Monthly Archives: January 2016

Match Report – Dungeness – 24th January

For their latest match Braintree Sea Angling Club members took a trip down to Dungeness to see if they could catch some of the dabs that are normally abundant at this time of the year. Fishing started in damp misty conditions with an onshore wind and whiting were the main . As the tide turned and began to ebb the day dried out and the wind abated and the dabs finally began to feed. In a closely fought match Barrie Senior ended the day with 14 dabs, 17 whiting and 3 rockling for 369 fish points. New member Paul Hart fishing his first match with the Club was a close second with 364 fish points from his catch of 12 dabs, including the largest of the day at 29cm, 18 whiting, 4 rockling and 2 pout. Third place went to Chris Leonard with 6 dabs, 18 whiting, 6 rockling and a dogfish for 352 points.

Match Report – Sizewell – 10th January

For the first match of Braintree Sea Angling Club chose Sizewell as the venue.  Fishing in an onshore south easterly wind with choppy sea the whiting soon showed.  Those anglers who walked further and chose the deeper water had better results.  It was Robin Joy who came out on top with 53 fish for 475 fish points.  Second place went to Chris Leonard with 253 point from his catch of 34 fish and Paul Drake had 30 fish for 233 points. Fish caught were whiting, dabs , flounder bass, and rockling

 

Boat Match Report – On Enterprise out of West Mersea – 18th December

Braintree Sea Angling Club’s final evening boat match for the year was fished on the charter boat Enterprise out of West Mersea.  After half an hour on so on the initial mark a move was made to a spot back up the estuary with more shelter from the south westerly wind for a more comfortable fish.  Fishing on the ebb tide it was mainly whiting that were caught with a few dogfish, pout and one thornback ray to Robin Joy.  Although there were quite a few whiting caught finding fish to meet the 30cm minimum size was challenging. With half an hour to go it was close with only a couple of fish separating the top three anglers but it was Chris Leonard who came out on top with a second dogfish in the last 10 minutes to give him the lead from Barry Tankard and Barrie Senior. The final scores were Chris Leonard 81 points from his catch of 2 dogfish and 9 whiting,  Barrie Senior 1 dogfish and 9 whiting for 72 points and in third place Barry Tankard with 65 points from his catch of 1 dogfish and 8 whiting.  Chris will receive the Boduc Cup as the overall boat champion for the year with two wins and a third place.  Runner  up was Barrie Senior with three second places and in third position was Brian Grundy with one win and two fourth places.

 

Match Report – Holland on Sea – 13th December 2015

The Clubs latest shore match was at Holland-on-Sea with whiting the target species. Fishing in drizzly damp conditions with a light breeze the anglers found the whiting but it was patchy. Paul Drake cemented his position at the top of the points chart for the year with another win. He had 28 whiting, 1 dab,1 dogfish, 1 rockling and a pout for 510 fish points. With one match left he cannot be overtaken. Second place went to Barrie Senior with 25 whiting and 3 pout for 340 points and in third place was Robin Joy with 12whiting for 166 points.

EFSA Wales – Cod Championship – Mersea Estuary

Four members travelled to Birkenhead to fish the annual EFSA Wales Cod Championships in the Mersey estuary.  On the first day although very windy the boats were able to get out but unable to fish their preferred marks.  With  a lot of freshwater coming into the estuary prospects were not good and the fishing would be hard.  However, at the end of the day with quite a few anglers catching no cod it was Braintree’s Colin Crocker who took the lead with five cod.  The second day saw the wind dropping but with some showers and more of the river was accessible.   With most anglers catching cod it was going to be close.  Colin managed to find another small cod but it was not enough fellow Braintree angler Alan Porter caught five good size cod the largest a fish of 8lb to pip him with 255 point to Colin’s 237.  So Alan took the gold pin and Colin the silver. Barrie Senior was in 9th place and Peter Costin 10th.