Tough Fishing At Trunch Lane

Skegness Pier Angling Club Match 2 – The Healey Cup

by Paul Coulthurst

The latest Skegness Pier Club match was held on Saturday 25th January at Trunch lane. Perfect weather conditions and a cool clear afternoon made fishing comfortable, but anglers struggled to find bites and catches were down on previous matches.

The beach has developed a broad sandbar along its entire length, necessitating long-distance casting to clear the shallow bank and reach the fish. Additionally, the minimal tidal flow during a small neap tide made fishing conditions challenging. The main species caught were dabs, flounders and whiting with two thornback rays, a turbot and a rockling.

Match winner Adie Cooper with a double shot of fish part of his 13 fish catch for 353cm

Match winner Adie Cooper with a double shot of fish part of his 13 fish catch for 353cm

The top rods today were Adie Cooper in first place with 13 fish for 353cm, Daniel Jackson in second with 11 fish for 291cm and Lee Williams in third with 8 fish for a total length of 235cm.

Adie Cooper won the match with a combination of perfect fresh baits presented at long range. He fished small compact baits on a three hook loop rigs to find dabs and whiting on the other side of the sandbar. He tried a variety of baits including combinations of fresh lug, sticky black lug, razorfish, tipping of with maddies or fish. He also shortened his hook lengths to target the small dabs present on the beach. Most of his fish were caught in the first hour of the match with several double shots and single fish tailing off as the tide slackened. By high water he had caught ten fish, and this was followed by several blank casts adding only three more fish in the last hour, but this was enough to win with 13 fish for 353cm.

Dan Jackson in second place with 11 fish for 291cm

Dan Jackson in second place with 11 fish for 291cm

Dan Jackson started the match fishing at long range using his “go to” casting set up of an AFAW Tournament Match Pro and tuned Penn 515 with low diameter mono. Doing this Dan picked up several double shots of dabs and whiting on fresh lug tipped with fish. Seeing other anglers starting to catch closer in he switched over to his continental style set up and mugged a couple of fish at short range inside the bank. When bites dried up here, he returned to long range fishing, casting three baits out of sight. This picked him up a bonus ray of 46cm and several single shots of fish to finish in second place with 11 fish for 291cm.

Lee Williams in third place with 8 fish for 235cm

Lee Williams in third place with 8 fish for 235cm

Lee Williams started off well picking up five decent sized whiting in the first half of the match. Lee’s bait was frozen lug tipped with mackerel. High water saw the fish switch off for everyone, but Lee persevered and caught another three dabs to add to his total of 8 fish for 235cm and third place.

John Spalton targeted dabs on a short hook length flapper rig which has proved effective on the Norfolk shingle, he finished just outside the money with 9 dabs beating Gary Hutson into 5th place with seven fish including a 54cm ray winning the longest round fish prize.

Gary Hutson won longest round fish prize with a 54cm ray, here with a last minute double shot of dabs

Gary Hutson won longest round fish prize with a 54cm ray, here with a last minute double shot of dabs

The rest of the field had similar numbers of fish with Tracey Cooper Adams catching four fish for tenth place. Junior angler Alfie Wiliams came in in ninth place with 101cm beating five other anglers and winning the longest flatfish prize for a 34cm flounder.

Tracey Cooper Adams with a nice dab

Tracey Cooper Adams with a nice dab

Many thanks to Adie for pegging the beach and for Russ Parsons for running the match. Many thanks to Tina for the great pics and to everyone travelling to fish with the club today from as far as Lincoln and the Humber area.

The next match is on Saturday 8th February and we look forward to seeing you all then.

Match results

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