Strong SW winds made boat angling quite taxing at times for the 10 members who fished the Heron Angling Society's two-day Spring Festival. Saturdays weather was the worse but had the better fishing of the two days. Both days saw good catches of skate come to the scales while numbers of dogfish, smoothhound, bass and whiting were disappointing.
C. Zacharia managed four decent thornbacks on Saturday, the best of which was 9.50lbs with three other members bagging two each up to 9.20lbs from B. Morris.
J. Williamson even managed one of 6.78lbs just 500yds off shore after engine trouble forced him and P. Gower to row out!!
Sunday's skate catches were fewer with M. Morris hooking into three around the 6lb mark and B. Morris with two but M. Pritchard had the heaviest, bringing the scales down to a healthy 12.08lbs. 18 Skate in total were brought to the scales over the two days.
Individual day results, aggregate and class results (by elimination) as follows;
Saturday;
1st - C. Zacharia, 10 fish, 39.26lbs
2nd - K. Neame, 14 fish, 29.66lbs
3rd - M. Pritchard, 14 fish, 18.80lbs
4th - B. Morris, 4 fish, 17.68lbs
5th - T. Morris, 6 fish, 17.34lbs
6th - M. Morris, 7 fish, 13.60lbs
7th - J. Williamson, 1 fish, 6.78lbs
3 other members fished but didn't weigh in
Sunday;
1st - M. Morris, 9 fish, 25.40lbs
2nd - B. Morris, 4 fish, 16.84lbs
3rd - M. Pritchard, 3 fish, 13.62lbs
4th - K. Neame, 6 fish, 11.08lbs
5th - C. Zacharia, 6 fish, 6.12lbs
6th - T. Morris, 3 fish, 3.50lbs
Class 1: Aggregate (& positions);
1st - C. Zacharia - 45.38lbs
2nd - K. Neame - 40.74lbs
3rd - M. Morris - 39.00lbs
4th - B. Morris - 34.52lbs
5th - M. Pritchard - 32.42lbs
6th - T. Morris - 20.84lbs
7th - J. Williamson - 6.78lbs
Class 2: Greatest Number (one day)
K. Neame - 14 fish
Class 3: Heaviest Fish
M. Pritchard - 12.08lbs
Class 4: Heaviest One Day Catch Of Skate
C. Zacharia - 31.74lbs
Class 5: Heaviest Catch Flat Fish (one day)
C. Zacharia - 0.32lbs
Class 6: Heaviest Catch Round Fish (one day)
M. Morris - 6.84lbs
Class 7: Aggregate Weight By A Junior
Not Won
Class 8: Heaviest Catch By A Senior
J. Williamson - 6.78lbs
Class 9: Greatest Number Of Varieties (one day)
B. Morris - 3 Varieties
C. Zacharia, B. Morris and M. Pritchard with the best of their catches