Cod angler fills his freezer

Great Yarmouth's north beach set the scene for one of the most impressive North Sea coast catches taken there in recent years.

Fishing the ebb tide last Saturday night, Norfolk enthusiast Mick Lambert winched out a total of 15 cod, eight of them over 8lb with the prime specimen a beauty of 8lb 6oz.

The delighted angler finished up with 50lb of prime cod fillets, writes Roy Webster.

Commenting on his session that started at 11pm and ended at 6am the Spixworth rodman recalled: “The sea conditions were ideal with the tide running out steadily for almost the whole of the session. I was getting bites even as dawn broke but was forced to pack up and go home then because I ran out of lugworm bait. It's the best cod fishing I have enjoyed for many a year and was certainly value for money spent.”

This welcome upturn in rod-and-line cod catches emphasises sea anglers' point - that maintaining and conserving North Sea fish stocks is influenced greatly by European ministers decisions, fixing annual quotas and imposing no-go zones on the commercial trawl fleets.

So far the cod have not moved northwards towards the North Norfolk shingle beaches and the Sam Hook League there produced quality whiting and dabs.

The winner was Keith Morley (Kessingland) with 4lb 12oz followed by Gary Medler (Martham) with 3lb 13oz and Clyde Legatt (Gorleston) with 3lb. With one round to come the top of the table reads: K Chilvers 171pts, T Thomas and G Medler 166, K Morley 163.

On the freshwater match scene, Jonathan Edwards (Gorleston Jollyboys) won the midweek open event at Melton Ponds with 36lb 10oz while Yarmouth's Browning/Pownalls men dominated the Barford midweek silverfish contest won by Chris Sykes with 13lb 7oz followed by Tony Anderson, 12lb 15oz.

On the club tournaments, the Jollyboys result at Barford was: R Silverwood 35lb 9oz, S Huggins 35lb 5oz, R Kent 22lb 9oz.

The result of the Stalham visit to the club lagoons was: D Dearman 16lb, C Lawrence 14lb 4oz, P Cooper 14lb 1oz.