The latest SPAC match was fished on Saturday evening at Anderby Creek on a cool Autumn night with a light offshore wind. Eleven anglers competed for the RG Mitchell Cup. A large groundswell of between four and six foot hampered bite detection at times but weed stayed away and all anglers caught fish, mostly whiting with a few dogfish and a couple of flatfish including a small turbot.
A big swell and a tide rip to the right caused tangles early in the match for most
Anderby Creek beach has a very steep high tide bank and the extra depth helped with the fishing around high water but once the tide was on the flat sand the waves were breaking and creating white water out 100yds from the beach. The match began with a strong current running left to right causing some crossed lines but as the beach filled in the banks to the north of the match stretch deflected the current and made fishing easier. Whiting bites came from the start with pegs at both ends producing double and treble shots of fish with the middle pegs fishing slightly slower and it was casting distance which gave the advantage on the day in the rough conditions with the bigger casters recording double the number of fish to those fishing sub 100yds.
Match winner Adie Cooper with one of his 33 fish for 996cm
Adie Cooper fished for whiting from the start with three hook clipped down rigs with size 1 Kamasan uptide hooks, small baits, fishing at around 150yds and with twelve minutes between casts. Baits were fresh lug, blow lug, mackerel, squid, sandeel and razor fish. On the next peg was Ian Nelson and at the start and both where drifting way to the right in the fast tide which was causing a few tangles. They were neck and neck for most of the match but Ian’s switch to fixed grips to counter the drift lost him a few decent whiting when the grips caught in the soft sand on the high tide ramp which bumped some fish off in the pounding surf. This was just a few fish but enough to fall behind Adie and Ian couldn’t make that number of fish back up against Adie’s catch rate he finished with 26 fish for 739cm and came in third place. Adie went on to win the match with a consistent catch rate and methodical approach using the same rigs throughout, winning with 33 fish (whiting and dogfish) for 996cm.
Paul Marshall with a dogfish. Paul came in fourth place with 22 dogfish and whiting for 645cm
At the other end of the match stretch Russ Parsons and John Spalton were matching each other fish for fish for the first two hours of the match until Russell’s catch rate took a dive when his braid parted bringing in a treble shot of whiting followed by a crack off on the next cast, meanwhile John had landed four or five decent whiting pushing him into a lead. Russell sat down to regain his composure with a coffee then pressed on with his smaller baits on short snoods at long range. His baits were sandeel and fresh lug sections tipped off with fish (half beaks). Into the last hour Johns bite conversion tailed off giving Russell an opportunity to catch up. He steadily overtook John with a dogfish and a stream of double shots of small whiting whilst John had plenty of bites but couldn’t land any of the smaller stamp of fish. In the last half hour John’s catch rate slowed and finally dried up while Russell continued catching to come in second place with an impressive 30 fish for 869cm whist John finished in fifth place with 22 fish.
Tracey found the fish on the late flood here with a treble shots of decent whiting
Paul Marshall pegged in the middle of the stretch came in fourth place with 22 fish for 645cm, long range fishing with three clipped down rigs kept him catching when the whiting backed off on the ebb leaving the shorter casters bite-less at times. Around high water most were catching well with an average of around 10 fish for three meters recorded showing that there were plenty of whiting present with the potential for much more if conditions were calmer. Tracey Cooper caught a small turbot, Mark Bradbury caught a flounder of 24cm winning longest flat and Tony Dunk caught a nice dogfish of 62cm on ragworm, winning longest round fish. It was great to see Paul Denholm fishing with us again after a break from fishing over the summer and Kev Martin joining us after organising a coarse match earlier in the day.
Tony Dunk with the longest round fish of the night a 62cm dogfish
Many thanks to Russell for running the match and to Adie for pegging out the match stretch also to the anglers travelling from Corby and Grimsby to fish. The next match is at Uncle Barry’s café (Mastin’s corner) in a couple of weeks’ time.
