Holt SAC 2016 North Norfolk Bass Festival Event Report
Saturday/Sunday 7th/8th May 2016 - Cley and Kelling
Holt SAC is pleased to report a successful 4th Annual North Norfolk Bass Festival over the weekend of 7th/8th May 2016. The festival was again sponsored by Kelling Heath Holiday Park and supported by Sea Angler magazine. The event this year again included the UK Ladies Championships sponsored and supported by Tronixpro, the North Norfolk Juniors Tournament sponsored by Maver and supported by Country Cars of Cromer plus a new teams of four competition in the Shannock Quads supported by Sheringham Carnival. Holt SAC would like to thank these organisations for their sponsorship and support of this event
In total, 106 match anglers entered the event including a number of Internationals and top match anglers from around the country. Head Quarters for the event was the Kelling Heath Holiday Park complex which was just a short distance away from the match venues of Cley and Kelling. There were 56 pegs at each venue and each angler would fish one venue one day and the other the next day. Pegging at Cley was west of the car park from the fishing boats towards Blakeney Point. This stretch held Zones A & B where Zone A had in the past produced good bags although had not been fished of late whereas Zone B near the boats had produced quality bass to club members two weeks prior. Parking at this venue was in an area set aside by the Norfolk Wild Life Trust for the event and the club would like to thank the Trust for their support. Pegging at Kelling was from a short distance west of Weybourne wreck up to and 12 pegs beyond the pillar box at Kelling and on to Kelling Hard with Zones C & D being at this venue. The club is very familiar with this stretch and some serious bass and flounders were expected to come from the low order pegs to the west of the pillar box.
Day 1 gave the summer like conditions that had been forecast with blue skies and a light to moderate East to East North East breeze. With a very big tide having past more than 2 ½hrs earlier there was still plenty of water and the walk to the low order pegs in Zones A & C was rather tortuous on the soft shingle. Not too bad at Kelling with hard ground of the coastal path behind the shingle to assist some of the way but Cley with its finer shingle was a struggle particularly for those who had not opted for a Close peg. In hindsight pegging here should have been east and west of the car park and pegging all west will not happen again. With a big tide all expected a healthy tidal flow at some stage during the match but surprisingly none of this really happened. With an almost flat calm sea there was some colour in the first 10-50 yards but it soon started to shear off further out as the tide ebbed. As the match progressed the breeze picked a little to give a nice “bassy” movement to the surface.
The optimism for Zone A did not really materialise with just 224 fish weighing 64 ¾ lb being recorded and the lowest number of fish for the four Zones. 9 of these were bass with the largest being one of 2lb 9oz to Liam Roper on Peg 1 with all the others being small schoolies. There were also a number of quality flounders with the best of 15oz to Chris Carnell on peg 27. The Zone was won by John Smith on peg 15 with 6lb 12oz from 27 fish. Another performance worth mentioning was that of local Junior Adam Molloy on peg 21 who was 5th with 4lb 5oz from 18 fish and top Junior of the day. Zone B fared slightly better with 307 fish weighing 76 ½ lb being recorded. 11 of these were bass with the largest being 3lb to Ian Lambert on peg 39. There were two more reasonable bass recorded in this Zone with one of 1lb 15oz going to Lady competitor Zoe Murray on peg 45. Again there were a few quality flounders recorded with the best of 1lb going to Jack Akester on peg 50 and the heaviest flat fish of the day. It was all very tight at the top of this Zone but Craig Bradshaw just snatched it by 1 point on peg 54 with 4lb 15oz from 16 fish. The Ladies were well up in this Zone with Heather Lindfield taking their top spot and 6th with 4lb 5oz from 19 fish.
Zone C saw a distinct increase in the numbers of fish with 399 being recorded weighing just under 106lb. Just 8 of these were bass although 3 of them were quality fish with the largest a monster of 6lb 6oz to Mark “Kipper” Colman from end peg 57 and the largest bass of the day and Festival. Surprisingly no serious flat fish came out of this Zone. The Zone was won by “Kipper” with 12lb 15oz from 14 fish. Zone D was by far the most prolific of the Zones with 657 fish recorded weighing just over 139lb. Fewer bass in this Zone with just 6 recorded of which only two were serious fish with Andy Gallacher on peg 104 finding the largest of 2lb 9oz. Lots of flat fish but none to compete against those at Cley. Andy also took the Zone with 9lb 6oz from 33 fish. Top Lady in this Zone was local ace Kimberley Lawn on peg 110 in 9th place with 6lb 7oz from 28 fish also making her Topy Lady of the day.
Winners on the day were …
ALL FISH …………………… 12lb 15oz …..Mark “Kipper” Colman Peg C 57
BASS ONLY ………………… 9lb 8oz ………Mark “Kipper” Colman Peg C 57
NON- BASS ………………… 8lb 5oz ………Simon Drayton Peg D 105
HEAVIEST BASS ………… 6lb 6oz ………Mark “Kipper” Colman Peg C 57
HEAVIEST FLAT FISH … 1lb 0oz ………Jack Akester Peg B 50
TOP LADY …………………… 6lb 7oz ………Kimberley Lawn Peg D 110
TOP JUNIOR ………………. 3lb 5oz ………Adam Molloy Peg A21
TOP TEAM …………………. 21lb 2oz …….Crazy for Suffolk
Day 2 provided similar weather and sea state conditions to Day 1. The breeze was slightly lighter at the start than Day 1 but picked up during the day. The slightly calmer conditions seemed to affect numbers of fish recorded which were well down on the previous day. Pegging was identical to the previous day but for some the exerts of the previous day and maybe the night made distant Zone A pegs a stretch of shingle too far and opted for a sunny day in the Lodge.
The results in Zone A reflected this decision with just 131 fish being recorded weighing just under 43lb. Surprisingly, 11 bass were recorded but only 3 were of reasonable size with a 3lb 3oz specimen to Rob Tuck on peg 17 and Jarrod Lill peg 21 the largest. Not many big flounders on this day but Andy Brewer on Peg 23 had the largest of 13oz in this Zone. The Zone was won by Craig Buy on peg 22 with 7lb 9oz which included two good bass late on. Top Lady in the Zone and also the Ladies Cley Zone winner was Kimberley Lawn on peg 3 in 6th place with 2lb 4oz from 10 fish. Zone B was again the better Cley Zone but was a lot poorer than the previous day with just 209 fish recorded weighing just over 49lbs. This Zone saw 8 bass recorded of which 3 were a respectable size with the largest being 2lb 9oz to Lee Caley on peg 37. Biggest flat fish in this Zone of 15oz went to Wendy Metcalfe on peg 41. Zone winner was Mark Sharman on peg 54 with 6lb 3oz from 21 fish.
Zone C at Kelling saw a significant drop in fish with just 152 being recorded weighing just under 48lb. Just 5 of these were bass with 3 of them being of good size and the largest one of 3lb 10oz came to Vince Crawford on peg 61 and was largest bass of the day. Largest flat fish of 1lb went to Leon Smith on peg 76 which was also largest of the day. Zone winner was Vince Crawford with 8lb 2oz from 10 fish. The top Junior of the day was Danny Brown on peg 78 who came 5th in this Zone with 3lb 10oz from 8 fish including a 2lb 5oz bass. Zone D also had a dramatic drop in fish from the previous day but still the highest Zone fish with 307 recorded for just under 64 ½ lb. Again only 5 bass recorded with the largest being 1lb 2oz to John Harvey on peg 97. There were no significant flat fish in this zone. Zone winner was Andy Smith on peg 111 with 8lb from 37 fish. Heather Lindfield on peg 91 was top Lady in the Ladies Kelling Zone and top lady of the day with 4lb 2oz from 19 fish.
Winners on the day were …
ALL FISH …………..………….. 8lb 2oz ……..Vince Crawford Peg C 61
BASS ONLY ………………….. 6lb 3oz ………Vince Crawford Peg C 61
NON- BASS ………………….. 8lb 0oz ………Andy Smith Peg D 111
HEAVIEST BASS ……….…. 3lb 10oz …….Vince Crawford Peg C 61
HEAVIEST FLAT FISH ….. 1lb 0oz ……….Leon Smith Peg C 76
TOP LADY …………………….. 4lb 2oz ……….Heather Lindfield Peg D 91
TOP JUNIOR ………………... 3lb 5oz ……….Danny Brown Peg C78
TOP TEAM …………………... 21lb 5oz ……..Breakaway
Day 2 also saw the Editor of Sea Angler magazine Cliff Brown walking the two match stretches with his photographer and believe he is writing a feature on the event for the next issue of Sea Angler. Order your copies now!
Fish numbers and weights for the two days were …
TOTAL FISH……………..………4098 (Day 1 - 2146, Day 2 - 1952)
TOTAL FISH WEIGHT………590lb (Day 1 -386lb, Day 2 - 204lb)
TOTAL BASS………………..………63 (Day 1 - 34, Day 2 - 29)
TOTAL BASS WEIGHT……….86lb (Day 1 -45lb, Day 2 - 41lb)
The Event was advertised and treated as two separate matches and all the prize money was paid out in these matches. However, the results were pulled together to determine Overall winners of various trophies and material prizes donated by the sponsoring and supporting organisations. The winners of these were …
BIGGEST FESTIVAL BASS ............6lb 6oz..Mark “Kipper” Colman
Kelling Heath Short Break Holiday.
OVERALL FESTIVAL CHAMPION....5 PPts....Andy Collier
Kelling Heath perpetual Shield
LADIES CHAMPION……………….........2 PPts..…Kimberley Lawn
Tronixpro perpetual Shield
JUNIOR CHAMPION….......………………3 PPts…..Adam Molloy
Country Cars perpetual Shield
SHANNOCK QUADS………………........41lb 6oz….Breakaway
Sheringham Carnival perpetual Shield
The above trophies and prizes monies were presented after the Event. I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely apologise to all competitors for the serious delay in producing the presentation material. I had seriously underestimated the amount of manual effort required to do this which was further complicated by problems with the Shannock Quads and all of this was not to the standard I and the club expect. We have a similar automated process that produces the presentation material for the National Sea League final for 150 anglers with ease and this will be adopted for the future running of this event. This situation will not happen again and I hope this has not deterred current participants from attending next year’s event.
Holt SAC will continue to run the event under Kelling Heath sponsorship although the Organiser may be different. The 2017 North Norfolk Bass Festival has been provisionally set for the weekend 13th/14th May which has similar tides to this year. The club will review the continued inclusion of the Ladies, Juniors and Shannock Quads in the event.
The club has already taken on board suggestions for next year’s event …
- Introduce smaller Zones similar to Clyde’s Gorleston matches thus increasing to 8 Zones to overcome the very peggy nature of the match stretches.
- Introduce an optional £10 Super Pool to fund payout to the top anglers over the two days.
- Avoid seriously long walks on shingle (i.e. peg left & right at Cley)
All in all it has again been an excellent Festival full of some true competition and testing the skills of some of our top match anglers. It was good to see some new faces in the frame as well a few of the usual contenders. Holt SAC hopes to see you back next year and many thanks for your support this year.
The following provides links to all the detail results of the Holt SAC 2016 North Norfolk Bass Festival …
North Norfolk Bass Festival Event Overall Results & Penn Points Results
UK Ladies Championships Results
North Norfolk Juniors Tournament Results
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