The fourth match of 2024 the league was fished at Trunch lane on Sunday evening in bitterly cold conditions and a fresh north easterly wind. Sixteen anglers fished the venue which had been producing good numbers of fish in the previous week, however, the biting onshore breeze cut casting distances down and catches where lower than expected. The main species caught were whiting with just over eighty caught, plus seven rays and two dogfish.
A cold and wind swept Trunch lane
The top four anglers where all long casters who were able to punch three baits out to reach the fish. Everyone found they had long periods waiting for a bite during the match with those casting further having a good start and as high water approached their bites completely dried up. Catch rates where slower on the ebb with baits being left for fifteen minutes or more to pick up any double shots.
Ian Nelson fished a combination of baits and cast as far as he could to battle the weather. His casting distance tonight being limited to around 80 yards against the wind. He found two rays early in the match on lug and squid/mackerel and followed these up with a 44cm dogfish, then he dropped in close on rag, mackerel, and squid to pick up a treble shot of decent whiting when he saw others catching close in around high tide. Ian kept catching a trickle of whiting throughout the match and won it with a total length of 455cm. He also took longest round fish prize with his 62cm Thornback ray.
Tracey had a slow start but started catching around high water, she finished in tenth place
Dan Jackson had a flying start with several nice whiting and a 54cm ray at relatively long range, however due to the wind he had blown up two reels striving for extra yards to his cast and had also hit the beach casting a couple of times. This lost time and dropped him behind Ian, he then had a spell of an hour without a bite falling further behind. Dan added just 44cm to his total on the ebb and came in second place with twelve fish for 364cm.
Gary Hutson fishing on the far end of the match stretch made the most of the feeding fish at the beginning of the match landing double and treble shots of whiting and a dogfish to pull ahead of Adie Cooper on the next peg. Gary used a three hook clipped down loop rig, blasting out fresh yellowtails tipped with squid or mackerel to catch throughout the match and came in third place with eleven fish for 334cm.
Measuring the catch
Adie Cooper also fished a loop rig with three small clipped down baits, cast as far as possible on his M4GT into the stiff head wind. He started the match catching well with a treble shot and several single shots of whiting plus a small thornback ray staying neck and neck with Gary. However, at this point he brought in the next cast with the baits still in the bait clips losing valuable time then repeated this later in the match losing a total of thirty minutes fishing time and falling way behind the match leaders. Adie finished in fourth place with 308cm with his catch of whiting a thornback and a tiny spotted ray. The baits not releasing may have been caused by having to thumb the reel throughout the cast into the head wind to avoid a bird’s nest but not allowing a slack enough line to drop the baits from their clips.
Adie in fourth place with a 51cm thornback ray
Chris Allsopp fishing just his third match did very well to beat the rest of the field of regular match anglers to catch eight whiting for 239cm to come in in fifth place. He fished a flapper rig with 1/0 Aberdeens, on short snoods, at around 70 to 80 yards with black lug and squid bait. Paul Dixon was in sixth place with eight fish for 233cm and the rest of the field of all struggled in the harsh conditioned despite all having great casting abilities and a lot of match fishing experience.
We would like to welcome two new anglers to the club, fishing their first match were Alfie Appleby and Keith Codd, it was great to meet you both last night and hopefully we will see you back fishing with us again in kinder weather conditions. Unfortunately, both blanked along with Mark Lawson.
Chris Allsopp with a double shot of whiting, Chris just missed out on the prizes tonight and came in fifth place
Many thanks to Adie for pegging out the beach and to Russell for running the match and to Chas for working tirelessly behind the scenes organising and running the AGM the previous evening and presenting the prizes tonight. Thanks to Tracey for the pictures and all those travelling from Grimsby and Spalding to support the club. We are looking forward to seeing you all again at the next match in two weeks at Sandilands.
