Trimingham Sunday 3rd March 2013 – 9th Leg Winter Accumulator
For our penultimate match of the season tradition takes us East of the shingle to the sandy stretches of Trimingham to try and find those early Spring codling. “scout man” had already warned us of shearing water to make it a struggle and “clark kent” had predicted a rockling fest along with “last cast” forecasting that he would go under more fish than we would see on his monthly pilgrimage to Brussels. As it happens they were all unfortunately completely right! With a late start of 12:00 all were able to gather leisurely at the Trimingham cliff car park for a bit of banter with “peep peep” being first there trying to recover from withdrawal symtoms from being disappointed about the Salthouse cancellation. With the tide still well up to the revetments pegging was in the 2 bays to the west of the car park to prevent any serious walking and hopefully find an elusive codling.
As well as “peep peep” everyone else appeared to be having withdrawal symptoms as an excellent turnout was soon gathering including “off duty” who just had to make amends for having to miss the next teams match at Bacton. Unfortunately, “new gear” had to drop out after not feeling too good, get better soon Ash … big one next week. For once there was just a short walk to the pegs although a few of the “trolley dollies” had their machines fired up and “mobility” had his battery fully charged. A very light cool north westerly was giving us a calm sea but a 3-4 foot swell was pushing right up the beach and even more than 2 hours after high water it was still not clearing the revetments. So all had to be content with parking themselves behind the revetments at the whistle.
Being an unfamiliar venue all decided to target just behind the breakers, well all except “class act” and “better booms” who decided to welly it as far as their stress ridden bodies could put it. After all the gloom that had descended from reports of lack of real fish all were resigned to 5 hours of watching a motionless rod. Then within minutes “off duty” Gibbs (peg 9) could be seen clambering over the revetments and then holding up a nice 24cm flounder. There was fish there went through everyone’s mind and were we really in for a cracking session. Sadly it was false hope as once again all rods remained motionless except for the odd “tap, tap” on “hard core” Randell’s (peg 10) rod which turned out to be some fin free creature. However, as the tide started to recede and we all moved on to the sand he did have the last laugh as he secretly squirreled in a nice 23cm flounder onto his card. Then shortly afterwards, with that permanent Henry grin he was holding up a slightly small 21cm version and he was on a roll.
Talking about a roll, well more like swimming role as “class act” Thorburn (peg 3) became the unluckiest angler of the day when he appeared to have a slack liner. In deed it was and he was cleverly bringing in what appeared to be a specimen fish but as it came into the surf he decided to try and man handle it ashore. Big mistake, as it decided to unhook itself and dive through his legs and vain attempts of thrashing about in the surf could not locate what was a nice 5-6lb codling which is now well back in the wild. Result, a very very guttered “class act” Thorburn, we’ll be hearing about this for weeks to come. Unfortunately, this changed the strategy of those around him and they all moved into codling mode. Well, all except “no hat” Attew (peg 0) who was doing his usual trick with lug and herring resulting in a couple of rockling of 25cm and a beauty of 28cm. Not big points fish but better than those who had nothing. The Carter café was shut but “cuddly” Carter (peg 2) was out for a break in the fresh air with hubby “steady” Carter (peg 1) who eventually after ditching codling mode found a nice 25cm rockling.
Back at the other end, “consultant” Allison’s (peg 12) entanglement with “new buddy” Turk (peg 13) resulting in a nice 27cm rockling on his card. Unfortunately, no such luck for “new buddy” as he was to end the day fishless along with many others. Young “hard core” was still doing the business as he added a third fish to his score, a 24cm rockling. The tide was almost at the end of the ebb and with time rapidly running out “yoda” Thomas (peg 11) at last managed to save face with a 24cm rockling courtesy of a chance entanglement with “consultant”. Having drawn end peg 15 “sandy coke” Loke was in his element next to a groyne but any amount of drifting and hugging the groyne did not result in a fish all day. Likewise, “mobility” Morse on next peg 14 could not raise a fish all day and had to be content listening to “sandy coke’s” cursing as trace after trace remained at sea. It was a lost trace that created the second unluckiest person of the match. Having not added to his first cast flounder “off duty” Gibbs (peg 9) was hauling in one of his lost traces only to have a nice 44cm codling attached, no emotion this time ”that’s just our sport” he said.
However, the emotion had passed onto “hard core” on next peg who was having a torrid time. Although he had 3 fish on his card he started to lose gear and then bundles of braid started to appear in the surf as his new reel began spuing the stuff everywhere. With a little patience from around he was soon back in business but of course he did have 3 fish on his card. Unlike “chig” Mushroom (peg 7) and “silver fox” Neave (peg 6) who couldn’t even find a sausage in their tucker boxes let alone a fish in the surf. The same could be said for Rite Gear top rod “peep peep” Conway (peg 4) whose array of baits including whites and sticky Cleveleys’s blacks could not even tempt a rockling. As for the usual star of the show, “better booms” Beeton (peg 5) his special mackerel soaked concoction and smelly blows were just as ineffective even after switching back to rockling bashing to find at least one of these creatures without success.
With an hour and a half left the tide reach bottom and started flooding and was when the real problems started with everyone losing even more gear on successive casts. Although there was warm sunshine along the stretch, for some with no fish this was the last straw and with empty weight buckets cod man or should we say codless man “class act” and “chig” decided to call it a day. They were soon followed by “sandy coke” who was distraught after losing his favourite rig even with lead lifts and then “mobility” soon had his battery churning the wheels on his machine. “new buddy’s” day also came to an abrupt end as he cracked off trying to find that elusive rockling in the flooding tide along with “consultant” who thought he’d done enough for a podium slot with his big rockling. “cuddly” also decided to have a casual walk back to warm up the motor for hubby, relaying to us all the unfortunate exploits of codless “class act” and his swimming attempt to capture a “monster fish” she said after seeing its tail disappearing into the surf. For the rest it was a matter of sticking it out to the end and for this “no hat” was rewarded by further rockling without losing a single trace. Also rewarded was “yoda” with a small rockling on his very last cast much to the disgust of “consultant” and “off duty”.
At the whistle it was Sam “no hat” Attew who took the honours with his usual steady approach and no lost gear with a weight of 1lb 1 2/3oz from 5 rockling. Next was Henry “hardcore” Randell whose early success gave him 10oz from 3 fish with Tony “yoda” Thomas clinching final podium slot with that last gasp rocking with 6 1/3oz from 2 rockling. Heaviest flat club points went to Tom “off duty” Gibbs for his 24cm (4 2/3oz) flounder and heaviest round club points to Sam for his 28cm (5 1/3oz) rockling. Super Pools went to Henry, followed by Tony and a tie between Ivan “consultant” Allison and Tom for third with their single 4 2/3oz fish.
Total number of fishing caught was 13 (10 rockling and 3 flounders) weighing a paltry 2lb 15 1/3oz. For the majority it was a match to forget and all the predictions came true but at least the weather was kind to us. There were codling there but sadly they eluded us in one way or other. Maybe next season we will break with that tradition and take Trimingham off the agenda at this time of the year.
The next club match and last of the season is the 10th Leg Winter Accumulator on Saturday 9th March at Bacton (via Castways Holiday Park) fishing 9:00-3:00. This will also be the final round of the North Norfolk Teams of 5 Sea League and will be followed at 4:00 by a buffet at Castaways, a very brief league meeting and winnings presentation. Yes! A six hour match as we cannot get into Castaways until 4:00 so we might as well be on the beach and we want the early start to catch the best of the ebb. Mr Caster and friends had good flounders, whiting and schoolie bass there on the same day as our Trimingham match. So if the weather is kind to us we could be rewarded with some sport and that elusive codling that has eluded us so far this season. Will all team and club members try and make it to the match for a grand finale to the season.
Club Result Top 5
1st Sam Attew 1lb 1 2/3oz (5 Fish)
2nd Henry Randell 0lb 10oz (3 Fish)
3rd Tony Thomas 0lb 6 1/3oz (2 Fish)
4th= Ivan Allison 0lb 4 2/3oz (1 Fish)
4th= Tom Gibbs 0lb 4 2/3oz (1 Fish)
Please use this link for full set of club match results … Holt SAC Match Results (03Mar13)
Please use this link for current league table… Holt SAC League Table (03Mar13)
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