Twelve anglers fished Match Nine of the Skegness Pier Angling Club 2023 league, on Saturday 20th May, at Trunch lane. Conditions were rough with a stiff easterly breeze blowing straight into the beach which hampered casting distances and weed was around which didn’t help at the start of the match either. The fishing was ok with a few fish being caught along the length of the match at different times on different pegs with no real patterns and bites being well spaced out. The species caught were bass, dabs, dogfish, sole, turbot and whiting.
Dave Shorthouse
Dave fished a three hook loop rig with slightly longer hook snoods than usual to target any bass if they were present, bait was fresh black lug either straight or tipped with fish to target whiting dabs and dogfish. He also had peeler in reserve, which was intended for hounds but this wasn’t as effective as worm in the rough sea which kept any hounds offshore. The first few casts went as far as possible into the headwind and resulted in two turbot, then sticking at medium range of approx. 80 yards he added three dogfish and a dab.
Match winner Dave Shorthouse with a treble shot of whiting and dogfish
Fishing closer in didn’t work so he kept a variety of baits going into the calmer water behind the breakers producing the most fish. This tactic worked for the first three hours of the match as he caught steadily, but he didn’t have a single bite in the last hour. Dave finished the match in first place with 373cm of whiting dogfish and dabs – well done Dave.
Adie Cooper
Adie started the match off badly with a crack off, pushing his casting to the limits into the headwind, this was followed by watching Dave reeling in treble shots of dogfish and whiting for the first hour whilst catching nothing. Then about an hour and a half in he had a good bite on straight black lug which resulted in a cracking bass of 54cm (3lb 3oz), this signalled the arrival of fish in front of him.
Adie with his 54cm bass
He punched out small worm baits tipped with fish into the calmer water to build up a good bag of whiting and dogfish and by the last hour he had almost caught up to Dave, trailing by only 51cm. This gave Adie an opportunity as Dave’s bites had stopped altogether. With an hour to go he hooked into a potentially match winning dogfish but then crossed his line with John Spalton and lost it in the surf leaving him on 322cm and in second place.
Russell Parsons
Russ brought his new Zulcron lite out today to get some extra power into the cast and was easily able to get into the zone of feeding fish beyond the breakers. Despite having a carbon tip designed for casting he could still see bites from dogfish and whiting using a braid set up with a Diawa tournament fixed spool.
The match stretch looking north, with a stiff North East wind
He used fresh yellowtails and sandeel in combinations to catch six fish for 245cm and third place. His bites were widely spread out with most coming at range but one dogfish was taken close in on a cast flicked out with peeler trying for a bass.
Fourth and fifth places belonged to Paul Marshall and Rick Jarvis they caught five fish each which were whiting and dabs but needed a dogfish or two to challenge the top three places. Rick had a small bass of 33cm
Tracey Cooper fished really well today finishing in 6th place. She had started the match fishing worm, black lug, yellowtails, and blow lug to target bass and flatfish but a change to squid gave her a cracking bass of 52cm. Then once the fish were in her peg, she was able to add two more whiting and a dab, one whiting was a 43cm specimen.
Tracey with a nice bass on squid
She was very unlucky not to make fourth place but missed a rod wrenching bite in the last hour which could have been another decent bass.
John Spalton had a poor start with no bites for the first two hours of the match. Casting miles out using his old faithful back caster in the rough weather gave him two dogfish and a whiting for 7th place. He used fresh black lug, peeler and ragworm but could not find any more fish today.
John Spalton with a nice whiting
We would like to welcome two new anglers Jamie Hebden and Jimmy Robinson who fished the match today with the club. Jamie came in 8th place with four fish and Jimmy finished in 10th with three fish including a small brill. Well done to both on your first match with us and hopefully we will see you come along to fish with us again.
Making up the tail end of the results Jake Clowes caught two fish a dogfish and a sole, winning the longest flatfish prize for his 35cm sole. Mylo Disney managed just one fish today a whiting on peeler a bait which had worked all week for him at North Shore but not today at Trunch where a variety of baits were needed.
One blank was recorded with Mark Lawson coming in 12th place.
Rick Jarvis with a whiting
Many thanks to everyone who travelled to fish with the club today, to Adie for pegging out the breach and to Russell for running the match. Also, many thanks to Tracey for the great pictures and to everyone sparing the time to talk over the phone for this report as neither Chas or myself could make it this week.
The next match is at Drake Road on Saturday June 3rd at 16:30 hopefully with no match clashes and some decent weather. We look forward to seeing you all then.
