Match seven of the 2023 League was fished at Sandilands pumping station on Saturday 23 April. Attendance was down due to another bigger match being held near Cleethorpes so thirteen anglers fished in last of the rough sea from the recent blow up with a good surf rolling in with little wind and mild conditions. Weed was a bit of a problem at times and catches were down due to fishing the shallow beach up from low water in a surf. The fish came in one’s and two’s but with no pattern or concentrations of fish to target. Most people caught only one or two fish each.
Dave Shorthouse
Dave combined his long distance casting and match fishing expertise to scratch out eight fish for 263cm and first place on a very hard day. He started off with a treble shot of dab, dogfish and a whiting first cast however, the whiting dropped off in the surf.
Match winner Dave Shorthouse with a decent whiting
The fish did not venture into the shallow water for most of the match and remained out below the low water mark and Dave using his flat arc pendulum cast on his Century Graphex TTSM was able to constantly pick up fish throughout the match. Using a three hook clipped down rig fresh black lug, fresh ragworm, mackerel, squid for tipping and some peeler crab.
John Spalton
John began his match slowly with just a lone green dab first cast. He has worked on his casting with help of Dwayne Lockwood the legendary backcasting Champion from the Norfolk Angling Club and with his new Harrison rod plus a new foot position his casting was smooth and well timed.
John Spalton in second place with his last cast dogfish
He effortlessly gained great distance with three baits on a clipped down rig and was able to stay in touch with the fish out around the low water mark as the anglers were pushed up the shallow beach by the flood tide. John slowly added four more dabs and whiting until a very gentle bite on his last cast started to develop; john gave it time to take the bait and on the final whistle he retrieved a nice dogfish of 56cm which gave him second place with 191cm.
Russ Parsons
Russ Parsons fished in his characteristic un-rushed and methodical style; with impressive casting he was easily reaching the fish. He steadily put together a small catch of four fish to be roughly equal with Adie and John Spalton.
Russell Parsons second place with one of his dabs
A dropped whiting could have proven costly, but a last cast dogfish gave him five fish for 153cm and third place.
Adie Cooper came in fourth place being pipped at the post by two late dogfish from Russell and John he had four fish including a 54cm dogfish and the longest flat, a dab of 29cm.
Adie with a 54cm dogfish
Frank Cribb also began well with a 44cm dogfish first cast. and was in fifth place.
Frank with a dogfish of 44cm from near low water
New club member Kim West fished very well indeed in 6th place she caught two whiting fishing at medium range to beat her partner Tony Holmes who had travelled down from Scunthorpe to fish the match – well done Kim.
Kim West with one of her whiting
The remaining anglers caught one or two fish each with three blanks recorded.
It was great to meet Peter Johnson fishing his second match with the club, Kim West, Tony Holmes and Frank Cribb returning for another match and to welcome Jake Clowes fishing his first match with the club.
Many thanks to Adie for pegging out, to Russell Parsons for running the match and to Chas for match photos. The next match is at Wolla Bank on Saturday May 6th. We are looking forward to seeing you all then.
