Festival time
Put a date in your match diary for the popular North Norfolk Bass Festival on May 13 and 14
How to enter a popular two-day event.
Two days of quality match fishing are on the cards on May 13 and 14 when the 5th North Norfolk Bass Festival takes place on the county’s shingle ridge at Cley and Kelling.
This popular catch and release event, which started in 2013, usually attracts more than 100 leading match anglers and produces plenty of sizeable bass and many other species.
Last year’s two-day extravaganza produced a record attendance of 106 anglers, with 63 bass recorded. As before, the festival incorporates the UK Ladies Championships, North Norfolk Juniors Tournament and the Shannock Quads for teams of four.
New for 2017 will be a mystery pairs contest where all adult competitors will be paired dependant on their zones positions after the Day 1 match.
MATCH FORMAT
Once again, the Festival, organised by Holt SAC, will be sponsored by Kelling Heath Holiday Park and supported by Sea Angler magazine. The event comprises two separate five-hour ebb tide matches over the two days, where each angler fishes one venue on Day 1 and the other location on Day 2. There will be Penn Sea League points on offer.
Entry fee for the bass festival will be £20 a day, with an optional pools of £10 a day. Prizes will be for the heaviest bass, heaviest bag of bass, heaviest non-bass bag and heaviest overall bag. Kelling Heath Holiday Park will provide the prizes for the biggest bass, day wins and overall winner. Further prize categories will be added.
Headquarters will be Kelling Heath Holiday Park, which is offering a 15 per cent discount for its lodge accommodation. A short break booking will be from May 12 to May 15.
The UK Ladies Championships, sponsored by Tronixpro and supported by Kelling Heath Holiday Park, will follow the same format as the main festival and pegs will be incorporated among all competitors rather than in a separate group.
Entry fee for the Ladies’ event is £10 per day with optional pools of £5 a day. Prize money for each match will be for the heaviest bag of all species each day and pools for the section winners.
The Junior Tournament, supported by Maver, is free to enter, and again follows the same format as the Ladies’ contest. Each junior must be accompanied at all times by an adult. Double pegs will be assigned if the adult is fishing.
The Shannock Quads is a teams of four competition supported by Sheringham Carnival, and based on total weight recorded by the team members over the two days. The team with the highest aggregate weight will be the winners. All team members must compete in at least one of the other three festival events. Entry will be £20 per team.
The Mystery Pairs will see adult competitors paired dependant on zone placings after Day 1. The random selection process will pair those in top half positions with those in the bottom half. Winners will be decided by the accumulation of the pair’s zone positions over the two days, with the lowest score being the winner of this new event.
The fee for this event is part of the overall fee; ladies will be compensated if they fish both the Ladies and Bass Festival events.