Holt SAC 10th Leg Summer Accumulator (Report)

Sunday 26th June 2016 - Kelling

Attempts to fish a new venue at Wells Harbour did not materialise due to extensive moorings on match stretch, an £8 parking fee and the lack of fish. A second attempt to add Brancaster to the Club’s venue list also failed primarily down to lack of fish although it could be a cracking venue at the right time when the flounders and bass are around. So it was plan C and back to our traditional haunt at Kelling particularly as our “fisherman” Randell said the sea had been boiling with bass from the block house to the wreck.

Thankfully the Club’s messaging service was effectively managing this changing venue situation and a healthy turnout was soon gathering at Muckleburgh for an early 9 o’clock start. Although on route some thought they ought to have borrowed Henry’s boat as the heavens opened up in mid-Norfolk but thankfully we were spared that deluge all day. A turnout that comes surprisingly from far afield these days with the Gorleston “gang”, the Ipswich “smiths”, the Ely “watts” along with those from Norwich, Dereham and Downham Market way with just the “Odd” Local. On top of these there was the Newark “brewers” and a new club member from the Brexit hot spot of Boston in Dean Whitehead, welcome aboard Dean. Many thanks to “chef” who dished out a healthy start of his ‘home’ cooked brownies, just excellent!

A warmish overcast morning which threatened more than it produced with a gentle North Westerly which seems to be the normal direction these days for us whenever we fish on the shingle or sand. As predicted by our “fisherman” Randell the water was rapidly shearing out but the slight 1 foot swell was helping to put a bit and just bit of colour close in. With a biggish midday tide fishing was around top, two hours up and three down. Pegging was around Kelling block house trying to take advantage of the bass and stonking flounders that have been known to frequent this stretch around high water. A good hike to the pegs but not really a problem for anyone as we had the exposed hard sand/shingle to walk on at the start and end. One big advantage of fishing over the top was no following the tide and once set up wait for the water to come and then go although as top approached there were a few worried faces, had they judged their spot correctly but thankfully everyone had.

Well as usual, rambling on again and what about the fishing you might say, well that was pretty poor for most hence the essay. From the off it was very slow with the odd flattie coming ashore and nothing like the numbers of a couple of weeks back. All of which was now distant history with nature at last getting back on course as the true summer catch rate begins to kick in. It was back trying to locate a single fish where short and distance casts would result in bait being retrieved untouched with the odd distance one being stripped. The terns were diving and scooping up feed just yards out all along the coastline which “sparks” showed to be small 4cm fry by foul hooking one. These should have attracted predatory fish inshore like bass but not this time. Our passing “fisherman” Randell who was on work duty in the area had spotted a few gars feeding just a few hundred yards off shore around his pots but his vain attempts to inform Mr Organiser failed. A species we never target in matches so maybe next time this will be our challenge. With summer fish numbers always poor the Club now allows mackeral to be recorded in Club matches only but only when caught on a baited trace. One duly turned up in this match to be added to the small number of flat fish that were recorded.

Individual performances on the day were generally poor with Andy “beckingham” Brewer (peg 9) and Paul “take it easy” Tovell (peg 11) failing to even have a twitch. Mind you “take it easy” was solely trying the whole match to emulate his hound a chuck at Caister a couple of days back. Only just avoiding to be included with this grouping was Peter “asian ace” Loke (peg 6) who managed to find a small 19cm dab for 6 points with just an hour left although it was foul hooked, was this fishing or trawling? Not doing much better was Tony “yoda” Thomas (peg 12) who had a dab double shot after a long flounder walk but had to admit one was also foul hooked and that was it for 18 points. John “steady” Carter (peg 3) with his bucketful of maddies did do slightly better with 3 small flounders for 24 points.

Andy “sparks” Smith (peg 5) was into his own battle with travelling partner on next peg which he duly lost even though he had 3 good dabs for 34 points. Adele “no super pool” Smith (peg 4) found that extra 4th dab for 37 points and she was going to make sure “sparks” was aware of her 3 point victory during the 2 hour journey home if she could stay awake long enough. New member Dean “campervan” Whitehead showed he could catch in difficult conditions by finding 4 reasonable dabs for 42 points. For once the man usually in the driving seat in Mike “last cast” Watts (peg 7) was having a difficult day although he did manage 8 fish for 62 points but the quality was not there in this one.

In third place on the day was Keith “the boss” Morley (peg 2) who found 4 quality dabs and a 33cm mackeral which was heaviest round of the day for a total of 81 points or 1lb 11oz. Runner-up was Luke “chef” Pearson (nice brownies!) on end peg 1 with 6 good dabs for 86 points or 1lb 12 2/3oz.   Star of the day by a mile was Ivan “consultant” Allison (peg 8) who found a productive stretch of sand with 166 points or 3lb 7 1/3oz from 8 good dabs and 2 flounders one of which was 34cm (1lb) and heaviest flat of the day. Altogether only 46 fish (40 dabs, 5 flounders and 1 mackeral) were recorded weighing just over 11½lb.

With ideal conditions for fishing the shingle it still turned out to be a rather subdued match although the post-match banter more than made up for this. It now looks like summer has at last kicked in and the usual resident flatties will be more elusive from now until mid-September/October. To compensate for this let’s hope that the bass do reappear along with a few rod bending hounds plus of course those mackeral. The next Club match is again at KELLING on SATURDAY 2ND JULY fishing 1:00-6:00 HW 5:32 4.6m and will be the Club’s last match on the Shingle until September.

Club Match Result Top 5

1……Ivan Allison……….…3lb..7 1/3oz.(10 Fish)

2……Luke Pearson….…..1lb..12 2/3...( 6 Fish)

3……Keith Morley………..1lb..11oz…….( 5 Fish)

4……Mike Watts...........1lb..4 2/3oz..( 8 Fish)

5……Dean Whitehead….0lb..14oz…….( 4 Fish)

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