NEW KID IN TOWN
An 11-year-old angler making a real splash.
Jack Reynolds is one of the most level-headed 11-year-old kids I have ever met. Born into a family of keen sea anglers, Jack has followed in the footsteps of his father Richard and grandfather Geoff Reynolds. Already well on his way to becoming an accomplished boat angler, Jack has turned his attention to the beach and is looking set to become a very good all-rounder.
When on the beach he takes his fishing seriously, listening intently to any new information and focusing on improving his angling skills.
Jack, who lives in Worlebury, is keen to sharpen up his match fishing skills at a variety of open shore competitions in the area. His talent came to the fore at Weston-superMare SAA’s spring open at the town’s beach, when he caught the longest fish in his zone, a flounder, winning £150. It was quite an achievement against some top adult anglers.
Jack was using a Zziplex Match Pro rod with an Infinity 8000 reel. Earlier in the day Jack had dug his own lugworm bait to use in the competition.
Other results for Jack include joint-first in a senior midweek match at Sand Bay, and at Easter he won the junior match at Weston. He was awarded the Avery Boyce Memorial Trophy and the Juniors Annual Festival Cup at the Weymouth Angling Society and Weymouth & Portland Borough Council Sea Angling Festivals. His success is no fluke.
A pupil at Worle Community School in Weston-super-Mare, and a member of Bristol Channel Fishing, he takes part in match fishing for Channel Anglers.
Here was a young talent who I simply had to meet, so I joined Jack and his dad on the town’s beach.
INSTANT ACTION
Minehead town beach is a well-known match fishing location in Somerset, often used for many of the bigger competitions in the western region of the Bristol Channel.
Best described as a maturing man-made
beach with some mixed ground around the periphery, it has a series of groynes acting as tidal breaks, starting at Butlins and finishing up near the harbour in the left-hand corner of the beach.
A good variety of species can be caught from the beach all year, but summer holidaymakers and various leisure activities can cause havoc for anglers. You can fish this beach on almost any size tide, but two hours either side of high water is recommended. Some anglers prefer neaps and others like the bigger spring tides, but I’ve caught fish on both. It is a matter of choice and perhaps target species. Bad weather doesn’t have too much of an effect on the fishing, and a good amount of shelter can be found on the beach in southerly gales.
Beginning the session at daybreak, blue skies opened up as the sun rose. Ideally you want a bit of colour in the sea. There was a nice grey tinge in the water along with a light swell, which looked perfect for fishing.
We had chosen to fish between the first two groynes found at the left-hand end of the beach. Jack began the session with a simple two-hook flapper rig baited with small king ragworms and blow lug.
His first cast was purposely landed about 10 yards out in the surf, and before he could bait up his second rig the tip of his light beachcaster pulled round nicely.
This beach can be full of small bass close in the margins and this can be great sport. No surprise that Jack’s first fish was a bass, and he went on to catch several in the first hour. As the tide rose I suggested that he should try some rigs with the hooks clipped down. Jack had been working hard on his casting, using a basic overhead thump technique, so one easy way to vary casting distance slightly was to use a variety of rigs.
Fish can be caught at all casting distances, but we found most of our bites in this session came between 10 and 70 yards out. An hour into the session we switched from worms to fish baits because the bass seemed to have moved off, and our baits were being picked up too quickly by tiny pouting and small whiting.
We switched to thinner bullets of mackerel, whipping them on with bait elastic to make them more aerodynamic, which gave Jack a few extra yards when casting. The switch worked well and we started to pull in a few bigger whiting.
As we approached high tide, my tip bent over very slowly and the lead weight broke out. I landed the first of two strap congers. Fishing slowed down slightly on the ebb tide until the final 30 minutes of the session, which produced a few more whiting and dogfish.
WORKING BAITS
There were stacks of small pouting and tiny pin whiting in this session. They can really hamper fishing, quickly stripping baits and stopping better-sized fish getting on the hooks. In situations when there are good numbers of fish to be caught, timing and efficiency play a massive part in your success or failure.
Bearing in mind Jack’s desire to improve his match fishing techniques, he knew timing had to be one of the most important skills to learn. It is a particularly tough discipline to carry out because of the amount of concentration needed to get it right.
My first suggestion was to ask his dad to buy him a stopwatch, but I also explained why the time baits are in the water is so important. First and foremost, you are unlikely to catch any fish on bare hooks. On some venues, small fish, crabs and crustaceans will strip the baits off the hooks very quickly. Another thing to consider is small fish getting on the hook with no real indication on the rod tip.
The main questions to consider are how long you may be fishing with no bait or fish on the hooks, and could you have retrieved sooner? Work harder and you’ll soon see better results.
In some instances when match fishing on a venue stacked with fish, it’s all to easy to wind in too quickly. Leaving baits out a few extra minutes could actually be the difference between one or three fish on your hooks.
A simple example could be to start timing 10 minutes between casts, then adding or taking away minutes depending on numbers of fish hooked and the condition of baits after being retrieved. Easy as it may sound, this is a real art because the speed of baiting up rigs, along with your organisation on the beach, plays a massive part in your success or otherwise. Match-winners work a lot harder to execute their fishing with maximum efficiency.
FUTURE GENERATIONS
The most encouraging and inspiring thing for any young angler is, of course, catching fish and the accompanying sense of achievement. While young Jack is striving to improve his match-fishing techniques, I could see the joy on his face when catching fish. Encouraging the next angling generation is vital for a healthy future in our sport.
Minehead town beach is a great location for young anglers, and one I would recommend. This area of the Bristol Channel is well supported by several local fishing clubs, including West Coast and Watchet SAC, which has a good junior membership and has seen several junior anglers progress all the way through to international level.
Minehead also has a good angling coach in Craig Butler (07528 208758), who works from West Coast Tackle, located on the quayside next to Minehead harbour.
Craig is always willing to help anglers, and you can book guiding and coaching sessions with him throughout the year. ■