Holt SAC West Norfolk Challenge 2016 - Round 1 (Report)

Sunday 17th April 2016 - Kings Lynn Estuary

The first round of the Club's 2016 West Norfolk Challenge Series was played out on the West Bank of the river Ouse at Kings Lynn which is an under-rated exceptional match venue that can take hundreds of match anglers. Original plan was to use the stretch just south of the pylon in front of the Treatment Works but this was compromised by a light NNW wind which was wafting those noxious fumes onto the proposed pegging. Not wanting 5+ hours of this background smell the match was moved to a more appropriate stretch just south of the north end culvert. An early start this year to try and avoid the lack of crab later in the summer but everyone was slightly apprehensive that it was slightly too early for the eels but expected at least a few flounders to be around. We had never fished this early in the river so didn’t really know what was going to come out but as it happened our original expectation was almost correct.

For once we had ideal conditions for the river on a crisp ”frosty” blue sky morning with a light NNE wind on a slow ebbing small tide, just perfect! A good turn out from Essex, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, the far corners of Lincolnshire and of course Norfolk with a lot of new faces which is good to see, welcome aboard our match scene! With just a few yards to walk to the pegs everyone was soon ensconced and ready for the off apart from Mr Organiser who was giving all a head start. For this one all were using their various river tactics and even the “Asian Ace” had brought along his flat leads for this one after having his knuckles wrapped the day before at Humberston Creek for leaving them at home. Even so the tactics are not much good when the fish are elusive and for this one their elusiveness could be split into three periods, at the start during the last throws of the ebb when a few fish appeared, over the bottom at slack water with no real fish and the start of the real flood when they came back on and probably the best part of the match.

In the end the initial prediction was spot on with just 60 fish being recorded made up of 59 flounders and just ONE eel weighing in total 22lb 3oz. Mind you it was a good eel of 61cm (15oz) to that big eel expert Gary Medler and lot of quality flounders with biggest being a 37cm (1lb 4oz) specimen to Tony Thomas. Honours on the day went to Scunthorpe based Simon Drayton with 3lb 7oz from 5 fish who didn’t have a fish until the last hour when his flounder skills kicked in to find one of 36cm along with ones of 31cm, 29cm, 28cm and 27cm. Runner up was Ed Driver from Stowmarket way who was leading the pack until Simon pulled out his trump card ending up with 2lb 8 2/3oz from just 4 fish including a couple of 33cm flounders. Final podium slot went to Tony Thomas just 2oz behind with 2lb 6 2/3oz from 5 fish including that 37cm flounder.   Top four anglers came from section A just south of the culvert so we will know where to peg this stretch next time.

A tough match with surprisingly a few top estuary anglers failing to score or finding just a few small flounders. Probably started this year’s Series a month too early but we weren’t to know, now we have this experience for the future. Round 2 will again be on the West Bank but this time on the Central stretch just south of the pylon, wind permitting! This will be on Sunday 15th May fishing 12:30 – 5:30 HW 2:35 p.m. 4.0m and in contrast to this match, fishing over the top.

Next Club match is the 3rd Leg Summer Accumulator at Cley on Sunday 24th April fishing 10:00 – 3:00 HW 2:35 a.m. 4.8m. The Bass Festival is nearly upon us (7th/8th May) so can Club Members please get their entries in with the booking deadline Friday 29th April. We currently are approach 60 fully booked in for this one. Let’s try and make it 100 like last year and don’t forget to register a team for the “Shannock Quads”, nearly 10 teams already.

Top 5 results …

1st   Simon Drayton         3lb 7oz       (5 Fish)

2nd  Ed Driver                 2lb 8 2/3oz  (4 Fish)

3rd  Tony Thomas            2lb 6 2/3oz  (5 Fish)

4th   Albert Randlesome    2lb 6oz       (5 Fish)

5th   George Smith           2lb  2/3oz   (4 Fish)

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