ANGLING: Once again Christmas has come and gone, I hope it was a good one for you. For those of you with some presents to try out there has been a sprinkling of hope just before the festive day with news of a few cod, one off the Dirty Wall at Aldeburgh.

ONCE again Christmas has come and gone, I hope it was a good one for you. For those of you with some presents to try out there has been a sprinkling of hope just before the festive day with news of a few cod, one off the Dirty Wall at Aldeburgh. Eddie Southgate, see picture, landed an excellent fish of 14lb 8oz. Fishing a three hook rig, Eddie was using lug and squid when the big fish took the middle 2/0 hook just as the tide started to ebb. Well done Eddie the best fish both in size and condition I have heard of so far. Another good catch was by local junior angler Steven Chambers. Fishing at Pond Hall Farm, close to the Orwell bridge, Steven landed 11 flounders, several approaching 2lb. With these types of fishing our only options to try out new presents I would choose carefully. Great sport can be had up our rivers, using light tackle, however the chance of a big cod is sometimes just too much of a temptation for some! Goodluck to you all as you make your choice.

Rolf Marschalek, secretary of the local NFSA branch, has been out and about the country in his boat. Rolf a farmer from the Stowmarket area has struggled for cod in our local area, but found plenty on a recent trip to the Bristol Channel. Fishing the EFSA cod festival with Felixstowe club member Ian True at Minehead, Rolf came second, beating all the England Internationals present with 6.15metres of cod in a measure and return match. Rolf lost out on top spot by a mere 9cm. There were over 350 cod to 27lb boated by 58 anglers over the two days. Charter boats were averaging 30 per boat per day. Ian came 8th in the individuals so with Rolf's 2nd place the pair to the pairs trophy, once again putting local anglers on the national map.

Leiston Sea Anglers - The Xmas fayre match was fished at Aldeburgh town beach, when after a settled spell of weather it decided to blow from the north east on the day of the match, making conditions far from ideal. Target fish were still dabs although as expected catches were down. The match was won by Chris Spall, who fished with old fashioned wire booms to land 5 dabs for 1lb 13oz. Runner up was local boy Paul Harrison who found 3 dabs, one whiting and a rockling for 1lb 7oz. 3rd was Ipswich angler John Smith with a dab and a winter sole for 1lb 2oz. In the knockout cup Steve King beat Steve Buzzard to claim the trophy. Heaviest fish prizes went to Neil Buzzard and Chris Spall. Many thanks to all the local sponsors who helped to make the prize table so attractive.

Felixstowe Sea Anglers - The final match of the Tuesday night series was fished on the 11th, with winner on the night Jason Banham 3lb 8oz. 2nd was Bob Leonard with 1lb 11oz. Heaviest round fish was a whiting of 10oz caught by Bob, biggest flat was a dab of 8oz caught by Jason. Overall the winner of the series was Jason with Kenny Messenger runner up. Last Sunday week, despite poor conditions several anglers turned out for a match at the dip where tactics of the day were to scratch for pout and rockling. Bob Leonard approached this difficult task the best to find 5 fish to take the win. One thing was extremely noticeable was the amount of dogs mess on the beach, with several anglers having to clear the mess up before they could fish on the beach. Who says anglers are the only ones to blame for our dirty beaches. January 12th sees the latest stage of encouraging juniors to take up the sport with another teach-in/match at Freston Hill near Ipswich. Fishing 10.00-13.00 tackle can be made available if you need it, there's the chance to learn a few tricks and maybe catch the odd fish or two. Please book before the day by phoning Bob Leonard on 01394-211779.

Ipswich Sea Anglers - The final match of the Ipswich year takes place this Saturday at 3rd point. Expecting a good turn out to blow away the Christmas cobwebs, this will be a pegged match so if you fancy a run out then give Pop Provins a ring on 01473-745045. To date Ipswich sea anglers have caught 1576 fish, weighing 785lb 4oz from the local beaches. 173 of these fish go to Adrian Box closely followed by Pop with 169 and Fez Pleasance 165. With flounders a plenty expected top spot could go to any of these three. The final match for the Bosmere Rover title was won by Ian Torn with a mixed bag of 11 fish for 3lb. This included a bull rout of 11oz. Overall winner of the league was Adrian Box who although didn't figure in the top three on the night did enough to take the title from myself with Dick Bagley in third. I tried a silly thing on the night by heading for the dip in a vain attempt to catch a cod and win the league. With hindsight I should have followed the rest and headed for the viewing area, which threw up several good dabs along with the odd whiting. I was amazed as I froze to the prom just how many crabs were still active. Bait was only lasting 8-10 minutes as they stripped my hooks as fast as I could bait up and get them out there. Well done to Adrian on dominating this year. Will anyone be able to match him next year?

Open Match round up - with everyone resting up over Christmas the Metalite team are intending to drag us out of our warm homes and inviting us to sit on the strand to fish for flounders on the 30th. Ring Richard at the shop on 01255-675680 for a ticket. The Evening Star Sea League will be at Aldeburgh on Sunday the 6th January. Meet in the car park on the road to Thorpeness for a match which kicks off at 11.00. Sizewell will be the venue for the second round of the SCAAA. February 3rd is the date as the SCAAA traditionally rest in January. Finally if anyone was thinking of fishing the NFSA match at Shotley on the 30th, then don't as it has been canceled.

NFSA report - the latest meeting was held at Felixstowe on the 13th. It was announced that the match on the 30th had been canceled due to lack of interest. Personal memberships were to be sent out by head office shortly. I received mine the other day. Proposed dates for the summer pairs league were April 27th Pakefield, May 18th East Lane and June 22nd Felixstowe. Feed back would be welcome, please contact Rolf Marschalek at Fenacre, Spikes Lane, Stowmarket Suffolk IP14 3QF or phone him on 01449-771262. The date for the next meeting is 17th January 2002 at the Royal British Legion at Southwold 20.00hrs.

Finally I would like to give all my readers best wishes and tigh