Skegness Pier Angling Club fished their latest match on Saturday evening at Chapel Point. Sixteen anglers fished for the Stan Marvin Cup in calm conditions with little weed and a strong westerly back wind which aided casting distances. The beach has shallowed up recently with a sand bar and a system of gullies stretching out around 100m from high water mark. There was no real pattern to the catches today with some anglers doing well close in fishing the gulley and others launching baits over the top into the tide flow. Generally, there were fewer fish around than anticipated but several respectable catches of dogfish, dabs and whiting were put together on a tough day. Other species caught were a flounder, a ray and a small turbot.
The top three anglers really had to work hard to build up a winning card today and the results were very close with only a few centimetres between them. In first place was Karl Nangle, who fished a modified loop rig with large sandeel/fish baits on a dongle near the lead with two smaller baits up the rig body. This was cast a long distance out into the tide flow aimed at finding a ray or dogfish and whiting. Karl won the match with six dogs and two dabs for a total length of 317cm.
Match winner Karl Nangle with a doggie and dab double shot, part of his winning length of 317cm
In second place was Gary Hutson who again fished at long range using three hook clipped down rig with size 2 match Aberdeens. Gary had brought a selection of fresh baits including black lug, whites, sandeel, rag, mackerel and blow lug, catching a dogfish on almost every one of them showing that today bait choice was not as important as finding the pockets of feeding fish. Gary added a couple of whiting and a haddock to finish with eight fish for 310cm.
Gary Hutson was in second place with 8 fish for 310cm, caught on a variety of fresh baits at distance
In third place was Aide Cooper who started the match targeting dogfish or a ray at long range on fish baits. By high tide he had just 2 dogfish and 2 dabs so changed over to black lug and yellowtails tipped with fish as it was slow on the dogfish to target anything at all ranges as he noticed anglers picking up smaller fish close. Still bites where not forthcoming despite varying his baits and ranges adding just a single whiting, whilst Karl, Gary and Chris Allsopp were all slowly pulling ahead of him. With an hour to go Tracey picked up a double shot of dogs close in, so he followed suit and dropped his last cast level to where she had just cast. This paid off with a double shot of decent dogfish and a dab which boosted him up to 308cm beating Tracey in the last minutes of the match placing Aide into third place.
Lee Williams has started to consistently place in the top four in the matches using quality bait and quality casting gear (TTSM plus Daiwa regal fixed spool). Lee was able to reach the feeding dogfish in the first hour of the match casting over the top of the sandbanks in front of him. He lost touch with the fish as he backed up the beach over high tide but started catching again in the last hour as the tide dropped and he was able to reach the fish once again. Lee finished in fourth with 265cm. Lee also picked up the longest round fish prize with a 65cm dogfish.
Chas Tibble returned to fish a match today with his club, pictured with a dogfish
Chris Allsopp is another continuously improving match angler and the highlight of his match was catching his first ever ray, Chris also had four dogfish and a decent whiting by high tide. Chris fished at a good range using a slow swing pendulum cast to reach the fish. Unfortunately, the ebb didn’t produce a single bite, and he remained on 241cm to finish in 5th just outside of the prizes.
Mark Lawson went off like a train catching double and single dogfish on his first and second casts then slowed over high tide and caught several more on the ebb. His success being down to small fresh black lug baits tipped with squid and cast about 70 yards. This put Mark into 6th place and ahead of his old rival Tracey Cooper Adams, by just four centimetres. Tracey had fished hard over the entire match catching whiting, dabs and dogfish at all ranges up to 100 yards but she was doubly unlucky being piped at the post by both Mark and Adie today.
It was great to see Chas Tibble return to fishing with the club today after a long break of several years, Chas had great start leading the match with five bites in the first hour, connecting with two of them which were decent dogfish and then picking up a 37cm whiting in the gutter. He fished the gulley at the base of the ramp all match but unfortunately like Chris no more fish appeared on the ebb and finished in 12th place.
The match stretch looking North
The rest of the field caught dogfish whiting, dabs and a turbot with the longest flatfish prize going to Grimsby match ace Tony Burman for his 34cm flounder.
Many thanks to Adie for pegging out the beach and to Russ Parsons for running it on the day, thanks to Chas, Tina and Tracey for the great photos and to all those travelling to fish with the club today. The next match is planned for Saturday 12th April at Huttoft for the annual species hunt match. We are all looking forward to seeing you then.
