10th Leg Summer Accumulator
Saturday 21st June 2014 - Bacton
Bacton is a club favourite venue particularly if you get the tide and wind right and on this day we did, with a moderate northerly on the last of the ebb and start of the flood. For a change we had opted for a late Saturday afternoon start fishing into the evening on a relatively small tide. Weather was perfect, dry and slightly overcast with that fresh breeze from the sea to put a nice small swell rolling in. All were there nice and early to give us a relaxing start and orders went out from “take it easy” Tovell to peg all to the west of the first pipe. This was duly done and with a small tide pegging was all seaward side of the revetments which meant following the tide for the whole match. Pegs were soon drawn and all were quickly setting up eagerly waiting to get their baits in the water. Ideal day for Bacton and no sign of a brollie or buddy and even the trolley brigade was reduced to just two.
A couple of pleasurers from Heacham way were fishing east of the pipe and had had a few decent flounders and warned us of weed at slack water but all this looked promising. At the whistle it was everyone into Bacton mode although those big casters had to put some distance into their first chuck. However, the majority were taking the tip from “young” Henry and putting it in the gutter.
With the sea as it was all were eagerly expecting rod to bend double within minutes and as is the norm this just did not happen except for “yoda” Thomas (peg 5). Not bending double but a couple of cracking bites resulting in a double shot of 28cm/29cm flounders on the beach within minutes. This was followed immediately by a 31cm specimen and a succession of cracking bites. Meanwhile, next peg 6 “the consultant” Allison had also found the fish but small and then a 27cm sole appeared on his trace, so where did that come from?
For a while everyone was quiet but as the tide ebbed further “off duty” Gibbs (peg 8) found some small flatties and “inspector” Morse (peg 9) locked into a quality 34cm flounder to get his day off to a cracking start. Soon “steady”Carter (peg 1) was into a couple of nice flounders and then a 27cm schoolie bass came his way. At this stage “silverfox” Neave (peg 3), “take it easy” Tovell (peg 7) and “last cast” Watts (peg 10) were struggling but soon “last cast” managed to locate the fish as a couple of flatties and a nice 33cm flounder appeared on his card. No quiet period for “yoda” as he found a couple of 32cm flounders only to be surpassed by one of 35cm. The tide was ebbing fast now and the close gully became more prominent as it was here where the flounders were feeding. Everyone then started getting good flounders including “silverfox” whose card started to fill up as did “steady”’s on end peg. “the consultant” was still plagued by small fish but then his score upped significantly as a 35cm flounder came ashore. “off duty” and “the consultant” were now finding reasonable numbers but not as many as “last cast”. He was now reeling them in 2 & 3 at a time but none 30+ so his score was creeping rather than leaping up.
During all this action “take it easy” was really struggling but he had made one big mistake as he had only brought crab and not lug as all the fish were coming on worm. The tide was now slackening off which for some switched on the vermin and traces were started to come in stripped within minutes. This meant a slightly more accurate placement of the bait in the gully were there was some turbulence to try and avoid these creatures. Slow starter “silverfox” did just this and then he had a stonking 41cm on the beach worth a staggering 80 points. As the tide started to flood “last cast” increased his small flattie catch rate but still couldn’t find those point scoring specimens. Then at last “take it easy”’s perseverance with crab paid off as a nice 41cm bass came sliding up the beach. At the same similar species but smaller came to “off duty” and “yoda” so they were just coming on but just a bit too late for this particular match.
At the end it was Tony “yoda” Thomas’s steady early catch of good flounders that gave him the honours with 8lb 14oz from 20 fish. Next with help from his monster flounder was John “silverfox” Neave with 8lb 4oz from 19 fish. Final podium slot went to fast closing Mike “last cast” Watts just an ounce behind on 8lb 3oz from 26 fish. Heaviest flat was John (N)’s 1lb 10 2/3oz (41cm) flounder and heaviest round Paul “take it easy” Tovell’s 1lb 6oz (41cm) bass. Super Pools result was same as match result.
A cracking match, one of the best the club has had at Bacton for years. For once we got the tide and weather right and those stonking Bacton flounders were back for a while,
Club Top 5
1st Tony Thomas 8lb 13oz (20 fish)
2nd John Neave 8lb 4oz (19 fish)
3rd Mike Watts 8lb 3oz (26 fish)
4th John Carter 6lb 5oz (17 fish)
5th Tom Gibbs 5lb 2/3oz (16 fish)
