Maryport Open 24th October 2015

 We headed back across west this weekend to fish the Maryport Open.

This was a heaviest fish match (1 fish weigh in, heaviest round and heaviest flat fish) that was to be fished between Maryport Promenade and Workington Pier.

Conditions were ideal according to the forecast.  We arrived early and headed down to check out a few marks before registration.  There was a nice roll coming in and although it was a bit blustery it seemed like a decent day to be wetting a line.

Maryport Promenade

I got geared up and headed down the beach to a mark I had noticed earlier.  A few rocky streams ran down the beach and I planned to fish alongside them as the tide dropped.

The weather was lovely and we had blazing sun for the first few hours of the competition.  Most of the locals had piled onto a rocky skier near the middle of the beach.  Looking back it may have been worth trying to find a spot but I think there were too many rods there to allow comfortable fishing.

I had a few bites on most casts and retrieved one to find this little guy who had hooked himself without biting.

As Low Water approached you could see rain on the horizon along with some dark looking clouds.  Over the next 10 minutes the sea lifted, the wind hit gale force and the rain blasted in.  Fishing was very unpleasant for a while and you could do little but zip the suit up and wait it out.

As it happened after 15 minutes the weather passed and things started brightening up again.  The bad weather also left a great double-rainbow over the promenade at the top of the beach.

I snapped a few individual shots as the weather came over and I was lucky enough to get this very cool panorama showing the good/bad weather in one shot with the rainbow in the middle.

The competition finished at 7pm.  We had hoped that the dogfish would have moved in after dark but unfortunately they must have had better things to be doing.

I did manage a codling of 1lb 4 and my dad had one of 1lb 12 along with several under-sized fish.

Back at the weigh in there seemed to be a good number of cod in the 2-5lb range but I never saw any flat-fish at all. 

I think a big bass of around 9lb won the heaviest round fish.  

So a good little days fishing despite not a great number of fish. 

Walney Island Open 5th July 2015

This year I have been travelling across West quite a bit to fish pegged competitions with my parents.
Fishing is ok on the NE coast during the summer but I enjoy the chance to fish new marks whenever I get the chance.

This weekend was the Walney Island Open.  A 120-peg match fished off the front of Walney Island by Barrow.  Although it was less than a 3hr drive we travelled up on the saturday and stayed at the Majestic Hotel in Barrow itself overnight before fishing the comp next day.

We checked out the pegged stretch of coastline on the saturday when we arrived.  The whole beach looked to have a good mix of clean to mixed bottom and looked perfect for Bass and Smoothhounds. I had yet to catch a Smoothhound myself and so I was hoping for one this weekend.
We came armed with a wide array of baits to try so hopefully we could manage at least a few fish in the comp.

We registered and drew pegs on the Sunday morning at a pub on the beach road.  We had a good chat with the local anglers and I shared a sneaky early morning pint with them as we had plenty of time to kill before the match.  It was refreshing to find that nearly every angler was friendly, helpful and forthcoming with info on the local marks.
I personally prefer these pegged matches over the usual roving matches we fish on our coastline. They even the playing field and even the youngest anglers get the chance to get into the fish....its all the luck of the draw when you pick out your peg.

Every fish was measured (towards overall length category) and those exceeding minimum sizes could be taken to weigh in.  First prize was a guaranteed £1000.  Last years comp had been won with one Smoothhound of around 7lb so I didn't think it was going to  take too much to be in the money.

I pulled out peg 38, my dad got peg 30 and my mum 96.  We took our time to look at our pegs beforehand while it was only half-tide to identify any features that may hold fish at HW.  My peg looked pretty hopeful.......

Some good mixed-ground and a few sandy channels running between rocky patches.  Looked good for catching the fish moving in as the tide rose.

The forecast was great with sun, sun, sun until the late afternoon when we had a storm forecast.
From the start of the comp (1215) I was trying all combinations of bait at all distances.  I was favouring crab due to the Bass and Smoothhounds being fond of them.  I was casting beyond 100yds some casts and less than 20 on others...nothing was producing bites.

The weather was hot and sunny for the most part.  The scenery looked almost tropical.

After high water a storm cloud rolled it's way in and brought with it some showers, wind and a bit of movement on the sea.

But still no fish or bites.  This was pretty much how the remaining 4hrs went.  I did retrieve on one cast to find a lovely clean-looking 16cm flounder had kindly saved me from blanking.

As it happens the fishing overall on the day was poor for everyone.  A few bass to around 3lb came in along with a handful of Gurnard and flounder.  I think the winning fish was a 4.5lb Smoothhound that one guy in my zone caught on his first cast.

Even the local guys were surprised that it didnt fish better on the day.
But as you all know that is how it goes as an angler.  You need to take the crap sessions with the tremendous ones......

just wondering when my tremendous one is due......must be soon....surely....

Edit: As it happens my tremendous session was the next one! Skegness Chapel Point and Trunch Lane...

Silloth Championship 24th May 2015

Today we fished the Silloth Championship competition on the West Coast.

We had never fished this competition before but we were hopeful of finding at least a few fish and hoped we could possibly get a Zone win or two between us.

We arrived to register in Silloth about 0730 and had an hour to wait around before we could draw pegs.  We took a look at the venue and tried to ascertain where the pegs were without any luck.
As it happens the pegs started a mile down the coast at Skinburness and ran right down to the beach in front of the Skinburness hotel.  80 pegs in 4 zones.

It was a catch, measure and convert match that meant length rather than weight was the aim of this game.  Plus it was great to know that all fish were going back immediately and not being hauled off to weigh in.

When it came to drawing pegs my dad drew 20, my mum 32 and I unfortunately pulled out 78.
After I dropped my parents off mid-way down the pegged area I arrived at the hotel, parked up and headed to the beach.

The weather had started out blustery and went through patches of dullness and then brilliant sunshine. It was comfortable to fish and offered some great photo opportunities.

I have never fished this stretch of beach before having only fished the promenade last year for the Thornbacks.  The beach was pretty muddy and fairly flat.  There was a nice bit of movement on the sea and it looked brown and murky....as my dad put it...it looked fishy.  I hoped so.

The comp was fishing an hour down to low water and 3 hours of the flood.  (10am-2pm)

In the first hour I had a decent sized flounder and a few under-size.  I had bites most casts but didn't manage much else until the flood.
I had a few more small flatties and then another decent flounder.  Not much of a decent size seemed to be catching around me up until the flood when a few guys started pulling in some big flounder.
The biggest being 44cm.

Big flounder guy

Fishing in the "end zone" as I called it seemed to be pretty poor.  I heard talk of most fish coming in from the 2nd zone with a few Thornies coming in (one 4-5lb and another maybe 7lb) along with a number of dabs and big flounder.   The overall win was out of reach for me by this time.  I had caught 2 size and 4 undersize fish.
The few big flounder that the guy beside me had caught also meant a zone win was out of the question.

My dad had pulled out several decent flounder (biggest two 40 and 41cm) and was probably placed for about 2nd in his zone behind some guy who had the thornie and 10 or so flounder.  My mum had a few decent flounder and a couple of dab.  Not enough to win her zone as a few guys had a few more fish.

When we packed up at 2pm we were fairly sure that the overall and the zone prizes were taken, As this was a money match there was no prizes for second and so we didn't bother going back to hand in the cards.

Overall a great day and another new mark fished for me.  I didn;t have time to photograph any of my fish as I was too busy getting the baits out again after retrieve.  But I did manage to get some great scenic shots throughout the session.

Southerness I believe