The latest match of the Skegness Pier Club League was fished at Marsh Yard (Moggs Eye) on Saturday in a warm but near gale force south westerly wind. Despite the wind the sea was relatively calm and there was almost no weed to trouble the anglers fishing. The wind against tide did result in almost no tidal run on the flooding which made the fishing slow for the first half of the match up to high water. The ebb fished better as the tide started to run off and dogfish dominated the catches with a couple of rays, whiting, dabs and a flounder caught.
Calm seas but with a howling off shore wind
Russ Parsons found fresh black lug and small strips of squid to be what the fish wanted today. He presented small, neat, and streamlined baits on three size 1 hooks on a clipped down rig cast as far as he could on his Zulcron 435 lite rod and Daiwa Tournament Basia. Russ steadily put together a catch of six dogfish and a small ray at long range to give him a huge lead by high water. However, once the ebb started to flow as the wind and tide moved in the same direction the fish turned on to feed all along the match stretch. His lead was then quickly eroded as anglers began catching plenty of double shots of whiting and dogfish all along the match stretch.
Russell Parsons with his nice thornback ray of 7lb 1oz and 74cm
Adie Cooper, despite leaving all the rigs he’d made the night before at home, luckily found three loose ones in the bottom of his box and went on to have a good start with three dogfish to 63cm on his first three casts. Bites slowed with the loss of tide flow near high water so he waited for the fish to return with tidal current. When the ebb started to pull, he started to catch, then went up a gear adding fish in quick succession; another four dogfish, a dab, and a ray to his card to overtake Russ and go into the lead with fifteen minutes left on 437cm.
Second place Adie Cooper with a nice ray
On the last cast Russell had a tentative pull down bite and winding in on the whistle found a heavy resistance, soon a large ray kitted up to the surface behind the waves. Russell carefully played it I through the small surf and landed a nice thornback ray of 7lb 1oz (74cm) which regained the lead and gave him the match win with 463cm and the longest round fish prize. Adie was pushed into second by a slim margin of 26cm.
Russ with one of his six dogfish
Paul Denholm started off the match with two dogfish and a whiting, but things didn’t really improve until the ebb. He was casting a long way to find the fish using his new Zziplex M4GT and Daiwa Millionaire ST to fish king rag and squid tip of three hooks clipped down. Paul added another five fish a dab, whiting and dogfish in the last hour to come in third with 248cm and his 29cm Dab added the longest flat to his prize money.
Paul Denholm saw a change in his current luck with a well earned third place today, hopefully first of many this year
The rest of the field found the fishing very “peggy” with long waits between bites. Karl Nangle and John Spalton concentrated at fishing at distance for most of the match and had a few whiting and a dogfish early on then similar near the end.
Tracey Cooper- Adams was buzzing to catch her first couple of dogfish from the Lincs. coast today
Dave Shorthouse and Tracey Cooper tried close in at 30yds and this tactic did produce a few dogfish for them both with Tracey landing a double shot of them for her first ever off the Lincolnshire sand. Chris Allsop similarly fished around 70 yards and picked up a dogfish a whiting near the start but nothing for the next three hours. It was also good to see a nice codling of around 5lb was caught by a couple of pleasure anglers fishing nearby who were not in the match.
The match results
Many thanks to Adie for pegging out the match and to Russell for running the match on the day to Chas, Tina, and Tracey for the great pics and to everyone travelling to fish with us today. We are looking forward to seeing you all again at the next match on the 20th April at Trunch lane, which is currently fishing well for bass so signs are looking good for the match.
