Salthouse Sunday 4th December 2011 – Pairs Shield
With the previous week’s night match having to be postponed due to weather and lack of numbers it was back to the relative comfort of Salthouse for the Pairs Shield. For once the weather was going our way with a strong South Westerly, no rain but very chilly, winter was here. Turnout was again low and it seems to be the trend these days except for the teams matches. Anyway everyone was in high spirits as we gathered at the Salthouse beach car park with no pleasurers and just a big gaggle of twitchers keeping us company checking out the winter immigrants. Pegging was as usual to the left of the car park in front of “great eye” mound and was further west than normal to give everyone some deep water.
The sea for a change had a nice colour with a good swell to give some movement to the bottom. For a change we were fishing the full flood so it would be interesting to see how this beach would perform under these conditions. Everyone was as usual keen to get started particularly with the chilly wind over your left ear. Everyone opted for the relatively short casts which seems to the norm for this beach. With the 4-5 foot swell it was difficult to see any bites but it soon came apparent that this was because of the size of the fish feeding at the time as undersize dab after dab started to appear on the beach. However, the fish were there as “smooth” Conway and “yoda” Thomas on end pegs 2 and 3 started to bring in the odd sizeable dab at a steady rate. Further down the stretch “silver fox” Neave, “sandy coke” Loke, “inspector” Morse and “sparks” Hudson were struggling but catching the odd dab. The same was for “steady” Carter who was redubbed “socks” Carter after improvising a pair of socks for his lost gloves and he still preferred journeying up to NN rather than Pakefield.
As the tide started to flood it was “smooth” Conway who was in his element as he started to bring in treble shots of dabs, the majority of which were just sizeable. His success being put down to small baits, prawn tipped lug and micro waved oily blacks. That’s another microwave that will be unfit for human consumption! “yoda” Thomas was attempting to keep up with him by reducing distance without any real success until he came upon a cracking 31cm flounder on lug tipped mackerel. This leap frogged “smooth” by some considerable points but back he came with more double and treble shots to regain the initiative. Further down the stretch everyone was having a dismal time bringing in just the odd dab and matters got even worse for everyone as the weed started to appear. Nothing serious just stuff being dumped off the marsh on the big tides but just a nuisance coming through the gutter.
As the tide approached high water the fish seemed to switch off and everyone had a barren period. As the tide started to ebb things started to look up for some with “sparks” Hudson on the high end peg finding the fish at last with rare 29cm and 30cm whitings and good dabs up to 28cm. At the other end the fish had deserted “smooth” Conway but a change of tactics by “yoda” Thomas to wrigglers and pyramid lead produced another decent flounder of 27cm along with a sizeable whiting of 28cm and a few more dabs. With the chilly wind picking up and rain in the air everyone was glad of the 3:00 whistle.
With his late success Tony “yoda” Thomas took the honours with 3lb 4oz from 16 fish followed by Paul “sparks” Hudson after his late charge with 2lb 10 1/3oz from 11 fish. Final podium place went to Dene “smooth” Conway with 2lb 8 1/3oz from 18 fish who just needed to find that one quality fish. The heaviest flat of the day was Tony’s 31cm flounder and heaviest round Paul’s 30cm whiting. The Pairs shield was won by John Carter and Dene Conway with an aggregate weight of 4lb 7 1/3oz from Paul Hudson and Peter Loke with 4lb 3 1/3oz. Although one or two had a torrid day there were 78 sizeable fish caught so not too bad for most and maybe, just maybe the whiting are on the way in as temperatures drop.
Next match is the Lloyd Durham Shield and Round 3 of the North Norfolk Sea League teams of 5 at Cley on Sunday 11th December 2011 fishing 9:30 to 2:30. Please note that if there is a significant swell (white water at Cley) the match will be switched to Kelling. If this happens team captains will be informed and the club’s mobile (07899032984) voice mail will have an appropriate message. In any case it is always best to check club mobile voice for confirmation of match venue or match cancellation.
Please also be aware of the Avenue Angling Challenge match the following Sunday 18th December 2011 fishing 10:00 to 3:00 at Kelling. This will be a Holt 10 man team against an Avenue Angling team and any other 10 man team who want to participate. It will also be a Club match for the Ken Brown Cup and a Xmas Fayre Open so please support this event and bring along a raffle prize. The club also has a number of matches on over the Xmas holiday period so please look at the Match Fixtures on the website to check these out.
Club Match Result Top 5
1st Tony Thomas 3lb 4oz
2nd Paul Hudson 2lb 10 1/3oz
3rd Dene Conway 2lb 8 1/3oz
4th John Carter 1lb 15oz
5th Peter Loke 1lb 11oz
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