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EDP report 29/01/14

A bit of an upturn in sport over the weekend, I have no reason why, the wind and pressure were not particularly good all that changed was a drop in temperatures. It just goes to show that any of our predictions are guesses at best, they wouldn’t call it fishing, they’d call it catching if it was that predictable. A few chunky little codling showed up over the rough ground marks again, there were also a few with some nice flounders on the east Norfolk sand, over high water and the first half of the ebb seemed to be the most productive time. It’s a similar story around the patch with odd ones and twos appearing randomly, not enough to raise too many hopes of a spring run but they are that stamp that do appear in the spring.

Holt SAC didn’t find them last Sunday unfortunately and dabs and rockling were the mainstay in their catches at Cley. John Neave took the top spot with 12 fish for 2lb 6oz, Richard Ellis second with 6 for 1lb 4oz with Tony Thomas a further 20oz away in third. These results almost mirrored those of Norfolk AC the week before. 13yr old Jess plumb took the honours with 2lb 5oz of dabs and rockling, Ian Gennery was second with 1lb 12oz and Richard Ellis framed two weeks running with 1lb 8oz and third spot. Great to see juniors coming through and framing in these competitive matches, more than plumb senior ever did! A cold snap set to descend on us on the backs of some easterlies too, those fishing will be wanting to wrap up. It might just be me and my mental block with easterlies but they rarely do much good (unless they’re there for a good while) in my opinion, less flats and more rockling in match reports next week, but who knows, just a guess after all!

EDP report 22/01/14

COMING, FILED ON ANOTHER PC!

EDP report 15/01/14

COMING, FILED ON ANOTHER PC!

EDP report 08/01/14

Sea anglers often complain if we don’t get enough low pressure, but it’s starting to feel like you can have too many, with one low after another heading into us from the Atlantic. Aside the wet and windy havoc they are causing, sport hasn’t responded to the lows either really, we seem to be on the boundary of some good cod and codling above the Humber and plenty of small codling in and around the Thames. I was chatting with Paul Kerry today about this, and rather than bemoaning the lack of cod as you might expect, we were both agreed that this year the numbers and quality of our dabs has been outstanding. Matches have given good weights of these feisty little flatties and made for some pretty competitive angling, they also taste great.

Holt SAC fished a couple of matches over New Year at Kelling, the first was an open and club competition fished on New Year’s Day. Gary Medler ran out winner with 7lb 1oz with John Neave and Henry Randell joint second with 6lb 3oz apiece. John Neave continued his good start to 2014 with a win in the club match last Sunday, again dabs dominated and John managed 5lb 13oz, Tony Thomas was second with 3lb 6oz and Pete Loke third with 3lb 2oz. Norfolk Angling Club fished their inaugural league match last Monday night, I’ll make sure I get the results in next week’s report. The week ahead and into the weekend has more wind from the south and with neap tides expectations are low, there’s a chance that we will get a bit of north over the weekend that if strong enough might just be enough to bring some codling within casting range, failing that there’s always the lovely dabs!

EDP report 01/01/14

Despite clean-up operations and all the publicity following the surge in early December, access to some of the region’s best beaches is still limited. Trimingham and Mundesley are particularly bad though you can get onto the beach in Mundesley village by the coast guard look out. Vale road, Heart Attack, and the Lifeboat shed all have access issues. Those that are finding their way onto the beach are finding plenty of dabs with some nice ones amongst them, fish of over 30cm are not uncommon. I appreciate that most are fishing for the elusive cod at this time of the year, in my opinion the humble dab can taste almost as good and can usually be relied upon to take a bait and they are showing in good numbers from Southwold up to the shingle.

Holt SAC found the dabs in fine feeding form in their Christmas Fayre Open and Town team Challenge match at Kelling. Top individual on the day was Clyde Leggett with 40 fish for 8lb 5oz, second spot went to Henry Randell with 30 fish for 7lb 12oz and Mike Watts ran in third with 35 fish for 7lb 10oz. Teams on the day were Gorleston in 1st followed by Holt and Lowestoft. The match returns illustrate just how many dabs are about at the minute, of the 625 fish caught, 614 were dabs! Speaking to a local diver he reckoned the sea bed is carpeted with them and that he has never seen so many, long may it last I say! There are still a few of the small codling around in the far south, and there seem to be more of them the further south you go, but it’s the dabs that are taking centre stage and with southerly winds, big tides, and evening high waters, I can see the dabs ruling the beaches for at least another week.