Stalham and District AC

After the heavy frost on Saturday morning, the 20 anglers who turned out this Sunday were relieved to see the day dawn frost free. Mind you the north-east wind didn’t bode well for the fishing, coupled with a long open water section on the Crane Basin, bites were likely to be at a premium. Chris Tims drew peg 5 on the end of the Crane Basin, and sitting right under the Crane, he caught steadily from the start to the finish to put 13lb 3oz on the scales to take 1st place this week.

Mike Dossena returned this week and had fish from the off from the right hand end of the Gate basin to take 2nd with 10lb 2oz and also win his section of two!

Back on the Crane and Dave Agass was on peg 4 between the boats where he caught through the match to end up with 8lb 15oz for 3rd this week.

So after the big weights last week it was back to the reality of winter fishing boatyard style, with many people waiting until the last hour for a bite. There was a small cheer when Adie Hall finally caught his first fish for three weeks on the Crane, and a certain Mr J. Burton was mighty pleased when he also finally caught after around 14hrs without a bite!!!! And yet when he drew his peg on the first jetty he was quite pleased…….. what a hard and cruel sport this match fishing is!

Next week is the Pairs Trophy……..let’s hope the weather gods are in a westerly frame of mind, with no frost or rain or sun and not too much wind……………………don’t ask for much do we………….See you there

With a miraculous turnout of 23 hopefuls after two very hard weeks, everyone was trying to guess where they wanted to draw!!! With the weather virtually ideal with cloudy conditions, a light south wind and no frost…….(I know we had all that last week!!)…… it looked like we might be on for some fish but what actually happened took everyone by surprise. Harry Barron made it 2 wins on the spin this week and has blown the “20” club clean away to be the only member in the “30” club (which was very nearly the “40” club)! Harry had a great net of bream/skimmers from his peg on then Crane basin (where you couldn’t buy a bite last week) for a runaway win with 37lb 15oz.

Now switch basins to the big basin where Dave Dearman caught 19 bream/skimmers for his 2nd place net of 25lb 8oz and another great days fishing.

Back to the Crane basin where Terry Smith, on the peg next to the winner, had 23lb 10oz of similar bream/skimmers for 3rd place.

There were another 6 double figure weights and John Hehir had a bream of 3lb 10oz in his net of 10lb 4oz. But as always at the boatyard if you weren’t on the fish it can be very hard and if you happened to draw the river pegs this week it was a very long 5 hours as the 3 of them sat biteless despite all their best efforts. Jon Burton is talking about taking art evening classes in an effort to improve his drawing

This week was also the singles KO 2nd round here are the results.

Next week its the Ida Livard cup, lets hope the fish are still feeding and the weather is kind…………………See you there…..

Sunday was virtually windless with cloud cover most of the day and no frost – pretty good winter fishing conditions you would think, and how wrong could you be………

The boatyards showed their harder side this weekend with nearly everyone struggling for bites for the first 2 hours and even then the only place which slowly came to life was the Gate basin.

Harry Barron drew peg 17 on then grass at goose green and had a great match compared to most with small fish coming steadily after the first hour to give him 5lb 12oz for a runaway win on the day.

Chasing hard after a 2 hr wait for bites was Dave Edgerton on peg 16 further down the gate where he had 4lb 1oz for 2nd

Then came Ian Jones with 3 lb dead from the right hand end of the Gate basin. Ian had a long wait before the fish turned up with about an hour and a half left in the match.

Out of a field of 26 half blanked! In the Crane basin 10 out the 12 anglers blanked. John Hehir on peg 2 was over the moon with the small perch he caught from next to the boards, but then Mr Jonas rained on his parade with a 3oz roach caught just 10 mins from the whistle. Martin Littlefield must be this weeks unluckiest angler – he caught a small perch from his peg next to the boat on the left hand end of the Crane, went to swing it to hand, and had to watch in horror as the £20 section winner dropped off, back into the water!!!!!

Why did the boatyard fish so poorly? Where do the fish go to? Are they just there and not feeding? Perhaps all will be back to normal next week for the 2nd round of the Singles KO……….See you there……..

10th November 2019

A hard frost on Saturday night followed by bright sunshine are not the most favourable fishing conditions but no one expected the fishing to be such a contrast to last week. 21 members lined up for the draw this week and with plenty of space in the big basin there was much anticipation and talk of “jetties” and pegs “opposite the wet shed”. But in reality it was the Crane basin which was the place to be this week with all 3 framing places coming from pegs 1 to 5!

Alex Watson drew peg 1 and was thinking of going home when, after an hour and a half he caught a skimmer. This was the start of a good day, as he carried on and caught over a dozen more plus some bits to put a 20lb 8oz on the scales for a convincing win and he is now a member of the exclusive “20” club.

2 pegs away Dave Edgerton had been catching steadily from the off and had 10lb 5oz for 2nd. He was closely followed by Roger Farmer on peg 5 who had a level 10lb for 3rd.

So what of the jetties and the big basin in general, it can be summed up in one word DIRE!

Mark Charlwood won the basin off the 1st jetty with a meagre 3lb 1oz, Martin Littlefield had 3lb from between the boats facing the 1st jetty, and Dave Dearman had 2lb 14oz opposite the wet shed. No one else in the basin broke 2lb and there were 4 blanks. Why the fish weren’t feeding in here but fed in the Crane is a mystery and we will have to see what occurs next week…… See you there…….

Light cloud with the odd sunny interval, a light southwest wind, even the threatened rain later didn’t happen until we had finished, these were the almost perfect weather conditions this Sunday. 21 anglers arrived to compete this week and with the big basin pegged expectations were running reasonably high for a good days fishing. Chris Tims and Mark Charlwood managed to both draw jetties in the big basin with Chris on the first jetty and Mark on the fourth jetty it was always going to be close and they tied for 1st place this week both weighing 13lb 12oz. To make things more unusual, we also had a tie for 2nd with Adie Hall and Alex Watson who were opposite each other on the Crane Basin and both weighed 10lb 9oz. There were fish everywhere this week but very few of the larger specimens put in an appearance, but hey-ho you can’t have everything and many of us had bites from start to finish so it’s not all bad.

1st round Singles KO this week top 16 qualify for the next round see here if you made it.

Next week is our Charity Match. Don’t forget it will be £15 to fish this week……….See you there…………………..

What a difference a week makes.With sunny weather forecast this weeks match attracted a bumper entry of 27 members meaning Colin had to include a section on the far side of the big basin to cope with the numbers.

Trevor Dodson drew exactly the same peg as he had last week, left hand end of the Gate Basin, and wasn’t too optimistic after he struggled last week for 5lb. But he was pleasantly surprised to find the fish had returned to the Gate and he put 10lb 14oz on the scales to win this week. Trevor just pipped Roger Farmer who was next to him on the right hand end of the Gate and had 10lb 11oz for 2nd. Dennis Willis was in Kiddies Corner on the Big Basin where he caught 10lb 9oz for 3rd. So, the Crane basin didn’t produce a frame weight this week, and the fish seem to be more evenly spread out, hopefully some more of the quality fish will move in as the boat activity slows down in the yards for the winter.

Unluckiest angler this week has to be Denny Hammond who managed to drop his keep net in at the end of the match and lost virtually all his catch I think the air turned black as he realised what had happened.

Next week we have the Big Basin fully pegged as well so lets hope we see some good results from all areas. See you there…………..

Click here to read the article published on The Canal and Rivers trust website all about Jimmy

There was a bigger turnout for this weeks match with 26 (eventually) anglers lining up around 2 basins and yet again the Crane basin was the place to draw. Mark Harmer cruised to his first win of the winter from peg 5 putting 9lb 13oz of small fish on the scales. Dave Edgerton was 2nd from peg 3 with 8lb 8oz which included 2 large perch (see photo) . Then in 3rd was Mark Charlwood from peg 7 with 6lb 13oz on the right hand end of the Crane. Pity those 12 poor people who drew the Gate basin! 5 blanked and only 1 (Trev Dodson – had to be didn’t it) broke 5lb. It certainly felt like a long 5hrs for some of us.

Anyway, looking forward to next week as things can only get better – can’t they??? Then in 2 weeks we can attack the big basin – and struggle in there too!!!! See you there………………….

13th October 2019

Another grey and damp day greeted the 20 competitors for this weeks match. The forecast was for rain all day but it actually wasn’t quite as bad as predicted – and much better than last week. The Crane basin was the place to be once again with Derbyshire interloper, aka Steve Wilkinson, coming out in first place with 10lb 12oz from peg 6 on the crane. He only just beat Alex Watson, who had a busy day on the gate basin catching small roach at 13m for 10lb 11oz and 2nd. Another double figure weight for John Higginson at peg 1 took 3rd place with 10lb 5oz but the big perch he lost at the net would have been a big bonus.

Overall there were 4 double figure weights and 11 anglers had over 6lb so although not fantastic, there are fish to be caught.

Spare a thought for Trev Dodson who had the benefit of a fantastic demonstration of “high speed mooring” right on his peg – don’t know how he then managed to get 10lb 4oz. I reckon he just put his landing net in and scooped up the fish after they were dazed by the boat wash.

Never mind it all adds to the entertainment……… See you next week…..

So we are off with he winter series of matches at the boatyards. Mr Burton was the clear winner this week from his peg on the Crane Basin where he caught 10lb 9oz. Tony Wilkinson was 2nd from his peg at the end of the Crane with 8lb 13oz and Mark Seaman was 3rd from his peg next to the winner with 8lb 6oz. So the Crane was the place to be this opening Match but who knows how things can change over the coming weeks and once the big basin is in the mix. Next week is the David King Bowl – See you there