Eight of us fished on a very nice day – flat sea and warm to start with a breeze picking up through the day. Small fish were non existent and even the crabs were conspicuous by their absence. More of a social day for most! Top man [Mr consistent] was Richard White with 2 dogfish and a skate 175cm. Mike Tanner [the chair] a skate 76cm, and myself [John May] a conger 70cm .Next one June 13th. Fishing 10-15 to 14-30.
John May.
Burnham low light was the venue for this weekend league match where 12 of us waddled around in several inches of mud (not my favourite venue). Plenty of fish were caught but Mark Salter showed us all up by catching 10 fish consisting of a conger and a fine 10lb 9oz thornback ray recording 126 points John Lintern and Tony Tandy tied for second place with 101 points. Tony had 2 congers and John a ray and a conger. Rachael Jarman was forth with a 9lb 8oz thornback. The flatfish pool (£27) which rolled over from the previous match was won by junior angler Jack Salter for a 22cm sole. The next match is at Sand Bay 4/6/2016. Fishing 17.30-20.30.
Mike
Five keen youngsters took part in the second junior league match sponsored by Thyers, on Weston Beach. The weather was kind to us which is ideal for juniors who managed to catch a couple of silver eels and several bass between them. Jack Salter was again the winner with two bass and a silver eel for a total length of 92cm. Second was Isabelle Carpenter who is new to angling, also with two bass and a silver eel for 66cm. In third and forth places were Harry Izzard and Alfie Salter with a single bass each. The next match is at Burnham low light 12/06/2016. Fishing 11.00-13.30.
Mike
The latest midweek league match took place on Weston Beach, but it was one of those evenings when I think that all of us would have been far happier sitting in the warm at home. The weather was horrendous with strong windy squalls accompanied with rain making very difficult fishing conditions. However there were plenty of fish to be caught mainly small whiting, codling and flounder. Andy Shopland was the winner followed by Russ Tinklin who had the best fish of the night a 36cm flounder. The venue expert John Lintern was third. The bonus ball has yet again rolled over (about £50 in the kitty) to the next match on Weston Beach 26/05/2016. Fishing 20.00-23.00.
Mike.
It was a day of mixed fortunes for those fishing the latest league competition with most of the anglers only able to catch the numerous dogfish and one other species. Of the eight different species boated Kerry Bloomfield hit a purple patch, shocking us all with five species. This mean’t that for the first time in all the years we have fished together that Kerry has eventually won a boat league match. Mike Jarvis was a close second and Steve Lodge third. It was good to see that a few smoothounds are now showing with also bull huss and three different species of ray.
Mike.
Last years junior league champion Jack Salter, started this years campaign in fine style catching nine fish on Weston Beach to win the first junior league match of the year. Jack caught 8 whiting and a flounder measuring a total length of 135cm. the runner up was 3 year old Alfie Salter with a single whiting. We would like to see a few more juniors taking part in this league which is sponsored by Jeff Reasons from Thyers Fishing Tackle in Highbridge. Jeff very generously donates two prizes of £10 & £5 tackle vouchers and the club always puts up a third prize in every match. The winners of the league will also receive a really nice prize at the end of the year. So come on you juniors come and join in. If you wish to join our club it only costs £2.50 per year or if you fished the Junior Open last year you are already a club member. There are always club members at these matches who are only too willing to give tuition on casting, bait presentation, and rig making etc, so it is always a good chance to learn the finer aspects of fishing. Next match Saturday May 14th on Weston Beach fishing 11.30 to 14.00.
Mike.
Mike Tanner was the winner of the latest retired league match held on Clevedon pier. Mike caught two thornback rays and two whiting for a total length of 157cm. The best of these rays weighed 10lb 1oz. John Beer was runner up with a ray and a codling (74cm) and Richard White was third with the best ray of the day weighing 12lb 10oz and measuring 64cm across the wings.
Mike.
17 of our club members headed to Blue Anchor for the latest weekend league match. Thanks to all who attended as this was again an improvement in numbers attending club matches. It was maybe a first that all anglers competing managed to catch fish, although the fish tended to be mainly on the small side. Catches comprised of whiting, codling, pout, dogfish and a lonely rockling and poor cod. The winner on the night was Ian Brice who recorded 86 points and picked up £45 for his efforts. Second was Terry Giles, 57 points (£25) and third was Mike Tanner (£15). The flounder pool was not won and will roll over to the next match on Sunday May 15th at Burnham Low Light.
Mike.
Our clubs Spring Open kindly sponsored by Jeff Reasons of Thyers Fishing Tackle in Highbridge went ahead on Weston’s town beach in glorious calm weather. It was extremely pleasing that 89 anglers entered including about 8 juniors. This is a significant increase in numbers from the last few years. Unfortunately bites were few and far between and only 18 anglers recorded a total of 19 fish. The winner was Weston angler Adrian Ford with a thornback ray measuring 80cm. Adrian picked up the £250 first prize plus £76 pool money for the longest round fish. Narrowly beaten into second place with a conger of 76cm was Rich Simpkins from Bristol. Morgan Wilson also from Weston was the only angler to record 2 fish was third with two flounders measuring 61cm. Morgan took the flatfish pool of £76 with a flounder of 39cm. The highest placed club member was John Beer in 4th place with a flounder measuring 38cm. The top junior in joint 9th place was Tristan Dando with a flounder of 27cm.
The first midweek league match of the year took place at Burnham Low Light and it was encouraging that 8 turned up to fish. This is an improvement in numbers attending on the previous couple of years, although we would always welcome more. All caught fish except 1 unfortunate angler who I won’t name. There were plenty of fish to be caught although all tended to be small codling, flounders and one solitary sole. It was pleasing to see a few reasonable flounders being caught, with Tony Tandy catching the best of 32cm. As with the weekend league John Lintern was the winner yet again. Will Gardiner and Tony Tandy tied for second place. The bonus ball for the pools was not won and rolls over to the next match. As this has rolled over from 2015 there is now about £40 in the kitty waiting to be won. The next Midweek match is on 26/4/2016 fishing on Weston Beach 19.45 to 22.45.
Mike.
The Weekend League started on the 20th March at Berrow Village Hall in lovely weather conditions. 11 anglers competed which included 1 junior, our 2015 junior league champion Jack Salter. Of the 11 who fished unfortunatey only 6 caught fish and some of those were only pin whiting. John Lintern did manage to catch a bass of 3lb 4oz and with a flounder and pin whiting was the run away winner. Paul Cox and Dick Hooper were in joint second place each with a codling measuring 30cm+.John also had the best flounder which took the flounder pool. The next Weekend match is on 9/4/2016 fishing from Blue Anchor 18.30 to 22.30
Mike
The first boat league match of the year took place in lovely warm, calm weather conditions, although it turned very cold later. We know that the fishing can be extremely hard going this early in the year and yet again this proved to be the case. The anglers did however manage to catch about 100 fish of which 67 were dogfish. The rest consisted of another 7, although small different species. The catches comprised of conger, bull huss, whiting, codling, rockling, pout, and one lone pollack. The best fish of the day was a conger of about 10lb which fell to Terry Giles. John Thompson caught fish right from the start and left the rest of us in his wake having to play catch up. John however maintained his early lead and was the eventually declared the winner. He was closely followed by Mike Tanner and Rick Crosby.
Mike