Tales from the Tendring Flatlands

Tales from the Tendring Flatlands
Summer Bassing

Tuesday 30 December 2014

Make Way For The Manitoba Monster

So, it was time for the third World Dab Championships, at Dunwich.  A paltry turn out of four, me, Conan The Whittler, Hairy Ray Krakov and all the way from Canada, The Manitoba Monster, son of the legendary Shanus "The Anus" Morris. A motley crew indeed.

No shows included Concrete Neil (working), Turdster (working) and Goozgog (scared to leave the house).

Weather was as it always is for this event, gloriously sunny. Krakov and Whittler arrived early and as we were just leaving, we got a text saying they'd yet to have a bite. No rush then, so we stopped at the cafe in Marlesford for a proper breakfast, two bacon, two sausage, two eggs and toast. And in The Manitoba Monster's case, that plus baked beans, mushrooms, black pudding, hash browns and half rump of venison too. Greedy bastard.
The Manitoba Monster playing pocket billiards

We eventually arrived at about 11 and they still hadn't had a bite. It was low water though and we were hopeful things would pick up when the first of the flood started.

In a short while we started catching whiting, with a couple of double shots, but the dabs remained conspicuous by their absence. In the distance I saw Krakov land a just about sizable codling ( stop sniggering at the back Whittler ), so things were picking up.

When we'd just about given up on the dabs The Manitoba Monster reeled in a small one, followed by a real chunky specimen, a potential match winner in fact. He then followed it up with another of similar size on the last cast of the day.

Due to the fact that the rest of us hand been dab less, The Manitoba Monster became 2014 World Dab Champion. No trophy was presented, no cash was won, he was just given extra tackle to carry over the shingle back to the car.

Krakov and Whittler stayed on for an hour into dark and wangled out a few more codling, so there's a few about.
World Dab Champion 2014
We started with a big brekkie, the sun shone, we drank tea, took the piss out of each other and occasionally caught a few fish, a nice day out in my book.