The first leg of the Clyde & West Region Winter Shore Knockout was held yesterday (5th January 2008), in the Arbroath area.
Six teams turned out for the event, Corinthians, Clyde Specimen Hunters, Inverclyde, Peever'A', Peever'B' and of course Silver Lure, who were represented by Daniel Diaz, Ricky Menzies, Robert Wilson, Davy McNair and myself.
The match was originally planned as a pegged event, to be fished over low water, at the Victoria Park area at Arbroath. On arrival at the mark, it was clear that the sea was still very disturbed from the South Easterlies that had been battering the coast for days, and despite the fact that the sea was dying off nicely, many felt that it was still just too dangerous to fish it safely, particularly in darkness. Others unfortunately did not agree and a "discussion" took place to figure out what we should do.
The fall-back mark of Ferryden was dismissed as the snow-melt had sent torrents of fresh water downstream, making the mark unfishable. Alternatives like Riverside Drive, Tangle-ha, and Elliott Beach were also discussed and rejected.
So in the end it was decided to have an open roving-style match from Montrose to Carnoustie.
Silver Lure plumped for the relative safety of Arbroath harbour, which was surprisingly empty. Myself and Ricky decided to fish close to "cage 3", while Davy, Bish and Daniel opted for the "low wall" area right at the end of the harbour, fishing into the harbour entrance. After 4 fishless (and biteless) hours, Ricky and myself joined the others , as they had 2 fish each , mostly in the 1.5 - 2.5lb range, with a very nice 7-pounder for Davy. I managed to coax out a codling on my last cast, so we had 4 weigh - ins, which I thought wasnt bad for the conditions.
Back at the weigh-in, it became clear that the Corinthians team, most of whom had fished at Easthaven, had ran away with it, with all five of their team scoring, and top bag of 12 fish falling to Billy Buckley. Clyde Specimen Hunters, also fishing at Easthaven, had done well with 4 weigh-ins, but Inverclyde and Peever hadn't done great.

So the results came out as follows :

1st - Corinthians (24 points)
2nd- Clyde Specimen Hunters (18 points)
3rd - Silver Lure (15 points)
4th - Inverclyde (12 points)
5th - Peever (11 points)
6th - Peever (11 points)

Heaviest Bag - Billy Buckley
Heaviest Fish - Davy McNair
Champion Of Champions 2007/2008 - Billy Buckley

I'd like to thank the team for their endeavours in what was a very strange and challenging match, in particular to Daniel and Ricky who both aquitted themselves very well indeed.
Next match will be Loch Fyne, where we traditionally do very well, so hopefully we should be able to claw back some of that 9 point deficit.