The third Skegness Pier Angling Club (SPAC) match of 2020 was held yesterday, Saturday 8th February from 3:30 till 7:30pm at Winthorpe Avenue. Unfortunately the turnout was reduced down to 12, due most probably to the harbingers of doom predicting that plague, pestilence and wrecked buddies would fall upon all those who dared venture on the beach in the path of Storm Ciara. However, I had been keeping a close eye on the weather forecast and we were met with almost perfect conditions of nice lifting sea, with just a moderate south westerly.
Winthorpe Ave is just five minutes walk from my house and having fished the venue recently, I had expectations of a great match. So it proved, with rods nodding right from the first cast and fish coming out all the way along the match stretch, at all distances. With so many fish coming out, it was difficult to predict a winner, as the sea bed appeared to be paved with fish and the better casters were not finding the big whiting at distance.
Storm – what storm?
Boston based Vaidas Liebus missed a couple of decent bites early doors fishing to the left of the main wooden groyne, before getting into his stride with a two dabs and codlet treble. Fishing to the right of the groyne, young Dylan Morgan was using his continental gear to good effect, pulling out fish after fish at medium range. Local angler Rick Jarvis has taken third place in the last two matches and was on form again, catching fish a plenty. In amongst the small whiting and dabs he managed to find a couple of lesser spotted dogfish (LSD), putting him a metre in front of “hound magnet” Adie Cooper, which is no mean feat!
Match winner Dylan with one of his better sized whiting – he also caught a 38cm beauty later in the match
Further to the south, Tony Burman was showing that despite an injured back, he was still more than capable of holding his own, whilst Garry Hutson and Dave Burr were also catching well. Once again, the good fishing continued right up to the end of the match and as the cards came in at the end, seven out of the twelve anglers had caught more than 30 fish, meaning they had to use the back of the card to record the “extras”! Maybe I need to think about issuing two cards to everyone if the fishing stays this good!
Dylan Morgan started out as a junior with SPAC and it has been pleasing to watch him develop into a top class match angler. He finished up over a metre and a half in front on this occasion, winning the Healey Cup with a 46 fish mixed bag, measuring 1187cm in total. He also took a half share of the longest flatfish prize, with a nice 29cm dab. Vaidas Liebus also fished really well, taking second place with 43 fish for 1016cm. He also took the other half of the longest flatfish prize, matching Dylan’s dab with a 29cm flounder. Just one fish behind Vaidas in third place once again came Rick Jarvis, catching 38 fish for a level 1000cm. Rick was hoping to win the longest round fish prize with his 53cm LSD; but Phil Grant fishing alongside him took the cash with a LSD just one centimetre longer!
Second placed Vaidas with his dabs and codlet treble
So yet another brilliant SPAC match in terms of quantity, if not in size of fish. The match fished far better than last year’s equivalent, with 367 fish caught by the 12 anglers, consisting of 208 whiting, 140 dabs, 3 lesser spotted dogfish, 8 codlets, 7 rockling and a solitary flounder.
Full Results
- Dylan Morgan – 1187cm – 40 whiting, 4 dabs, 2 codlets
- Vaidas Liebus – 1016cm – 16 whiting, 23 dabs, 2 codlets, 1 flounder, 1 rockling
- Rick Jarvis – 1000cm – 24 whiting, 13 dabs, 2 LSD
- Adie Cooper – 853cm – 25 whiting, 9 dabs, 1 rockling
- Garry Hutson – 841cm – 24 whiting, 12 dabs
- Tony Burman – 803cm – 20 whiting, 14 dabs
- Paul Denholm – 749cm – 9 whiting, 21 dabs, 1 codlet, 4 rockling
- Dave Burr – 719cm – 17 whiting, 13 dabs
- Gordon Nelson – 500cm – 12 whiting, 10 dabs
- Phil Grant – 486cm – 9 whiting, 10 dabs, 1 LSD, 1 rockling
- Mark Lawson – 399cm – 8 whiting, 6 dabs, 3 codlets
- Jason Broughton – 219cm – 4 whiting, 5 dabs
- Longest Round – Phil Grant – 54cm LSD
- Longest Flat – Dylan/Vaidas – 29cm dab/29cm flounder
Third place again for Rick Jarvis, shown here with a dab treble
So another great match and long may the good fishing continue into 2020! The next SPAC match will be held on Saturday 22nd February from 3:30 till 7:30pm at North Shore Road, PE25 1DN. The match is open to all and Club members will be fishing for the Gordon Long Cup. Hard copies of the match rules will be available on the day for those who have not fished with SPAC before.
Slug slayer Paul Denholm
The SPAC AGM and trophy presentation will be held on Saturday 7 March at the New Park Club, Scarborough Avenue, PE25 2TQ, so please make a note in your diaries. All are welcome, there will be a free buffet and a raffle with lots of prizes. Please pass on to those not on Facebook and please contact SPAC Secretary Chas Tibble on 07984 967988 or chastibble@hotmail.com for further details.
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