A BUSY time for sea anglers – or at least it should be with the crabs peeling hard on the North Kent coast and the rays and smoothhounds arriving. Traditionally the spring and summer saw lots of sea anglers lay up their tackle until the return of autumn and winter or switch to freshwater angling.
But nowadays the spring can provide some of the best fishing for the larger species and more and more sea anglers are realising it.
From the beaches there are more thornback ray showing, especially from the Sandown/ Sandwich Bay region, and the best this week came from Deal pier for Deal angler Tim Fagg, fishing a competition.
Just showing are the first small smoothhound and these will increase in numbers and size in the coming months. The Admiralty pier at Dover is the prime spot for a big hound.
And then, of course, there are the mackerel.
Lots of anglers await their arrival with piers like the Admiralty, Folkestone and Samphire Hoe just starting to fill up with anglers of all kinds fishing feathers and lures for mackerel.
THE latest Folkestone Sea Angling beach rover competition was won by Dover angler Martin Jenkins who landed a mixture of dogfish, whiting and dabs from an undisclosed Shepway shore mark for 4.300kg.
He narrowly beat Folkestone's Martyn Reid with a similar catch of 4.250kg.
In third place was Lea Heaver of Folkestone with 3.060kg who won both of the pools for the biggest round and the biggest flat fish.
His best roundfish was a dogfish of 810grams and his best flatfish a flounder of 510grams.
The Folkestone SAA's next event is a pier competition fished from Folkestone pier on Thursday, April 26. Meet at the pier steps for the draw at 6.15pm.
Folkestone Veterans also fished from Folkestone pier in their latest event and the winner there was Pat Rumsey with a couple of dabs for 9oz.
Calm, clear conditions and a low tide did little to attract the fish to the pier wall.
Second was Mick Howland of Folkestone with 8oz and that was a small herring and a dab. Third was Alan Rickards of Folkestone with 7oz.
OTHER local club competitions included the latest Seabrook Sea Anglers Association event which was round two of the Victory Cup fished at Sandgate and Seabrook beaches.
Winner was John Smith of Ashford with seven whiting and dabs for 2.45lb. Graham Branigan was runner up with 2.10lb and Dorian Partridge third with 1.95lb.
FREELANCE shore catches have included a number of plaice from various beach marks around Shepway.
Dorian Partridge and Steve Harvey of the Seabrook Anglers Association fished at Dengemarsh landed plaice and a bonus bass for Dorian.
In the boats there are rays for the region's charter boats fishing the Goodwin Sands and with the warming water bass from the inshore wrecks are expected anytime.
FOLKESTONE Fly Fishing Club has its first champion of 2012.
Ian Watts teamed up with England national squad member Sean Brooks to win this year's Bewl Pro-Am competition.
The pair caught 11 rainbow trout from the bank for a match-winning total of 25lb.
This is a great start to the competition season for Ian who reached both the European and England finals in 2011.
SEA angling competitions coming up include the first of the Dover Sea Angling Association Saturday Series events being fished from the Admiralty pier on Saturday, April 14.
The event has been switched to the Admiralty pier because of the loss of the ferry boat for the breakwater which is still an ongoing subject.
Book in at the patrolman's hut is at 1pm. Contact Saul Page on 07971 172427 for more details.
Contact Alan Yates on 01303 250017, 07790 132656 or e-mail alankyates@aol.com.
