Grimsby angler George Smith won the 2011 SAMF UK MASTERS on the beaches of Orford Ness in Suffolk on the 11^th and 12^th November.

64 anglers from England and Wales competed for the title and even though there was a strong onshore wind on Friday, calming down for Saturday, conditions were good for both matches. The anglers had to leave and return at staggered times to cross to the island by boat, this operation ran smoothly using two boats, the normal one and one supplied by the Natural trust.

Orford Ness is a 10 mile long shingle spit between the River Alde and the North Sea, located just South of Aldeburgh.  Orford ‘Island’ is famous for its deep-water fishing. Orford Ness is a SSSI and is a very important nature reserve for rare species of plants and strict rules have been requested by the National Trust who have agreed to our access to this fantastic venue. We are grateful to Natural England who granted us permission to use this venue.

The venue did not fish as well as it can do and some of the areas were very snaggy with competitors loosing several sets of gear. Also disappointing was that none of the large fish that this venue is famous for put in an appearance. However there were enough fish on both days for competitors to target. The species caught were mainly codling, whiting, dabs & dogfish. On the first day competitors needed between 11 and 23 fish to come in the top two in their sections. Local angler David Cook from Leiston had the best overall catch with 23 fish for 10lb 2oz. There were two heaviest fish caught on day one, of equal weight, codling of 2lb 8oz caught by Tony Thomas from Sheringham and Alan Doy from Beccles.

 

The zone positions on day 1 were:-

A zone 1st    Colin Carey                    9lb 10oz.      

A zone 2^nd    Nick Haward                             5lb 1oz.           

 

B zone 1^st     Tony Thomas          7lb 6oz.

B zone 2^nd     George Smith                   7lb 4oz

 

 

C Zone 1^st David Cook                          10lb 2oz

C Zone 2^nd Michael Emery                    8lb 1oz

 

D Zone 1^st Saul Page                            8lb 12oz

D Zone 2^nd Ian Reynolds                      6lb 12oz

 

 

ALL SAMF MATCHES ARE FISHED ON A CATCH AND RETURN FORMULA, THE FISH ARE MEASURED AND THEN IMMEDIATELY RETURNED. A CONVERSION CHART THEN CONVERTS THE LENGTH TO WEIGHT. THREE YEARS AGO SAMF INTRODUCED SIZE LIMITS IN THEIR MAJOR COMPETITIONS ON COD, WHITING AND BASS TO TRY AND ENCOURAGE MORE ANGLERS TO FISH MATCHES. AS A RESULT THIS REDUCED THE ACTUAL NUMBERS OF FISH COUNTING TO AN ANGLERS SCORE BUT GAVE EVERY ANGLER THE POSSIBILITY OF DOING WELL EVEN ON THE LAST CAST BY CATCHING A LARGE FISH.

Day 2 again saw good conditions and anglers needed 10 and 20 fish to score well. Top catch was made by Richard Yates from Dover with 14 fish for 8lb 9oz. Once again the biggest fish was a tie – two bass of 2lb 9oz caught by Glyn Savin of Lymington and Christopher Spall.

 

Day 2 zone winners

A zone 1st    Richard Yates                  8lb 9oz

A zone 2nd   Christopher Spall             7lb 5oz

 

B zone 1^st     Keith Morley                   7lb 10oz

B zone 2^nd     Martin Waters                5lb 0oz

 

C Zone 1^st Matt White                         7lb 4oz

C Zone 2^nd Paul Stevens                       6lb 14oz

 

D Zone 1^st George Smith                      8lb 2oz

D Zone 2^nd Neville Charlesworth          7lb 12oz

 

FINAL POSITIONS

1        George Smith                   3 pts           

2        Richard Yates                  4 pts (748 fish pts)                  

3        Keith Morley                   4 pts  (674 fish pts)       

4        Paul Stevens                    5 pts

5        Colin Carey                      6 pts  (760 fish pts)       

6        Matt White                     6 pts  (540 fish pts)       

7        David Cook                      8 pts  (646fish pts)        

8        Tony Thomas          8 pts  (590 fish pts)

 

Unfortunately there were no Ladies or juniors fishing this year.

 

A pairs competition was run within the match and winners were:-

1                     Colin Carey  & Paul Stevens both from Worthing

2                   Gary Hutson (Cleethorpes) & George Smith (Grimsby)

3                   Nick Haward (Blythburgh) &Mark Sharman(Lowestoft)

 

George was overall champion with a 1st place and a 2^nd place in his zone giving him 3 points.  George is a successful match angler who has represented England on numerous occasions. He has fished the masters for as long as I can remember and he is a popular winner having been beaton into 2^nd place twice in recent years by a countback on fish points. 

 

Richard Yates from St. Margarets near Dover ran him close also with a zone 3rd and a 1^st giving him 4 points.  

Cash prizes down to 8^th position overall and section pools for 1^st and 2^nd places giving a total cash prize fund in excess of £4400, plus tackle prizes and trophies. SAMF is grateful in particular to our member Julian Shambrook of ANYFISH ANYWHERE who donated many of the zone, and individual prizes including a top of the range rod for the winner’ We are also grateful to ULTIMA and SEA ANGLER MAGAZINE for also donating items for the prize table

Everyone who attended agreed that once again the event had been successful, and this venue will be used again for major events.

Next years final is scheduled to be fished at Otterspool in the Mersey estuary in October/November. Qualifying matches are already being run around the country. Contact Andy Steele, 01772 611597, for details of local events and how to organise qualifiers.