3rd Leg Winter Accumulator & Nelson Cup

Saturday 17th January 2015 - Kelling

Darkness is always a tempter for bigger better fish so a second evening match at Kelling was put in the fixture list. A Saturday evening preferred as for most their clubbing days are over and no work the following morning just a lazy get up.  Fishing 2:30 to 7:30 would give us the last 2 hours of the flood to 4:46 and the start of the ebb.  In theory this is when we should get those stonking whiting and maybe an odd codling.  An early meet at the Muckleburough gate for 1:15 so the Dereham contingent there really nice and early to show their keenness these days but a few of the other regulars were on other duties so a rather depleted turn out gathered.  A cool dry afternoon was predicted with a light to moderate southerly wind which was ideal for this venue.  Original plan was to peg around the wreck but this was changed by those present to East of the small cliff towards the wreck, much to the disgust of “steady” Carter who wanted a bash at some of those wreck beasts.  Anyway, the stretch was duly pegged, the wrong way round for a change and all were soon off to their allotted spots with the Ellis’ rather smug as they’d drawn the wreck and good end, so they thought!

An ideal sea with just a hint of swell and fishing up and over meant no real chasing of the tide.  Setting up in daylight for a semi evening session makes it so much easier to prepare for action and all were more than ready at the whistle. It was the usual Kelling chuck for most although a rather lack of distance was noticed,  well all except “last cast” Watts who had to put his usual bit of distance in it. The luck was with him again as he had only gone and drawn wreck end peg so in theory his tactics were spot on.  It wasn’t long before cards started to get marked with dabs particularly to “last cast” Watts (peg 1) one of 21 and 26cm, “ex-captain” Ellis (peg 2) one of 26cm and an even bigger one of 28cm to “steady” Carter (peg 9) followed by one of 26cm. “inspector” Morse (peg 8) and “yoda” Thomas (peg 7) had to be content with smaller dabs although “inspector” soon had his rod banging as a nice 27cm pout came ashore, a popular species at this venue at this state of the tide.  It was early for the whiting to appear in numbers but “the consultant” Allison (peg 10) found one of 27cm with “bigger baits” Ellis (peg 3) going better with one of 29cm to get his card going.

The light was just starting to dim as “ last cast” managed to find three whiting on the trot and the biggest being a nice one of 32cm bumping his score up by a useful 24 points.  Good dabs were coming ashore at regular intervals with “yoda” finding a nice one of 29cm to keep him in the hunt for the night.  These dabs were supplemented by a few small rockling but then something slightly more serious could be seen in the twilight writhing about at the bottom of “bigger baits” tripod.  Yes! he had latched into a nice 46cm codling which certainly scuppered the plans of all those around his as he added 98 points to his card.  Dusk was now upon us and a few sizeable whiting started to show amongst the many pins, well not exactly pins but annoyingly 24-26cm.  “last cast”, “bigger baits”, “the consultant” and “steady” all finding one just on the line or over along with “yoda” who just managed to scrape one in. It was at this point when “yoda” was scraping in this whiting that “inspector” had seen his rod nodding slightly and “yoda” also said his rod was doing similar before coming over to record.  “ inspector” then retrieved his cast to find a nice 47cm codling coming through the waves.  On returning to his rod “yoda” found his line well down tide and he too was soon bringing a codling ashore albeit slightly smaller at 41cm.

We were now well into darkness and the tide had turned and was ebbing fast.  “ex-captains”  wreck end euphoria had now dimmed somewhat and although he found a couple of 29cm whiting,  he needed a codling to get in contention but this never materialised; it certainly wasn’t his night. Both “steady” and “the consultant” both need the same species although a 28cm dab apiece had made their cards look a bit more respectable.  The final match placings were now being played out between the cod men, “inspector”, “yoda” and “bigger baits” with “last cast” as usual coming up fast on the rails.  In the last hour good sizeable fish were hard to come by but “inspector” found a 28cm whiting to be matched by “yoda” with two of this size with one on his very last cast.  A chance to just nip ahead he thought only to see “inspector” haul in a 22cm dab on his last cast to pip him by just 2 points. However, all of this was overshadowed by “bigger baits” final antics as he found a 29cm flounder along with 26 and 25cm dabs.      

It was this final throw of the dice that enabled Dick “bigger baits” Ellis to take the honours with 5lb 1oz from 11 fish. Next was Peter “inspector” Morse with 4lb 6oz from 9 fish followed very closely by Tony “yoda” Thomas with 4lb 5oz from 10 fish  just 2 points behind. Heaviest flat was shared by Dick with his 29cm flounder and Tony with his 29cm dab.  Heaviest round was Peter’s 47cm codling with is currently the biggest codling of the season. In total, 67 fish (40 dabs, 14 whiting, 1 flounder, 2 rockling and 3 codling) were recorded weighing just over 24lb. The stonking whiting did not appear as in previous years but it has been years since there has been 3 codling caught in a club match.

Next club match is at Kelling on Sunday 25th January fishing 10:00-3:00.  This will also be the 1st round of the Sabre Tackle Winter Sunday League so we expect a good attendance.

Club Match Result Top 5

1st  Dick Ellis                    5lb  2/3oz        (11 fish)

2nd Peter Morse                4lb  5 2/3oz     (  9 fish)

3rd  Tony Thomas             4lb 5oz            (10 fish)

4th  Mike Watts                 3lb 2 2/3oz      (11 fish)

5th  John Carter                 2lb 13 2/3oz    (10 fish)

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