ANGLING ADVENTURES
Local rivalry, generous helpings of banter and some great fishing – what’s not to like?
The SAA team takes on the Teignmouth crew.
Many of us enjoy a bit of competition in our fishing. One of my favourites is competing against other clubs. It’s great rivalry and always prompts banter against local friends and rivals. As 2019 drew to a close, eight members of the Sea Angling Adventures SAC were ready to take on a similar number from Teignmouth SAS in our first inter-club event, which would be fished from the shore of the Bristol Channel.
Having set up a What’s App group, it meant all those taking part soon got the banter ball rolling, which all added to the atmosphere for our day out.
Our rules were simple – three best specimen fish percentages would be added from each team and the winning team would be the one with the best percentage. Each angler would pay £5 in pools money for the single biggest fish, which gave everyone something to win.
Fishing with me for SAA were Adam Slack, Rob Yorke, Gav Cuthbertson, Chris Eggar, Gethyn Durham, Matt Herring, Gareth Griffiths and Kane Hyden, while Teignmouth’s team consisted of Bobby Drew, Joe Drew, Joe Walton, Adrian Diment, Stu Norrish, Andrew Collett, Mickey Windsborrow and Daniel Baugh. Manning the film camera was Josef Raynsford.
Once at the venue car park, the lads were laughing and joking as we set off on the long walk to the venue. At the cliff tops, we had to use ropes to climb down to the bottom, before spreading out and preparing for the match.
To my right were Gethyn Durham and Matt Herring, with Bobby Drew, Joe Walton and Gareth Griffiths a little further up the beach. Adam Slack was to my left, with the remaining lads leading back to where we’d arrived at the beach.
Everyone was ready to catch a ray or two. I was the first to get a bait in the water and, as I looked up and down the beach, the lads were all casting out.
A mild easterly breeze was flattening the sea and I felt it was going to be a good day’s fishing. With the tide backing off from the spring tides, it gave us a good chance of pulling out a few rays.
GOOD START
Matt Herring was the first to bring in a fish, a little turbot, followed by Bobby Drew with a small-eyed ray weighing around 5lb. Things were looking good so early in the tide, but after 15 minutes of waiting for a bite it was time for me to reel in and put on a fresh bait.
Meanwhile, Bobby retrieved another 5lb small-eyed ray. The Teignmouth lads had started well and, to put the icing on the cake, Stuart Norrish, the club chairman,
landed a specimen small-eyed ray of 9lb 3oz. Soon we were stepping off the boulders on to the sandy beach to follow the ebbing tide to the sandbar, where we could fish into the drop-off in search of a big ray.
Now there seemed to be fish coming out everywhere, with Bobby catching another small-eyed ray, while Gareth could not get past the dogfish.
As I looked down the beach, I saw Rob Yorke’s rod arching over, which put a smile on my face because he tends to make things happen and seems to deliver.
After Joe Drew walked out to grab Rob’s fish, it took the scales to 9lb 14oz, which gave the SAA team the single biggest specimen so far. We just needed to back it up with two more decent fish. Stuart was about to put the ball in the net for the second time for the Teignmouth team when he landed a spotted ray of 3lb 1oz. That gave them three fish, and they were looking good to take the honours. However, we still had the best part of the tide to snatch the victory.
As we neared low water, it was time to wade out as far as I could and cast the bait hard in search of a blonde ray that I hoped could win the event. As I began to walk back to put my rod in the rest, Gethyn had something on the end of his line. I watched him reel down and lift his rod to get the fish to the surface.
After a short time, he landed a 12lb 13oz conger eel, which meant Gethyn was favourite to pocket the pools money for the single biggest fish.
HOPE & GLORY
We still needed to catch a nice spotted or small-eyed ray that was bigger than the Teignmouth lads had caught. As I watched Matt Herring retrieving his line, I hoped it could be the fish we needed. He landed a spotted ray to match the one caught by Stuart. It prompted cheers as the fish went 3lb 2oz on the scales and beat Stu’s by an ounce.
One more decent small-eyed to beat Bobby’s would put victory in the bag for team SAA. After a succession of nuisance dogfish and whiting for all of us, my rod arched over to indicate the perfect sign of a ray on the other end. I lifted the rod and pumped the fish off the bottom and over the sand gullies towards my tripod. The fish was about 250 yards out (I’d waded out more than 100 yards to cast), which meant it was going to take some time to come in. Eventually, we were greeted by the first glimpse of a ray gliding over a wave in the surf. The wave crashed, the ray escaped the hook, and in came a fishless rig; I was gutted.
As the water pushed us back up the beach, we had around 30 minutes of fishing remaining. Something needed to happen fast.
Suddenly, Adam Slack’s rod went over and I hoped it was going to be the one. He eased the fish to the surface and I started to wade out to the flooding sandbar in front of us to
grab the fish, a good small-eyed ray. When I lifted it out of the water, I knew we had done it. Cue the club chants at the top of our voices as we sensed victory. At the scales, the fish weighed 8lb 6oz.
Fair play to the Teignmouth lads because they took the banter well. To be honest, we were all winners. We’d had a fantastic day out and both clubs did themselves proud. For me, angler of the day was Bobby Drew because he was on fire and was robbed with his rays not being of any size.
When the results were called out, Rob Yorke’s 9lb 14oz small-eyed had beaten Stu Norrish’s fish of 9lb 3oz, Matt Herring’s spotted of 3lb 2oz beat Stu’s spotted of 3lb 1oz, and, last of all, Adam Slack beat Bobby Drew’s fish of 7lb with a small-eyed ray of 8lb 6oz.
That gave Sea Angling Adventures the win and Gethyn Durham the £70 pools money for single biggest fish with his conger.
Celebrating at the car park with a bottle of champagne, everyone got sprayed Formula 1 style as we all laughed, joked and exchanged handshakes. It really was a great session with banter from start to finish.
For anyone interested in getting involved in club events like this, check out the Teignmouth Sea Angling Society. It’s a fantastic club with lots going on and can be found through its Facebook page. ■