Skegness Pier Club fished match 11, the Dave White Cup at Trunch Lane on Saturday. Fifteen anglers fished in warm conditions with an onshore breeze. After weeks of cold north easterly winds, the sea had calmed off a few days before the match and warm settled weather had encouraged the smoothhound packs into the beaches in numbers with some large specimens being caught. This included a 19lb plus specimen and new club record for Adie Cooper during the match. The fishing was hectic with a new record total catch length for a club match set on Saturday. At the start of the match the fish where being caught as close as 60yds from dry sand but overall distance casting with fresh crab caught the most fish, It was a great match with plenty of fish almost everyone caught smooth hounds and some nice bass were recorded too.
Karl Nangle
Karl caught five decent hounds in the first twenty five minutes of the match and in a demonstration seemingly unhurried but slick match angling put together a bag of thirteen smoothhounds by halfway through the match. He was using an Anyfish Anywhere Match Pro rod to sail out small fresh crab baits way over 100 yards into the wind.
Match winner Karl Nangle with one of his 22 hounds for a total length of 1877cm
The fishing was that good Karl didn’t have time to eat the pork pie had brought with him and had unwrapped at the start, and only got to eat it two hours later when the bites slowed around slack high water. As soon as the ebb started the bites switched on again and bites came in less than five minutes. Karl finished the match with twenty two hounds for a total winning length of 1877cm.
Adie Cooper
Adie started off very badly with a snag first cast past the low water line possibly clays, he pulled for a break and lost his rig. Adie quickly changed reels and hurriedly recast but possibly due to haste or the fresh headwind blew up his reel and had to change to a third. All the time Adie was lagging behind rapidly, watching Karl Nangle in the next peg hammering out hounds. He was straight into bites now but his is run of bad luck continued as he dropped his first three hounds falling even further behind.
Adie with the new Skegness record at 19lb 2oz
Adie kept his composure under pressure and settled into his characteristic routine of catching, measuring, returning the fish, casting, and re baiting the next trace in impressively quick time. He caught seven hounds in the next hour, including a new Skegness Pier Club record, a fantastic 123cm, 19lb 2oz smoothhound. He was casting around 120yds+ into the wind using fresh peeler crab on a clipped down hound rig. With bites coming within five minutes he quickly put together a total catch length of 1285cm of fifteen hounds to finish in second place.
Tony Burman
Tony had brought along frozen peelers and a couple of fresh crab, he had caught six hounds by half time on frozen and switched over to fresh crab when the bites tailed off around slack water, this kept his catch rate going and he added another six smooth hounds to come in third place with thirteen hounds for a total length of 1100cm.
Tony Burman and hound expert with on of his thirteen hounds for third place on 1100cm
Again, Tony was fishing a long way out using his original AFAW Tournament match rod, Penn fathom and 6oz leads to punch a good distance into the stiff onshore breeze. Distance casting did seem to make a difference for the top anglers today along with fresh crab which was the best bait on the day.
Paul Marshall had an absolute nightmare of a match missing eleven bites but catching ten hounds for fourth place and 822cm. Paul would have come in first or second place if he had converted his bites into fish, but a recent illness had really sapped his energy and could of affected his fishing today, I hope you are feeling better soon Paul.
Russell Parsons with a nice bass of 5lb 15oz caught on the ebb toward the end of the match
Russ Parsons also caught ten fish for 818cm to come in fifth place, he was fishing next to Paul at the shallower end of the match stretch toward the south and later in the match a run of bass came through from which he landed a cracking 5lb 15oz fish.
Just behind Russell was Jake Clowes. He lost three fish experimenting with circle hooks but landed eight hounds to come in a very respectable sixth place beating several experienced match anglers. Jake is an experienced junior carp angler who is new to sea and is already showing a massive improvement since fishing with the club. Well done, Jake.
Daz with a bass. There were several caught about this size today
Mylo Disney (7th) caught eight fish including a nice bass and a 97cm hound. Mylo always catches fish and rarely blanks wherever he fishes. He also returned to the beach after the match to clear up any lost tackle and rubbish from the area well done Mylo.
Shaun Bullock (8th) and Daz Rose (9th) caught seven hounds each fishing frozen crab and prawn baits.
John Spalton had six hounds but went biteless for two hours mid match
John Spalton (10th) and Frank Cribb (11th) caught six hounds each, both had long periods without bites during the match.
Mark Lawson (12th) had a frustrating match missing bites and losing several fish, including a large bass which shook off on the way in and landing one hound at 60cm.
Tony Dunk and Gordon Hewitt came in joint 13th place with a single identical 53cm bass each, Tony had lost a hound and missed two thumping bass bites before landing his fish on full squid at 60yds. Tony fished with the club over thirty years ago and is returning to fish with us, great to meet you Tony and look forward to seeing you at more matches.
Tony Dunk returning to fish with the club caught a decent bass on whole squid
Mark Bradbury finished in last place but made it worthwhile fishing by winning the biggest flatfish pool with dab of 28cm.
Many thanks to Adie for pegging out the match, to Chas for the photography and making the decision to move venues due to parking issues at North Shore. Thanks to Russell for running the match on the day and to all the anglers travelling distances to fish with us and support the club.
Adie Cooper in second place with 1285cm
The next match is planned for Saturday July 8th at Sutton on Sea and is a low water match. We look forward to seeing you all then.
