who will probably have one next week with back up mutt power to go with the increasing gaggle of trolley men including “wide wheels” Conway and “golf” Thomas. Anyway enough of this diversion and back to the sporty side of this game although the day was not to be such for some.
Fishing the top of the ebb down with less than foot swell meant that most decided to set up comfortably on the shingle ridge apart from the odd one who preferred to wait for some ebb to occur. It was probably the shingle withdrawal symptoms that got the adrenalin flowing with everyone baying for the whistle. At the off everyone for a change had their own tactics with all options being tried from all out distance to mid-range to in the gutter. With slack water just having passed even rolling leads were being deployed but with a biggish tide this was not to last long. The initial cast appeared not to result in any fish and thankfully at this stage no weed but it was early days. First to score again was “yoda” Thomas (peg 13) whose rod started to give a schoolie twitch but with trace not ready it was left for a while when more violent movement was seen. This resulted in no schoolie but a nice flounder (26cm) and dab (24cm) on his card followed on next cast by a small dab (21cm). A perfect start, the omens were there for an excellent session but how wrong this turned out to be.
Further up the beach on peg 8 “red stuff” Randell had a game plan and was targeting sand eels yes sand eels. His cut down small 3 hook sand eel feathers could be seen being shot out to the horizon and retrieved in typical robust jerky Henry style. A few were amused by his actions but they soon changed their tone when it appeared he had hit into a sizeable bass. Unfortunately Henry’s euphoria was short lived to the “relieve” of everyone else as it was not a 37cm bass but a 37cm mackerel although he now had fresh mackerel. Undeterred by these antics, next peg “class act” Thorburn and Mitch (peg 7) was alternating between distance and close in along with utilising his vast array of baits resulting in a nice 24cm dab taking fresh crab. After such a good start on peg 13 it was all very slow but “small wheels” Watts soon showed his skill and had a splendid 31cm flounder on the beach and a useful 36 points on his card.
The tide was ebbing fast which opened a vast shingle slope from buddy to sea so for the majority tripods were decamped to the waters edge. With this, remnants of weed started to appear which didn’t look promising but all continued in the relentless task of baiting up and casting only to have everything stripped in minutes, the vermin were there in force. Perseverance paid off with “silver fox” Neave (peg 1), “steady” Carter (peg 4), “consultant” Allison (peg 6) and “mobility” Morse (peg 16) all finding a small flattie to break their duck. “red stuff” Randell (peg8) also found a nice 24cm flounder with his fresh mackerel and “sandy coke” Loke (peg 11) finally had something to shout about along with other things by recording a 24cm dab. It was down to earth for the Kings Lynn champion “captain” Ellis (peg 12) as he was trying everything in his armoury to find a fish and eventually scrapped in an 18cm dab. “mobility” Morse was catching the fish but again all undersize a cracking bite which he thought was a winning bass turned out to be another mackerel.
Unluckiest man of the day was “class act” Thorburn who had a good bass on along with a couple of small dabs but after seeing it come through the very small waves it turned and semi bent his size 4’s leaving him with just the two dabs. To add to this he had another good “bass on” but that also disappeared, just not his day. Meanwhile the weed had picked up and although easy to remove became a real nuisance and rolling leads were soon replaced with spikes. At this stage the fish really did switch off although they didn’t really get going. Everybody was trying all tactics even 5 or 6 yards out only to bring in armies of crabs. With the fish almost gone it left poor old (not really so old) “big bass” Ellis (peg 15) disconsolate as all he could retrieve was yards of weed and “cuddly” Carter’s (peg 3) days of big eels were a distant memory and all she could muster was a solitary weaver. Poor old “the chair” Parrott was also having a torrid time in his first club outing but Ade it will get better and maybe something smaller than 1/0s might help, hope to see you back on the shingle soon.
In the end it was the big flounder man Mike “last cast” Watts who although finding it difficult to manoeuvre on the shingle with his mending snapped Achilles took the honours by finding two more flatties for 1lb 3 1/3oz from 3 fish. Next was Tony “yoda” Thomas who managed to find just one small flounder in the last 4 hours and in the weed to record just 15 2/3oz from 4 fish. Final podium slot went to sand eel man (not this day) Henry “red stuff” Randell with 12 2/3oz from 2 fish. With no round fish caught except the ill eligible weaver the only heaviest fish club points was Mike’s 31cm or 12oz flounder. Super Pools winners were Mike 1st, Tony 2nd and Henry 3rd.
This was a match full of expectation after Richard’s ½ doz good sizeable bass on the same stretch on the same state of tide on Friday evening. Although some bass were there from Paul’s experience the state of the sea had again pushed them off. We are just starting our winter campaign and the lack of fish is expected but hopefully things should improve as the weeks roll on. Next match is for a change round the corner at Caister on Sunday 23rd September fishing 11:00 – 4:00 and will be our annual Pairs match. We will meet at the car park next to the toilets. To get there from the roundabout on the A149 head into Caister and turn left in to Ormesby Road going along it until you come to the Centurion pub on the right. Turn right into Second Avenue and go down as far as the sea and turn left and the car park is towards the end of this road.
Due to the clash with the Gorleston Tackle Open on Sunday 30th September the club’s following match at CLEY HAS BEEN BROUGHT FORWARD TO SATURDAY 29TH SEPTEMBER fishing the same times 10:00 – 3:00.
Club Match Result Top 5
1st Mike Watts 1lb 3 1/3oz (3 Fish)
2nd Tony Thomas 0lb 15 2/3oz (4 Fish)
3rd Henry Randell 0lb 12 2/3oz (2 Fish)
4th Paul Thorburn 0lb 11 2/3oz (4 Fish)
5th John Carter 0lb 6 2/3oz ( 2 Fish)
Please use this link for full set of club match results … Holt Sea Angling Match Results (16Sep12)
Please use this link for current league table… Holt Sea Angling League Table (16Sep12)
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