(BOAT and BEACH)

CHAMPIONSHIP

Friday, July 28th -Sunday, July 30th 2006

First	Dave Hancock	15.38
Second	Barry Carter	11.36
Third	Jolyon Ifill	11.06

4. Mick Carpenter 10.70	5. Les Bates	10.615
6 Ian Martin 10.545	7. Frank Cox	9.875
8. John Hards 9.505	9. Keith Neame	9.38
10. Westley Harris 9.345

Special Classes

Ladies	Beach	Juniors -Boat
Shelley Foster 3.19	Barry Mount 2.20	Robert Bates 3.06

	Friday			Saturday			Sunday
1	Jolyon Ifill	11.06	1	Dave Hancock	15.38	1	Barry Carter	11.14
2	Mick Carpenter	10.70	2	Barry Carter	11.36	2	Les Bates	10.615
3	Ian Martin	10.545	3	Frank Cox	9.875	3	Keith Neame	9.38

Herne Bay, renowned as being the top venue in the country for producing large double figure bass, including the British record, lived up to its reputation, as results proved in The Herne Bay Angling Associations, ICOM sponsored, National Bass Festival held over the Friday and weekend, when 34 bass were bought to the scales above the minimum qualifying weight for senior competitors of 4lb and included 8 double figure fish, topped by Dave Hancock’s magnificent specimen of 15.38lbs which he caught on the Saturday, whilst fishing from his charter boat, Excel. The fish earned him £500 and an ICOM marine radio and is the largest bass recorded in the country this year, which puts him in first place in Boat Fishing Monthly’s national competition for the heaviest bass caught in UK waters.

Ironically, prior to the competition, no large bass had been caught this year, so, expectations from the 102 competitors fishing was not great. However hopes were soon raised when early Friday morning Ian Martin caught a 10.545lb fish with his first cast whilst fishing at the Ridge using mackerel fillet, followed by the capture of three double figure fish on Mick Carpenters boat, the largest by his boat partner Jolyon Ifill weighing 11.06lb which proved to be the largest caught the day. On Saturday, most of the boats were anchored in the vicinity of the Ridge, which is where most of the larger fish are caught, and it was here that Dave Hancock hooked into his match winning fish whilst uptiding with ammo frozen mackerel on a 6.0 pennel rig, whilst a few minutes later, Barry Carter fishing from the same boat caught a 11.36lb fish on his down-tide rod which proved to be the second largest of the competition. On Sunday, the wind freshened from the southwest which made fishing more difficult, however, there were still two double figure fish caught the largest by Barry Carter weighing 11.14lb followed by Les Bates with a fish of 10.61lb, whilst his son Robert caught a fish 3.06lbs to take the junior prize and Shelley Foster the ladies prize with a bass of 3.19lb.

Beach competitors did not fare so well, mainly due to the abundance of weed making bottom fishing very difficult and the only bass caught was by Barry Mount, weighing 2.2lbs, captured whilst fishing at Hampton Rock on Sunday morning, using float fished live sandeel, on the first of the flood tide, which won him a Zziplex beach rod.

Sponsored by
ICOM UK Ltd.

 

Photograph and report –copyright of HBAA 2006