National Sea League Final 2014 Report
Saturday/Sunday 22nd/23rd November 2014 - North Norfolk Shingle Ridge
National Sea League 2014 Champions
PRIME ANGLING
Darren Newlands, Darren Bond, Paul Stephens, Colin Carey, Joe Arch
The 2014 National Sea League was held on the North Norfolk shingle ridge over the weekend of 22nd/23rd November fishing the beaches of Cley, Salthouse and Kelling/Weybourne. Head Quarters for the event was the Kelling Heath Holiday Park just a short distance from these venues.
Repeating their success of 2010 and 2012 on the same beaches as well as Eastbourne last year, Worthing based PRIME ANGLING once again took the honours with 49 penalty points winning £2,000 and 1st place trophies along with the “John Amery” Shield. Runners up was yet another Worthing based team of TRONIXPRO with 56 points winning £1,000 and 2nd place trophies. Final podium place went to the Welsh team of GARRY EVANS MATCH TEAM with 79 points winning £600 and 3rd place trophies.
For both days Zones A & B were at Cley, Zone C at Salthouse and Zones D & E at Kelling/Weybourne. Day 1 had ideal conditions throughout with an overcast sky and a light to moderate SSE wind with no rain but surprisingly there was a reasonable swell. Altogether 1595 fish were caught and released weighing around 469lb which was remarkably similar to the 2012 Day 1 weight of 461lb but with a lot more fish totalling 1938. The vast majority of fish were dabs and flounders with very few whiting unlike previous years but there was a lot of quality flounders which explains the equivalent weights from less fish. Top team on the day was new team TRONIXPRO who took a slender lead with 16 penalty points from current champions PRIME ANGLING on 18 points and GWENT NOMADS 44 points. Top individual on the day was Dave Shorthouse of North Norfolk Lads with around 9 ½ lb from peg 62 in Zone C at Salhouse which again was remarkably similar to the 10lb top weight on Day 1 in 2012.
Day 2 saw a total contrast with the wind switching to a light to moderate NW with rain persistent throughout the whole match which made things most uncomfortable for everyone. Thankfully, the moderate swell of the previous day had subsided and only locally generated wind waves were coming ashore similar in height to the previous day. Early forecasts of serious midday winds that sparked a Gt.Yarmouth contingency did not arrive but they did get the rain right. In total, 1182 fish were caught and released weighing around 281lb which ironically was again similar to Day 1 in 2012 of 294lb when slightly more fish totalling 1277 were caught. As in Day 1 dabs and flounders were the main species with relatively more dabs than flounders in contrast to Day 1. The flounders were again of good quality but not of the same quality in numbers as on the previous day. Making a late charge to sneak up the leader board was GARRY EVANS MATCH TEAM who narrowly took the day with 29 penalty points from an ever consistent PRIME ANGLING team on 31 points. TRONIXPRO’s charge for the title stuttered after their Day 1 success taking the third slot with 40 points. Top individual on the day was Brett Green of Zziplex with just under 7lb from peg 128 in Zone E which again is almost identical to heaviest Day 2 weight in 2012.
As in 2010 and again in 2012 PRIME ANGLING’s consistent performance on the final day enabled the team of Paul Stevens (captain), Joe Arch, Darren Bond, Colin Carey and Darren Newlands to take the title by just 7 points with 49 points. Their Day 1 performance was enough to help TRONIXPRO finish runners up on 56 points. An outstanding performance on Day 2 enabled GARRY EVANS MATCH TEAM to grab third place with 79 points. The best Individual over the two days was Darren Bond of Prime Angling on just 2 points with runner up Shane Russell of Tronixpro also on 2 points but with an inferior total fish weight. Final individual podium slot went to Brett Green of Zziplex on 3 points.
The top eight teams who received prizes were …
1st PRIME ANGLING 49 Pts
2nd TRONIXPRO 56 Pts
3rd GARY EVANS MATCH TEAM 79 Pts
4th ZZIPLEX 92 Pts
5th SOUTHWOLD 104 Pts
6th A&T TACKLE ELITE 114 Pts
7th NORTH NORFOLK LADS 116 Pts
8th ANGLERS DEN 117 Pts
The organising team of Holt Sea Angling Club would like to thank Bernard Bishop (Cley Nature Reserve Warden and Norfolk Wild Life Trust Chairman) for presenting the Team and Pools prizes along with the NSL trophies. The club would also like thank the Kelling Heath Holiday Park staff for helping to make it once again a memorable event.
The 2015 National Sea League Final will be in Eastbourne either on the weekend of 31st October/1st November or28th/29th November.
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