4th Leg Winter Accumulator, Ken Brown Cup, Sabre Tackle Winter League Round 1

Sunday 25th January 2015 - Kelling

With a significant number of the Sabre Tackle League anglers now Holt SAC members it was appropriate that the club’s 4th Leg of the Winter Accumulator and Sabre League’s  first round should be fished as one match.  With all the advertising completed successfully a healthy group soon started gathering at the Muckleburgh Collection main gate for a 10:00 start.  Included in this enthusiastic bunch was new club members Mark Beresford, Paul Kendrick, David Parks, Nathan Holden and Spencer Waldren, welcome aboard lads!  There were one or two of the league regulars who could not make it but they have threatened to liven up the competition next time round.  It was also refreshing to see a number of Juniors participating and there are more to come, well done Christian, Shane and others!  Everyone seems to know the routine these days and were soon drawing their pegs and off to their allotted slots on the beach.

The weather was once again being kind to us (this won’t last) a moderate NW overnight switching to SW and SSW by dawn left a nice sea with a 2-3ft swell.  With the wind off our backs, no rain and reasonable temperatures for a change these were ideal conditions for fishing the ebb on the shingle.  Pegging was as usual from just in front of the radar through the small cliff and just up to the wreck.  With HW around the start of the match on a medium tide meant a gentle shingle slope to the water’s edge.  With plenty of shingle to play with the majority opted for safety on the top of the bank with the odd dare devil risking following the tide from the off.  For once everyone was more than ready for the start and even the rookies were raring to go as their competitive genes kicked in.

At the whistle it was the usual Kelling chuck for most and for once no one was really giving the heave to the horizon just the usual 40-80yd chuck.  Well did they think that this was where the fish were feeding or were they worried about getting tangled up in this “long lost forest” that someone has surprisingly unearthed.  Little did they know that some of us who are a bit thin and less coloured on top have witnessed this high and dry many years ago so not exactly a new exciting phenomena.  Enough of this trivia and back to the match where the main problem was trying to find where the fish were feeding.  This has become a difficult task at this venue which has become very peggy  where certain areas hold pockets of fish and then they just disappear.  Everyone would prefer to fish the wreck end but you really do need to know how to fish it and have the armoury to do this. Then there is the radar end which a lot deride but has produced winners in recent matches.

For a change a blow by blow account of everyone’s performance during the match.  Out on end peg 29 was “hokey pokey” Loke over the moon about his peg and in his element for rolling his lead around infront of the wreck.  Although a chunky 27cm dab kicked off his campaign he didn’t have the armoury to reach the wreck for those rod twitching big pout and lonely codling and had to resort to his usual gutter bashing techniques ending up with 9 relatively small dabs for 91 points.  In the middle of the open beach was rookie David (P) on next peg 28 who didn’t fare any better with 10 small dabs and 89 points, his time will come.  In contrast “off duty” Gibbs (peg 26) did much better and although still only carding smallish dabs did find 3 sizeable whiting one of which was 30cm and heaviest round fish of the match ending up with 12 fish  for 141 points. Next on the stretch was another rookie Paul (K) (peg 24) who was struggling to find fish ending up with just 48 points from 5 small dabs although one did make 27cm.

Not quite the same for “hot rod” Cooper (peg 23) who was in a distance versus gutter mode dilemma the whole match but did manage to find 11 good dabs and a whiting giving him 148 points from a sound performance. Next down the line was “big braid” Borley (peg 21) who was up to his usual tricks of catching numbers of fish from all ranges ending up with a card full of 19 small dabs although one did make 28cm for 201 points.  Finding slightly better quality fish was “inspector” Morse (peg 19) using his usual medium range techniques to card 15 good dabs, a rockling and a whiting for a serious 218 points.  Trying to keep up with “inspector” was “ex-captain” Ellis (peg 18) who although managing to find 31cm and 27cm dabs to go with his other 9 flatties could only record 156 points.  In the middle of the cliff on peg 14 was the “old” club stalwart “silver fox” Neave who found a few reasonable dabs but not enough of quality ending up with 13 dabs for 134 points. Next to “silver fox” on peg 13 was popular Spen (W) who also managed to find a few quality dabs including one of 29cm and 27cm but needed more to be added to his other 7 dabs to make an impression ending up with 128 points.

Well under the cliff on peg 12 was another rookie and solid angler for many years, Mark (B) (peg 12) who was enjoying his first taste of this competitive sport particularly when he locked into a stonking 34cm flounder and heaviest flat of the match.  This 1lb specimen helped him to card 134 points from 10 flatties.  Having a rather dismal day by his standards was “the consultant” Allison (peg 11) who couldn’t find his usual numbers of fish and although the majority of his 10 dabs were reasonable he could only muster 110 points.  In a similar fashion Nigel (S) (peg 10) could not find a serious number of really good dabs and ended up with 92 points from 11 fish.  On parental duty was “super sub” Brown (peg 9) who was having his hands full with his protégé rather than finding his own fish but did manage 4 dabs, 2 slugs and a whiting  for 77 points.  On the next two pegs 7 & 8 were the youngsters “young catcher” Brown and rookie “junior” Holden who was only on his second competitive fishing session.  It was good to see “young catcher” showing “junior” the tricks of the trade and you could see his delight when he landed a fish.  For these two it was a close contest with “young catcher” finding 5 dabs for 42 points and “junior” 4 dabs for 38 points but he did find one of 25cm.

However, star of the youngsters was rookie “young lady” Scarff (peg 3) who managed to find 8 dabs and a rockling for a respectable 105 points.  Her catch included quality dabs of 27cm and 28cm much to the disgust of dad Shane (S) (peg 2) who with the same number of 9 fish could only manage 99 points.  However, the real battle for the match was being contested west of the small cliff and surprisingly in front of the aerials.  Here “steady” Carter (peg 6) was filling his card with good quality dabs well into the 20+cm mark and a final total 19 dabs gave him 220 points.  In contrast “yoda” Thomas on next peg 4 was having a most frustrating day even though he was into fish the majority were in the low 20cm giving him a total of 156 points also from 19 dabs.  Star of the day was end peg man “Blacks” Bulch (peg 1) who was truly hauling in some quality dabs typified by a treble shot all in the mid to late 20cms.  A card of a slug and 22 dabs most of which were serious specimens helped him record an impressive 282 points.  With Clyde (L) and Pete (F) quality blacks being used by “steady” and “blacks” it was soon clear to “yoda” pegged between them with no blacks why he had to suffer miniature dabs all day.  We all now know what bait to bring to this venue at this time of year in future.

It was that sterling performance from Christian “blacks” Bulch (peg 1) that gave him the honours on the day with 5lb 14oz from 23 fish.  Next was an equally impressive performance from John “steady” Carter (peg 4) with 4lb 9 1/3oz from 19 fish.  Final podium slot and probably an even more impressive performance from just under the cliff was Peter “inspector” Morse (peg 19) just 2 points further back on 4lb 8 2/3oz from 17 fish.  Heaviest flat fish on the day went to Mark Beresford with his 34cm (1lb) flounder and heaviest round to Tom Gibbs with his 30cm (6 2/3oz) whiting. Top Junior on the day was Casey “young lady” Scarff with 2lb 3oz from 9 fish giving Daniel “young catcher” Brown and Nathan “junior” Holden a thrashing but they certainly will be back to reverse this. In total 199 fish (184 dabs, 7 whiting, 6 rockling and 2 flounders) were recorded weighing 46lb 6oz.

The next club match was scheduled to be staged at Trimingham on Sunday 1st February but this has been cancelled due to serious weather forecasts.  The next club match and round 5 of the North Norfolk National Sea League will be at Kelling on Sunday 8th February fishing 10:00-3:00.

Club Match Result Top 5
1st   Christian Bulch          5lb 14oz        (23 fish)

2nd  John Carter               4lb 9 1/3oz    (19 fish)

3rd   Peter Morse              4lb  8 2/3oz   (17 fish)

4th   Mark Borley              4lb 3oz          (19 fish)

5th= Richard Ellis              3lb 4oz         (11 fish)

5th= Tony Thomas            3lb 4oz         (19 fish)

------ ... ------