World Dab Championship, Dungeness

The Tronixpro World Dab Championship 2015

Dungeness, Romney Marsh, Kent TN29, UK

Its not very often these days I fish in a competition, but there is something about the World Dab Championship that really appeals to me, well quite a few to be honest, 1.) Its for a good charity the RNLI "Royal National Lifeboat Institution" 2.) It's only once a year. 3.) the winner gets to be a world champion 4.) its emphasis is being a friendly, and finally 5.) Its on my local stomping ground, so I should stand a chance shouldn't I? there isn't anything to dislike about this and I've been looking forward to it since last year where I was unable to attend due to work commitments, this time I had even booked the weekend off as holiday just so I didn't miss it. My brother Scott would be joining me on the little adventure, we set off early and arrived at about 30 mins before registration took place and was surprised to find the life boat station open, quick use of  the wash room facility's,  and a sausage bap cooked on a BBQ for breakfast washed down with a cup of coffee just in time to get registered. Scott had just enlightened me to the fact he's never caught a dab before, not that this really mattered but we did have a giggle and got a few laughs and strange looks as he deliberately and loudly with a very serious tone kept  asking me "What's a Dab?"

Plenty of rigs

Registered and with our score cards we headed for the beach, I had decided to fish behind the boats, in the past I have very good Dab sessions before, and I thought it would be better to have the wind in your face, The weather was sunny with a little cloud, and the wind was North Easterly quite strong at 25mph gales in the morning but dropping to a gentle breeze in the afternoon. I expected the water to be quite clear and flat, but it was the total opposite, the sea was still muddy and ferocious waves were smashing against the shingle, I think this even caught out a fishing boat that tried to launch and ended up being thrown sideways back onto the beach with a crash. well, all though it looked more like a Cod sea, we were there to catch Dabs, and I had made a good selection of rigs to cover as many situations as possible, and straight away I knew that I would need a clipped down rig to get any distance in the fierce headwind, as we waited the long 2 hours till the start of the match more and more people arrived and with each wave kept filtering in between the existing fisherman till a constant stream of anglers every 10 to 15 meters could be seen going into the distance. I did expect this to be fair, but I didn't think we would be so close to each other, and with the weather I was thinking this is going to be tangle city.

On your marks, get set, 2 hour to wait

The matched started quite relaxed, the different times on peoples watches meant we all kind of started with a few minute of each other, and no mad scramble all casting out at the same time like I had envisioned. I was using a 5oz plain lead, and was surprised at how little tide movement there was, and even held bottom quite comfortably, Straight away I had little knocks on the rod tips, and so did my brother, and both reeled in a double shot each of Rockling, in the first 20 minutes I think we landed about 14 Rockling and Scott got to know what a Dab was, landing himself a small one, but well under the size limit so didn't count. It then went dead, I tried, far out, close in, further out and ridiculously close in, I watched where the anglers to the right and left were casting, and mostly within 30 to 60 meters, so I opted to stay fishing at range as no one was catching close in. I wanted to use the current to move the rig on a plain lead about to help find the fish, but the severe lack of tide meant even my plain 3 oz lead was holding, so I opted to put the 5 oz plain lead on so I could cast as far as I can, and use the reel to drag the lead and rig back towards me 2 meters, every 60 seconds in a vain bid to locate some fish, but this didn't make any difference, there were no fish about, and now only the tide would bring them to us. High Tide came and went and for 3 hours I hadn't seen anyone catch, and my rod tip had been deathly still especially because the wind had almost died off. And I dont know if it was coincidence but the famous Dungeness seal was on the hunt around where we was for about 30mins till I lost track of him, and I'm always suprized at how big he is.

Dog not Dab

With a hour of fishing left, the fish returned with a bang, my rod at range,  buckled over hard, and again, what the hell? I picked the rod up and took the slack and felt a big pull, I didn't strike with the braid but lifted the rod gently to set the hook and reeled in, I felt the weight of a bigger fish, and honestly thought with the bite this was a Cod, but I'd forgotten how sensitive my Vecelli Continental with braid is, which gives excellent bite registration. It was a small Dogfish, the next hour was a fish a chuck, all at range, a mixture of Whiting, Pouting more Rockling and another Dogfish and 2 Dabs both of which were under sized by a long way, My brother was getting bites too in the last hour, but his fish were Rockling at closer range and another undersized Dab. we fished hard till the end hoping for one double shot that may put us in a placing, but it wasn't to be. It was time to pack up, It had been a good experience, and took me a lot longer to pack up as by now as between me and my brother we had 8 x 3 hook rigs out all needing tough sticky lugworm cleaned from the hooks.

My undersized best effort

As we arrived back at the lifeboat station for the weigh in, it was obvious by the number of buckets being carried, lots of people had caught Dabs, the length were being double checked on a match ruler, then being weighed on some big scales, it was a really good atmosphere, and I couldn't resist the smell of the BBQ and had a big double burger, as I was quite hungry as I neglected to take any other food for the day. The raffle started and a few hundred anglers stood listening as hard as they could for numbers being called, and for good reason, a large table full of goodies was up for grabs, A Zziplex rod, untold goody bags, cakes, a bait pump, to name just a few but 7 nights accommodation in Norway did catch my eye. the first winner was actually one of the raffle collectors, but in a honourable act he didn't take any of the so called top prizes and left with the bait pump to a loud appreciated applause from the room. As the draw went on the room got louder and louder, and the table was slowly stripped bare, I done good, having three numbers and getting some braid and some lures, I did miss one though as I was collecting a prize already when another one of my numbers was called out, It was a great day and the results were revealed and the presentation, with 2 new World Dab Champions being crowned. It was a wonderful day, and a very big and well organised match, which raised a fantastic £5160 for the RNLI, congratulations to all the organisers, the sponsors and all the 192 competitors for making it such a event, and not forgetting the new 2015 TronixproWorld Dab Champion Alan Wood Brignall with 6 dabs weighing 1.38kg and the new 2015 Junior Tronixpro World Dab Champion Kane Wood Brignall with 7 Dabs weighing 1.44kg.

Clueless ^^^^^^ "Whats's a Dab?"