Twelve anglers fished on Saturday evening at Trunch lane for the Ray Torr shield. Ray was a stalwart member of the club, and his son Simon Torr fished the match with us today and presented the inaugural trophy to the match winner. Simon has kindly offered to sponsor the club in memory of his father Ray to run a two day event with a very generous prize fund, many thanks Simon.
The match conditions were good with a light easterly breeze and calm sea with little or no weed. However, the fishing was hard yet again with a smattering of flounders and a few whiting making up the catches. No hounds made an appearance despite many fishing fresh peeler crab at long range throughout the match.
Ady Cooper never stops, with his last cast match winner, Ady had a tiny rattle on his M4GT and brought the matchmans favourite species in right on full time
Ady Cooper won the match with just four fish for 93cm trying every bait he had including crab on a hound rig to no avail, he had two flounder early in match on worm and a three hook flapper then remained fishless in second place until the last fifteen minutes of the match.
Tony Dunk in second place with his two decent flounders, one giving him the longest flatfish prize
Tony Dunk fishing on a nearby peg was getting rod wrenching bites and had lost a decent fish on the retrieve probably a good bass. Tony had also landed two good flounders and a dab on fresh ragworm at around 60yds and led the match until Ady brought in a 22cm whiting at 8:45pm and quickly flicked out a three hook rig rig in the dying minutes to scratch out another flounder of 28cm, just beating Tony into second position by 18cm. Unlucky for Tony as he would have won the match easily if his bass had of stayed on the hook but came second with three fish and 75cm.
The match stretch looking North
In third place was young Jake Clowes who has improved his beach fishing considerably listening to the advice of his experienced fellow anglers in the club including Ady, Russell and Paul Marshall on rigs, casting, and baits. He has put this into action, and he is starting to see some results today in a third place with four fish for 72cm. Jake fished a modified three hook rig incorporating a circle hook for hounds and two small hooks for flatties etch alternating baits and ranges continuously through the match. He’d had a weaver for most of the match but kept his focus on and when the fish finally stated to feed in the last quarter of an hour, he managed three whiting including a double shot on his last cast.
Tracey Cooper with a flounder of 22cm caught on lug tipped maddies, caught first cast she led the match for a long while but despite working really hard couldn’t add to her tally
Most anglers caught a fish in the match but only one or two each, there was a flurry of activity at the start with Tracey catching a nice flounder on her first cast and Kevin Martin hooking a good bass which tangled itself in weed and escaped. The fishing picked up again right at the end with Ian Nelson finding a 28cm sole on two tiny blow lug and Simon Torr catching a micro-codlet but it was really poor fishing for the majority of the time. Dave Shorthouse worked hard all match; changing hook lengths, hook sizes, baits and every trick in his repertoire for just one small turbot on a tiny mackerel strip illustrating the general lack of fish on the beach today.
The match results
We would also like to welcome Kevin back to fishing sea matches with the club after a break of 25 years and hopefully see you at a few more. Many thanks to Ady for pegging out the match and to Russell for running the match as well as Chas for the great photography. Thank you to the travelling anglers who made it over to fish with us today and even though the fishing was poor the atmosphere was great, and everyone enjoyed it.
The next match is at Chapel point on the 16th September and we look forward to seeing you all again then.
