Holt SAC 9th Leg Summer Accumulator (Report)

Saturday 18th June 2016 - Bacton

After comments from the last report it’s back to basics for this one, well nearly. It was also back to the sand and Bacton for this match and just for a change on a Saturday to avoid clashing with the Hound Open and others. Also just for a change, fishing over the bottom and the flood to try and tempt a Hound or two but we probably had our EU quota of those at our last cracking match at Bacton in May. With the forecast of a strong North Westerly it was certainly going to put a few members off and it certainly did this.

Draw for this one was our usual meeting point of Castaways and thanks again to Anna and Richard for allowing the club to use their premises. Always good to have a chat with them about the “Jolly Roger” upward extension and their remarkable sea defences. The very, very small turn out of hardy members were soon arriving and pondering the state of the sea with that North Westerly. It was very “iffy” and when “steady” phoned on his way to say that Walcott looked bad the match looked in doubt. If “last cast” had been here there would have been no doubt, it was on but he was on his annual sabbatical on Chesil. Not to worry we had likeminded “off duty” and as far as his was concerned it was definitely on. However, not for club stalwart “silverfox” who had preferred an allotment session after watching Friday’s Look East.   

With “virtual” pegs drawn all were soon down the steps to the proposed match stretch in the bay immediately west of the first pipe, a consistent hot spot. However, the beach has changed dramatically of late and now no-longer flat but with a deepish gully along the whole bay which created even more pondering. With the wind and a flooding tide going east would have been dangerous with the high revetments towards high water and further west was shallow and bit too far to plod for “the consultant”. So it had to be the bay to the east the 1st pipe where the water would just about make it to the revetments at the end with steps as an easy escape route or as it happened at the end a convenient platform for “the consultant” to fish from.

All were soon set up buddyless on the sand well prepared for the impending flood. The wind in your left eye was strong but not too bad and likewise the 3-4 foot swell was producing some white water but not too bad. Casting into the wind was not too difficult and lack of tide or wind against tide meant holding bottom was not a problem. Well the latter was the state for the first 3 hours but once the flood kicked in with tide and wind running together this bottom business then became a major issue. Anyway at the start it was pleasant fishing with fish coming ashore to “the consultant” and “off duty" but it was very quiet for “steady” and “yoda” who was having one of those days. During this period the odd Dab and Flounder were being recorded and as the tide started to change a few schoolie Bass appeared along with one real Bass of 59cm. With the tide pushing through even harder the fish became disinterested and the final hour saw just the odd schoolie on the cards.

On the individual performances, it just wasn’t Tony “yoda” Thomas’s (peg2) day even with some prime bait finishing bottom of the pack with just 7oz from 2 fish. In better form and third on the day was Ivan “consultant” Alison (peg 1) who was putting his Pete’s bait to good use finding amongst others two good 29cm flounders finishing with 1lb 15oz from 5 fish. Runner-up on the day and also on that Pete’s bait was Tom “off duty” Gibbs (peg 4) who put his end peg next to the pipe to good use finding 7 fish for 2lb 12oz including a 29cm Flounder and 32cm schoolie. Star of the day was John “steady” Carter (peg 3) who took a while to get going finishing with 7lb 7oz from 9 fishing including a 29cm Flounder, a 34cm schoolie then eclipsing this with that 59cm Bass which took him half way to Walcot to land. Heaviest flat was a 29cm (9oz) Flounder shared by Ivan, John & Tom and heaviest round that 59cm Bass ( 4lb) taken by John. Just 23 fish (10 Flounders, 7 Bass and 6 Dabs) were recorded weighing 12 ½oz.

A match that was controlled by the weather with a lot of members opting not to brave the strong north westerly. Other matches over the weekend also took their toll on Club numbers but at least the Club continued with its Summer campaign. The match stretch was not in the preferred bay where there would have been more fish but maybe next time. In other matches it was congrates to club member ‘wiry’ Jake Cooper who won section D in the Smooth Hound Open at Skeggie and was 4th Overall with another sort of local man in “Stelios” being 3rd in section D, well done lads!

Next match is on Sunday 26th June in Wells Harbour which is a new venue for the club fishing 9:00 to 2:00 HW 10:56 4.7m. We will probably be fishing the beach road with parking in the car park at the top of this road but this will be confirmed as usual by text. Draw will be from 7:30 in the car park and we are expecting a very good turn out so could be an interesting match.

Club Match Result Top 5

1……John Carter….…7lb..7oz………....(9 Fish)

2……Tom Gibbs….….2lb..12………......(7 Fish)

3……Ivan Allison…….1lb..15oz…….....(5 Fish)

4……Tony Thomas...0lb..6 2/3oz…...(2 Fish)

(No Other Weighers)

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