Big guns fire in sea angling showdown
SOME of our area’s top sea anglers took part in a charity match on Grimsby’s North Wall.
This year’s match attracted a full house with all 30 pegs taken, and three juniors also involved.
Everyone was ready for the usual onslaught of whiting, but for some reason it didn’t really happen. Instead there was a scattering of fish, mostly small flatfish and small pin whiting, but there were a few bigger whiting and three or four decent sole.
The one surprise was a 60cm dogfish for George Smith - a rare catch for the North Wall.
As is usually the case when the going is tough, the big guns came out on top. The juniors all did well to stick at it on a hard night and they all took home some prizes.
George Brozych provided an Akios Hellraiser rod for a raffle prize and £250 was raised for the charity which helps our wounded soldiers.
Results: 1st - Garry Hutson (16 fish) 5lb 2oz; 2nd - George Smith (10 fish) 4lb 11oz; 3rd - Simon Drayton (9 fish) 3lb 9oz. Zone A winner - Graham Precious (9 fish) 2lb 2oz. Zone B winner - Chris Wray (5 fish) 2lb 8oz. Biggest flat - Garry Hutson, 32cm flounder and Steve MacGregor, 32cm sole. Biggest round - George Smith, 60cm dogfish.
Junior results: First, Summer Triffet; second, Rex Taylor; third, Nathan Smith. The Friends Fishing Club decided to have a practice match before the charity match on the North Wall. Once again it was small pin whiting that dominated the match, especially in daylight and before high water. It was fairly hard going on the night. Yours truly managed to catch eight fish for 147cm. Then it was Jim Nicholson with nine fish for 143cm. Third was Jack Barlow with seven fish 129cm. Then there was a tie between Kurt William Dolphin and Steve MacGregor who both had 122cm.
Then the Friends also had a match on the Humber Bank Wall behind the Novartis factory. It was flounders and small pin whiting that dominated the catches. Top angler Ian Nelson was in fine form with 20 fish for 406cm. Then it was match organiser Steve Robinson with 21 fish for 340cm. All-round match angler John Atkinson had 16 fish for 294cm.
Onto the coarse fishing and Freezertech Angling Club fished the final match of their Summer League at Wykewell Bridge, Thorne, on the Stainforth Canal, pegs 160 to 185.
The canal fished well but there were a couple of anglers who had trouble with pike. Keith Robinson managed to land one on his pole well into double figures, unfortunately for him they don’t count in this match.
The winner was Graham Batchelor, he fished the pole and waggler with worm and caster for a mixed bag of roach, skimmers and rudd plus a bonus tench weighing 5lb 15oz, ending the match with a total weight of 13lb 5oz.
Second place went to Col Batchelor, he fished the pole, starting on bread punch and later changed to hemp and caster to catch little hybrids and skimmers to end the match with 12lb 2oz.
In third place was Steve Cole, he fished the pole with hemp and caster, catching mainly roach, he also had a bonus tench and finished the match with 11lb 14oz. Novartis AC fished at Messingham Sands on the Hollywood Lake. First in was a guest fishing with the club, Graham Garrod. He was fishing to pole with maggot on the deck he had a fantastic weight of 116.2lb. Then it was Andy Lofts who approached the match in different style. He was fishing the method feeder and had 92.8lb. Alex Burns was third with 76.2lb.