SAMF National Sea League Final 2019 (Report)
Saturday and Sunday 16th/17th November 2019 - Eastbourne
The SAMF National Sea League Final 2019 was held at EASTBOURNE over the weekend of 16th/17th NOVEMBER fishing the beaches of Normans and Pevensey Bays. Head Quarters for the event was Pevensey Bay Holiday Park which backed directly onto Zone D of the event. Another excellent turnout of 31 teams from around the UK participated in this event which is just two teams less than the previous two years. In total 155 anglers were involved including a few more reserves of which the majority from away stayed at the HQ which added to the social side of the Event. Many thanks to Pevansey Bay Holiday Park and staff for looking after everyone although they probably missed a trick on Saturday afternoon for not opening the bar until 5:00 p.m. for a rather exhausted bunch of anglers. Also thanks to SAMF who are now the sole supporters of the Event with insurance and prize money as it used to be in the past.
This year the usual quality competitive teams participating some new and some past winning teams who were out to regain their successes of the past with mixed results. As seems to be the case with this venue weather again played its role with some harsh conditions in preceding days putting good colour in the water . This contributed to a cracking Day 1 with plenty of fish leading to 5,375 being recorded producing 81,430 points or 1696lb 7oz but a rapidly clearing water reduced this to 2298 for 30,849 points or 642lb 11oz on Day 2.
With such conditions a good top 10 result on Day 1 followed by an outstanding performance on Day 2 enabled the Hastings League team CHANNEL ANGLING DEAL with a total score of 68 penalty points to easily secure victory by a 22 point margin winning for them £2200, 1st place trophies and the John Amery National Sea League Shield putting a new team name on the shield. The 2017 winners at Eastbourne in ASSO ANYFISH ANYWHERE from the Lincolnshire League were runners-up with 90 penalty points winning £1000 and 2nd place trophies. Final podium place went to a previous winning team from the East Anglia League in TEAM BREAKAWAY with 100 penalty points winning for them £600 and 3rd place trophies.
Weather conditions prior to the weekend had put a good colour in the water which helped to drag the Whiting closer to the shore but as is the case with no engine to keep these conditions going the water started to shear towards the end of the event resulting in the obvious consequences for this in all Zones. Pegging for the event was in Normans and Pevensey Bays. Zone A was the eastward zone situated around Billy’s Tower in Normans Bay and Zone B was either side of the Kiosk on Coast Road east of Pevensey Bay. Zone C was east from the Ponderosa towards Pevensey Bay beach car park with Zone D east and west of the HQ at the Pevensey Bay Holiday Park beach access. Zone E was at Langley point utilising the beaches further east closer to Sovereign Marina Harbour than in previous years. Both days were fished 10:00-3:00 up and over high water with HW Day 1 at 1:03 p.m. and Day 2 HW 1:44 p.m. on a good tide.
DAY 1
Day 1 kicked off overcast with a light cool southerly and a nice swell fuelling the colour in the water. Whiting were the predominant species and in all Zones were there in numbers from the start and throughout although slack water saw them ease off for a while. Other species recorded throughout in far less numbers including Bass, Codling, Dab, Dog, Eel, Flounder, Plaice, Pout, Ray, Rockling and Sole
In total 5375 fish ( 5200 Whiting, 65 Pouts, 33 Flounders, 28 Dabs, 20 Rockling, 10 Dogs, 7 Sole, 5 Plaice, 3 Bass, 2 Eels, 1 Codling and 1 small Ray) were recorded weighing 1700lb 13oz (81,639 points).
Winning team on the day was GORLESTON TACKLE with 32 points from ASSO ANYFISH ANYWHERE with 34 points and TEAM BREAKAWAY with 50 points. Top Individual on the day was Henry Randell (BIG CATCH TACKLE) with 1 point (958 fish points) from Stephen Adams (TEAM BREAKAWAY) with 1 point (886 fish points) and Alan Doy (GORLESTON TACKLE) with 1 point (800 fish points).
DAY 2
Day 2 provided similar conditions with broken sunshine throughout and a cool light south easterly brought in some light drizzle mid match. The nice swell of Day 1 had gone and the colour in the water was visibly disappearing and all this coupled with the brightness pushed the Whiting off and for most fish numbers were dramatically reduced from Day 1. Whiting again were the dominant species and the same pattern as Day 1 was acted out with their numbers dropping off for a while as slack water came and went. Distance was the key on this day although for a few this was not the case. Two new species were added to the Day 1 list with a Bream and Gunard being registered. Total fish numbers were way down on Day 1 with 2298 fish ( 1985 Whiting, 99 Pouts, 58 Dabs, 54 Flounders, 48 Plaice, 19 Bass, 8 Rockling, 7 Sole, 5 Eels, 3 Rays, 1 Codling, 1 Bream and 1 Gunnard) being recorded weighing around 642lb 11oz (30,849 points)
Winning team on the day was CHANNEL ANGLING DEAL with just 13 points from PRIME ANGLING with 35 points and CENTURY MATCH TEAM with 38 points. Top Individual on the day was Nathan Elliott (ASSO ANYFISH ANYWHERE) with 1 point (685 fish points) from Joe Plumstead (E SQUAD) with 1 point (613 fish points) and Tom Wells (CHANNEL ANGLING DEAL) with 1 point (535 fish points).
OVERALL
With a day win and day fifth CHANNEL ANGLING DEAL the team of Tom Wells (Captain), Brett Cotter, Luke Mooring, Louie Smith, Steve Swan took the title with a margin of 22 points on 68 points. 2nd place on both days enabled ASSO ANYFISH ANYWHERE to finish runners up on 90 points. A fifth place on Day 2 to add to their 3rd place on Day 1 enabled TEAM BREAKAWAY to take the third place spot with 100 points.
This year team payout was again down to 10th place and the top ten teams who received prizes were …
1st…CHANNEL ANGLING DEAL.....68 Pts
2nd…ASSO ANYFISH ANYWHERE.90 Pts
3rd…TEAM BREAKAWAY............100 Pts
4th…E SQUAD..........................105 Pts
5th…CENTURY MATCH TEAM......110 Pts
6th…PRIME ANGLING................114 Pts
7th…CHANNEL ANGLERS 1........126 Pts
8th…GORLESTON TACKLE.........134 Pts
9th…ANGLERS DEN...................144 Pts
10th.ITALCANNA......................145 Pts
This year the top 5 Individuals over the 2 days received cash prices. The best Individual over the two days was Nathan Elliott (ASSO ANYFISH ANYWHERE) on just 4 points with runner up Henry Randell (BIG CATCH TACKLE) also on 4 points with Lee Adams (ITALCANNA) third on 5 points with the winners having superior fish points.
The top 10 Individuals were ….
1st…NATHAN ELLIOTT....................4 Pts….(1502 total fish points)
2nd…HENRY RANDELL....................4 Pts….(1373)
3rd…LEE ADAMS............................5 Pts….(1188)
4th…LOUIE SMITH..........................5 Pts….(980)
5th…JASON CARTER.......................6 Pts….(1018)
6th…STEPHEN ADAMS.....................7 Pts….(1256)
7th…COLIN CAREY.........................7 Pts….(925)
8th…STEVE SWAN..........................8 Pts….(1021)
9th…ROB TAYLOR.........................10 Pts….(866)
10th.TREVOR ROONEY..................12 Pts….(1176)
In addition to the above prizes there was also a Cash prize donated by SAMF to the top SAMF Member of the event and that went to NATHAN ELLIOTT.
This event was also a SAMF Qualifier for the 2020 Masters to be held in Hythe, Kent on the weekend of 21st/22nd March 2020. Altogether 21 participated and 14 qualified for the 2020 Masters and they will be notified accordingly.
The event was also registered with Sea Angler for Penn Points as a two day event so as there was an equivalent of 310 anglers the top five anglers overall will receive 30, 29, 28, 27, 26 points respectively and the Zone winners on both days who are not in the top 5 will receive 6 Penn points.
This year the Optional Pools went down to 5th Place in each of the 10 Zones and the Super Pool pay out went down to 10th Place on each day. This meant that altogether 86 “Envelopes” were distributed to 44 separate Team Members involving 26 Teams sharing a prize table of over £10k..
A full set of the results is posted in SAMF’s facebook page in files on the Holt SAC website …
This year the Annual General Meeting was replaced by a League Organisers and representatives meeting as previous Finals had shown that the AGM was a waste of time as no one attended. This was held on the evening after the Day 1 match which was very constructive. The main objective was to determine the venue for the 2020 NSL Final as there had been a proposal to change it from North Norfolk to Skegness. To comply with the agreed ruling from a few years back a proposal proforma had been completed and submitted by George Smith. To help with the selection process a voting card was given to all team members to indicate their preference to Kelling or Skegness and the vote went to Skegness by 89 to 56. The NSL 2020 Final will therefore go to SKEGNESS on the weekend of 21st/22nd NOVEMBER. HQ will be North Shore hotel and accommodation will be there and at the North Shore Caravan Park and the usual info will be distributed during 2020
The meeting also discussed the renewed interest from the North East, North West and Scotland to participate in the NSL Final as in previous years. It was agreed that the “Committee” of current League Organisers would liaise with their contacts in the North to see how qualification leagues or equivalent could be set up.
Finally, the organising team would like to thank Pevensey Bay Holiday Park for looking after us and for use of their excellent facilities, Anglers Den Glyn & Kevin Morgan, Ian Hopper, Keith Errigde, Kim McGreevy and the rest of the Anglers Den team for the excellent pegging on BOTH days, SAMF for its continued support of the event plus Vice Chairman Ian Bowell for his presentation duties, Sea Angler magazine for registering the event for Penn Points and finally thanks to Holt SAC members for their assistance with running of the event. Also thanks must go to all league organisers and all team members without whom the event would not happen.
For some this was a hard two days being busy busy on Day 1 with plenty of fish only to be replaced on Day 2 with a lot less fish and conditions falling into the hands of the casters. With big zones of 32 a teams excellent performance on Day 1 could easily be undermined by a lack lustre Day 2 and this duly happened. Anyway as in previous years this just added to the drama of the competition which I believe once again was a great success.
Hopefully see everyone again at SKEGNESS in NOVEMBER 2020 … Tony T
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