Skegness Pier Club fished their latest match at Sandilands on Sunday 13th October. Fourteen anglers fished in pleasant weather conditions, with a light offshore breeze, sea conditions were not ideal with a large 4-5ft swell rolling in from the North. Even though fish where present they had backed off behind the large breaking waves making reaching them difficult for most. Whiting and flounders were the main species caught today with Tracey Cooper catching a small bass and Mark Bradbury a nice little turbot of 26cm.
The match stretch looking South
Adie Cooper led the match from the start by pulling in treble shots of whiting averaging around 30cm and including a 37cm flounder to take the longest flat prize. He was catching on fresh yellowtails and black lug tipped with small pieces of mackerel, fished on a three hook loop rig cast well beyond the rough water. Adie fished to the clock with a consistent and methodical approach in both bait presentation and long distance casting to build up an impressive 23 fish catch, winning the match with a total length of 698cm.
Match winner Adie Cooper with a treble shot of whiting
In second place was Karl Nangle fishing the end peg at the opposite end to Adie but in slightly shallower water. Karl was firing his three hook clipped down rig out as far as possible and clearing the waves to find the fish. He found a number of whiting in the flat water beyond the surf and finished with 15 fish for 453cm.
Karl Nangle in second place with fifteen fish for a total length of 453cm
In third place was Gary Hutson who had drawn in the middle of the match length and lacked any sort of end peg advantage. He used his casting skills to reach the fish and added 8 fish to his card to come in third place with 232cm.
The scouring surf was dragging rigs from left to right for the entire match and Kev Martin had to use fixed wires to beat the drift, Kev finished in fourth place with 118cm and four fish. Tracey started with no bites in the turbulent sea but replaced her grips wires with thicker gauge wire to hold bottom and then started catching fish. Both anglers picked up fish once they were able to present still baits fishing in the lifting waves. Further out the waves had less impact, and the first three big casters held out well with 170g leads.
The top three, Adie Cooper, Karl Nangle and Gary Hutson
The rest of the field caught between one and four fish each or blanked entirely. The key today was casting distance with fresh worm tipped with squid or fish the most effective bait.
Many thanks to all the anglers travelling to fish with the club today and to Kev Bebbington and Nev Hardy, fishing with us for the first time, it was great to meet you both on Sunday and hopefully you will be able to fish with the club again in better conditions. Many thanks to Adie for pegging out the match and to Russell for running it on the day, to Tina, Tracey, and Chas for the great photos.
The next match is the biggest fish rover which is fished along the Lincolnshire coast, on Sunday 27th October. We are all looking forward to seeing you then.
