The first round of the Ray Torr Memorial Shield two day festival was held at Trunch lane on Saturday with 21 anglers competing for the shield and cash prizes. Twenty one anglers fished in windy conditions with a biting cold North westerly wind with a small swell and little weed present. The fishing had been very good at this venue right up to the morning of the match with anglers catch up to twenty dogfish each, rays, and bass.
The Match Stretch looking South
This changed for the match itself of course, possibly due the change in the weather conditions on the day, and catches were down with anglers only catching fish sporadically with long periods of waiting between bites. Most caught fish on their first couple of casts and after that the bites where very hard to find until an hour into the ebb when the fish returned as tide began to flow.
Day One
Karl Nangle fished at distance with his AFAW match-pro and a Penn fathom 12 reel and caught fish steadily through the entire match. He used a three hook clipped down rig and caught four dogfish and four whiting on sandeel, bluey and worm baits to win the match with 363cm total length of fish.
A double shot for Karl
Dave Shorthouse alternated between fishing at range with his Century Graphex Supermatch and multiplier and fishing close in with his continental gear and long flapper rigs. In this way he covered every part of the beach in front of him to scratch out a few bites. He started the match well with two dogfish, a small ray (42cm) and a whiting but like everyone else he struggled to find any patterns of fish for the rest of the match and added just one more dogfish after high tide to finish with 252cm in second place. Best baits were sandeel, blow lug, mackerel and ragworm.
Second Place Dave Shorthouse with a double shot of dogfish
Ian Nelson had a double shot of dogfish at the start of the match, then a long wait, then another on ragworm just after high tide. On his last cast caught another double shot of dogfish as the fish returned. Ian found the best bait was squid strip elasticated above the hook which was filled with ragworm on a three hook clipped rig, fished at distance. Ian finished in third place with 5 fish for 248cm.
Ian Nelson in Third place with a dogfish
Russ Parsons had two whiting in his first two casts then had nothing all the way up to high water. The writing was well and truly on the wall for a poor result for Russ as by the last hour of the match he still had not added another fish. Then out of the blue the landed three decent dogfish in consecutive casts in the last 20 minutes (a double then a single shot) which pushed him up into fourth place with 223cm.
Adie Cooper’s match started very slowly and trailed his neighbouring anglers with Jake Clowes on his left catching a treble shot of dogfish first cast and Russell catching two whiting to his right. Adie had to wait over an hour before he had his first fish which was a dogfish just before high tide but then as the tide ebbed, he started to catch adding a 66cm ray (5lb 10oz) pushing him into second place then a double shot of dogfish and was leading the match into the last 20 minutes. At that point a flurry of fish moved through the beach and Dave, Russell and Ian were all able to make the most of this catching up to three dogfish in their last two casts while Adie caught nothing and fell right down into fifth place.
Match organiser Russell Parsons with a double shot first cast. Russ finished in fourth place
Jake Clowes fished well in the match catching more fish than everyone apart from the winner, he even led the match at the start with a treble shot of dogfish and adding two more fish after high tide. Jake was unlucky to come in sixth with191cm due to the stamp of his dogfish being a lot smaller. Jake was using his new Vercelli Potenza rod braid and fixed spool to cast a long way today bets baits being rag, bluey and squid.
Simon Torr sponsored the match today in memory of his father Ray Torr who was an active member of the club. Simon travelled over from Wales to fished with us today and managed two dogfish and two whiting. This shows how hard it was today as the previous evening Simon had caught 22 dogfish fishing the same spot whilst practising!
Mark Lawson caught three decent dogfish and Mark Bradbury fished most the match for a good flounder, but these proved super scarce today with Tony Burman finding the biggest flat with a small dab at a mere 26cm.
Colin Shaw joined the club today and fished his first match with us he dis very well in the hard conditions to catch two dogfish and a whiting for 11th place, Colin fish rag and mackerel on a three hook flapper rig at around 70-80 yards.
We would also like to welcome Charlie Needham and Tony Thomas who made the long trip over from Norfolk to fish with us today. It was great to meet you both and hopefully we will see you fishing more with us in the future.
The rest of the field caught just one or two fish in the match today and two blanks were recorder for Mylo Disney and Tracey who sadly blanked and to make matters worse lost a good fish in the surf possibly a big dogfish or a ray as it was a solid weight before the hooked popped.
Day Two
On the second day of the festival at Trunch lane conditions had changed, with lighter winds coming in from a north easterly direction. This meant the large swell which had been generated further North in yesterday’s strong wind was being directed into the beach. The rip created by the large swell made presenting baits almost impossible for the first hour of the match dragging anglers gear way over to the right. Fishing did become easier at slack water and during the ebb but the turbulence and suspended sand from breakers had sent most of the fish into deeper water. As a result, the match proved extremely hard with most anglers finding only a single whiting or a flat all match or blanking.
Anglers had to hold their rods high at the start to have any chance of holding bottom when the tide and wind ran together in the same direction. Lots of crossed lines occurred
Dave Shorthouse had looked at the weather and surf forecast the night before the match and decided to fish a “worm approach” to target whiting as he thought the conditions would be too rough for the dogfish and rays. He had come prepared with 7oz leads with extra thick wires to anchor his baited rigs firmly in the sand giving his rigs more fishing time per cast before being dragged away by the waves. Casting as far as he could he was able to find the flatter water beyond the breakers and find more fish than anyone else. Dave Caught a small turbot first cast and added five small whiting to his card to win the match with black lug and blow lug tipped with tiny pieces of mackerel. He finished first with six small fish for 147cm and his 21cm Turbot won him today’s longest flat prize.
Dave caught six fish whilst everyone else struggled to get a bite, here with a whiting
Daz Rose came in second place with a 33cm whiting which he caught at long range on lugworm. Daz who is an international boat angler has been working on his pendulum casting and the increased distance helped him clear the rough water and find a fish today. The single fish also won him the longest round fish prize of the match.
Daz Rose with a dogfish from the first day
In joint third place was Adie Cooper and Gary Hutson who had just a single whiting each measuring 31cm.
The rest of field either had just a single small whiting or blanked with ten anglers unable to catch a fish.
Overall Results
The presentation of the match prizes and the overall festival prizes was held in the Big Catch Tackle shop just behind the beach were Simon Torr presented the Ray Torr memorial shield to the winner Dave Shorthouse who won the event with 3 points, second place went to Karl Nangle with his win yesterday who scored 8 points and 384cm, in third was Adie Cooper with 8 points and 244cm he also won the longest round fish prize for his 66cm ray. Tony Burman picked up the longest flatfish prize for his 26cm dab.
Adie with a whiting
We would like to say a very big thank you to Simon Torr for making it all possible by donating £500 in prize money and for a Club Shield in memory of his father Ray Torr. Ray was an active member of the club who had held many positions on the committee in its early days and had worked behind the scenes organising many major events including 150 participant matches, accommodation, and family events. Simon travelled 600 miles round trip, to fish with us this weekend and present the shield.
The weekend winners: Dave Shorthouse, Karl Nangle, Adie Cooper and Tony Burman
Thank you to all that fished with the club this weekend, to Adie for pegging out the matches, to Russell for doing a great job running the event as he does with all the club matches, to Tina Moffatt, Tracey Cooper-Adams, and Chas for the great pictures of the matches. Many thanks well as to Steve, Katy, and Adam for allowing use of their shop facilities and to Chas Tibble for all his tireless work behind the scenes organising this weekend’s festival.
We look forward to seeing you all at the next match.
