Skegness pier club fished their latest match and Christmas Fayre on Saturday 14 December at Jacksons corner followed by a raffle, drink and buffet at the lookout pub after the match.
The match fished well despite the recent stir up from the spell of northerly winds with plenty of dabs, whiting and a fair few decent hard fighting haddock caught. For the first hour or so of the match the fishing was extremely difficult, with yards of weed draped along the lines and causing them to lose fishing time laboriously picking it off. This luckily disappeared around high water but returned about an hour and a half down the ebb.
The match stretch looking South
The top four where Adie Cooper in first place with forty fish for 1183cm, Garry Hutson in second with 30 fish for 839cm, Karl Nangle in third with 24 fish for 646cm and Jake Clowes in fourth with 22 fish for 646cm.
Adie had come fully prepared with his usual array of baits including fresh black lug, smelly black lug, yellowtails, blow lug, mackerel, razorfish, sandeel and squid for tipping. He fished combinations of worm tipped off with fish, in his characteristic methodical way, at medium to long range to fill up both sides of his match card with whiting, dabs and haddock, in double and triple shots throughout the match. He had drawn the southern end peg which seemed to be protected from the weed at the start of the match so was able to fish effectively for longer than those on the northern pegs were the weed was worst. He also had another rod set up, without a rig attached, so that he could re-cast straight away without losing fishing time stripping it off the line. This allowed him to pull way ahead of the field and win the match by a clear margin with an impressive forty fish for 1183cm.
Match winner Aide Cooper won the with forty fish for 1183cm
In second place was Garry Hutson with 30 fish made up of whiting dabs and a haddock for 839cm. Garry fishing midway along the match stretch was hampered by weed at the start and fishing his tried and tested whiting tactics with three streamlined baits on a three hook clipped down rig baited with fresh black lug and tipped with small pieces of mackerel.
In third place was Karl Nangle who was near the northern end of the pegging and was struggling with weed at long range almost all match. Fishing closer in to avoid it, he found the bites a lot slower and fish concentrations less than at his usual full casting distance. Picking up one or two fish per 15 minute cast Karl finished the match with 24 fish for 736cm.
Karl Nangle struggled with a weedy peg and finished in third with 24 fish for 736cm
In fourth place was Jake Clowes catching 22 fish for 646cm. Jake fished out long as much as he could despite the weed but came in short when he saw others catching closer in and in this way was able to keep a respectable catch rate going throughout the last two hours of the match. Best baits for Jake were black lug tipped with squid.
Jake Clowes in Fourth place with 22 fish for 646cm pictured with a nice haddock of 1lb 2oz
In fifth was Chris Allsopp with 24 fish for 636cm and missed a lot of bites close in which could have been small dabs. Most of the field caught double figures of fish mainly whiting but a lot of tiny dabs around the middle section at short ranges. There was no real pattern with as usual long casts finding more fish, but the large quantities of weed prevented fishing long range for a lot of the match.
Afterwards the club were treated to a buffet and drinks at the Lookout pub who kindly hosted the event for us again this year which we really appreciate, many thanks to the team who volunteered to work for the event. Chas presented the results along with an extra prize to all those who fished and this was followed by a raffle.
Tracey Cooper-Adams finished in ninth place with 18 fish for 514cm
Many thanks to all those who helped organise the event to Mark Lawson, Mark Bradbury and family, to Steve and Katy from Big Catch Tackle for helping with the raffle, providing food and donating raffle prizes. To Chris Allsopp for the raffle prize and to Chas for all the hard work and organisation for the event and his dedication to running the club.
Thanks to Adie for pegging out the match and to Tina and Tracey for the great pictures. Thank you to Russell for running the match and to all those travelling to fish with the club this week. The next match is on Saturday 28th December at Trunch lane, and we look forward to seeing you all again then.
