Skegness Pier Angling Club fished their latest match at North Shore on Saturday 30th November, for the Bateman Cup. Nineteen anglers fished in pleasant conditions with a light south-westerly wind, no rain and a couple of waves in the edge of a calm sea.
Loads of whiting and dabs were caught but at different times depending on the peg drawn. The smallish tide, makeup of the beach, sand bars or the groins, created an uneven spread of fish across the match stretch. With most if not all losing the fish from their peg at some point in the match. The southern end suffered this during the flood with hardly anything caught but as tide turned after high water the fish started feeding. The anglers on the northern pegs had a great start, catching fish every chuck during the flood but after high tide fishing really slowed down here with some anglers struggling to find any fish in the last two hours.
Match winner Daz Rose (pictured here from an earlier match) fished very well with limited bait 33 fish for 893cm and his first Skegness Pier Club match win
Distance casting didn’t seem to play a big part tonight either with the most productive area being just short of 100m with short flapper rigs out fishing long casts with clipped down rigs. Those big hitters like Adie Cooper where just finding odd single fish at their peak distances and had more bites dropping short.
Daz Rose arrived with a restricted amount of bait consisting of a small pack of marsh worms, a single mackerel and 8 medium sandeels. He initially had concerns whether the bait would last for the duration of the match as there where lots of whiting about, it became vital for him to conserve his bait. So, he prepared his fish baits into small pieces cutting the sandeels into four sections and tipping of single lugworm with tiny pieces of mackerel forming small, 25mm, bite sized cocktails mounted on size 4 Gamakatsu F314 match hooks and 14” snoods. Dropping his three hook rigs into the feeding zone with his fixed spool and T800 setup, he put his international boat angling experience to good use in a display of speed fishing. Methodically casting, running to sign in his fish and repeating to win his first match with the club with 33 fish for a total length of 893cm.
Gary Hutson in second place with 31 dabs and whiting for 891cm
Gary Hutson wasn’t going flat out for distance finding most fish at medium range between 90 and 100 yards, going out any further resulted in fewer fish. He pushed Daz closely, just falling short by just 2cm to come in second place with 31 fish for 891cm.
In third place was Grimsby ace Karl Nangle, fishing in his characteristic relaxed unhurried way that belies his speed and ability putting together 29 fish for 783cm.
Tracy Cooper-Adams finished in 11th place with 19 fish for 492cm
Fourth place was Paul Dixon with his best performance of this year impressively bagging 27 whiting and dabs for 690cm.
Despite the peggy nature of the beach tonight there were plenty of fish around with many anglers catching over twenty fish each including junior angler Alfie Williams recording 21 whiting and dabs for a creditable 10th place, whilst fishing his just his second match with the club.
Many thanks to Adie Cooper for pegging out the match, to Russ Parsons for running it on the day and to Chas with his assistance working out he results and taking great pics. Many thanks to all those travelling to fish with the club and to the anglers providing the information for this report.
The next match is on Saturday 14th December at Jackson’s Corner and the Lookout Pub for the Christmas Fayre, which invite will be posted tomorrow and we all look forward to seeing you then.
