Gotta love beginners luck - Budleigh 10/01/07

[BaggieRich]

Okay, so it's another monster report. I like to ramble on okay? Beats working hands down!

Sorry.

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There are a few events in life that you just never forget. For example, I’ll never forget the day I met my wife, or the day we got married. Similarly the birth of our two kids, or the day we beat Crystal Palace and got promoted to the Premier league. Nor will I forget my first ever club comp.

Okay, so if I’m honest, it’s not quite up there with the other milestone events in my life, but last nights monthly club comp certainly won’t be forgotten by me any time soon, and man did I enjoy it.

The venue for the night was the Steamer Steps end of Budleigh Salterton beach and, as is the norm, I was running late.

I started with such good intentions. The sign in for the comp was 7pm, so I shot out of work at 5 O’clock like a bullet from a gun and pelted down the M5 like a man possessed. I arrived home at 6:30pm and somehow managed to faff about with kids and tackle [1] which meant that I didn’t manage to leave the house until gone 7:30pm.

Having finally arrived in Budleigh, parked the car, clambered in to my floaty [2] and marched down to the beach it must have been 8pm and I hadn’t even started to get set up yet! This was not going well.

I was greeted on the beach by the sight of 18 other anglers, tip lights stretching off down the shingle, so I set off to find Dave and see if I could squeeze into a gap near him. As it happened there was a spot right next to him so I said my hellos and set about tackling up. Dave had already managed a whiting, so as usual I was playing catch up. Conditions at this stage weren’t that bad. We had clear skies and a small SW wind so I was confident that we should be able to pull something out.

Following Dave’s dogfish comments from yesterday afternoon, I decided to sling out my secret doggie enticing weapon. As far as the LSD’s are concerned, frozen sand eel rarely lets me down here, so I sent out a 2/0 pulley rig with whole eel on one rod and a 2 hook flapper with size 1‘s, baited with some severely ill rag worm on the other.

To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much on the rag. It had been in my super chilled fridge since Friday night and really wasn’t long for this mortal coil. Imagine my surprise then, when 10 mins later the rod started to nod and out pops doggie number one. Chuffed to bits at avoiding the blank, I weighed the doggie and stupidly put it back without waiting for a picture. Ah well.

Not long after this, the sand eel rod started to nod and after a long battle I beached this hefty beauty.



A whiting. Sizable by the skin of it’s teeth. No mind, it too was weighed and sent on its way.

Another short while later, I managed this very sorry pout which again was sizable by the huge margin of 1cm. A quick weigh and a photo for the hunt later and he too was sent back to fight another day!



Incredibly, following 3 fish in the first 4 casts, the next cast also produced as well. This time a particularly stupid doggie had taken a liking to my soon-to-be-ex-rag-worm, and he too was weighed only this time I remembered a photo for the hunt. My apologies for the “Thunderbirds” pose, but I decided to turn my head lamp off just as Dave said “cheese”. [3]



And so here I was. 4 fish in the first 5 casts and I couldn’t quite believe it. Was I in with a chance? Nah, if there’s one thing I’ve learnt from my 18 months of fishing, it’s that there’s always some bu**er who’ll out fish you. No matter, I re-baited every 20 mins as instructed and watched those tips light like a hawk.

And I watched.

And I watched.

And nothing at all happened for the next hour apart from the wind went from very light to gale force in not much time at all. In fact it was making it really tricky to fish. I’d long given up on bit detection as the rods were bouncing around so much and I was now concerning myself with trying to stop the rod rest going over. I failed. Twice.

By the time 10:45pm ticked round I was starting to get a touch frustrated. Dave had had a few decent fish, I’d not had a touch since the first 5 casts and the wind had now got so strong that you could lean in to it. My frustration however, wasn’t to last long. On pulling in the flapper rod to re-bait, it felt somewhat heavy, and to my delight I found I’d hooked another pout and a whiting. Not very impressive fish you might say, but they both took me up to the 2 fish species limit, so I was a very happy man. As was only to be expected, they were both relatively sorry sized examples, but both were over the NFSA size limits so they both got weighed and helped with the overall score.

I did manage another two doggies before the 11:30 weigh in, but neither of them could improve the weight of the first two, so they were returned unharmed.

And that was it. Fishing was over and I experienced the thrill (?) of a club weigh in for the first time. Overall I’d managed 4 doggies, 2 whiting and 2 pout, all of them sizable.



Turns out that I’d managed a grand total of 229%, which put me second. Now considering there were 18 other bloke fishing, and they ALL weighed in, to say I was chuffed would be an understatement. Okay the fish weren’t very exciting, but hey forget the quality, feel the points.

Dave finished the night with 2 doggies, 2 whiting and a pout for a similar score to myself, which puts both of us in a good position with the first match of the year gone. Well done mate!

I’ve got to say that everybody’s favourite penguin was an absolute star last night. Not only did he get some fresh bait for me yesterday afternoon and supply the ginger wine on the night, but I also spent all evening pestering him for his size charts, scales and note book. Mate you are a proper gent.

And that’s it really, I got home for 12:45am knackered but thrilled to bits with my first foray into the world of comp fishing. Bring on the next one!


[1] Although not at the same time. That’s just plain dangerous folks.
[2] Brand new SAS2. Christmas toy and now favourite bit of kit. Mmmm toasty warm.
[3] Ah well. I always wanted to be Scot Tracey anyway. FAB.

[Old Smoothound]

Well Done Baggie brilliant report and to make second as well great stuff

[pingu]

top report Rich and still chuffed for you, was a good night

never seen so many people on a wed night match
and has to be first or at least a rarity when you have 19 fishing in january 19 catch sizeably enough to weigh in

well done to adrian who won , similar fish to rich but bit fatter

conditions definately did deteriate later didnt they

heres my sorry little undersized pout just for the species hunt(did try stupidly live baiting him for a while, but nowt doing)


no worries on bait and snaffling scales etc i'm used to it now

bring on branscombe next month

dave

[upnorth1]

Well done Baggie, you're carrying us at the minute - I'll be out this Saturday looking for a cod, maybe some dabs and flounders and rocklings for the hunt...

Gonna use it as a practice session though, as I'm fishing at Great Yarmouth next weekend - been selected for the SAMF match Team. We are fishing against the Combined Services Team...

SO IF ANYONE'S IN THE GREAT YARMOUTH AREA ON FRIDAY 19TH AND SATURDAY 20TH...COME DOWN AND SHOW YOUR SUPPORT!!!!

[maghouse]

Top fishing m8 - well done !

A great feeling to be in "the prizes" at a comp .... just to put a downer on it - just imagine if you had started the comp on time - that first hour you could have caught yet more fish and won !!!!

[maghouse]

Originally Posted by upnorth1

Well done Baggie, you're carrying us at the minute - I'll be out this Saturday looking for a cod, maybe some dabs and flounders and rocklings for the hunt...

Gonna use it as a practice session though, as I'm fishing at Great Yarmouth next weekend - been selected for the SAMF match Team. We are fishing against the Combined Services Team...

SO IF ANYONE'S IN THE GREAT YARMOUTH AREA ON FRIDAY 19TH AND SATURDAY 20TH...COME DOWN AND SHOW YOUR SUPPORT!!!!

3 of my mates from my team are fishing in that comp .... I didnt make it I wont say good luck

[BaggieRich]

Originally Posted by upnorth1

Well done Baggie, you're carrying us at the minute - I'll be out this Saturday looking for a cod, maybe some dabs and flounders and rocklings for the hunt...

Gonna use it as a practice session though, as I'm fishing at Great Yarmouth next weekend - been selected for the SAMF match Team. We are fishing against the Combined Services Team...

SO IF ANYONE'S IN THE GREAT YARMOUTH AREA ON FRIDAY 19TH AND SATURDAY 20TH...COME DOWN AND SHOW YOUR SUPPORT!!!!

Go get 'em partner....

[fishypaul]

well done baggie,daves got a fight on his hands this year

[Rob M]

Great report Baggie! Beginners luck? No way! Well done on the fish

Rob

[soledover]

Pingu, m8... are you sure that's a Pout?
Eye looks big. No dark spot by the pectoral fin.
Poor Cod?
I could be wrong. Does it really matter?!!!!
Er, yes! I am a train Spotter!

Sudge.