West Norfolk Challenge Round 1 & 8th Leg Summer Accumulator
Sunday 8th June 2014 - King's Lynn
Holt SAC kicked off its summer campaign on the Ouse Estuary with the 1st Round of its West Norfolk Challenge Series which has now been running for 5 years. The venue for the series of matches is the West Bank around the Treatment Works, a favourite stretch for the club with easy access, easy parking and with no sloppy mud to contend with. This was both a club and open match and although not billed as a major event did attract some serious match anglers from Cambridgeshire, Essex, Suffolk and of course Norfolk. There was no serious prize money at stake here and it was encouraging to note that some of these top match anglers had travelled many miles to simply enjoy their sport at a popular venue in comfortable surroundings although the incentive of Penn Points may have also been on some of their minds. It was also good to see yet two more seasoned match anglers joining us for the day as well as joining the club in the form of Alan Doy and Trevor Elliott, welcome aboard lads!
The predicted warm forecast was certainly evident and a gentle south to south easterly helped to keep the temperature comfortable as well as pushing any unsavoury fumes from the Treatment Works well to the west of us. The river was in excellent state and fishing 2 ½ up and 2 ½ down meant we wouldn’t be too affected by the flow particularly as it was also a neap tide. With a reasonable but manageable attendance expected the committee agreed to peg 2 sections around the culvert at the north end of the west bank, a renowned hot spot in previous years. This meant that section A was to the north of the culvert and section B south providing potential for success from all pegs on the stretch. Even so, all were willing for end pegs during the draw none more so than Richard Ellis who did indeed get end peg 25 so he was still on plan A to retain his Championship title. Also with luck on his side was Joc Goudie who drew peg 16 at the other end of section A and slap bang next to the culvert but he didn’t have a brollie and his big lug were really going to get a good sun tan on this particular day. Other side of the culvert was taken by late arrival Mike Watts who was really not too elated by his draw, did he know something we didn’t? This then left hot peg 1 still in the bag as even later arrivals in the form of a pair of Marks appeared at the check in. We then all knew who was going draw that peg and sure enough there was Mark Sharman with peg 1 card in his hand, game set and match, well maybe!
Everybody seemed relatively happy with their draw and were soon making the short casual walk to their allotted slot; it is so easy at this venue. Most preferred to perch on the grassy bank and others at the lower end braved the hard mud although not ideal they probably had the advantage of a hot section. With brollies and buddies erected to protect their precious bait well apart from poor old Joc of course, all were soon ready for the whistle. Interesting to see and hear the action at the off where some like Jeff Stannard (peg 24) preferred fishing the margins with small hooks but most opted for a few yards into the flow with some making big eruptions as a concoction of multiple weights, bait and variety of snood lengths hit the water. First cast here gives some idea of what’s going to come out during the match as we were fishing over the top and not surprising the pair of Marks were straight into fish within minutes. Not just one fish but a treble shot of good flounders apiece but Mark Gooch (peg 20) took the prize with a monster 37cm version worth a whopping 60points and eventually sharing biggest flat of the day whereas Mark Sharman (peg 1) could only respond size wise with 2 x 24cm tiddlers. This action then continued all along the stretch for the next 1-2 hours although not quite so profuse with single and the odd doubles coming ashore. The majority where flounders interspersed with the odd eel although for some all they could find were eels for a while like Mike Watts (peg 10), Trevor Elliott (peg 6) and Mark Sharman (peg 1) after his treble shot of flounders.
The 1st half of the match up to slack water saw a lot of good flounders being recorded to go with Mark’s 60 pointer with Paul Tovell (peg 18) finding a couple of 32cm in quick succession with John Carter, Peter Morse, Trevor Elliott and Joc Goudie finding similar specimens on pegs 3, 4, 6 and 16 respectively. In contrast, Ivan Allison (peg 2) as usual decided he had to do something different and soon had a stonking 1lb 6oz eel in his bucket. Others were catching flounders at a steady rate not monsters but in numbers and collecting lots of points along with a few eels, like Richard Burt (peg 21) and Peter Faiclough (peg 17) with Peter finding some cracking eels. Also not finding big flounders at this stage was Alan Doy (peg 7) but he did have some big eels. However, some were struggling like Andy Gallacher (peg 9) with a heft close in, Tony Thomas (peg 19) and Alan Lewis (peg 23) who could only find the odd fish as did rookie Gary Raven (peg 8) who has a long learning curve with this being his first estuary match. Even 1st cast treble shot man Mark Gooch was having problems only adding a small eel to his score by half way. Slack water arrived and unlike previous matches at this venue when the fish came on at this point they seemed to switch off for a good hour.
Fortunately, as the tide started to ebb action returned with Richard Ellis (peg 25) finding another stonking 37cm Flounder and Ed Driver (peg 22) a 36cm specimen. Although the tide was ebbing faster it was still possible to keep the bait out at distance and this is where some big flounders being found with Tony Thomas (peg 19) finding a 35cm and 31cm versions in consecutive casts. As did Mike Watts (peg 10) a 35cm specimen and Richard Burt (peg 21) who was finding a number of good flounders cumulating in one of 32cm. Similar action was being had by Trevor Elliott (peg 6) who had at last got his distance hat on and also finding a raft of good flounders including one of 33cm. His travelling partner, Alan Doy (peg 7) went a cm better with one of 34cm as did Jeff Stannard (peg 24) and yet a further cm better fell to Paul Tovell (peg 18) with one of 35cm. A similar version came to Peter Morse (peg 4) and yet another cm better to John Carter (peg 3) in one of 36cm but for them and others it was all a bit too late. This was because end peg 1 Mark Sharman had been taking full advantage of his location and placing his helicopter rig way out into the tidal flow resulting in a steady flow of good flounders along with a bucketful of big eels.
For the main match, it was this bucketful of seven eels weighing 3lb 13oz that helped give Mark Sharman victory by a substantial margin although he could have done it with just his flatties recording 9lb 2 1/3oz from 21 fish. Second was Trevor Elliott with 5lb 8 2/3oz from 15 fish and next was Richard Burt with 5lb 4 1/6oz from 14 fish. Scraping into the monies in 4th place was Peter Fairclough with 4lb 11 5/6oz from 11 fish. The top two places in the sections were taken by these 4 anglers. Heaviest fish on the day was taken by Ivan Allison with his 1lb 6oz eel.
On the club front, Trevor Elliot took the honours followed by Jeff Stannard with 4lb 10 2/3oz from 10 fish and Paul Tovell with 3lb 14 1/3oz from 7 fish. Heaviest club flat was Richard Ellis with his 1lb 4oz (37cm) Flounder and heaviest club round to Ivan Allison for his 1lb 6oz eel.
The Challenge also includes a Mystery Pair and a Free Pairs competition. For those that had contributed to the Mystery Pairs the pairing was determined at the end of the match by partnering an angler from the top half of the match results with one from the bottom half via a random draw. The winners of this Pairs will be the pair whose combined weight over all 4 rounds minus their worst match total is the highest. Current leading pair here is John Carter & Mark Sharman with 11lb 8 2/3oz from 25 fish. There is also a Free Pairs competition where anglers select their own partner which is funded from the profit of the raffle taken in the first 3 matches. Many thanks to all for the raffle prizes and generous purchasing of tickets. The winners are determined in the same way as the Mystery Pairs and current leaders are Mark Gooch and Mark Sharman with 12lb 5 1/2oz from 28 fish.
Once again an excellent start to the series with some quality fish and some crackingly close competition. The club would like to thank all those participating for their support of this event particularly those who had travelled some distance. The club is expecting numbers to swell for Round 2 which is on Sunday 6th July fishing 11:00 to 4:00 when we will be fishing the central stretch of the west bank.
Overall Top 5
1st Mark Sharman 9lb 2 1/3oz (21 fish)
2nd Trevor Elliott 5lb 8 2/3oz (15 fish)
3rd Richard Burt 5lb 4 1/6oz (14 fish)
4th Peter Fairclough 4lb 11 5/6oz (11 fish)
5th Jeff Stannard 4lb 10 2/3oz (11 fish)
Mystery Pairs Top 5
1st Mark Sharman & Mark Gooch 12lb 5 1/2oz (28 fish)
2nd Richard Burt & Ed Driver 9lb 10 5/6oz (24 fish)
3rd Trevor Elliott & Alan Doy 9lb 6oz (24 fish)
4th Jeff Stannard & Peter Morse 7lb 13oz (17 fish)
5th Joc Goudie & Peter Fairclough 7lb 1/6oz (17 fish)
Free Pairs Top 5
1st Mark Sharman & John Carter 11lb 8 2/3oz (25 fish)
2nd Trevor Elliott & Ivan Allison 8lb 14 1/6oz (22 fish)
3rd Peter Fairclough & Richard Ellis 7lb 14 1/6oz (18 fish)
4th Ed Driver & Mark Gooch 7lb 9 5/6oz (17 fish)
5th Richard Burt & Joc Goudie 7lb 8 1/2oz (18 fish)
Club Top 5
1st Trevor Elliott 5lb 8 2/3oz (15 fish)
2nd Jeff Stannard 4lb 10 2/3oz (11 fish)
3rd Paul Tovell 3lb 14 1/3oz (7 fish)
4th Alan Doy 3lb 13 1/3oz (9 fish)
5th Ivan Allison 3lb 5 1/2oz (7 fish)
