The latest Skegness Pier Angling Club match was held at Cleethorpes on Saturday evening. Twelve anglers fished the beach near the Leisure Centre around high water on a wet night in continuous drizzle and a light southerly breeze.
Flounder, eels and small school bass were caught with most anglers catching fish. At times the bites came quickly after casting out but they were from small fish and very timid, many could not connect with the bites.
The match stretch looking South
In first place was Tracey Cooper with ten fish for 243cm. Tracey did well at this venue last year and after a year of continuously improving her fishing she won her first match, beating a field of very experienced match anglers with a bag of mostly flounders including two double shots of decent fish to 30cm. Very well done Tracey. Tracey was using continental style rod and fixed spool with a pyramid lead, on a two up one down unclipped rig with size four match hooks, fished at around 40 to 60 yds. Her baits were ragworm, lugworm, maddies and whites.
Match winner Tracey Cooper with one of her ten fish catch
Tracey’s winning edge was fishing with a heavier lead than many of the other competitors which encouraged self-hooking which improved her catch rate with the shy biting fish. This combined with her choice of maddies (small harbour rag) and her attention to detail in bait presentation, tipped the balance and won her the match.
In second place was the very experienced Tony Burman. Tony fished a light rod and long thin baits of king ragworm, whites and lug. Tony landed a good eel of 65cm second cast and spent the flood catching decent flounders to 30cm and small bass to put together a card of 182cm by high tide. He was fishing to very subtle features or slight depressions in the sand which held fish. However, his section of the beach seemed to dry up on the ebb and in the last hour he added one fish to finish in second place with seven fish for 201cm.
Tony Burman came in second place with 201cm, with one of his flounders
Third place went to Gary Hutson who fished very similar tactics but could not catch up with Tony’s large eel and had seven fish but a total length of 170cm.
Fourth place was Russell Parsons with seven fish for 161cm and fifth was Adie Cooper with again seven fish for 122cm. The rest of the field caught just one to three fish in a difficult match with many missed bites. Two blanks were recorded.
Many thanks to Adie for pegging out the match and to Russell for organising and running it on the day. The next match is in a couple of weeks at Anderby creek targeting the returning winter species.
