SEA ANGLER CLUBMAN CHALLENGE 2011 – HOLT TRIUMPHANT (but only just!)
After winning the National 2010-11 Sea Angler Clubman League Holt Sea Angling Club “A” were invited to a Challenge match against an elite Sea Angler team at the club’s local venue, namely Kelling. Wednesday 30th November 2011 was selected for the match fishing 10:15 to 3:15 giving us an excellent fishing window of top of the tide down for this venue. The majority of the Sea Angler team of English Internationals Alan Yates and Chris Clark along with Johnny Wilson decided to be well rested and stayed overnight to savour the delights of the nearby Maltings Hotel. Whilst their captain and editor Mel Russ commuted from Peterborough accompanied by his wife Tina who had more important retail aspirations in Holt to deal with. Final member of their team was Scottish International Joc Goudie making a short rather delayed dash from his home in Norwich. Also joining the party was Sky Sports (Mike and Russ) who were there to cover the event for future transmission along with Lloyd Rogers the Sea Angler photographer.
The Sea Angler team decided that it was fitting to do a photo call in front of the Muckleburgh Collection tank to probably remonstrate that the big guns were there and that they were ready for some real action. Meanwhile, the HSAC “A” team of Dene “smooth” Conway, Paul “scoop” Fenech, Peter “sandy coke” Loke, Peter “inspector” Morse and Tony “yoda” Thomas decided a more low key affair discussing tactics in the venue car park although Paul had to do the tank duty for his magazine. Pegging for the match was around the wreck with peg 5 just to the right of it with each team to be given alternate pegs making for fair and even match. To make it more interesting and testing the match was divided into 4 categories namely Heaviest Weight, Most Fish, Heaviest Flat and Heaviest Round fish. The team member with the heaviest bag would receive 20 points, 2nd 19 points and so on and for the other 3 categories the winner would receive 10 points, 2nd 9 points and so. The team with highest aggregate score for all its team members would be declared the winner. With such a diverse scoring system the result could be very close and tactics throughout the match could play a key role.
With the draw for the pegs completed and local bait distributed all eagerly set off for the short walk to the match stretch closely tracked by the Sky Sports contingent. The weather was perfect with a reasonable southerly wind, slightly overcast skies and temperatures reminiscent of late-September. With an almost flat coloured sea on an ebbing tide everyone was able to set up right on the water’s edge to minimize clambering up the shingle bank. At the whistle it was soon obvious that everyone had heeded the advice from the locals and 60 to 80 yards appeared to be the norm. The first couple of casts at this venue generally gives a good indication of the numbers of fish that could be expected. This was soon proven true as the dabs started to appear not in great numbers but for the first few casts single shots of small to medium size dabs were being recorded by everyone along with quite a few undersize. We were in for a good session!!!
For the first hour it was nip and tuck between those in the middle of the stretch with dabs being recorded at regular intervals. However, it was the end pegs that seemingly were steaming away with Paul (F) (peg 10) and Joc (G) (peg 1) bringing in single and double shots of dabs along with occasional treble. The match then turned into individual battles between adjacent team members with the most notable of these being between Chris (C) (peg 9) and Paul (F) (peg 10). With each matching dab for dab, Paul took the initiative with a nice 32cm Coalfish only to see Chris with all his international continental skills find a 32cm dab to snatch it back. Further down the stretch Dene (C) (peg8) was having his personal battle with Johnny (W) (peg 7) but his techniques were yielding a lot of undersize whereas Johnny was finding few decent sized specimens. In the middle opposite the wreck it was more of a 3 way battle between Tony (T) (peg 6) and Alan (Y) (peg 5) who was also having to cope with the demands of Sky Sports. Tony was finding the quality fish which included a cracking dab of 30cm but low on numbers whereas in contrast Alan was getting the numbers but only dabs up to 12cm. Next to Alan, it was more of a three way contest between Peter (L) (peg 4), Mel (R) (peg 3) and Peter (M) (peg 2) with Joc (G) (peg 1) out on his own with numbers of Dabs. It was Mel who steamed ahead in this skirmish when he landed a double shot of cracking dabs and a 30cm specimen.
Throughout the session there was the distinct sound of click, click, click as Lloyd (R) in competition with Sky Sports was snapping up pictures of treble shots and specimen fish along with other intriguing situations . As slack water arrived the fish decided to have a rest and for most the catching dropped off apart from the Chris (C) / Paul (F) duel who continued to find fish. At this stage with only just a few fish on his card it was time for Tony (T) to change tactics by clipping down and putting a lug tipped white rag bait as close to the wreck as he could. This resulted in him hauling in Alan’s rig with 2 small dabs attached and the 3rd hook foul hooked into a nice 42cm codling which to Alan’s disappointment had well and truly taken Tony’s baited hook. With the tide beginning to pick up Tony decided to repeat the process and within a couple of casts had yet another codling a 44cm version on his card. The match was now into its last hour and Tony decided to alternate between distance and close to try and increase numbers of fish and again within a couple of casts had another codling of 43cm on his card. With the match slipping away from Holt these 3 codling were surely going to make a difference.
At the whistle it was going to be a very close result with the heaviest round fish category going to be the deciding factor with Holt having two round fish weighers and Sea Angler none. In the heaviest weight category HSAC “A” just took the honours with 79 points from Sea Angler with 76 points which was equivalent to 21lb 7oz against 18lb 2/3oz. In the Number of Fish category the position was reversed with Sea Angler gaining 29 points with HSAC “A” close on 27 points with fish numbers of 95 to 88. The Heaviest Flat Fish category saw yet another close contest with HSAC “A” holding on with 32 points to Sea Angler’s 30 points. The Heaviest Round Fish category was a non-contest with just 2 weighers for HSAC “A” and none from Sea Angler giving them 19 clear points. This therefore allowed HSAC “A” to win the Clubman Challenge with 157 points from Sea Angler’s 135 points.
On the Individuals front Paul Fenech (HSAC “A”) took the honours with 45 points with a 2nd, 1st, 4th and 2nd in the Heaviest bag, Fish numbers, Heaviest flat and Heaviest round categories. Second was Tony Thomas (HSAC “A”) with 41 points who could not make his codling do the business as he failed on numbers of fish with a 1st, 9th, 2nd and 1st in the 4 categories. Final podium slot went to Chris Clark (Sea Angler) on 36 points with a 3rd, 3rd, 1st and no score in the 4 categories.
The day was rounded off with a hearty meal at the Kelling Heath Holiday Park where they once again did us proud, well done Kelling Heath. After lots of joisting banter Mel Russ Sea Angler editor presented “The Result” when everyone then realised how close a competition it had been. All commented on a most enjoyable match it had been none more so than Mel who was delighted with his 5th place. Many thanks to Sea Angler for the after match meal and for giving Holt Sea Angling Club the opportunity to fish with such illustrious company. Let’s hope we can get our act together again and bring Sea Angler back to North Norfolk in the near future.
Team Result
Weight No. Fish Weight Pts. No. Fish Pts. Flat Pts. Round Pts. TOTAL POSN.
HSAC “A” 21lb 7oz 88 79 27 32 19 157 1
Sea Angler 18lb 2/3oz 95 76 29 30 0 135 2
Individuals Result
Weight No. Fish Weight Pts. No. Fish Pts. Flat Pts. Round Pts. TOTAL POSN.
Paul Fenech 5lb 4oz 26 19 10 7 9 45 1
Tony Thomas 6lb 13oz 10 20 2 9 10 41 2
Chris Clark 4lb 11oz 24 18 8 10 0 36 3
Joc Goudie 4lb 6oz 25 17 9 5 0 31 4
Mel Russ 3lb 12oz 16 16 4 9 0 29 5
Peter Morse 3lb 9oz 21 15 7 5 0 27 6
Dene Conway 3lb 5oz 17 13 5 6 0 24 7
Alan Yates 3lb 6oz 21 14 7 1 0 22 8
Peter Loke 2lb 8oz 14 12 3 5 0 20 9
Johnny Wells 1lb 13oz 9 11 1 5 0 17 10
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