Heron Charities Page

 Over 10K raised in support of charity!

£10,157.90

Since 2002 the Heron Angling Society has raised the above amount of money for the following Charities:

Breakthrough Cancer, British Heart Foundation, Dave Lee's Happy Holidays, Dead Horse Morris, Herne Bay Roller Hockey, Herne Bay Sea Cadets, Kent Air Ambulance, Kent & Canterbury Renal Unit,Royal Marsden Hospital, Royal National Lifeboat Institution, Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital, Scallywags – Dog Rescue, SNAAP.

For more details visit the 

Heron Charities Page

Heron two day boat festival results

Conditions for the Heron two day boat festival could not have been better on Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th May. The seas were like glass on Saturday and the skies bright, the only difference for Sunday was a relatively light NE wind. 

5 boats comprising 13 anglers set out over both days, with the Weir bank seemingly the preferred venue in the hunt for skate, hounds and dogfish.

First blood on Saturday went to B. Morris with a good weight of 39.28lbs. As well as 4 thornies Ben had small smoothounds up to 4lbs and dogfish. Not too far behind, M. Morris weighed in 4 skate of his own along with a couple of doggies for 31.86lbs.
 The heaviest fish of the day fell to P. Thornton with a skate at 8.60lbs.
With all to play for, anglers set up in similar spots for day two. On the whole, the fishing was quieter with less brought to the scales but M. Morris clearly found his mark and returned with 6 good skate along with doggies and a rather special catch. 

It's not often specimen fish are caught but to get one twice the specimen size requirement is practically unheard of. Micks' gurnard tipped the scales at exactly 2.00lbs and will earn him a gold specimen medal at the end of the year. (Unfortunately I was not able to get a photo before the fish was taken for the table.)

Micks' catch totalled an impressive 44.12lbs and not only won the day but the aggregate prize too with B. Morris letting slip the lead in second with just 17.04lbs.

Junior member L. Perry-French was back to his recent skate catching ways and nabbed the heaviest fish prize from P. Thornton with a lovely ray of 9.40lbs

Full one day results, aggregates and class winners (by elimination) as follows;

Saturday 17th May
1st- B. Morris, 13 fish, 39.28lbs
2nd- M. Morris, 6 fish, 31.86lbs
3rd- C. Zacharia, 7 fish, 22.18lbs
4th- T. Morris, 5 fish, 15.12lbs
5th- L. Perry-French, 2 fish, 14.78lbs
6th- P. Thornton, 1 fish, 8.60lbs
7th- K. Wilton, 6 fish, 7.40lbs
8th- P. Gower, 2 fish, 5.28lbs
9th- G. Mummery, 3 fish, 3.76lbs
10th- B. Perry-French, 1 fish, 1.26lbs
11th- K. Grove, 1 fish, 1.20lbs

Sunday 18th May
1st- M. Morris, 10 fish, 44.12lbs
2nd- B. Morris, 6 fish, 17.04lbs
3rd- C. Zacharia, 3 fish, 16.80lbs
4th- T. Morris, 4 fish, 12.62lbs
5th- L. Perry-French, 2 fish, 9.82lbs
6th- K. Wilton, 3 fish, 7.14lbs
7th- P. Gower, 2 fish, 2.22lbs

Class 1: Aggregate
1st- M. Morris, 75.98lbs
2nd- B. Morris, 56.32lbs
3rd- C. Zacharia, 38.98lbs
4th- T. Morris, 27.74lbs
5th- L. Perry-French, 24.60lbs
6th- K. Wilton, 14.54lbs
7th- P. Thornton, 8.60lbs
8th- P. Gower, 7.50lbs
9th- B. Perry-French, 1.26lbs

Class 2: Greatest Number (One Day)
B. Morris, 13 fish

Class 3: Heaviest Fish
L. Perry-French, 9.60lbs

Class 4: Heaviest One Day Catch Of Skate
M. Morris, 38.18lbs

Class 5: Heaviest Catch Flat Fish (One Day)
Not Won

Class 6: Heaviest Catch Round Fish (One Day)
C.Zacharia, 8.48lbs

Class 7: Aggregate Weight By A Junior
B. Perry-French, 1.26lbs

Class 8: Heaviest Catch By A Senior (One Day)
P. Thornton, 8.60lbs

Class 9: Greatest Number of Varieties (One Day)
T. Morris, 2 Varieties

Gold Specimen Medal Awarded
M. Morris, Tub-Gurnard, 2.00lbs

M. Morris with the best of his winning catch

B. Morris with Saturdays top weight

L. Perry-French with the heaviest fish of the festival

Jackson Cup beach comp results

Nine anglers took to the beaches at Deal for the Herons' Jackson Cup on Saturday 10th May and were greeted with very strong SW gusts.
Not put off, the competitors spread from the yacht club slipway at Sandwich through to Walmer Castle, the latter proving to produce better results.
Dogfish were the order of the day with no other species tabled but all the anglers weighed in with S. Stephenson bagging an impressive 18 fish for the title adding to his impressive points tally for the year so far. 

Full results as follows;

1st- S. Stephenson, 18 fish, 23.14lbs
2nd- K. Wilton, 12 fish, 16.48lbs
3rd- K. Grove, 9 fish, 11.30lbs
4th- M. Morris, 8 fish, 9.82lbs
5th- B. Morris, 6 fish, 8.22lbs
6th- L. Perry-French, 6 fish, 7.68lbs
7th- D. Smith, 6 fish, 7.40lbs
8th- T. Morris, 5 fish, 6.02lbs
9th- B. Perry-French, 4 fish, 5.14lbs

Lawler Pairs boat fishing comp results

As the title suggests, this competition is fished in pairs with combined weights contributing to the results. Individual results are still recorded however for championship points and fish numbers.
Weather was favourable as 6 boats headed out on Sunday 27th April in relatively light SE winds and overcast conditions.

As has been the case with recent events, skate accounted for the majority of catches with dogfish, whiting and smoothhounds also landed.

Yet again, junior brothers Lewis and Bradley Perry-French were in the hotspot thanks to their grandad and took 1st place. The twins landed 6 skate between them with Lewis also bagging the heaviest fish of the day at 10.26lbs. K. Wilton also had a nice fish at 9.48lbs which saw him take a share of the heavy fish pool.

Full Results as follows;
1st- L. Perry-French & B. Perry-French, 6 fish, 39.70lbs
2nd- D. Perry & K. Morris, 11 fish, 34.20lbs
3rd- K. Wilton & P. Gower, 3 fish, 19.76lbs
4th- M. Morris & G. Mummery, 5 fish, 19.20lbs
5th- B. Morris & T. Morris, 13 fish, 16.64lbs
6th- P. Thornton & R. Lowe, 1 fish, 1.18lbs

Individual Results;
1st- L. Perry-French, 3 fish, 24.82lbs
2nd- D. Perry, 7 fish, 18.08lbs
3rd- K. Morris, 4 fish, 16.12lbs
4th- B. Perry-French, 3 fish, 14.88lbs
5th- M. Morris, 4 fish, 14.74lbs
6th- K. Wilton, 2 fish, 14.16lbs
7th- B. Morris, 8 fish, 11.22lbs
8th- P. Gower, 1 fish, 5.60lbs
9th- T. Morris, 5 fish, 5.42lbs
10th- G. Mummery, 1 fish, 4.46lbs
11th- P. Thornton, 1 fish, 1.18lbs

Claire V Weniger trophy Boat comp results

Five boats comprising ten anglers set out on Sunday 13th April for the Claire V Weniger trophy.
Weather conditions were favourable with a steadily decreasing NW wind and bright skies.
Skate accounted for the majority of catches with dogfish, whiting and a small smooth hound also being weighed in. Most entrants reported their catches coming in the first hour with the later stages of the event being very quiet.
G. Mummery had the heaviest fish of the day with a thornback of 9.60lbs despite coming to shore early as his partner was suffering severe sea sickness.
It was junior member L. Perry-French who triumphed overall though, the youngster landed 3 good skate totalling 21.06lbs and adds 12 points to his so far impressive tally for the year.

Full results as follows;
1st- L. Perry-French, 3 fish, 21.06lbs
2nd- M. Morris, 4 fish, 19.74lbs
3rd- T. Morris, 6 fish, 15.78lbs
4th- G. Mummery, 7 fish, 13.74lbs
5th- P. Thornton, 3 fish, 11.50lbs
6th- B. Morris, 5 fish, 6.18lbs
7th- K. Wilton, 1 fish, 5.36lbs
8th- B. Perry-French, 1 fish, 4.96lbs
9th- R. Lowe, 3 fish, 0.86lbs
10th- S. Touati, 2 fish, 0.74lbs

Osman Cup beach comp results

With the reported abundance of skate caught from Herne Bays' shores lately and the arrival of peeler crabs, the 17 anglers who fished the Osman Cup on Sunday 6th April had high hopes of decent catches.

The weather was decent with bright skies and a SW breeze but as is so often the case lately the fish just weren't playing ball. 

A lot of entrants reported catches of tiny whiting, bass and codling while one member saw a skate landed by a non H.A.S member fishing just two break waters away. 

In the end only M. Morris weighed in a catch with two small but sizeable bass from cold harbour. 

1st- M. Morris, 2 fish, 3.52lbs

 

Boat accumulator Competition results

Despite the sun shining, a decision was to be made from the off as to whether we fished this or not due to fairly strong NW winds. Thankfully though, it wasn't too bad and although two boats chose not to, the event took place. 

Four boats ventured out and all opted to fish the Weir bank area with catches of skate in mind. 11 were bought to the scales in total along with dogfish and whiting too, the best of the fish coming in at 10.58lbs for B. Morris who also bagged two more which, along with 2 dogs and 2 whiting led him to win the competition.

A bigger congratulations however goes to junior brothers Lewis and Bradley Perry-French who caught 6 skate between them and took 2nd and 3rd places. Lewis weighed in 4 and had a fifth that was undersize, while of Bradley's 2, the heaviest was a decent 9.42lbs.

Full Results as Follows;
1st- B. Morris, 7 fish, 27.88lbs
2nd- L. Perry-French, 4 fish, 21.82lbs
3rd- B. Perry-French, 2 fish, 13.62lbs
4th- M. Morris, 1 fish, 8.42lbs
5th- T. Morris, 3 fish, 7.98lbs
6th- P. Gower, 1 fish, 1.64lbs

Tamkin cup beach comp results

With spurious rumours of skate and codling catches seeping through on the grapevine, expectations were high for the 17 anglers who took part in the Tamkin Cup beach competition on Sunday 9th March.
Alas it was not to be and infact the results were very poor with just two anglers sneaking in sizeable catches. P. Gould started the proceedings with a rockling and looked set to take the points until G.S.C.A. member S. Stephenson arrived with what can only be described as a very pregnant looking blenny of 0.32lbs.
Despite the sunny conditions and most anglers reporting catches of minute whiting and codling, no one else brought a catch to the scales.

1st- S. Stephenson, 1 Fish, 0.32lbs
2nd- P. Gould, 1 Fish, 0.08lbs

The Jubilee Cup 1st Round Beach comp results

The start of the 2014 beach season for the Heron Angling Society got underway on Sunday 26th January with the first competition of the year. It was really encouraging to see 17 anglers enter the Jubilee Cup 1st Round and head to Herne Bays' shores despite the bleak weather forecast.
That said, conditions varied from the predicted strong SW winds and heavy rain to clear skies and just a gentle breeze. The event was fished for four hours, all the way up the flood tide, with most of it in darkness.
Only 6 anglers ended up weighing in catches but the majority reported landing under size whiting, dabs, flounders and even codling. 
However, it was G.S.A.C club member Simon Stephenson who took top spot with an impressive six sizeable fish comprising postage stamp dabs and rockling, one of which was an impressive 0.48lbs! 
Of the other entrants to weigh in, B. Morris took the heaviest fish pool with a reasonable flounder of 0.88lbs while D. Kennedy landed a whiting and the others took rockling.

Full results as follows:
1st- S. Stephenson, 6 fish, 1.56lbs
2nd- B. Morris, 1 fish, 0.88lbs
3rd- D. Kennedy, 1 fish, 0.32lbs
4th- P. Gower, 1 fish, 0.30lbs
4th- K. Grove, 1 fish, 0.30lbs
6th- M. Parker, 1 fish, 0.18lbs

Ben Morris with the heaviest fish

End of year report for 2013

Well, it's the end of another year and a very successful one too. The club is thriving in both social and fishing aspects with competition entries a further improvement on last year and its been great to see some new faces out in the boats too.

There has been success for the usual candidates but also some other names creeping into the fray too. Especially well done to Phil Thornton for winning the beach championship this year, you can put your flounder back into deep freeze ready for next season now Phil! 

It was also nice to see three different overall winners with P. Thornton for the beach, M. Morris for the boat and T. Morris for the club championships. It is often the case two or even all three of these go to a single angler.

A big congratulations also goes out to Lewis Perry-French who pipped his brother Bradley to the junior championship by 1 point. Bradley was not entirely out of the prizes though as in an unprecedented turn of events he was one of three joint winners in this years Charsley competition. It is understood this is the first time this has happened in the clubs history.

There were some lovely skate caught back in the spring and in reasonable numbers too. Mick Pritchard bagged the heaviest of the year at 12lbs 1,1/4oz while Chris Zacharia boated five nice fish on the first day of the spring boat festival.

The diamond jubilee competition was somewhat of a let down in the summer with only a handful of participants and even worse only two fish weighed in! Lets try and improve on that in 2014!
The autumn fishing was very successful however, although bigger fish eluded us all, the whiting numbers were high, notably Tony Morris weighing in 130 fish on the third day of the autumn boat festival. Several anglers commented on the consistently good weather we had over the course of that festival which really added to a great three days fishing. 

With three specimen medals going out, including a Gold for Phil's Flounder, and the majority of the silverware finding new homes for 2014, it has definitely been a good year.

As I did last year I have listed below a full run down of the points so you can see if you have improved on last year or if you think there's still work to be done in 2014!

All that therefore remains for me to say is a huge thank you to Dave Mann, Wendy Dinley, Lesley Wills, Kevin Morris and the rest of the committee. Without all their hard work none of this would happen or be possible. I would also like to thank Mike Turner for the upkeep of our terrific website and wish Phil Gower the best of luck with getting the junior section up and running in the new year, it would be great if, with everyone's support, we could get some more budding youth into the fishing scene at the Heron.

Tight lines! 
Ben

Beach Championship;

1st- P. Thornton 74pts
2nd- T. Morris 61pts
3rd- B. Morris 50pts
3rd- M. Morris 50pts
5th- K. Grove 45pts
6th- D. Smith 37pts
7th- G. Mummery 32pts
8th- K. Wilton 25pts
9th- A. Louch 20pts
10th- L. Perry-French 19pts
10th- D. Foreman 19pts
12th- B. Perry-French 18pts
12th- M. Bryant 18pts
14th- K. Morris 17pts
15th- P. Gower 12pts
16th- S. Mummery 11pts
17th- S. Stephenson 9 pts
18th- M. Finch 8pts
19th- D. Johnson 5pts
20th- P. Gould 4pts
7 other anglers finished the season on 1pt each

Boat Championship
 
1st- M. Morris 95pts
2nd- T. Morris 86pts
3rd- B. Morris 69pts
4th- P. Thornton 42pts
4th- G. Mummery 42pts
6th- P. Gower 36pts
7th- K. Grove 32pts
8th- J. Williamson 31pts
9th- K. Wilton 29pts
10th- C. Zacharia 23pts
11th- K. Neame 20pts
11th- M. Pritchard 20pts
13th- S. Mummery 19pts
14th- K. Morris 16pts
15th- D. Perry 9pts
16th- D. Johnson 6pts
17th- A. Louch 3pts
18th- J. Waterman 2pts
18th- M. Radwan 2pts

Club Championship (top 20)

1st- T. Morris 147pts
2nd- M. Morris 145pts
3rd- B. Morris 119pts
4th- P. Thornton 116pts
5th- K. Grove 77pts
6th- G. Mummery 74pts
7th- K. Wilton 54pts
8th- P. Gower 48pts
9th- D. Smith 37pts
10th- K. Morris 33pts
11th- J. Williamson 32pts
12th- S. Mummery 30pts
13th- A. Louch 23pts
13th- C. Zacharia 23pts
15th- K. Neame 20pts
15th- M. Pritchard 20pts
17th- L. Perry-French 19pts
17th- D. Foreman 19pts
19th- B. Perry-French 18pts
19th- M. Bryant 18pts

Presidents Heron (top 10)

1st- T. Morris 452 fish
2nd- M. Morris 408 fish
3rd- G. Mummery 326 fish
4th- B. Morris 322 fish
5th- P. Thornton 152 fish
6th- S. Mummery 129 fish
7th- P. Gower 116 fish
8th- K. Wilton 105 fish
9th- K. Morris 79 fish
10th K. Grove 69 fish

And from Mike, Just adding a quick note here to say thanks to Ben for all his efforts during the year's competitions keeping track of everyone's points.