King rallies to take top spot

Sea angling

Chris King made the most of nearperfect conditions to win Herne Bay Angling Association’s two-day National Dinghy Festival over the weekend. King took the title with an impressive two-day aggregate weight of 126.645lb. On Saturday, the overnight leader was Edward Cartwright with 57.42lb followed by King with 55.075lb and Chris Hogben with 52.26lb. However, Cartwright could not maintain his lead on the Sunday and only managed to catch 22.215lb of fish, while King had a good day and brought to the scales a further 71.57lb to claim the championship. He was closely followed by runnerup Billy Hards with 120.63lb, while Cartwright was third with 79.635lb. As a conservation measure, only three smoothounds were allowed to be weighed in by each angler and Mick Taylor had the largest, a fish weighing 13.44lb which was the heaviest fish caught. The greatest variety of fish in any one day went to Andrew Goss with four, while the highest aggregate number over two days was Nik Witton’s 25 fish. Kevin Irvine had the heaviest skate at 12lb, Barry Day landed 28.34lb of skate on one day, while Adam Pursell caught 33.375lb of round fish in a single day. Andrew Weller caught 13 fish on one day, while John Lewery caught a 0.34lb flatfish, Emma Rolfe led the way for women with 13.63lb over two days and Jack Omans won the junior crown with 20.24lb.

More than a dozen Heron Angling Society members took to the beaches on Saturday fishing for the Osman Cup. Calm weather and mostly bright sunshine was the order of the day with just a light SW wind to contend with, while the finish was put back by an hour to allow for some darkness to increase the chances of making a catch. Anglers spread from Studd Hill to Cold Harbour and despite their best efforts, not one could bring back a sizeable catch with only small, under-sized bass reported by anyone.

Mark Hurcombe was the winner of the Greenhill Sea Angling Society’s Jokers Cup on Saturday at the Ramsgate Western, Undercliffe. Hurcombe won with 13 fish weighing an impressive 8322 grams (18lb 3oz). His catch comprised a dogfish and an eel. Second place went to Ray Phillips with seven dogfish weighing 4548 grams (10lb). Two anglers Eddie Rennie and Dean Murray, tied for third place, both with four dogfish each weighing 2592 grams (5lb 7oz). Top junior angler was Hayley Morris with two dogfish weighing 1184 grams (2lb 6oz). The next GSAC fishing competitions is on June 3 at Deal Pier.