Skegness Pier Angling Club fished their biggest fish rover match on Sunday the 27 October. Thirteen anglers fished at five different venues, over a six hour match to compete for the Kingsley Cup. The beaches at Sandilands, Chapel Six Marshes, Chapel Point, Trunch lane and Drake Road were the chosen venues and whiting dominated catches everywhere in varying numbers and sizes.
Perfect conditions but the small tide kept catches down
Adie Cooper chose to fish Chapel point as he thought there would be a good chance of a doggy or two in tidal flow, and as this beach has a history of producing larger fish in matches. Using a three hook clipped loop rig and size 1 Kamasan up-tide extra hooks, Adie found the whiting where plentiful at long range. He was straight into them with a 33cm fish first cast followed by a double shot on his second but, on his third cast, the rod pulled down and the line dropped slack; reeling in what he thought to be a good sized dogfish he was surprised to see a small thornback ray surface and flap onto the sand. At this point Adie stopped using any worm baits which were attracting too many whiting and switched to fish baits and increased the bait size a little. The switch to fish was the right decision as two casts later he hooked another and, after nearly losing it in the gutter a slightly larger ray of 2lb 14oz skimmed onto the beach and won the match for Adie.
Biggest fish of the day for the match winner Adie Cooper with on of two thornback rays
Fishing alongside Adie where Tracey Cooper and Dave Shorthouse who all catching whiting to 35cm. Dave adding a 30cm sole and Tracey a rockling to their whiting catch.
Moving South to Trunch lane Mark Holmes and Jon Abbot were fishing the section of beach opposite the toilet block and were catching a constant stream of whiting fishing at long range with mostly worm baits. It was interesting to see Jon using an Alvey side cast reel an unusual sight on the Lincs. beaches but they certainly cast well. Mark caught loads of whiting including a nice 36cm specimen whiting which won him second place with 15.2oz, the others being around the 27-30cm.
Mark Holmes back casting a long way and finding a decent 36cm whiting for second place
Russ Parsons picked Sandilands as this beach often produces decent fish at this time of year, however all he caught were whiting including a nice 35cm specimen which gave him third place with 13.35oz.
At Chapel Six Marshes, Dan Jackson returning to fish with the club after a short break was using the match as a warmup on his whiting fishing skills for the winter matches. Catching around forty whiting he kept the biggest at 34cm for the weigh in, coming in fourth.
The beach directly behind the match HQ at Big Catch Tackle had four or five club anglers fishing, along with a group of anglers from the Holbeach club fishing a match. This beach fished poorly in daylight with just a handful whiting, flounders and dabs caught. Once twilight arrived the whiting switched on the feed and most anglers caught in the last hour, but it was too late, and no large fish were recorded.
Tracey with one of her many whiting biggest for her was 34cm for fifth place
The most Southerly Angler was Paul Marshall who set his sights on a bass and had fished right down near wash at Seacroft esplanade a known bass venue however the bass did not show, and Paul, pestered with small whiting, here brought just a 33cm fish back.
The weigh-in was conducted by Chas at Big Catch Tackle. Many thanks to Adam Cook for keeping the shop open late to host it and for providing the hot drinks. Many thanks too, to all those travelling to fish with the club today, to Chas for organising the paperwork and to Russ for running the match on the day.
The match results
We would also like to welcome Dave Hayes and Andy Williamson fishing their first match with the club, unfortunately neither weighed in but hopefully we will see you again at another match.
The next match is on this Saturday at Chapel point which should see plenty of fish caught and we return to the usual format of a pegged match fishing for total length over four hours. We are look forward to seeing you all then.
