TronixPro National Sea League Final 2015 - Full Report
Saturday/Sunday 28th/29th November 2015 - Eastbourne
The 2015 National Sea League Final sponsored by TronixPro was held at Eastbourne over the weekend of 28th/29th November fishing the beaches of Pevensey and Norman’s Bay. Head Quarters for the event was the Eastbourne Angling Association club house a short distance from these venues. An excellent turnout of 30 teams from around the UK participated in this event which was the highest number of teams for some considerable years. The Final this year was being sponsored for the first time by TronixPro with all 150 team members receiving a TronixPro “Goodies” bag. The League would like to thank George Cunningham for his generous support of this prestigious event.
After a number of years of domination by one team there is now a new Team on the John Amery Shield with Suffolk based TEAM BREAKAWAY convincingly taking the title with 55 penalty points winning for them £2000, 1st place trophies and the perpetual John Amery National Sea League Shield. Runners-up were Hastings based ZZIPLEX MATCH SQUAD with 76 penalty points winning for them £1000 and 2nd place trophies. Final podium place went to the winners of the previous 4 years in Worthing based PRIME ANGLING also with 76 penalty points but with an inferior fish points score winning for them £600 and 3rd place trophies.
Weather conditions leading up to the weekend were perfect for bringing in the whiting and reports of some double figure codling making an appearance left everyone optimistic for excellent bags during the event. However, with the jet stream rolling in the next Atlantic storm for the two days the forecast for late Saturday was very strong west to south westeries with serious winds up to 50 mph for Sunday. They were spot on with this prediction and many thanks to Anglers Den team of Gyn & Kevin Morgan and Ian Hopper for their diligence in monitoring this situation and advising accordingly from a Health & Safety perspective.
Pegging for the event was in Normans and Pevensey Bays. Zone A was the eastward zone situated around Billy’s Tower in Normans Bay. Zone B was either side of the beach car park in Pevensey Bay and Zone C west in front of the Flats along to Grey Tower. Zone D was at White Horses with Zone E at Langley point. On the strength of the serious weather forecast for Sunday a contingency was prepared to move Zone E to east of Zone B. Both days were fished 10:00-3:00 up and over high water with HW Day 1 at 1:05 p.m. and Day 2 HW 1:50 p.m.
Day 1 kicked off in ideal conditions with a moderate westerly, lightly overcast skies and perfect colour in the water. Ideal for whiting and we were not to be disappointed as they were coming ashore in trebles and doubles from the off. In Zones A through to D this was the pattern for the whole match, baiting up, casting, reeling in and recording, just continuous. For Zone E the fish were less prolific with fish numbers half those caught in the other Zones. Whiting was by far the predominant species with the odd dogfish, pouts, dabs, flounders, small bass and an eel being recorded. There was just one codling of 3lb 7oz caught by Lee Caley of I CATCH on peg 15 in Zone A although a few monsters were found and lost in this Zone. Altogether an incredible 6080 fish were recorded weighing just over 1947lb which is an average of 40 fish and 13lb per team member. As the match progressed the wind increased significantly along with some heavy showers which was a sample of what the weather had planned for us on Day 2.
Winning team on the day was TEAM BREAKAWAY with 28 points from ANGLERS DEN with 33 points and HASTINGS ANGLING CENTRE with 40 points. Zone winners on the day were Zone A Henry Randell (THE GUTTER BASHERS) 968 fish points (20lb 3oz), Zone B Dan Wood (ASSO MATCH SQUAD) 1102 fish points (22lb 15oz), Zone C Kevin Morgan (ANGLERS DEN) 1170 fish points (24lb 6oz), Zone D Paul Christopher (TONYS TACKLE T.BAY) 1167 fish points (25lb 5oz) and Zone E Kim McGreevy (ANGLERS DEN) 541 fish points (11lb 4oz). Top Individual on the day was Kevin Morgan with his 24lb 6oz from 75 fish and most fish recorded was 80 by Tim Relf (ZZIPLEX MATCH SQUAD) from Zone D.
For Day 2 the weather predictions were spot on and the local organisers had already made the decision the previous evening to move Zone E to the back-up location to the east of Zone B in Pevensey Bay. Thankfully the wind turned tight westerly from Day 1 giving some land shelter for Zones B to E but Zone A in front of Billy’s Tower was slightly more exposed and felt the full force of the 50 mph gusts. A good overcast sky at the start turning somewhat murky as the match progressed but no one was particularly worried about this as the concern was about the steadily increasing ferocity of the wind. The sea state was now rough but as the wind picked up and tide flooded serious swells and surges started rolling in. Under these conditions thankfully the majority heeded the safety aspect but one or two were less observant and got caught out which could have resulted in tragedy; we all must be more vigilant in future Finals!
With such a sea state it was obvious there was going to be less fish than the previous day but the fish were still there. This was a real challenge for the true match angler and this was shown to be the case. Amongst the buddies being blown down the beach or filled with shingle, along with buckets, match cards you name it, fish were still being caught and recorded. Again fish were there from the off and predominantly whiting but although there was less the majority were of better quality than the previous day. Apart from the wind which again increased as the match wore on the effect of wind with tide early on soon swept rigs round into the short groynes or onto the adjacent angler’s line once whiting were on board. Therefore, unlike the previous day where speed was the differentiator it was managing the wind that was the real test here.
Even so plenty of fish were caught and again the vast majority were whiting, along with dogs, pouts (one of 37cm), a few eels, some bigger bass , a few dabs and flounders plus a sole of 37cm. With fewer whiting it probably gave the codling a chance with 6 being caught mainly in Zone A with the largest of 4lb 13oz shared by Simon Newman (HOOK LINE & SINKER) on Zone A peg 27 and Darren Bond (PRIME ANGLING) on Zone E peg 130. Altogether 2522 fish were recorded weighing a total of 912lb which is equivalent to 17 fish and 6lb per team member.
Winning team on the day was again TEAM BREAKAWAY with 27 points from ZZIPLEX MATCH SQUAD with 31 points and A & M ELECTRICAL with 34 points. Zone winners on the day were Zone A Ralf Crosby (HASINGS ANGLING CENTRE) 547 fish points (11lb 6oz), Zone B Darran Brooks (HOOK LINE & SINKER) 538 fish points (11lb 3oz), Zone C Dale Brenton (SLO TEAM LOCKSTOCK) 655 fish points (13lb 10oz), Zone D Robert Tuck (TEAM BREAKAWAY) 775 fish points (16lb 2oz) and Zone E Nick May(ZZIPLEX MATCH SQUAD) 689 fish points (14lb 6oz). Top Individual on the day was Robert Tuck with his 16lb 2oz from 46 fish which was also most fish recorded on the day.
With two day wins TEAM BREAKAWAY the team of Stephen Adams (captain), Ian Bowell, Craig Buy, Mark Pinder and Robert Tuck easily took the title with a healthy margin of 21 points on 55 points. An outstanding performance on Day 2 by ZZIPLEX MATCH SQUAD enabled them to finish runners up on 76 points. Also on 76 points was the winners of the last 3 years in PRIME ANGLING who this year had to settle for third place with a slightly inferior fish points total to the 2nd placed team.
Winners - TEAM BREAKAWAY
Runners-up - ZZIPLEX MATCH SQUAD Third - PRIME ANGLING
This year team payout was down to 10th place and the top ten teams who received prizes were …
1st TEAM BREAKAWAY 55 Pts
2nd ZZIPLEX MATCH SQUAD 76 Pts
3rd PRIME ANGLING 76 Pts
4th HASTINGS ANGLING CENTRE 81 Pts
5th ANGLERS DEN 84 Pts
6th SLO TEAM LOCKSTOCK 94 Pts
7th ASSO MATCH SQUAD 102 Pts
8th A & M ELECTRICAL 110 Pts
9th HOOK LINE & SINKER 126 Pts
10th LOWERSTOFT 130 Pts
This year the top 15 Individuals over the 2 days were rewarded with TronixPro Baitpaks and the top three also received cash prices. The best Individual over the two days was Graham Adams (A & M ELECTRICAL) on just 4 points with runner up Darren Bond (PRIME ANGLING) on 6 points with Brett Green (ZZIPLEX MATCH SQUAD) third on 7 points.
The top 15 Individuals were …
1st GRAHAM ADAMS 4 Pts (1102 fish points)
2nd DARREN BOND 6 Pts ( 879)
3rd BRETT GREEN 7 Pts (1370)
4th KEVIN MORGAN 8 Pts (1631)
5th COLIN CAREY 8 Pts (1259)
6th MARK PINDER 8 Pts ( 781)
7th MIKE PERFECT 9 Pts (1644)
8th IAN BOWELL 9 Pts (1491)
9th KIM McGREEVY 9 Pts ( 798)
10th SIMON NEWMAN 10 Pts (1230)
11th ROBERT TUCK 11 Pts (1666)
12th JOE ARCH 11 Pts (1502)
13th IAN HOPPER 11 Pts (1240)
14th COLIN CROSBY 12 Pts (1286)
15th STEPHEN ADAMS 12 Pts (1226)
The Organising team would like to thank Eastbourne Angling Association for use of their facilities, the Anglers Den team for the pegging and Holt SAC members for assistance with the running of the event. Also thanks must go to all league organisers and all team members without whom the event would not happen.
This was an extremely competitive event with very strong teams participating under very challenging conditions. The 2016 National Sea League Final will again be sponsored by TronixPro and will be in North Norfolk where we have already secured a 20% discount on the accommodation at the Kelling Heath Holiday Park HQ. Currently, there are three potential dates for the Final on weekend of 5th/6th November or 19th/20th November or 3rd/4th December fishing 10:00 – 3:00 on both days. The date to be confirmed early in the New Year. With the current numbers in the qualifying leagues there is potential to exceed the 30 teams of this year and another highly competitive event for 2016 is in prospect.
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