3rd Leg Summer Accumulator and Sabre Tackle Summer League Match 1 (Report)

Sunday 3rd May 2015 - Kelling

After the woes at Bacton the previous week , most were determined to reverse their results from that particular match. However, pessimism still prevailed as high pressure still persisted and the forecast of very strong northerlies and serious downpours all day only reinforced this view. Then of course there is that shingle factor and there are some who have yet to put this on their venue list. In the end, the wind just turned out to be fresh north to north easterly and those down pours never materialised. To add to this the reports of lots of bass coming out on the shingle tempted a good turnout to gather at the Muckleburgh Collection parking area. A rather late 11:00 start to allow us to fish over the top but even so a few were a bit tardy in getting there but there it’s a relaxed atmosphere these days so no problems.

Again, as with last week at Bacton there was a real bassy sea with a nice 3 to 4 foot swell with a nice colour in the margins leading out to clear water 60-80 yards off. With a small tide it was decided to fish 2½ up and 2½ down which meant being parked on top of the shingle bank for the whole match, nice and comfortable like! Pegging for this one was from the end of the small cliff to Kelling block house and two pegs beyond. None of this missing out the Radar stuff and would check out the stretch that was to be used for our up and coming Bass Festival two weeks later. During pegging it was sad to see the litter left by pleasure anglers at the block house with beer cans, discarded rig and Tesco sandwich packaging, and other bits of plastic. Doesn’t take much to stick them in a carrier bag and take them home but afraid that’s effort and ‘tis the way of the world these days and of course all anglers now get tarred with the same brush. Anyway the situation was soon resolved as “cuddly” Carter soon had the beach spick and span again, well done Pam!

With pegs drawn all were soon scurrying or otherwise to their pegs and surprisingly those in the close proximity to the distant block house weren’t moaning one bit. Of course they wouldn’t, they had drawn one of the known hot spots and this was proven to be the case in this match. Fishing over the top on a neap tide is not the best for this venue but it does have its compensations where everyone can “park” at the top without chasing the tide, comfortable! A few blasts from the new “whistle blower” Mr Bulch got the proceedings underway and you could see everyone had their “bass hat” on for this one including Mr Bulch, nice one! want one!   Even from the kick off or should we say cast off, there was this emerging competition of big baits versus small baits. Both are tried and tested for some but which one would come up trumps on this particular day. That question was soon answered as within minutes of those blasts a nice 50cm bass was on the beach at the block house end and set the target for the rest of the match. Not to be out done this was then surpassed shortly afterwards at the Weybourne end by an even bigger 55cm specimen. A few more bass made an appearance in front of the radar but none were real contenders for this decent fish.

Flatties, particularly dabs were coming ashore at regular intervals along the whole stretch with some being of a decent size. As in recent matches at this venue, the flounders seemed to be thin on the ground but some were not exactly thin with a stonking 38cm version being carded again at the block house end in the final minutes of the match. Surprisingly, the whiting were still around but in far less numbers than in previous matches but there were still one or two sizeable fish to bump up the scorecard. In the end it was that early bass that did the business on the day along with a raft of quality dabs and that big flounder for a total weight of 10lb 6oz from 21 fish. In total 191 fish (19 flounders, 153 dabs, 8 whiting, 1 rockling and 10 bass) were recorded weighing a total of just under 56½ lb. A most encouraging club result after the very poor match at Bacton on the previous Sunday and even more encouraging is the return of some serious bass.

On the individual performances, the close peggers had the advantage of the shortage walk but they also had a section of the beach that is a registered hot spot known in days gone by as the “Hunn” spot. Anyway “short walk” Borley had claimed end peg 25 but before the match started he was most despondent as he stared down at his peat filled tub of rather lifeless “twigs”. Situation was soon resolved as he was handed a tub of lively Morston Maddies which promptly delivered a number of good dabs up to 28cm during the match. However, all of these were surpassed with that 55cm bass and along with the dabs , a couple of flounders and a whiting gave him a healthy 348 points from 17 fish giving him a real shot at a podium slot. In contrast, a big contrast, “hokey pokey” Loke (peg 24) was truly struggling but did manage to find a bass but it was small and this added to his 3 small dabs gave him 42 points from 4 fish. After this performance he tended his resignation as “Cleethorpes Warrior” and requested if he could wear a skirt at the imminent Bass Festival. Fairing slightly better was “trolley man” Livermore (peg 22)who for this one had to dispense with that trolley due to a rather shingly terrain. The lack of the machinery probably hindered his performance as he managed just 7 reasonable dabs and a whiting for 83 points from 9 fish.

Then there was “long line” Elliott (peg 21) making a rare appearance from the team matches although suspect he was doing a bit of reconnoitring for the Bass Festival. A small baits man at this time of year and this showed as he carded 11 small dabs up to 26cm for 91 points. Another person who just can’t wait for the Kings Lynn West Norfolk Challenge matches to start where his small baits approach will give him results. In contrast again was “earl” Spencer (peg 20) who has really taken to this match lark, finding 12 good dabs up to 26cm and then a points scoring 49cm bass in the final throws of the match. These gave him a total of 243 points from 13 fish and a certain shot at a podium place although he had reluctantly avoided the super pools for this match. Then there was “take it easy” Tovell (peg 19) who was fishing in a totally different sea to everyone else with his usual range tactics. Tactics that paid off if you wanted a card full of dabs as he did, ending up with 22 good dabs up to 26cm for a total of 229 points and a shot at a podium slot even without a bass.

“silver fox” Neave on peg 18 was up to his usual tricks hauling in some good flatties up to 27cm and a couple of whiting for 171 points from 16 fish. The flattie bashing continued on next peg 14 where “super sub” Brown was carding a number of good dabs up to 26cm along with an odd flounder to give him 197 points from 19 fish. “taxi” Kendrick (peg 13) had something to prove and show that he could catch on the shingle but he was having a slow start. A small bass early on and then a good whiting did not really do much for his card but a nice 46cm bass at the end shoved his score up to 148 points from just 6 fish. After his outstanding performance at the last match “off duty” Gibbs (peg 11) was determined to fish this one and last minute bait made available in the darkness of the previous evening enabled him to make it onto the grid. However, this time the fish were not so plentiful and of the same quality as that match but after finding just 2 small dabs he managed to lock into two small schoolies giving him 110 points from 4 fish.

“pikey” Muirhead’s (peg 9) lot on the shingle doesn’t improve these days and although he managed a 29cm flounder and a 24cm dab along with a smaller one he could only scrape together 50 points from these 3 fish. Content in his buddy “the boss” Morley (peg 8) could find the flatties up to 25cm but he needed a bonus fish to bump up his score. A very small whiting really did nothing for him and ended up with 136 points from 3 fish. “yoda” Thomas (peg 6) was up to his usual trick of struggling with his small baits and all manner of rigs but they did nothing for his score. A small bass half way through did help but 4 small flounder, 2 similar dabs and a rockling just gave him 91 points. Then there was the Carter Camp with ”steady” Carter (peg 5) doing his usual flatty business finding 2 flounders up to 28cm and 4 dabs up to 25cm giving him 94 points, he again needed a bonus fish. “cuddly” Carter (peg 4) was truly flounder bashing with 3 flounders and a dab to give her 42 points. “just made it” Scarff was at last getting the hang of this shingle stuff with 9 small dabs up to 26cm and a small whiting to give him 102 points from 10 fish. To show that she can still mix it with the lads, “new girl” Bulch (peg 2) managed to winkle out 4 small dabs for 33 points. However, it was hubby ”blacks” Bulch on peg 1 who was the star of this show and was the one with the cracking 50cm within minutes of the start. It didn’t stop there as he continued to put his blacks and peeler combinations to good use pulling in good dab and flounder double and treble shots throughout the match. Dabs up to 27cm were supplemented by a whiting of similar proportions and in the closing hour found a monster flounder of 38cm. He still wasn’t finished with this fish as he found yet another slightly smaller bass of 46cm to give him a total of 497 points from 21 fish and a certain contender for top spot.

At the end it was that stunning performance on the day that gave Christian “blacks” Bulch the honours with an amazing 10lb 5 2/3oz from 21 fish. Runner up and someway behind even with an excellent weight of 7lb 4oz from 17 fish was Mark “short walk” Borley. Final podium slot went to up and coming matchman Nigel “earl” Spencer with 5lb 1oz from 13 fish. Heaviest flat was Christian’s 38cm (1lb 5oz) flounder and heaviest round was Mark’s 55cm (3lb 5oz) bass. Top two in the Super Pools were the top two in the match but Nigel will rue the day he did not subscribe to this as third place went to Paul “take it easy” Tovell with 4lb 12 1/3oz from 22 fish.

 The  Winner

An excellent competitive match giving us shed loads of experience for the Bass Festival particularly as the match stretch was Zone D and part of Zone C in the Festival. Promising to see the bass are coming on stream and things should improve by the Festival especially as we will be fishing more of the ebb on a bigger tide.

Next club match is at Cley on Sunday 3rd May fishing 10:00 to 3:00 and another good practice for the Bass Festival as we will again be fishing Zone A of the Festival.

Club Match Result Top 5

1st Christian Bulch      10lb 5 2/3oz        (21 Fish)

2nd Mark Borley           7lb 4oz              (17 Fish)

3rd Nigel Spencer         5lb 1oz              (13 Fish)

4th Paul Tovell             4lb 12 1/3oz       (22 Fish)

5th Shane Brown          4lb 1 2/3oz        (19 Fish)

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