13th/14th November 2021
Report & Results.
I am pleased to report another highly successful SAMF National Sea League Final which was held at SKEGNESS on the weekend of 13TH/14TH NOVEMBER. An event that was originally planned for November 2020 which was delayed by 12 months due the pandemic. Head Quarters was the North Shore Holiday Park which turned out to be an excellent choice for the event and many thanks must go to George Smith for acquiring these facilities.
Pegging consisted of five 36 peg zones on five separate Skegness beaches at Chapel Six Marshes, Trunch Lane, Ingoldmelds private beach , North Shore and Skegness town beach. Altogether 35 teams from around the country participated involving 175 match anglers, the largest number in the recent history of the event and a few new teams, welcome to the club.
This was a highly competitive event with some serious competition between the teams particularly the previous winners of the event. It was the usual consistency of Worthing based PRIME ANGLING who were crowned National Sea League Champions for 2020-21 for their 7th success in the last 10 years. The team comprising Paul Stevens (Captain), Joe Arch, Darren Bond, Colin Carey and Darren Newland amassing just 71 penalty points winning the John Amery perpetual shield, 1st place trophies and £2,200.
Runners up were locally based team ANY FISH ANYWHERE ASSO, previous winners comprising George Smith (Captain), Aidie Cooper, Simon Drayton, Karl Nangle and Robbie Taylor with 88 penalty points winning 2nd place trophies and £1000. Final podium slot went to CENTURY MATCH TEAM previous winners under a different title comprising Nick May (Captain), Darren Brooks, Jason Carter, Bret Green and Tim Relf with 94 penalty points winning 3rd place trophies and £600.
This year saw the introduction of a new Ladies SAMF National Sea League Teams competition. Unfortunately, there was only one Ladies team entered who therefore automatically took the new SAMF Ladies Team perpetual shield. This was the Welsh contingent TURKANA WELSH DRAGONS comprising Karen Hancox (Captain), Marie Bain, June Howell, Tina Lustig and Pamela Worrall with 268 penalty points finishing 30th overall. It is hoped that more ladies teams will participate in 2022 and to this end Karen Hancox has offered to assist with promoting the Ladies event, thank you Karen.
Weather for Day 1 was a moderate chilly north north westerly with the occasional drizzle. Fishing the flood and then an hour down meant starting on the flat sand and then following the tide back. Not exactly comfortable fishing but everyone managed to cope and adjust their style of fishing. Once the flood got started in earnest the weed appeared and particularly in Zone E so everyone had to adjust their fishing techniques to handle it with some better than others. For most, fish appeared at the start then switched off, returning when the ebb started towards the end. Uncharacteristically for Skegness the venues were rather peggy with the lower order pegs particularly at the end out-performing the rest of the zone stretch.
A slight 1-2ft swell put a nice colour in the water which increased up to 3ft as top of the water approached. Altogether 2545 fish were recorded mainly Whiting but with a few Sole and odd Bass plus a Haddock registering 40,471 points equivalent to 843lb. Zone D (North Shore) performed the best with 924 fish. Winners of the day were Lincolnshire’s ANYFISH ANYWHERE ASSO with 39 penalty points and runners-up were PRIME ANGLINGwith 32 penalty points. Individual day winner was Andrew Dugdale/Team Isle of Man with 22lb 5oz from 65 fish and runner up Tom Wells/Channel Angling Deal with 17lb 5oz from 45 fish. I would also like to take this opportunity to mention probably our first Junior team member to win a zone in Jack Topping/Gorleston Tacklewho took Zone C on peg C76 at Ingoldmelds Private Beach with 8lb 13oz from 22 fish, well done Jack.
As predicted weather for Day 2 was as forecast with a light north easterly and broken sunshine. An extra hour on the sand before the water started pushing up which was probably more uncomfortable than the previous day. Again good colour in the water but a more 2-3ft pronounced swell than Day 1 at the start increasing to a good 4ft towards high water. The main difference to Day 1 was the amount of weed that was coming through which was far greater and increased dramatically as flood picked up. For most it was a struggle and in some zones you had to cast to try to get away from it. Even so at distance it was barren whereas some were finding fish close in amongst the weed, it’s never predictive in our sport
Altogether on this day, 2172 fish were recorded and again majority Whiting registering 32,967 points equivalent to 687lb. Zone D (North Shore) was again the best zone with 697 fish recorded. Overall Day 1 was better than Day 2 but probably due to the weed. Winners of the day were Worthing’s PRIME ANGLING with 29 penalty points and runners-up were Kent’s CENTURY MATCH TEAM with 33 penalty points. Individual day winner was Dave Shorthouse/Gwent Don’t Knows with 15lb 14oz from 35 fish and runner-up Saul Page/Saul Page Tackle & Bait with 12lb 6oz from 30 fish. Finally, being remembrance Sunday a minute’s silence was observed by some on the whistle at 11:00.
The Team pay out was down to 10th place and these teams were …
1…PRIME ANGLING………………….71 penalty points
2…ANYFISH ANYWHERE ASSO…88 penalty points
3…CENTURY MATCH TEAM……….94 penalty points
4…CHANNEL ANGLING DEAL……97 penalty points
5…EDDY & THE HOT RODS……..103 penalty points
6…SAUL PAGE TACKLE & BAIT.110 penalty points
7…TEAM BREAKAWAY…………….122 penalty points
8…E SQUAD……………………………..141 penalty points
9…CHANNEL ANGLERS SAC…….142 penalty points
10.TEAM ITALCANNA……………….143 penalty points
The Individual Zone Pools pay out went down to the top five in each zone on both days. Those winners are detailed either in an attachment to this post or in the full set of results in SAMF facebook Files.
The Individual winners pay out went down to 5th place and this was determined by the total of the zone penalty points over the two days. These Individuals were …
1…SAUL PAGE………………3 penalty points
2…ANDREW DUGDALE…5 penalty points
3…JASON CARTER………..6 penalty points
4…DARREN BOND…………8 penalty points
5…LOUIE SMITH…………..8 penalty points (inferior “total fish points” over 2 days)
In this event SAMF also donates a £100 prize to the top SAMF member and that was Saul Page.
There was also an Individuals Super Pools over the two days. Here the pay out was daily with the individual’s fish points (weight) and not zone position determining the results. On Day 1 Andrew Dugdale was the winner with 1071 fish points on peg B39 at Trunch Lane and runner-up was Steve Smyth with 956 fish points on peg B38 also at Trunch Lane. On Day 2 the winner was Dave Shorthouse with 762 fish points also on peg B38 at Trunch Lane and runner-up was Saul Page with 594 fish points on peg E169 at Skegness Town Beach.
This event was also a SAMF Ian Golds Masters qualifier and 47 team members participated. The qualifiers are determined by fish points on each day and there were 10 qualifiers for each day. Some of the qualifiers have already qualified for 2022 so their qualification will roll over to the 2023 event. The Qualifiers are as follows along with year the qualification applies to …
Steve SMYTH…………2022
Darren BOND…………2022
Bev SELF……………….2023
Saul PAGE………….….2023
Simon DRAYTON……2023
Jack TOPPING………..2023
Dave JENNER….……..2022
Sam COLLIER….……..2022
Ian ASHCROFT….……2022
Ben PRICE………….….2022
Dave SHORTHOUSE..2023
Darren NEWLAND……2022
Garry HUTSON………..2023
Chris REED……………..2022
Robbie TAYLOR….……2022
Andrew HUTCHINGS..2022
Jimmy PRICE…………..2023
Adie COOPER…………..2022
Karl NANGLE……………2023
Once again another highly successful SAMF National Sea League Final at a new venue for this event. Unfortunately, sea conditions on both days undermined the usual performance of the beaches used or maybe the handing out extension cards at the start was the killer blow. Normally fairly even beaches at this time of the year with very little casting to find plenty of fish. As it happened the zones tended to be rather peggy with the majority of the winners coming from the low order pegs in each zone. The weed situation also made it difficult for many to fish in their normal manner which was disappointing for them and the competition requiring in some cases serious casting to try and avoid it. As mentioned before this is totally uncharacteristic for Skegness and hope that this does deter members from fishing future matches and events at this venue.
An excellent weekend where everything seemed to work smoothly. However, there were a few things that were disappointing as follows …
At the end we had a number of pegs missing in particular the first 12 pegs in zone A at Chapel Six Marshes which apparently were nicked. Don’t know why anyone would want them but that’s the way some people are these days. We also lost a lot of pegs from Skegness Town Beach mainly because the rope with the pegs was not passed down the stretch. Instructions for this was in the Info Pack that was sent to each team captain but it appears this was not communicated to team members.
Likewise some team members didn’t have a clue on how to complete their match cards particularly the use of the time column and how fish are to be witnessed. Again such info was in the pack so that members would know the process in advance before the matches but this was just was not communicated to the team. Our thorough checking of the cards threw up a number that did not meet these rules along with the lack of card and bag searches. All involved were questioned about this and were not disqualified this year. However, if this happens in the future we will not be so lenient and anyone breaking any of these rules will be disqualified. So team captains please communicate any info you are sent to your team members.
The presentation did not go as we had planned with a significant number of the winners absent. This used to be the highlight of the event but if I had known how many wouldn’t attend then we would have done it online. I am aware that many have to work the following day so have to leave early with a long journey but maybe if those who know they might win should arrange their weekend accordingly to stay for the presentation. The alternative would be to arrange the matches on Friday/Saturday so that everyone could be there on Saturday evening. We will be looking at this!
A big thank-you to Martyne Silvester and her North Shore Holiday Park team for looking after us during the weekend and for being extremely friendly which we have not experienced of late. Also thank-you to George Smith for setting all this up at Skegness and pointing us to North Shore Holiday Park after feedback from the Isle of Man boys. Also many thanks George for arranging the beaches and the pegging, apologies for being 3 hours late!
Also many thanks to Rob Tuck for coordinating the checking of cards ably assisted by Ian Bowell, Saul Page and his team, Dave Wright, Kevin Green and Willy Groombridge. Thanks also to Paul Harvey for sorting out the decimated pegs at the end and thanks to Mike Watts for assisting with the data entry, being an excellent chef when needed and getting me online with some modern technology. Finally, many thanks to all the teams without whom this would not happen and for their healthy banter throughout the weekend. My apologies if I have forgotten anyone.
Each team member and reserve received a commemorative TronixPro cap, many thanks to TronixPro for their contribution to providing these.
During the weekend a local organiser’s meeting was held to determine a couple of things. The easy one was to confirm that Tony Thomas would continue as National Sea League Organiser for the immediate future. The second and by far the more difficult to resolve and that was the venue for the 2022 Final. Over the past few years we have been alternating the venue each year between North Norfolk and Eastbourne and it has worked extremely well enabling us to build up the Final and numbers to something prestigious. Traditionally, 2022 should therefore go to Eastbourne but unfortunately Kevin & Glyn Morgan of Anglers Den have written to me to say they are unable to organise this event in Eastbourne in 2022. They are citing serious parking issues, along with residents erecting gates to prevent access to what they deem as their “private” beaches. This has resulted in anglers getting a lot of grief from these local residents. This means that currently Eastbourne is off the list unless someone locally is prepared to take up the challenge and help organise the event at this venue.
Other possible venues were raised such as Hythe & Deal Kent, Gt. Yarmouth Norfolk, Pwllheli & Abererch North Wales, Siloth Cumbria, North Norfolk and Chesil. No decision was made for 2022 but it was planned to get it organised by around the end of the year. To progress I will be sending out a proforma prepared by Mike Watts some years back for NSL Organisers to detail a proposal for their venue to be considered. This will include all the necessary infrastructure and local organisation team. These proposals will then go out to local NSL organisers for a decision to be made. Parking and access is now a big issue with us now and we must also be very careful not to predominately select casting venues as this will deter certain teams and we will end up with a handful of just top teams undoing everything we have been doing over recent years. The venue also has to be capable of handling 40 to 50 teams and it has always been considered that we would cap at 50 teams and then go to just top teams in local leagues qualifying as in the past if we are fortunate enough to reach this number.
Some late news I have been made aware of is that the local Skeggie social media has been banging on about all the dead fish (100) on the beach and a photo of a lost rig with 3 Flounders on it. We don’t like to see this (dead fish) but it’s difficult to avoid but at least we are doing catch & release where some fish will at least survive and those that don’t go back into the food chain. If it had been catch and kill all those fish would have been binned and then they would have nothing to complain about. We cannot really do anything to prevent this particularly lost traces except ensure all washed up fish are put in the water to get washed away into the food chain and maybe select beaches where the general public are not so prolific. This situation makes us easy target for the antes who don’t consider the destruction they are promoting when scoffing their fish and chips.
Finally, I would like to congratulate PRIME ANGLING for coming back and doing the business yet again for the seventh time. You’re not done yet so hopefully see you back again next year.All monies will be transferred to team captains later this week or early next. I promised a short report but there was a lot to say so apologies for making it long. Please stay safe! … Tony Thomas – SAMF NSL Organiser