Skegness Pier Angling Club (SPAC) held their latest match this morning at Wolla Bank north of Chapel from 08:45am till 12:45pm. Due to the dreaded parking app, I rode down on my bike, arriving around 45 minutes into the match. Although some decent hounds had been caught at North Shore last Tuesday, with the best going 13lb 5oz, I thought that the rough seas during the rest of the week would have sent the hounds scurrying offshore again and so it proved, with the match a struggle from start to finish.
Ian Nelson with his 23cm schoolie bass
Although conditions were perfect for the 12 anglers that turned up to fish, with bright sunshine, light wind and the sea dropping nicely from the northerly wind roughness of the previous few days, obviously the fish hadn’t read the script! Most of the field were still blanking when I arrived, although reports had come through of Grimsby ace Paul Denholm catching a couple of fish from peg 1 to the north of the match stretch. Ian Nelson was fishing about 10 yards out with scratching rigs and as I stood next to him, his rod tip rattled sharply. After a quick check that it wasn’t me kicking his rod butt, Ian struck and quickly brought ashore a small schoolie bass, which reached 23cm on his measure. Then further along to the north, Tony Burman wound in a 27cm flounder to avoid the dreaded blank!
Match winner Paul Denholm with the longest flatfish
Our top lady angler Tracy Cooper-Adams has been fishing really well of late and is currently sitting in third place in the Aggregate League. So she was relieved to catch a tiny 14cm weever, which would be worth at least 2 aggregate points, possibly more. Her partner Adie also caught a small weever, as did match organiser Russ Parsons, but there were still five anglers blanking as the tide dropped away. When I reached Paul Denholm, he had missed quite a few small bass bites early on, but was way out in front with a 25cm bass, 18cm flounder and a lovely 37cm sole. Paul caught all his fish at close range with blow lug and maddies on a short snood 3 up flapper rig, with 2oz ball leads to allow movement in the tide.
Tony again with his last cast flounder which leapfrogged him over Adie into second place
Some of the field had by now gone for bust and were chucking crab baits as far as they could, trying to catch a match winning hound. But it was all to no avail, although Adie caught a tiny 17cm bass, then as Russ Parsons called time on the match, Tony Burman brought in a last ditch 29cm flounder, caught on ragworm on a flapping rig with small hooks. Apparently Simon Torr had winkled out a 24cm flounder from end peg 12, but unfortunately the five blanking anglers remained fishless.
Tracy came in 6th equal place and gained another 4 aggregate points with this blank saving weever. Well done Tracy
So Paul Denholm’s three fish for 80cm were more than enough to win him the A Smith Cup, his first SPAC match win of 2024. Tony Burman’s last gasp flounder saw him take second place with two fish for 56cm, with hound magnet Adie coming in third with two fish for 33cm. Paul made a good day even better, by taking the longest flatfish prize with his 37cm sole, along with the longest round prize for his 25cm bass. His sole weighed in at 1lb 4oz to also take the lead for the Heaviest Flatfish of the Year trophy and prize.
Top three from the left, Tony, Paul and Adie
Full result as follows:
Paul Denholm – 80cm – 1 flounder, 1 bass, 1 sole
Tony Burman – 56cm – 2 flounders
Adie Cooper – 33cm – 1 bass, 1 weever
Simon Torr – 24cm – 1 flounder
Ian Nelson – 23cm – 1 bass
6= Tracy Cooper-Adams – 14cm – 1 weever
6= Russ Parsons – 14cm – 1 weever
Longest Flat – Paul Denholm – 37cm sole
Longest Round – Paul Denholm – 25cm bass
So although there weren’t a lot of fish caught, the match epitomised what match fishing is all about, which is making the best of the conditions, having the right bait in front of you and catching what is there to be caught.
