8th Leg Winter Accumulator and Sabre Tackle Winter League Round 3
Sunday 22nd February 2015 - Bacton
After a week when the Sea had a slight rest with light to moderate off shore winds forecasting to switch to a bit of north on Saturday night before turning south westerly for the match, everyone was hoping that they had at least got this one right. Particularly, as these were very very big spring tides and fishing down and just over the bottom when there’s any sizeable swell would have given us white water throughout the match which makes it unfishable at Bacton. The tide was big, even 3 hours after HW we could only get in front of the revetments and high end pegs still had to wait a while before they could. A 2-3 ft swell at the start died away to 1-2 ft at the end but the ebb was very big and nearly to the end of the pipes leaving very little water at bottom of the ebb. A bit windy but more SE that the SW they had predicted but they got the rain almost right at 3:30 instead of 4:00 which made things a bit unpleasant particularly as the wind had gone up a few notches to gale force and sand everywhere.
A chilly but bright morning greeted the now enthusiastic members who are regularly fishing these matches. The usual Dereham way members of “inspector” and “the consultant” were first to arrive and spent time admiring the extension work been done on the ‘Jolly Roger’. Nothing like the ‘Cross Rail’ project but “the consultant” was eying up the bags of surplus concrete, probably seeing how he could use them as weights or maybe not. However, I think these were destined for a bit of North Sea protection continuing the excellent job Richard and Anna have done keeping that monster at bay. With such a late start all were casually arriving and soon into their usually pre-match leisurely chat on such topics as … well no need to bother with that here. Once the draw started it was soon apparent how eager everyone is these days to get into match mode particularly the rookies, shouldn’t real use that term here, probably get shot at the next match. Pegging for this session was 10 pegs in the bays to the east of the first pipe in front of the Gas Site (high numbers) and the rest between the 1st and 2nd pipe. It was soon obvious which end of the stretch was preferred by the groans that could be heard as a high pegs were drawn and then there were others who even did the same when good low end pegs were pulled out, long walk!
Anyway all this is part of the game as everyone trundled and trolleyed off to their allotted slots. Easy walk to pegs here apart from the slope and is amazing to see how much sand has been shifted over the past few months which unfortunately just makes the beach even flatter. It was soon apparent at the whistle that this was going to be a funny match particularly with the state of this big tide. The ebb at the start was a bit slow but soon picked up and you were then chasing the tide after every cast. This was not good as the fish never really had chance to settle in their various nooks and crannies and you instinctively knew that this really was going to be a tough match even though the sea conditions and colour were perfect. Normally at the bottom of the tide you are fishing in the close gully pulling out these stonking flounders but instead you were almost standing in that gully and only one of those flounders was found. It was a struggle throughout the match with just 23 fish caught but for some there was a couple of decent codling caught of 49cm and 50cm along with an early 41cm bass. The other fish comprised of 4 flounder, 14 dabs, 1 whiting and 1 rockling with the total recorded weight being just 9lb. The bigger fish came early to mid-ebb with the majority of the flatties later on but the appearance of nuisance weed towards the end did not assist the situation particularly as the wind and rain with sand started to pick up.
On the individual performances there is not too much to say particularly for “hokey pokey” Loke (peg 2) who was managing the weather window and just made it off the beach for his ‘Chicken and fried rice’ before the heavens opened and recording no fish. In a similar position but sticking it out to the end were “large baits” Lake (peg 13), “young Sam” Bulch (peg 16), “inspector” Morse (peg 20), “the consultant” Allison (peg 22), “hot rod” Cooper (peg 24) and “taxi” Kendrick (peg 25). Probably again get shot at the next match for mentioning them in despatches. Just one fish would have made a difference to them and putting them on the leader board. As it did for “steady” Carter (peg 1) who after hauling in a lump of weed moving towards the 2nd pipe only to find it to be that 41cm bass giving him 68 points and sole fish of the match but a shot at the podium. “yoda” Thomas (peg 3) after trying every rig in his tackle box managed to find a small flounder and dab for just 13 points. Next peg was “diver” Gedney (peg 4) who was having a rest from catching codling in the Humber or so he thought, only to locate a nice 50cm specimen early on for his only fish of the match giving him 122 points and another with a shot at the podium.
The Browns were on the next two pegs with “young catcher Brown really struggling but eventually as in the last match managing to find one small flounder for 8 points. In contrast, “super sub” Brown started to get his act together at the end finding a nice flounder and dab along with a rockling for 35 points. In a similar vane guest Andy (G) was into a couple of quality fish in a 25cm dab and 29cm whiting for 34 points. Also with a couple of fish was “big flounder” Beresford (peg 9) who likes these big flatties as he found a nice 29cm dab to go with a 23cm version for 40 points. Showing that he can put points on his card was “the chef” Parks (peg 10) who found a solitary small dab for 10 points. Small was not on the cards for ”I’ll do it my way” Waldren (peg 11) as he found that stonking 33cm flounder for 44 points and his only fish. Also finding flatties but rather small was “rods” Plumb (peg 12) who managed two for 18 points.
Keeping up his previous codling performances was “Blacks” Bulch (peg 15) who managed to sneak a 49cm version out early on but there he was slap bang on the 1st pipe. He was a little miffed when he heard “diver” had found one 1cm bigger but then added to this a nice 24cm dab and 130 points on his card to give him a shot at top spot. To the East of the 1st pipe was “silver fox” Neave who did his usual trick to find just one good 27cm dab and 21 points on his card. “big braid” Borley (peg 18) was having yet another dire day, he did not get wet and managed to find a single small dab for 8 point. On next peg “Heacham” Needham was putting his Bacton experience to good use as he managed to find 3 small dabs for 26 points. As mentioned earlier the remainder in this part of the stretch all blanked and probably justified some of the groans heard at the draw.
In the end it was the codling and bass that won the day with Christian “Blacks” Bulch taking the honours with 2lb 11oz from 2 fish with Ian “diver” Gedney second on 2lb 9oz from his single codling. Likewise, with his single fish a bass of 1lb 7oz, John “steady” Carter took the final podium placing. Heaviest flat fish went to Spen “I’ll do it my way” Waldren with his 33cm (14oz) flounder and heaviest round fish went to Ian “diver” Gedney with his 50cm (2lb 7oz) codling.
The big tides could have something to do with the number of fish but four were still rewarded with the 3 big round fish and flounder. With the final North Norfolk National Sea League match here in two weeks we shall have to do a bit of analysis on how to peg that one. As mentioned before this was a very tough match particularly with the weather at the end but we all were able to dry out afterwards with the excellent wood burner in the Jolly Roger at Castaways, thanks again Anna & Richard!
Next club match, 9th leg of the Winter Accumulator and 4th Round of the Sabre Tackle Winter League is back to the shingle at Kelling on Sunday 1st March fishing 1:30-6:30 with HW 4:03 on a small 4.1m tide at Cromer.
Club Match Result Top 5
1st Christian Bulch 2lb 11 1/3oz (2 fish)
2nd Ian Gedney 2lb 8 2/3oz (1 fish)
3rd John Carter 1lb 6 2/3oz (1 fish)
4th Spen Waldren 0lb 14 2/3oz (1 fish)
5th Mark Beresford 0lb 13 1/3oz (2 fish)
Winter Accumulator Current Standings Top 5
1st Tony Thomas 14lb 13oz
2nd Peter Morse 13lb 10 1/3oz
3rd John Carter 13lb 6 2/3oz
4th Ivan Allison 11lb 14 1/3oz
5th Christian Bulch 10lb 6oz
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