A large pout helped Brian Grundy to take victory as Braintree Sea Angling Club members went to West Mersea on a choppy trip in the first in a series of evening charter boat matches.
It was a rough sea that greeted them as the wind had increased during the day and after a wet trip out to the mark off Clacton, the anglers settled down to an uncomfortable fish with the boat rocking and rolling.
After an hour or so there was a run of codling, with five anglers picking up a fish apiece, but it was very slow after that, with the occasional pin whiting putting in an appearance together with another codling and one thornback ray.
A move to another mark to catch the turn of the tide only resulted in one large pout for Grundy, but that and two codling won him the match with 32 points.
Second place went to Barrie Senior, with one codling and the thornback ray for 30 points, while Chris Leonard had a codling and a sizeable whiting for 22 points and third spot.
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