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Walcott Fur and Feather

Sunday 21st December

I picked Smudge up around 7:30 and drove the full 3 miles to Walcott. There were a few already in the Kingfisher, Frenchie had opened up early to allow us a registration venue and to sort the guys out with a top breakie. I never heard a single complaint other than "feck I'm full!", top scran and I'd heartily recommend it if you've the time before a session. It was pretty obvious from the suspension on Honourable's motor that there were a few prizes on offer too.

The sea was a lovely rolling mess of chocolate and I quite fancied it, The only downside I could see was the match timings, not a case of bad planning but more fitting it where John could get it. We'd normally pitch up round high water to fish the ebb and preferably into darkness, today would see us fish from 10:00 to 14:30 with high water around 13:30. Midday high waters and neap tides are never great but hopefully the colour would help a little. Me and Smudge dropped in over the wall probably 2 or 3 groins south of the Poachers and although the beaches are building up again, there's still a lot of sand off them. We were allowed 4 hooks over 2 rods, so the plan was to fish a flapper inside the bank and hurl a pennel as far as we could.

No tide, no weed to speak of and only the occasional pin whiting for the next 3 hours, then as high water approached i managed a slug of 24cm, carded at least which is more than Croc had done to my right. I think Smudge had managed a 30cm whiting around the same time. High water came and went with only a barely perceptible increase in tide and a smattering of weed, I managed a just sizeable 27cm whiting and Smudge had a nice dab, Croc was still struggling with the pins. Dabs and Mack were directly behind the Poachers and found a bit more tide here and also a few more sizeable fish in it, though it wasn't until mack banged out both rods in the last half hour that he managed a couple of codling, one at 60 odd, the other 50 odd cm. Nice fish. The jungle drums had John Sheldrick with another 40cm+ fish at the slip, for the rest it was just sizeable bits or plagued by pins.

I've copied Honourable's full results below and his write up, about says it all really. Despite the fishing we had a thoroughly enjoyable day and everybody went home with a prize of some description, it was nice to catch up with a few old mates too. Anyway Honourable's results below, and try to overlook anything from 4th down..

Well folks, it might not have set any records, but I think everyone caught something, even if many fish were undersize.

We have to say a big thank you to the very generous support of everyone who attended and for the huge number of prizes, along with some of our friends who sent something in their absence. We had more prizes than anglers and I think everyone seemed to enjoy the day.

Another big thank you has to be said to the proprietors and staff of the Kingfisher Cafe, who welcomed us all at 8 a.m. and supplied great breakfasts and their generosity in offering competitors free tea or coffee during the day. I shall send a thank you and a little something seasonal on all our behalves in the morning.

Moving on to the actual fishing then, despite the small tide, flat sea and fairly bright start to the morning a few Codling did put in an appearance and a lot of small Whiting, Dabs, Pout and Rockling to keep the 21 anglers happy.

Using the length to weight conversion rounded-up, we have to say very well done on a very convincing win by Shaun McDermott, who found two good fish toward the end of the match to add to his earlier sizeable samples. Shaun returned 8 lbs 11 ounces and included the day's best round fish with a Cod of 5 lbs 2 ounces fishing close to Poacher's Pocket at the northern end of the beach.

Shaun scooped the match pools and biggest round fish pool totaling £60.00 and first pick of the prize table, which included a fine selection of fresh game (thanks David) a wide selection of Wines, Beers, confectionary, packs of fishing leads etc.

Runner-up in the match pool and with second draw from the prize table was John Sheldrick, who fished the slipway to the south of the match length and took a single Codling and Flounder for 1 lb 13 ozs.

Steve Smith, fishing next to the winner found a selection of sizeable fish to card 1 lb 6 ozs for third place in the match money and choice of prizes:

4th Equal Terry Smith 1 lb 3 ozs
4th Equal Peter Walpole 1 lb 3 ozs
6th Carl Bale 1 lb 2.5 ozs
7th John Abbott 15 ounces
8th Andy Lawes 14 ounces
9th David Field 13.5 ounces
10th David Overton 11 ounces
11th Equal Ian Holmes 8.5 ounces (I had a cm more than him!)
11th Equal Jamie Bale 8.5 ounces
13th Barry Daynes 8 ounces
14th Ian Walpole 7.5 ounces
15th Bob Murray 4.5 ounces
16th Barry Bale 2.5 ounces

I believe that the remaining 5 anglers all caught, but unfortunately failed to find any fish to meet NFSA recommended retention size limits.

Having gone through the list of anglers that had carded sizeable fish and with many prizes remaining on the table, we ensured that every competitor picked up a prize and then began going through the list again until we ran out, such is the generosity of our supporters.

The final payout of £21.00 for the biggest flatfish went to Jamie's uncle Carl Bale for his 12 ounce Flounder.

Thanks to your company I enjoyed another fun day and I hope you all did too.

It was a cracking day and I thoroughly enjoyed it and aside from a text or 2 from PK I pretty much got away with fishing like a muppet, that was until I got the following email from Geno the Merciless :

LMFAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Every now and again you see something on the internet which makes you laugh. Sometimes, you laugh so much you pop ribs, and cry so much, that you have to take off your shirt and wring it out.

Today I saw such a thing...
.
.
.
.

4th Equal Terry Smith 1 lb 3 ozs
4th Equal Peter Walpole 1 lb 3 ozs
6th Carl Bale 1 lb 2.5 ozs
7th John Abbott 15 ounces
8th Andy Lawes 14 ounces
9th David Field 13.5 ounces
10th David Overton 11 ounces

11th Equal Ian Holmes 8.5 ounces
11th Equal Jamie Bale 8.5 ounces

13th Barry Daynes 8 ounces
14th Ian Walpole 7.5 ounces
15th Bob Murray 4.5 ounces
16th Barry Bale 2.5 ounces

Read it and weep.

I did.

Anyone for golf?

Merciless basket, perhaps I should have lessons with PK in the New Year? At least there's a few positive signs for the fishing round here, from what I've seen reported elsewhere it's as consistent as the cod capitals at the minute, probably more so given the rod hours down south compared to round here. I'm going to have a go locally early in the New Year if I can't wangle a trip before in my new socks and undies..

Trimingham

Wednesday 17th December

A tale off in the fishing down south saw me and a few of the boys arranging a mini trip up here. Plan was we'd meet at Trimingham 8ish, fish for a few hours over the top then go for a fry up at the Kingfisher. Metcheck had the wind going through the NW quarter overnight that we hoped would put a lump on as it went west whilst we fished. Smudge picked me up and we met PK at the car park. Bless him he was still sat in the car, no gear out or anything. There was a scruffy sea and a marrow chilling wind but no lump on the sea despite it being nicely coloured, we nearly had to drag PK out the car and slowly we made our way down the beach.

We just got down to where we wanted to fish as Nobby trundled down the beach. The last hour of the flood saw a small amount of weed a nuisance in the heavy tide, but that soon dropped out as the tide eased over the top. We all had a steady stream of bits before PK had a quick fire double of codling, the biggest between 2.5 and 3lb, the other a regulation pound and a bit fish. We all needed a boost and that was it, the second rods that had sat in the rest while the weed was easing were soon fired out and it wasn't long before the whiting and pout were interspersed with the regulation codling. I nearly had a seizure when one of my rods nearly left the rest, definitely not a codling but a sparkling schoolie around 1.5lb, aggressive little bugger it was.

We packed up at 1ish and were soon sat in the warm of the Kingfisher tucking into a big breakfast, not an earth shattering day but better than PK had done at Hopton the day before and it does at least look as though there's one or two showing up here now. Super little social rounded off with a lard fest, bloody marvelous. I'm looking forward to Honourable's Fur and Feather this Sunday at Walcott, I reckon there'll still be a chance of a decent 1 or 2 if the colour holds. Registration is at 8am at the Kingfisher on Walcott front, be good to see a few of you there.