Venue: Bacton noon to 5pm 11th May

The Bacton match was a very warm affair with bright sunshine and the heat to go with it.We all parked within the confines of Castaways caravan park and special thanks to the owners for allowing us the facilities.

 
The majority of angler opted for a walk along the cliffs to the slip road behind the gas terminals, and then as far as the last pipe to the left.Golden balls, Tony “Genesis” Chidwick and Dene “Geordieman” Conway all opted for the bay just after the first pipe with Golden balls claiming prime position.Further along John Neave and Dennis “the whinger” Hunn walked that extra few bays to get near the other pipe with Dennis claiming the prime spot.
With blue skys and blistering heat it was hard not to just kick back and enjoy the weather but with the promise of possible good bass and smoothhound everyone tried hard.
Tony & Dene opted for big baits thruout the match but both blanked .Richard “Golden Bollox” Ives aimed his small baits at the end of the pipe to pick up 8 fish mainly pouting.In the last hour of the match Dennis managed to find two good bass off the end of the far pipe with two pouting giving him a good win with a total weight of 3.10 and 1/3,Russell Barber, Dick Hawes and Ray “Popeye” Ward all managed one fish each and in total 3 of us blanked with others reporting small codling and crab activity.
A nice day out if you forget the fishing aspect of it.

Results

Colwyn Bay Victoria sea angling club,
Summer league match 2,
Greenfield, Sunday 11th May 2008.

18 members fished the second leg at Greenfield. With blistering sunshine and light winds it really felt like summer at last. It wasn`t to last though, we had a thunderstorm and rain for the last half hour of the match, catching a few people out who weren`t dressed for it!

Venue: Kelling 9am to 2pm 4th May
Kelling was host to this weeks match. We were met by glorious sunshine; however the wind put a dampener on the temperature. There was a good turn out for a change (eventually when everyone remembered what time the match actually started!) and the club would like to welcome all new members. Anyway, back to the match report. With summer arriving abruptly I think the sun had gone to our heads. I say this because of the array of different baits on show before we teed off. Garlic, olives and silt, I know what your thinking!!! Fishermen will try anything to catch fish. New comer Ray (Popeye) Ward was responsible for the olives and the silt which managed to catch a good size rockling.

The sea was flat calm and the order of the day was dabs… well so we hoped. The chairman Tony Chidwick and golden b******s were convinced that a long hike towards the block house would produce the goods. A few anglers including myself headed towards the wreck and everyone else filled in the gaps.

At the end of the match many of the anglers had a mixed bag with pout and dabs being the most common fish caught. However congratulations must handed to our tiddler bashing champ Dene Conway who finally caught something to way in! The lucky devil managed to haul in two starry smoothhounds at 57 cm each as well as 5 pouting one of which measured 31cm giving him a winning weight of 4.7 lbs.This just goes to show after weeks of catching next to nothing even the most disheartened anglers can come good.The early showing of smoothhound is a promising sign which will get anglers back onto the beaches and catching good fish again.

One of the reason for Dene’s success was he was using fresh peeler crab. With next weeks match being played at Bacton near the gas site; (a good bass mark) I wonder how many more anglers will be wrapping crabs around hooks and crossing fingers? 

  Dene displaying his first of 2 smoothhound near the wreck at Kelling

Results

This weeks match took place in Cley, there was a bit controversy before the match begun with the car parking fees set by the Norfolk Wildlife Trust £3.00 they wanted but most of us turned up before 9am and didn’t have to pay. Some anglers fished this part of the beach the day before. Reports were not hopeful, Dene Conway informed us of his tiddler bashing session with only one sizeable dab to show for his efforts.

However when it was time to leave the car park most of the anglers headed to the left past the area that Dene fished the day before (to the left of the car park). A few disheartened anglers including myself felt that there might be better quarry to be had to the right of the car park heading towards the wreck. Our junior angler accompanied by his grandad hiked most of the way to Salthouse to try their luck.

The key to success was to find the gullies and holes holding the larger dabs and pouting. Our chairman Tony Chidwick managed to keep hitting the right spots and took 1st place with a winning weight of 1.12 2/3 lb.

At the end of the match the best of the catches came from the left hand side of the car park. Many anglers commenting about the number of small fish caught. A good sign for things to come, maybe? We will have to wait and see what next weeks match brings.

Match results