Holt SAC North Norfolk NSL 2020 Round 2 and H. Mack Cup (Report)
Sunday 6th December 2020 - Kelling
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Holt SAC’s Round 2 of the North Norfolk National Sea League and Nelson Shield match was held at KELLING (via Muckleburgh Collection) on SUNDAY 6TH DECEMBER fishing 10:30-3:30 HW 10:17 4.3m. As if Covid-19 wasn’t enough nature decided to throw another challenge to add to the Club’s woes by washing up a dead 15m sperm whale right in the middle of proposed Zone C. After some communication with North Norfolk District Council about this situation it was decided to continue at the venue and in the end it didn’t present any problems. Unlike the Covid-19 situation which presented its own problem after taking advice from the Angling Trust’s Covid-19 guidelines where we were not allowing anglers from Tier 3 areas to matches in Tier 2. Apologies to Dave Burr, Ian Nelson and Paul Denholm who had to be informed not to fish and Anthony Holmes who voluntarily withdrew before we established the ruling. Even so 5 full teams and 8 Individuals participated making a comfortable total of 33 anglers
The draw for the match had already been done live on facebook on the Friday evening and apologies for the delay and the technical issues on the evening. If I do enough of these I will get better at it and I need to as a lot of our future matches will be run this way. On the morning of the match all the anglers had to do was drive through Muckleburgh Collection main gate to place match fees in quarantine box, have temperature checked by Tom Gibbs and be registered by Kevin Green. Many thanks to Tom and Kevin for taking on this task which seemed to work very well. Anglers then went straight to their pegs without gathering where their draw match cards were attached.
Forecast for the day was cold with light winds with anglers experiencing temperatures from 3 below to 1 or 2 above freezing and dense patches of freezing fog plus even some rain on the way to the venue. The cold was emphasised at the entrance to Muckleburgh which was dodgy with a sheet of black ice catching out a few unsuspecting drivers. Temperatures on the match stretch were well below freezing with the shingle above the influence of the high water waves solid and frozen together. All this making it impossible to push the pegs in and a rather bumpy journey for the suspension less trolley brigade. Fortunately, temperatures did rise slightly during the match to defrost the shingle but also led to freezing fog rolling in at times.
With the Whale in the middle of our match stretch the area around the creature had to be left out of the pegging. Zones D & E were under the small cliff in front of the car park towards the wreck with Zone D starting just inside the left hand end of the small cliff 3 pegs length from the Whale. Zone C started a good 3 pegs length west of the Whale with Zones A & B following on towards the block house with Peg 1 just the other side of this structure. A good flattish sea with plenty of colour but with the occasional 2-3ft swell rolling in which produced some interesting challenges during the match.
Fishing just before high water down meant following the tide after midway through the match. With plenty of sand at the end it was easy to walk off but getting to the pegs was a bit precarious for some. With the freezing temperatures solidifying the shingle the steep shingle bank at the back of the stretch became more like a ski ramp. Selecting a place to set up camp was fairly straight forward provided you were far enough back from the high water bank to avoid the occasion surge swells coming over it. Unfortunately, Richard (H) (Peg 3) decided to park his trolley base camp on top of it only to see it pushed back by a rogue wave, lesson learnt! A speedy drive thru meant everyone were soon on their pegs collecting their cards and erecting their buddies etc. in slightly more favourable spots than Richard.
With reports of plenty of Dabs and Whiting at specific times albeit small we all knew we were going to have a busy time and it certainly was that. I was going to hand out extra cards just in case but that always seems to tempt fate and as it happens only one person needed one although a lot were close. At the whistle it was the usual Kelling chuck for most and for those perennial casters a good bang out to the horizon. With the tide topping it was soon apparent that the reports were correct as rods started to nod immediately. As expected it was for most Whiting on their cards within minutes of the start, not particularly huge but with a few over 30cm the first hour to 2 hours saw the best of the Whiting. There were of course the usual Dab interlopers at this stage but mainly Whiting.
The better Whiting were certainly there at the start and if for whatever reason your rate of casting was impinged it was a matter of catch-up for the rest of the match. The better quality Whiting appeared to be in Zone D and E towards the wreck where multiple double shots were recorded along with a few trebles. Plenty of tide over high water and a couple of hours afterwards but as the water ebbed and slack water arrived the size of the fish mainly Dabs and Whiting slowly reduced particularly the Dabs. For some it became most frustrating as double and treble shots of Dabs came ashore with 60% or all them undersize.
Even though the fish had gone off in the last couple of hours some were consistently catching even though it may have just been odd small Dabs or Whitings it meant points on the card. As the tide bottomed everyone was catching small Dabs, mainly singles with the odd one or two undersize. At last as the tide picked up some found the Whiting picking up again in their last couple of casts particularly in Zone E.
Zone E was certainly the better zone in this match with the top three all coming from adjacent pegs in this zone. Bucking his trend of last match on almost identical peg, Gorleston Tackle’s BEVAN SELF (Peg 32) took the honours with an outstanding performance recording 12lb 8 2/3oz from 58 and the only person to have to go to that extra card. A card of 31 Dabs and 27 Whiting where he had probable found a Dab hot spot with some relatively decent Dabs whilst others around him were struggling to find any Dabs of a respectable size. Runner-up on next peg was Round 1’s winner in young England International “Big Catch Tackle’s” HENRY RANDELL (Peg 31) with 10lb 2oz from 46 fish comprising of 30 Whiting and 20 Dabs. Final podium slot went again to next peg and round 1 runner-up in “Team Manik’s” ADRIAN BORDIANU (Peg 30) with 9lb 6 1/3oz from 45 fish comprising 35 Whiting and 10 Dabs.
In the Teams, it was a tie between the winner’s team GORLSTON TACKLE and TEAM MANIK both with just 8 penalty points from 2 x Zone wins, 2 x Zone 3rd s with a 5th place dropped for GT and a Zone win, 2 x Zone 2nd’s and a Zone 3rd with a 4th place dropped for TM. Final podium team place went to NORTH NORFOLK LADS with 9 penalty points from 2 x Zone wins, a Zone 3rd, a Zone 4th and 5th place dropped.
The Heaviest Flat fish was a 29cm (9 1/3oz) Dab and Sole taken by DAVE READ (Peg 23) and MARIAN SPIREA (Peg 24) and Heaviest Round a 32cm (8oz) Whiting shared by DAVE WRIGHT(Peg 20), HENRY RANDELL (PEG 31), BEVAN SELF (Peg 32), JACK AKESTER (Peg 33) and DAN LUPASCU {Peg 13). Altogether there were 1055 fish (556 Dabs, 480 Whiting, 13 Rockling, 4 Flounders and 2 Sole) were recorded weighing 208lb 15oz.
In the Zones, England International KIMBERLEY LAWN (Peg 1) of “Team Manik” took Zone A with a stella performance recording 394 points from 39 fish followed by PAUL MARSHALL (Peg 5) of “Big Catch Tackle” with 322 points from 32 fish. Zone B was taken by KEVIN GREEN (Peg 10) of North Norfolk Lads with 347 points from 42 fish followed by DAN LAPASCU (Peg 13) of “Team Manik” with 295 points from 34 fish.
Zone C went to ROBERT STEBBINGS (Peg 15) as an Individual with 316 points from 34 fish followed by his Suffolk travelling partner also as an Individual in CHRIS SPALL (Peg 16) with 302 points also from 34 fish. Zone D was taken by ALAN DOY (Peg 27) of “Gorleston Tackle” with 376 points from 37 fish followed by Individual KEITH MORLEY (Peg 25) with 342 points from 38 fish. Zone E was taken by BEVAN SELF (Peg 32) of “Gorleston Tackle” with 602 points from 58 fish followed by HENRY RANDELL (Peg 31) of “Big Catch Tackle” with 486 points from 46 fish.
As seems to be the norm these days Round 1 at Bacton is very poor and Round 2 which is normally at Gt Yarmouth is very good with plenty of fish. This was Kelling and there was still plenty of fish and thankfully the natural inclusion of the Whale didn’t create a problem or effect the match at all. Our Covid-19 rules and procedures seem to have worked well but do need to improve the Draw. Anyway it is again back to the shingle for Round 3 at CLEY next SUNDAY 6TH DECEMBER fishing 10:00 – 3:00 LW 11:48 4.2m. Draw will be live on the Club’s page on facebook on FRIDAY 11TH DECEMBER at around 8:00 p.m. Registration will be via a drive thru at entrance to Cley Beach Car Park (NR25 7RY).
Holt SAC Covid-19 rules and procedures apply throughout … Stay Safe!!! … Tony T
Top 10 Individuals (on the day) …
1… Bevan Self………..12lb 8 2/3oz…(58 Fish) (Peg 32)
2...Henry Randell....10lb.2oz………..(46 Fish) (Peg 31)
3...Adrian Bordianu..9lb.6 1/3oz…..(45 Fish) (Peg 30)
4...Kimberley Lawn..8lb.3 1/3oz…..(39 Fish) (Peg 1)
5=.Alan Doy……..…….7lb.13 1/3oz..(37 Fish) (Peg 27)
5=.Mike Watts…......7lb.13 1/3oz...(39 Fish) (Peg 30)
7...Kevin Green.......7lb.3 2/3oz.....(42 Fish) (Peg 10)
8...Keith Morley.......7lb.2oz………....(36 Fish) (Peg 25)
9...Dave Read.........7lb.1 1/3oz.....(33 Fish) (Peg 23)
10.Jack Akester.......6lb.15oz…….....(27 Fish) (Peg 33)
Teams on the Day …
1=.GORLESTON TACKLE ……………..8 Points
1=.TEAM MANIK…………………………...8 Points
3…NORTH NORFOLK LADS.…………..9 Points
4...BIG CATCH TACKLE ………….……10 Points
5... ANGLING ADDICTS ………………17 Points
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