1st Leg Winter Accumulator & Cockaday Cup

Sunday 4th January 2015 - Cley

This match was the first round of ten for the Club’s Winter Accumulator trophy.  This is a weight competition where the sum of a member’s weight in each of the 10 rounds determines the winner.  The member who has the heaviest total weight wins with no dropped weight scores which means that a member with a low weight can win with an exceptional weight in the very last match.  This match was a very early start (9:00) to try and get as much of the ebb as possible which always seems to be the best at this venue.  An icy early start greeted those gathering at Cley beach park but at least it was dry.  Even after the rigours of Xmas match campaign and those icy conditions testing the driving skills of those from Gorleston and Dereham way a healthy squad was soon assembling.  A good southerly was making the sea comfortably flat although a nice swell was going to make things interesting.

The National Sea League Final results showed that the further west towards Blakeney Point we went the more fish we would find.  However, the consensus was that starting from the boats was acceptable but any further was a no no so the match stretch was duly pegged  from the boats continental style.  Even so, peg 1 was a good hike towards Blakeney Point but starting well into the ebb made it an easy walk both out and back as well as a handy roadway for “inspector” Morse’s motorised contraption.  With a handy stretch of flat sand and shingle meant buddies were easily erected and none of this chasing the tide forward and backwards.  All were more than ready as the whistle went and immediately everyone was into their first major decision of where to place the bait.  This venue more than any other on the shingle ridge is very difficult to judge for distance, over cook it and you sit on top of the sand bank, slip it into the gutter and you can find it very barren.  By now the majority have sussed all this out and were soon into fish.

A peg by peg blow will more than anything demonstrate how this venue and individuals performed in this match.  On peg 1 was “Hokey Pokey” Loke who really was in his element as he likes to drift and being on end peg he could drift a long long way at certain stages of the tide.  Early on he was able to find a couple of small dabs and a rockling but it was slow until the tide started to push and he found two small sizeable whiting.  Still not a big score but he then played his trump card on his very last cast producing a massive 35cm flounder giving him a whopping 52 points putting him well in contention with 7 fish and 109 points.  Next on peg 2 was “steady” Carter who had slightly different tactics, no drifting just finding some quality dabs up to 25cm.  A late 30cm whiting also put him into contention with 9 fish for 101 points.  “the consultant” Allison was next on peg 3 and was up to his usual trick pulling in a raft of quality flatties with his biggest a flounder of 26cm.  He needed a bonus fish which did not arrive and ended with 8 fish for 88 points.

Serious fish was the name of the game for trolley man “inspector” Morse on peg 4 who after carding a couple of small dabs hooked into a 37cm codling giving his 51 points.  Unfortunately, he could only  increase score from then with a 28cm whiting and 26cm dab giving him 5 fish and 97 points.  A similar match was had by “bigger baits” Ellis on peg 5 who after finding two small dabs and then a decent 28cm flounder could only supplement these with three just sizeable whiting.  He ended up with 6 fish for 84 points.  Bucking the trend slightly on this stretch of the beach was “yoda” Thomas on peg 6 who after getting the customary two small dabs found a 35cm flounder like “Hokey Pokey” to seriously boost his score at an early stage in the match. Consistency then took over with 6 small to medium size dabs along with a 31cm and 28cm whiting in the final few casts.  These gave him a total of 166 points from 11 fish.

Peg 7 saw “ex-captain” Ellis having a rather dismal day and although he managed to find a decent 27cm flounder early on and a 28cm whiting at the end could only card 5 fish for 68 points.  In a similar situation was “the boss” Morley on peg 8 who was really struggling with just 3 dabs but then as is the norm with the “the boss” he winkled out a bonus fish, a 39cm codling giving him 59 points.  Unfortunately, he had nothing more to add to this and ended up with just 4 fish for 88 points.  On peg 9 was the perpetual campaigner “silverfox” Neave who didn’t fare much better with 5 dabs up to 27cm and a whiting of 28cm.  This gave him a total of just 76 points from 6 fish.  Pegs 10 & 11 saw a real disaster for “chippy” Doy with two small dabs for 12 points and “small hooks” Stannard with one 28cm whiting for 16 points.  We won’t dwell on this as it just was not their day particularly after negotiating the early icy conditions but never fear they are seasoned contenders and they will be back.  Things did improve for “not too far” Tovell on end peg 12 but this was probably down to his usual bit of distance enabling him to find 7 flatties up to 24cm, a 27cm whiting and a small rockling.  He finished the day on 84 points from 9 fish.

At the end it was a bonus fish and consistency that won the day with Tony “yoda” Thomas (peg 6) taking the honours with 3lb 7oz from 11 fish.  Next was Peter “Hokey Pokey” Loke (peg 1) with 2lb 4oz from 7 fish followed by John “steady” Carter (peg 2) with 2lb 2oz from 9 fish.  Heaviest flat fish was shared by Peter & Tony with their 35cm (1lb 1 1/3oz) flounders.  Heaviest round was Keith “the boss” Morley with his 39cm (1lb 3 2/3oz) codling. Total number of fish recorded was 73 (49 dabs, 13 whiting, 7 flounders, 2 rockling and 2 codling) weighing just over 20lb.

The experiences of this match confirmed the results of the NSL Final where the further west you went the more fish you found in the main.  We need to consider this for future matches at this venue but of course there is a limit to how far we can go and we all don’t want to be donning hiking boots, maybe we should have purchased that tractor!

 Club Match Result Top 5

1st  Tony Thomas             3lb  7 1/3oz     (11 fish)

2nd Peter Loke                 2lb  4 1/3oz     ( 7 fish)

3rd  John  Carter               2lb 1 2/3oz      ( 9 fish)

4th  Peter Morse                2lb 1/3oz         ( 5 fish)

5th= Ivan Allison               1lb 13 1/3oz    ( 8 fish)

5th= Keith Morley              1lb 13 1/3oz    ( 4 fish)

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