Holt SAC Matthews Cup and 8th Leg Winter Accumulator (Report)

Sunday 24th February 2019 - Bacton

Holt SAC’s Matthews Cup & 8th Leg Winter Accumulator Club match was held at BACTON via Castaways on SUNDAY 24TH FEBRUARY with a late 12:00 start to catch the bottom of the ebb at 4:23. Extremely useful to have Castaways for access to the beach as well as their Cliff Top inn facilities for the draw, breakfasts etc. and for the results at the end. Many thanks to Anna & Richard for their continued support of the Club with all of this, much appreciated!

With competition from the Fountain a low turn out was expected which was the case but with the final round of the Sea League at Bacton in 2 weeks time on a similar tide more were anticipated and that didn’t happen. Even so a few travellers did turn up from Beccles way, Kings Lynn area and the perennial Humberite, well done lads! It’s a welcome back to Paul Thorburn who is rejoining after a few years in the “wilderness” and raring to sharpen up his skills.

Forecast for the day was as it’s been for most of the last couple weeks with bright sunshine and light southerly winds. This is precisely as it was but as the match progressed the wind picked up a bit and switched more south easterly and turned decidedly chilly. A flat flat sea with plenty of colour so there was some expectation of those stonking Bacton flounders. Not much tide at the start with no weed but after a couple of hours the tide picked up and brought some annoying weed. Nothing really serious but just enough requiring leader knots to be cleared and sending leads around.

Pegging for this one was in the bay just west of the first pipe in front of the gas site. How this beach has changed which was once nice and flat. Now we have sand built up against the revetments in one area and then great holes filled with sea water in others. In places, the beach has started to be covered in shingle and has become a lot steeper particularly as the tide ebbed although still shallow further out. One wonders what will happen to all this when they start filling it with sand in May. With such a changing topography it was going to be yet another learning curve to find out where the fish were feeding , that is if there were any.

Starting more than a couple of hours after high meant being well on the sand and chasing the tide. With no real tide everyone could try and suss out where the fish were, close, gentle lob or a bit of “extreme” range. For the first hour things were very very quiet although Dave Burr (peg 3) had a serious what appeared to be a doggy bite but did not materialise. Tony Thomas (peg 4) had a few rattles which eventually resulted in a small dab and the only fish on the beach for a while. This promptly changed in the following hour as Alan Doy (peg 2) held up two small dabs to demonstrate he was back.

With the tide picking up and the weed becoming a pain, Paul Thorburn (peg 5) eventually found a small dab all wrapped up in that weed. Frustrated that he could only catch the odd undersize whiting Dave Burr (peg 3) eventually found a decent 25cm dab. Fishless Richard Ling on end peg 1 was probably still recovering from having the whistle blown whilst he was towing his trolley across the wet gull, many apologies Richard. However, he was soon rewarded for his perseverance with a 24 cm dab quickly followed by a slightly smaller one.

With the sun dipping down behind the gas site and dusk rapidly appearing, the tide bottoming out and as we were into the final few cast of the match, everyone was wondering where were these stonking Bacton flounders. Were we too early for these, had they not returned from spawning and then we were into the last cast of the match. The final whistle and something had taken Tony Thomas’s wrigglers as a 24cm dab plus at last a Bacton 28cm flounder, at least he saved face and was able to pass the wooden spoon on to poor Richard. That was not quite it, as Dave had witnessed a cracking bite on his last cast and up the beach came a proper stonking 35cm flounder worth an astonishing 52 points without which he would have had that wooden spoon instead of a podium finish.

In the end it was a slow but steady pace of finding fish that gave ALAN DOY (peg 2) victory with 2lb 7oz from 9 fish which were all dabs with a nice 29cm specimen worth 28 points. Second place went to the returning Club member in PAUL THORBURN (peg 5) who managed 1lb 12oz from 7 fish which were all dabs apart from a 29cm whiting which was the heaviest round fish. Final podium slot went to DAVE BURR (peg 3) thanks to that flounder with 1lb 10oz from 4 fish with the flounder being the heaviest flat. Altogether there were 28 fish (24 Dabs, 2 Flounders and 2 Whiting) recorded weighing 7lb 10oz.

An interesting match although it was a struggle to find fish and the weed did not help. Those stonking flounders are still there but you have to get the tide just right, low water and just after. This should have been good practice for the final round of the Sea League here in two weeks but it probably raised more questions than answers. At least we now do know about how the beach has changed and where the gullies have disappeared and appeared.

Next Club match will be for the Foreman Cup and 9th Leg of the Winter Accumulator at KELLING via Muckleburgh Collection on SUNDAY 3RD MARCH fishing 10:00-3:00 LW 11:26 4.1m. This will be another interesting match where we will find out how the resident fish survive after the Joc Goodie memorial match there on the preceding two days … Tony T  

Top 5 Individuals (on the day) …

1...Alan Doy..........2lb. 7oz.........(9.Fish) (Peg 2)

2...Paul Thorburn...1lb.11 2/3 oz.(7.Fish) (Peg 5)

3...Dave Burr........1lb.10 1/3oz..(4.Fish) (Peg 3)

4...Tony Thomas....1lb.3 2/3oz...(5.Fish) (Peg 4)

5...Richard Ling......0lb.10oz.......(3.Fish) (Peg 1)

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